Council Moves To New Headquarters

Thu., June 29, 2000

By Isamu Jordan isamuj@spokesman.com

The Nevada/Lidgerwood Neighborhood Council has an official mailing address at 4705 N. Addison, also the home of NevaWood COPS.

The two organizations have been sharing the same building since 1998, when the council hand-built the substation headquarters.

But it wasn’t until this spring that the neighborhood council had an office in the building. It previously had been meeting there as quasi-vagabonds.

The two groups celebrated the grand opening of the council’s office two weeks ago with a festive barbecue and dance that brought out about 200 residents.

Six months ago the groups could hardly occupy the same space, much less party in the same parking lot.

Al French, an architect who was elected president of the council, designed and built the NevaWood COPS headquarters with volunteer labor.

The two groups worked well together at first, but a turf war erupted when the council moved its office into the northwest corner of the COPS building.

A lock was placed on the door between the area occupied by the council and the main room, which cut the council off from the meeting space or the bathrooms without COPS shop permission.

“Personality conflicts, territorial disputes and power struggles hindered the opportunity for both groups to service the neighborhood together,” said Sandy Smith, a volunteer who was caught in the middle of the schism.

The two factions were reunited in March after a mass exodus of several NevaWood COPS volunteers and their president.

Now the groups share many of the same volunteers, as they did before the break.

“The two groups have melded together wonderfully,” Smith said.

“The COPS shop is starting from scratch, the council is brand new in their quarters, and both groups are there to support each other any way we can.”

French said being under the same roof allows the groups to offer a broad base of services beyond crime prevention. The COPS shop will have its own space in the council’s newsletter, for example.

“That’s the kind of thing we need to be fostering. I see some great things for these two organizations,” French said.

Hazel Amunrud, a council volunteer, said she waited for the dust to clear before she joined the COPS shop team.

“I’m pleased that we can be working together,” Amunrud said. “What one department can’t do, the other can.”

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