City of Frankfort employees and volunteers engage in the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program to provide free services for small projects in the community.
Building inspector Don Stock and Street Department Superintendent Jason Forsythe lead the charge on the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program, which is intended to aid the community with projects for free.
“It’s a program that was put in place to help people who can’t take leaves out of the gutters or do small projects around the house,” said Stock. “We have a group that can come take care of that for you so that your house can stay maintained.”
The duo is supported by groups of volunteers across the city of Frankfort that are available to complete projects such as yard cleanup, simple house repairs, branch and leaf removal and much more.
“It can be anything from raking leaves to cleaning up around the house. There are a lot of church groups that enjoy doing that, so we just help set them up for that,” said Forsythe. “We don’t take on anything too large with our volunteers.”
The service is completely free as the volunteer groups provide their own tools and time to aid anyone in the community with the projects. The projects are typically scheduled during the weekend to allow for more volunteers to participate.
“A couple of the church groups have people who are really good handymen,” said Forsythe. “Some people bring their own weed eaters and tools to complete the projects.”
The program has not experienced a high volume of people calling to request services, which Forsythe claimed is likely because the community is unaware of the program.
“We don’t get a lot of people who take advantage of this, which is unusual,” said Forsythe. “Maybe they don’t know it’s available.”
The duo stressed that the program is not specifically geared toward the senior citizen population, but most of the projects are requested by senior citizens who could utilize extra help with their projects. Stock claimed that there have been instances where outsourced businesses have taken advantage of senior citizens who need aid in these small projects, which is one of the reasons the program was created.
“A lot of people try to take advantage of the elderly. We’ve actually had a few situations where that happened,” said Forsythe. “It’s a way of doing it where you know you’re dealing with people who will take care of it.”
Volunteers can get involved with the program by calling the Street Department at 765-659-2912 or the Building Services office at 765-654-5270. Those who are in need of services from Neighbors Helping Neighbors can call the same offices.
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