Punta Gorda needs help sharing its story for national award

PUNTA GORDA — Melissa Reichert needs help.

As Punta Gorda’s assistant city manager, she is asking for support from nonprofits, churches, historians, veterans, student leaders and others who wants to share Punta Gorda’s message.

The city is one of 20 finalists for the National Civic League’s All-America City award.

At a recent meeting, Reichert said she’s asking groups to help the city fulfill the final requirements for the national award: A video.

Finalists submit a recording featuring residents who can’t attend the June 7-9 ceremony in Colorado.

According to Punta Gorda City Manager Greg Murray, who helped with the application, welcomes anyone who wants to speak about Punta Gorda.

“There have been as many as 300 people from a town that were represented at a past All-American city award ceremony. We certainly couldn’t afford to do that,” he said. “But, we will have city staff who work on it.”

Punta Gorda joins cities like Seattle; New Orleans; Oakland, California and Boulder, Colorado.

This year’s contest theme was “Strengthening Democracy through Local Action and Innovation.”

“It’s not just a competition, it’s also a learning experience,” Reichert said, adding she will hold community meetings to create the presentation. “We are hoping to have a delegation made up of community members, staff and officials participate in the competition.”

The award is given to cities removing barriers to participation in civic life, improving public meetings, undertaking public decision-making reforms, increasing voter engagement, and engaging “marginalized and/or historically disadvantaged populations,” according to a news release.

Punta Gorda resident Grace Nurse told the City Council she read about the provisions of the award. She said a local barrier needs to be removed in Punta Gorda.

She said before the city moves forward with this award, it should remember the council “isn’t listening” to residents in the Black community who for decades had control over the Cooper Street Recreation Center in Punta Gorda.

She said the building was built with federal dollars for the Black community 60 years ago. And now an operator agreement may be established with little input from the Black community, she said.

“Have you heard what your constituents are saying?” she said. “Does this organization who honored you with a service award know who you really are? Do you have no shame in your game?”

During a break in the recent City Council meeting, Reichert went to Nurse and invited her to be on the city’s award committee.

During the meeting, Vice Mayor Bill Dryburgh said he’d like to see representatives from the community who know Punta Gorda speak up, including the African-American community, the mural society, historians and longtime business owners and residents.

“We (Punta Gorda) were the first high school in the state to welcome and accept African-American students with absolutely no problem whatsoever,” he said. “And that’s something we could use, it’s a feather in our cap, we did it right.”

Anyone interested in making a video, sharing stories and photos, or being part of the city’s committee can contact Reichert at mreichert@cityofpuntagordafl.com.