In a shocker at its end-of-the-year powwow, members of the JeromeGun Hill Business Improvement District were surprised to hear their longtime and only chair, Alice Kulick, announced she will leave the BID after helping it some 20 years ago.

Opening the program, Kulick announced she was removing herself from the slate of nominees for the board, where a contingent of 30 registered members of the BID were on hand to vote its new board. Residents and community stakeholders were also among the crowd attending the 20th annual get-together that doubled as an informational session for existing merchants.

“I will always be a part of this BID, but you all have a list of names, and you can cross mine off,” Kulick said before offering new board help during the transition. Kulick has been chairperson of the BID since its inception, owning property in the area for 51 years.

As an owner, Kulick helps to fund JGHBID through property assessments, where funds go towards beautifying and promoting businesses as a way to increase revenue. There were eight slots on the Board for property owners, two slots for merchants and one slot for a resident.

After the vote, the BID officially had it’s 11-member board decided on for 2017 and a vote will be conducted at the first board meeting to elect the chairperson, treasurer and secretary. For the property owners, the board members are Frank Canzone, John Dedvukaj, Lewis Gjelaj, Rudy Gjonaj, Dennis O’Brien, Craig Recla, Martin Vuksanaj and Dr. Arnold Wilson. Hakeem Alhariri and Ali Fonzal filled the two merchant slots, and the resident spot on the board went to Sallie Caldwell.

Out of the 11 board members selected there were four members appointed who weren’t up for reelection and are completely new to the BID Board, who are expected to give a new perspective to the Board as to what to change to improve the BID in the coming year. All merchants who attended the meeting were automatically entered into a raffle to win a free 10-second commercial on Cablevision.

This will be part of a larger commercial that the BID is doing as part of an effort to keep residents shopping in Norwood, and to bring new shoppers into this part of the Bronx to help the area flourish. Eric Phillips, owner of Drug Rite located at 3432 Jerome Ave., won the raffle and will be working with the BID on his portion of the commercial expected to come out this spring.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.