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Council member wins national group's award

Sarah Ramsey
/
WVXU

A member of Cincinnati council has won an award for his idea on Town Square Schools. 

P.G. Sittenfeld is one of four people to win the New Ideas Challenge, from the NewDEAL, a group of elected Democrats from across the country.  Sittenfeld’s proposal, the Town Square Schools program, uses school buildings for neighborhood programs after classes have dismissed. 

NewDEAL stands for “Developing Exceptional American Leaders”.  Delaware Governor Jack Markell is an honorary chair of NewDEAL, and says Sittenfeld's Town Square Schools proposal is the kind of problem solving they want to recognize.

Gov. Markell says Sittenfeld "was able to step out of the box and say okay, here’s an issue, we’ve got lots of community groups who want to provide a lot of services and they need a space to do so. Why can’t we use a resource that is right there?  It’s already built, it’s maintained.  It’s accessible to the community.  And that’s what this idea is all about.”

Markell says they want to honor good, non-partisan ideas.

Sittenfeld's proposal was among 60 submissions to NewDEAL this year.  

Bill Rinehart started his radio career as a disc jockey in 1990. In 1994, he made the jump into journalism and has been reporting and delivering news on the radio ever since.