Despite a recent snub from the city, the Ellis South End Neighborhood Association (ESENA) says its financials are good and only getting better as it heads into the new year.

ESENA’s leadership painted a rosy picture at its annual meeting on June 25, alongside the announcement of its 2024 Arthur Howe Award.

ESENA Treasurer Kate Vasinda says the organization’s fundraising efforts netted in $52,000 this year, which “more than covers” its operating costs. She also said she was working to clean up the books and trim spending where she could.

“We are on track to end the year positively, in addition to some of our cost reduction efforts like bringing more of our admin activities in-house. Having me in more of a bookkeeping role should give us some nice clear financials to share ahead of tax season,” she said.

That may put to bed any concerns residents had after the ESENA was all but left out of a recent disbursement of South End development mitigation funding by the BPDA, which gave the organization just $1,910 while handing out grants of $20,000 or even $30,000 to other groups.

Mayor Wu did not make an appearance this time, despite the recent charm offensive from City Hall toward South End civic groups and her occasional attendance of ESENA meetings in the past.

The ESENA remains in talks with the city, though that round of funding has already been spent and faltering development citywide means mitigation money might not be so plentiful in the future.

“I plan to communicate with the BPDA my thoughts on the process, which I still think is a good one but one that definitely needs tweaking,” said ESENA Chair Julie Arnheiter.

The ESENA dedicated this year’s Arthur Howe award to Betsy Boveroux, a resident of Boston since the 1960s and a member of the ESENA for 30 years.

“Working through many challenges our neighborhood’s balance has been made possible in large part due to Betsy’s calm, informed and sage guidance. She’s offered tremendous support to both the South

End and the city as a whole. She’s a strong supporter of our arts institutions and of our residents, as well as a caring and supportive neighbor and friend to so many of us,” said former ESENA President Peter Shilland.

Boveroux herself accepted the award graciously and used the opportunity to recount some stories from the neighborhood’s past, highlighting the use of the Brooke Residences to transition prisoners back to civilian life.

“I couldn’t be more delighted to get the award. I knew Arthur. He had a great passion for tennis and he never missed a zoning commission meeting,” she said. “Brooke House on Chandler Street used to be a halfway house for nonviolent prisoners in the last two or three months of their sentence. There were a lot of rough and tumble guys there, but they were very helpful to us in Ellis. Once we had a huge truckload of soil for the gardens they just dumped on the sidewalk, but four or five men from Brooke House came to help us shovel it.”