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Friday, May 24, 2013

EEAC Mtg minutes 5/6/13

EEAC MINUTES – Monday, May 6, 2013 Call to Order – Jackie Weist, EEAC President Jackie called the meeting to order at 7:04 pm at the LeBlond Rec Center. There were 18 in attendance (11 residents). She had brochures from the Green Umbrella Summit and the MSD. Contact: jweist@fuse.net Secretary Report – Barb Rider The April 1, 2013 minutes were approved. Contact: barb1rider@aol.com Treasurer’s Report – Jeff Stewart (absent) The April report was distributed; Jackie explained that two checks were written, and changes will be made in assigning them to the correct budget lines. The report was approved. There is a total of $26,277.59 in liabilities and equity. Contact: jstewart@gfrlease.com Police Report – Detective Kelly McBeth (in Officer Germaine Love’s absence. Also present: Officer Tucker & Officer Miller). Crime is down in the May 2 monthly report: only 1 breaking and entering (tools from an apartment), 1 felonious assault, 8 thefts (including 2 gas drive-offs, a cell phone taken at school and 2 purses taken at bingo), and no robberies. Most crimes are crimes of opportunity – don’t leave anything in cars. Some come from Northern Kentucky, and quickly return over state lines after committing a crime. There are 3 games left to sponsor at this year’s National Night Out on August 6. We agreed to collaborate with Queen City Bike on sponsoring the duck pond - $30, plus prizes. Jackie called Officer Love this morning to report 3 piles of tires and wood (dumped by a resident). Contact: Officer Germaine Love - 979-4480. LeBlond Report - Alayne Kazin - Director Registration for summer day camp is down (17) compared to last year. LeBlond was one of the practice sites for the Intl Championship of Flags at XU; one of the local groups practices at LeBlond on Monday evenings. The request to Park National Bank to sell CRC the $800,000 school site for $100,000 was rejected. Therefore, at this time, the CRC is not pursuing a property trade: exchanging the west end of their property (50’x80’) for the east end (former school site). There will be changes to the parking lot; upgrading & moving the baseball field; Marvin Lewis Hometown Huddle will build a new playground. Contact: www.cincyrec.org/dr City Liaison - Laurie Keleher City Liaison Laurie will attend a meeting tomorrow with representatives from C/T about the business district expansion and getting the entertainment district moving. She is also planning to meet with Sam of the Riverview East Academy garden about the fencing and shed. Contact: keleher.eastend@gmail.com NSP Budget – Laurie for Melisse May (absent) Laurie reviewed the proposal (as presented in April) for the first 6 months of the year: $2500 to include $1624 for final Delta sign payment; $376 for landscaping around signs; $500 for Columbia flowerpot planting & maintenance. Regina suggested adding the Hoff Ave. corridor to the NSP project - the railroad won’t take care of the area near the tracks. Laurie suggested submitting the addresses affected, as well as a proposal for what needs to be done. This could be added to the next NSP budget. She offered to help Regina with the proposal. Betty Burns moved that we accept the NSP plan as discussed at the April EEAC meeting; Ruth Coon seconded. There were 11 yes votes (residents only voting), with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions. Ruth wondered why C/T has more pots than the EE did – Laurie said it’s because they’re bigger and have a business district. She also wondered why BrewRiver got a flowerpot (Answer: Because it’s a visible location and they promised to take care of the flowers). Contacts: May.melisse@gmail.com Guests - Morgan Heilman – City Transportation Dept/Project Manager of the Ohio River Trail • Ohio River Trail (downtown to Lunken, along Ohio River): She is currently finishing Stage 3 of planning the bike trail, and will begin property purchases in the next few months. The Transportation Department is looking for construction money. In 2-4 years, construction will begin. The trail will be asphalt, with concrete in the crossings at Gotham and by Duke. 30’ permanent easements will be procured, so lots won’t be divided. Most of the property is city owned. A wall will be built to hold the trail up in some parts, piered to bedrock. The wall will extend to trail height; the railing will be open. The “ball park” cost estimate is $4-5M. LeBlond will keep aerial photo of the proposed bike trail. George Mullis asked why the CRC drives trucks on the bike trail, instead of using the nearby alley. Alayne will take this to CRC maintenance. • Bike facility (on Riverside) – One quarter of it is already built (St. Andrews to Congress). Most of the Duke work replacing gas lines on Riverside will be finished by the beginning of June, so the resurfacing/bike facility marking for the remainder of the trail (Congress to Bains) will be done late this summer. Bike lanes will not continue to downtown at this time; cyclists can pick up the trail in the Friendship Park. Ruth asked why the Friendship Park gate cannot come up for cyclists. Morgan will check with the Park Board about its rule of limiting access to prevent cars from parking on the circle. Tom Kahle asked why the Ohio River Trail dead ends ¼ mile from Wilmer, so bikes must cross Kellogg (Answer: needed property could not be procured). Kate Christoff, Councilwoman Yvette Simpson’s aide • Kate received complaints:  Regina reported that someone is dumping furniture on Hoff Ave. She has called the city (591-6000 or www.591-6000.com to track requests), and is told “that work order has been closed”. The furniture is still there. Kate suggested calling Keep Cinti Beautiful instead of city services. They work with the Hamilton County sheriff work detail – maybe they could work on Hoff?  Brian said he picked 124 tires on tire amnesty day, called Councilwoman Simpson’s office, and they were picked up.  Regina said that it’s been difficult to work with SORTA to clean-up the railroad track area. In the past, EEAC tried to work with SORTA, along with C/T and Linwood. Kate will look into it. Betty Burns said she successfully worked with SORTA PR (Nancy?) in the past to clear the area near the track with a bushhog/sickle.  Someone asked how far a ‘no trespassing’ sign covers? Widening of the Panama Canal will increase railroad traffic (to transport increased barge terminal loads).  Someone dragged metal from tracks to a vacant lot (SORTA came within an hour, but still hasn’t done anything to remove the metal). Ruth & Laurie once caught two men removing spikes from the RR tracks, and confronted them. They fled. • Kate said that the EE was the first neighborhood walk she & Councilwoman Simpson did back in August. Since then, they have decided to focus on crimes that affect the neighborhood experience and take away from quality of life. They began with Walnut Hills, working with partners and coalitions. Weeds, loitering, solicitation are examples of things that don’t get a lot of attention, but have big impact. Ruth said several young EE girls have been coming to houses asking for money and rides. We will put a warning in the next newsletter. Jackie mentioned that we need Officer Love to stay for an entire meeting to hear about this kind of problem. • Kate’s presence made a big difference on Clean-up Day. Everyone was proud of how nice the EE looked for the Flying Pig Marathon. • Brian says that Beverly, who answers the phone in Councilwoman Simpson’s office, is amazing (e.g. moving the 124 tires). He has written about this on his webpage, and thanked Kate… • Kate suggested EEAC members attend the Community Builders Institute –– 3 sessions are coming up Riverview East Academy – Charlene Myers, principal (absent) There was no report. Contact: myersch@cpsboe.k12.oh.us Community Relations – Sandy Hoover (absent) Jackie announced there will be a Meet N Greet on May 21 at Eli’s. BYOB and buy meal. Old Business • Flying Pig Marathon Party Zone - Jackie thanked everyone who participated yesterday, especially the Mullises, who stood in the rain while others sought shelter under Laurie’s tent. • Resident Involvement Proposal – Patrick Ormond absent No report. New Business • C/T Collaborations - Matt Ackermann, C/T President, in Nick Motz’ & Laurie’s absence  3E Business Report – C/T gets funds for business district. They want to expand into Eastern Ave to Airport Rd. (There was a business district there in 2005-6, but it was removed because not enough businesses were contiguous). The area would be changed to a 3E Business district, although the name may be changed if Linwood is not involved. The city would approve the new business district. Matt is working on this with Nick Motz & Laurie. The last meeting was April 2; no real progress has been made since then. Hopefully, they will get the proposal to the city soon. There are 88 lots in the identified area; 82 are zoned commercial.  Community Entertainment District – They have met with attorney Brad Smith. The perimeters are not yet know; perhaps St. Rose to Tammy’s on Eastern Ave. Having a community entertainment district will allow businesses in the area to get liquor licenses at a cheaper rate. The Secretary of State website has liquor license information, including DBA (Doing Business As) designations. We recently received information on a liquor license request from Cajun Concepts/ Swampwater Grill & Smokehouse. Ruth asked what happened to Inner Circle. Jackie said they have 16 cameras, 8 policemen, and 42 security guards for events. Contact: nick@nickmotz.com • Plant sharing - Michael Bolan, Vice President. He gave signature sungold cherry tomato plants to encourage EE gardening to George & Virgie Mullis, and Brian Phillips. Contact: michaelbolan@yahoo.com Announcements – Jackie Weist • 8 REA students are participating in an art show at the Public Library. • Ruth mentioned that the baseball coach at REA was featured in Sunday’s Enquirer • Brian wants to collect litter along the north side of Columbia Parkway from Delta to Wm Howard Taft. He was advised not to, not only because this is not EE property, but is too dangerous with traffic and a very narrow shoulder. • Brian announced that he has pictures on his EE website. • Joe cancelled his fundraiser BBQ yesterday because of rain. • 34 employees of Keller-Williams are coming tomorrow to help continue beautifying the East End through planting, painting at the Irish Center, and picking up trash along Riverside, Kellogg and Eastern. Jackie and Joe will work with them. • Regina asked if the newsletter can post Pendleton’s rental info on a regular basis? 602-3340. The phone number is on the side of the building. Matt said C/T could run it also. • Kate said there is a city app for smartphones that will enable those reporting problems (tires, potholes) to take pictures of the problem and report the exact location. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:38 PM. NOTE: You can read EEAC minutes and sign up to have monthly newsletters emailed to you at http://cincyeastender.blogspot.com