Zoom General Meeting Agenda Minutes                
Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Announcements:

General Assembly for April – no objections to bring it back, we might be able to use the sanctuary we will ask Pastor Chris and put it in the announcement which room

Minutes from last meeting – approved

Police Report: 

• 11 reported incidents for the month of February

  • Crime rate down -38.9%

  • 3 incidents of larceny including motor vehicle part thefts

  • 2 other larcenies that include items stolen from vehicles

  • 2 thefts from garage

  • 3 motor vehicle thefts

    • Only one has been recovered and suspect was arrested

  • 1 aggravated assault, domestic dispute no firearm, warrant out

• Calls that don’t result in a report do not go into stats

Still looking for someone to do our social media and marketing and to head up that committee for the neighborhood

Merchandise in the Benton Park store is out of stock, we are looking to get new merchandise to sell, if anyone has any ideas on what to get, send an email with suggestions.

Alderman Report

• COVID update – health and human services meeting on 2/28 with update

  • Discussed vaccination and transmission numbers in relation to the mask mandate

    • Current mandate expires March 6th, and it sounds like they will move to a recommended indoor masking and not a mandate

    • However, please note that children under 4 cannot be vaccinated and there are a lot of people with underlying conditions so please wear a mask if you are in a crowded area

• ARPA Funds - $68m approved from those funds

  • Mostly used on capital improvements bill

    • $4.2m to finish off all the LED lighting in the city

    • $1m going into the refuse division for trash task force cameras in the alleys

    • $8m going toward Union, Grand, Kingshighway, Jefferson paving projects

    • $6.5m going to parks/recreation/forestry

      • Hazardous tree removal is about $1m of that

      • Rec Center Improvements

    • $16m for new ambulances, pumper trucks, ladder trucks, etc.

    • Justice center - $12.5m to fix all the issues there with windows and locks

    • $8m for other buildings

    • $12m for other city vehicles

  • Next wave $87m:

    • $5m going to small businesses that will open up in spring

    • $35m going toward affordable housing and healthy home repair

• New programs in place for alternative response for the police

  • 911 diversion program

  • Cops and counselors

• Recycling

  • If you see a trash truck driver emptying the firehouse recycling report it, they are not supposed to do that

  • Not enough drivers to do the alley recycling

    • Have trucks, need drivers, $3,000 signing bonus for CDL holders

    • Contract with Rubicon to rearrange the logistics for refuse, make them more efficient

    • Currently on a pilot project to implement GPS to make routes more efficient – free to the city

• 911 Operators

  • $3.2m is going to the public safety answering system

    • Taking 3 divisions of 911 and merging them into a better system

Treasury Report

• Not a lot going on, slow start to the year is normal

• Some membership dues coming in

Parks

• Cleanup at Jefferson and Arsenal scheduled for Saturday March 12th 9am-noon to work with Brightside

  • Butterfly garden cleanup and trash

• Charles Hooker passed away, was parks chairman and also was the leader of the chalk art festival, important member of the neighborhood

  • Planning a garden as a memorial to Charlie Hooker at his burr oak tree

Events

• Chair not available for the meeting, the committee is working on planning the events

Safety Committee

Dog Park

• Will start working on spring maintenance soon, need volunteers

Garden/Cave Committee

• Trying to figure out the deed to the garden and getting that transferred from the gateway greening land trust, potentially forming a new 501c3 to handle the cave

  • If we do open the cave, we need to figure out the insurance aspects of that which we are working on getting information on that

  • Once we get that all together we will have a plan to present to the general membership

• They are creating 3 new gardening plots, with only one person on the signup list

Building review committee

• Developer working with at Utah and Salena has a building design but we need a site plan to show how the building is being aligned on the site

• Cultural resources said there is a new developer for the 2900 block of Indiana who is applying for building permits with updated drawings, will be taken up at the building review committee