July 2006 Minutes

Those present: Chris Micallef, John Wallace, Delores Wallace, Kevin Gaston, Adam Brackman, Todd Anderson, Jeff Erwin, Joe Glessner, Steve Carr, Katie Kaiser

Meeting was called, members welcomed, meeting rules stated, and a vote was made to defer the minutes to the following month (no minutes for June present). Approved unopposed.

CITY REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT (POLICE, ZONING, ETC.):
None present. Jeff Erwin stated he would write a letter to the officer with a "We missed you at the meeting" message. There was talk about the raised presence of police in the area, and praise for what a great job Sgt. Holder has been doing.

TREASURER AND FUND RAISING:
Treasurer was not present, no report was made. Brief discussion about the success of the neighborhood yard sale that took place on June 17. Jeff Erwin suggested that we make a $50 donation to the church from the profits made at the yard sale for use of their facilities, as well as a thank you note. No definite plan was made. There was discussion of a 2nd yard sale in the fall, no solid date was made.

SAFETY COMMITTEE:
Joe stated: If a community member has a complaint about noise, you must tell 911 that you would like to see the officer or the officer will not be able to cite the violator. There must be a witness in order to have a citation delivered to the violator, therefore the officer cannot cite on the victim's behalf.

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT:
There was suggestion for a community directory to be made with a phone tree provided to the elders of the community, should they ever need a 911 call placed from others in the area instead of calling the police themselves. Suggestions were also made to raise neighbor communication and connect with those who may need to be contacted should there ever be an emergency such as a fire or a break-in. Joe Glessner mentioned the stray dogs that are running loose in the streets, and offered the number to animal control (404.794.0358).

ZONING AND CODE ENFORCEMENT:
If one needs to call and complain about a car on blocks in a person's yard, the person to contact is Greg Gretzweiler (spelling not checked, no number provided) at Watershed Management about erosion concerns.

OLD BUSINESS:
The new development at Benteen and Blvd. was passed at NPU-W in June.

Jeff Erwin mailed a note about traffic calming devices to Carla Smith and there is no reply from her yet. Discussion about the promises made by our city representatives, but there is no delivery of the promises and no support shared. Cheryl (Carla Smith's assistant) was approached with the problem of lack of assistance, and she said to please complain to Sarah Finley (spelling not checked, number provided 404-330-6037) at city hall - Sarah is the assistant to the committee. Cheryl also mentioned that there is a lack of interest in the housing code zoning all over the city, and that it would be helpful if residents attend the city council meetings. It was stated that it may be helpful to call repeatedly about problems in order to bombard the council until the problems with zoning are solved.

NEW BUSINESS:
There was a reminder that the officers for the next term will be nominated and elected at the August meeting.

Jeff, Todd and Katie said they would be in charge of posting flyers about the upcoming election in order to raise awareness, and to let those know that if they would like to run or vote, they would need to be present or let someone know that they would like to run.

Southside Beltline Alliance meeting was announced by Steve Carr

Lovett Stovall (came in at the end of the meeting from Chosewood Park) mentioned that he would like for there to be a presence from the Benteen Park Neighborhood at the discussion on the Chosewood beltline development. He can be contacted at 404-454-8367 or 404-627-1579. He also expressed concern that there in an extremely high volume (1/3 of school year student body) of students in the summer school program in the shared schools of our area.

Meeting was adjourned at 8pm

This month's meeting minutes submitted by Katie Kaiser in lieu of Diane O'Rea's absence