Neighborhood Planning Council 1 - Post-Franklin

-POST/FRANKLIN NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL- Thursday January 3, 2019 Chair James Moreno called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. at CA Board Room. Attendance: Members Present: James Moreno, Kjersten Priddy, John Cash, LaMarr Mingle, Yvonne Powell and Cindy Fritz. Linda Carmona (via phone). Members Excused: Pat Shellenberger Guest and Visitors: Clay Haggard and Kelly Dillman – BCPD (Be Safe), Tommy Engels - BC Code, Amy Rose Robinson – Calhoun County Land Bank, and Barb Travis – MIWorks! Additions and Deletions to the Agenda: None Approval of Minutes: Motion made for approval of December Minutes was made by Yvonne and Seconded by John. Minutes approved. Correspondence and Announcements: Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a hearing on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 in the Commission Chambers at 4:00 pm. There are 3 appeals on the agenda. Meeting is open to the public. Police: Officer Haggard reported that were no stats as it is the beginning of the month. James asked for a copy to be emailed to him when available. We did not get a copy of the December Stats Report, please provide it also. Ms. Dillman reported that they are working at showing us stats next month via computer. A hard copy will be available for the Chair/NPC Records. Citizen Police Academy is accepting applications for its next class. You can contact Jenny Mualhlun at 269-966-1678 for email her at jlmualhlun@battlecreekmi.gov. We had 1 member of the NPC and 1 Neighbor that have been accepted into the upcoming class. It was reported that the light on Main and Lathrop takes a long time to trigger from red/green in both directions; would appreciate PD reaching out to Traffic Engineering to look into this. Code: Tommy distributed Code report. He had no prior issues to report. A ticket has been issued for the property on Main St. that has placed bagged leaves at the curb. It was reported that the old Kmart had been broken into and homeless citizens were living in the building. They have been removed and the building re- secured. Ms. Dillman shared that this matter has been brought to the attention of the Byrne Grant officer in this Neighborhood and it is being monitored. Beautiful Battle Creek Award: None If you see a property that you feel deserves a BBC Award you may nominate that property; all that is required is the address. The council will then vote and the address is submitted to City Neighborhood Planning Office, who then proceed with the issuing of the Award. Note – once we submit the addresses the City takes control of the process and we have no say when an address will be awarded. If any member should have a question regarding an address that was submitted they need only ask and the inquiry will be made to the City and the outcome will be documented in the minutes. Membership: A motion was made by La Marr and seconded by Rev. Priddy to renew memberships for the following members: Linda Carmona, Cindy Fritz, James Moreno and Pat Shellenberger. Motion carried. Diana Quigg and Jack Childs both need to be removed from the Membership list as they both resigned months ago and this was noted in our previously submitted Minutes in 2018. Guest were reminded if they are interested in joining council to let Chair or Vice Chair know and we will get a motion to add them to the membership. Commission Comments: No commissions were present. Battle Creek Public Schools: No representation was present. Old Business: Chris Lussier will be at Feb meeting to show us the new tool on the city’s website. This tool will enable residents to see properties within the city that are behind in taxes along with other information. Hope is that this tool will allow our neighborhood to be more proactive in addressing matters and concerns. This tool hopefully will allow us to better engage with Land Bank in identifying and addressing concerns of properties held/maintained by Land Bank. The topic of how to improve the neighborhood by partnering with planning/city and getting new members will be discussed by James and Yvonne next month. New Business: Amy Rose Robinson from the Calhoun County Land Bank was present to update the NPC on what the Land Bank was doing in the area. She stated that the county is still working from there 3.8 million dollar grant to rid the county of blight. There were 46 houses identified in the Post/Franklin area and as of today 32/36 have been razed. She stated that 6 months after a house has been razed the adjacent home owners of that property is contacted to see if they would like to purchase the property for a nominal cost of $220/$230. She distributed a flyer on the Transform This Home Program (TTH), an example of this program is the house at 105 Marjorie St. 52 West Kingman was a TTH house and is now a home for a young family with 2 children. This was a partnership with Habitat and deserving family. Another program on Practical Preservation is being planned for this summer. James participated in last year’s Practical Renovation classes. Ms. Rose also spoke about a new program which is a Development Transformation program that they will be launching later this year. Ms. Rose or a representative of the Land Bank was invite to the April NPC meeting to discuss this new innovation program. James apologized to the council for the absence of the Fire Chief. He will contact the Fire Chief and invite him to the February meeting. Announcements were placed in the Shopper announcing his visit. He will place the announcement again for February meeting. Members Comments: James will request the Fire Chief attend our February 7th meeting. He thanked all in attendance. Public Comments: Ms. Travis reported they are hiring as they are down 3 people. The CA Job Hub is open and eager to serve the neighborhood. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 8:05 p.m. Next Scheduled Meeting: February 7, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. in the CA Board Room. Respectfully Submitted by Cynthia Fritz, Recording Secretary