Neighborhood Planning Council 10 - Lakeview west

WESTALKE/PRAIRIEVIEW NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #10 Meeting Minutes March 26th, 2012 The meeting was held at First Assembly of God Church, 800 S. 24th Street, Battle Creek Michigan Call to Order & Welcome Chair, Jeff Koteles called the meeting to order at 7:03pm Cecil Salinas led the invocation. Attendance: Members: Chairman: Jeff Koteles, Secretary: Linda Patenaude, Vice Chair: David Weaver, Gary Dodd, Pete Francisco, Joyce Garrett, Karol Henegar, Cecil Salinas, Mike Troutman Commissioner Jeff Domenico and Commissioner Mary Lou Ramon Guests: Robert Whitfield #5 NPC Chair, David Kline, Marie Champagne, John Levack, Bob Kyle, Carol Quinn, Dwight and Rita Grandganett, City Engineer‐Chris Dopp City staff: Neighborhood Services: Jason Francisco Chair Notes/Correspondence/Announcements: Additions or Deletions to Agenda: Minutes: Mike Troutman motioned to accept the minutes as written with support from MaryLou Ramon. Motion passed unanimously. Public Service Announcements from Commissioners: Commissioner Ramon reported that Sprout Urban Farms want to do a community garden with a vegetable stand on Kendall and it will be on planning commissions agenda. Commissioner Domenico shared that traffic/ roadways on Capital Ave from Territorial to Columbia is being reviewed. They are determining whether to take the bike lanes back out and return it to 4 lanes. Commissioners are looking for input. . Police Report: Written reports were passed out by officer who answered questions from the group. Committee Reports: MaryLou Ramon motioned, Jeff Domenico supported, to remove the CDAC from the agenda since this is the last year the city commission supported the pubic 15% portion and adding neighborhood planning in it's place. Motion approved unanimously. a. Membership : Printed membership lists were available for distribution. Mary Lou Ramon requested Cal Canfield removed from the membership since he no longer owns property in our area. She provided paperwork showing he sold his home. Linda will try to contact him once more before removing him, explaining we are not in need of his space at this time and did not want to remove someone without at least speaking to them b. Beautiful Battle Creek Award‐ Mary Lou Ramon nominated Commissioner Jeff Domenicos residence, 133 Barbados Trail, for the Beautiful Battle Creek award. Members are encouraged to bring in submittals, so we have some extras. c. CDAC: Linda Patenaude –no report d. Neighborhood Planning‐ not available e. Woodland Park‐ Joyce Garret thanked her committee members for filling in during her absence. They are looking into getting a bridge of the southwest corner of the park. Gary Dodd shared about park clean‐up May 12th will be the spring park clean‐up beginning at 9am. Volunteers are asked to join in. If you have a pitching fork, etc to help spread mulch. The 2nd Saturday group from the First Wesleyan Church will help with this There is also a liter pick up for Saturday March 31st at 9am There will also be a clean‐up in April on a Saturday. Date to be determined. City Staff Report: Jason Francisco handed out written reports. Susan, Marcie and Jason will be doing a rotating schedule to out meeting. Property surveys are still being done. Program: Chris Dopp shared what will happen during the next year and also the plan for 5 years on city roads. He also shared the progress that has been made downtown (approximately 70% at this time) and what is left to do this summer. A lengthy discussion took place about the excess water and flooding problems around the Horseshoe pond, Cherywood & Westlake ponds in our boundaries. Many homes have flooded basements and yards and are losing trees. The water table is high in this area. Dopp reported that there was a gravity designed plan on paper developed already to alleviate the flooding. The plan has not been put into place because of a lack of funding (special assessments) and also because the water from this area would end up at Goguac Lake. The Goguac board is not supporting this plan. The DEQ would also have to approve this plan. If the excess water went into Goguac Lake when released it could possibly flood the Lynwood area. Our drain commissioner, Larry Corwright, is in charge of this project and it is a small part of a larger picture for the entire county. Even if the plan for the ponds to empty into the lake are enacted this would not guarantee no flooding because the water tables are high in the area. Commissioner Jeff Domenico also is a member of the Goguac Lake board and agreed to share information between the groups. Comments for the Good of the Order: a. Public Comments: Many individuals voiced concerns over the pond issues, and flooding b. Member Comments‐ • Dave Weaver commented on future guests. Our Beautiful Battle Creek award receipts were awarded during the last few months just not always at the meetings. • Gary Dodd addressed the sewer rates • Jeff Domenico discussed his opinion and reservations about the merger of the United Way of Battle Creek with that of Kalamazoo. He urged people to designate their donations to go to Battle Creek specifically. • Mary Lou Ramon invited everyone to NPC #5 meeting to hear their forum on medical marijuana on April 9th at 7pm. This item will be coming before the commission as the moratorium will be ending soon. • Joyce thanked Dave for getting the speakers and Linda for good minutes. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 8:28 pm Next Meeting: Monday, May 21st, 2012 Note: that we will be meeting a week early due to the holiday. Submitted by Secretary, Linda Patenaude