Neighborhood Planning Council 10 - Lakeview west

WESTALKE/PRAIRIEVIEW NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #10 Meeting Minutes January 28, 2013 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 7:02pm Mary Lou Ramon led the invocation. Attendance: Members: Chairman: Jeff Koteles, Secretary: Linda Patenaude, Vice Chair: David Weaver, Diana Cole, Gary Dodd, Tom Frame, Joyce Garrett, Pete Francisco, Mike Troutman, Commissioners Ramon and Domenico Guests: Mayor Baldwin, Commissioner Hembolt , Ted Dearing, Jeff Horvarter, Officer Galbrath, Karen Lynn Todd Jim Baldwin City staff: Marcie Gillette Chair Notes/Correspondence/Announcements: None Additions or Deletions to Agenda: none Minutes: Dave Weaver motioned to approve November 2012 minutes with support from Jeff Domenico. Minutes were approved as written. Police Report: Officer Galbrath attended and took questions. Speeders around the High School, Hupp Rd and on Columbia were reported to him. Marcie handed out written reports covering a two month period, because of no meeting in December. Public Service Announcements from Commissioners: Mayor Baldwin: • Budget process is starting and thing are looking good so far, the best the mayors seen in 10 years. • Battle Creek is the first community to become a Harwood community. It basically means customer driven and looking at things in different ways. • Takasaki Japan, our sister city has 7 visitors coming to visit. • Redistricting is taking place in the city due to population shifts in the city. There is a workshop scheduled for citizen input. This will not affect NPC Council boundaries. Commissioner Domenico • Addressed the take home vehicles of the Police Department. • A proposal is being submitted to the National Association of Cyclist to designate Battle Creek as an official Bike Friendly City. The designation provides for signage and brochures. Commissioner Ramon discussed her aversion to the tent city people living under the downtown bridges and her hope of the city addressing it. She asked for input from the public having heard from several residents. Television and written articles sited Battle Creek as one of the highest crime rates. This is a cause for concern from our residents. Commissioner Domenico said there will be an upcoming workshop to discuss the violence and police efforts. Committee Reports: a. Membership : Brochures with our specific info are available to provide to prospective members. We need more members. 18 month attendance charts were passed out to membership. It was motioned to remove 3 individuals for lack of attendance and non contact for a minimum of one year by Mary Lou Ramon seconded by Joyce Garrett. The motion was passed unanimously. Those individuals removed Danyelle Bradshaw, Gary Blagg and Tom Cramutolo. b. Beautiful Battle Creek Award‐ None submitted this month. c. Neighborhood Planning‐ No planning meeting in January. There will be a joint meeting on Capital Improvements between the neighborhood planning and the commission. D. Woodland Park‐ The park committee is growing by 7 members and there will be a meeting in late Feb or March. Please contact Joyce if you need more info. City Staff Report: Marcie Gillette passed out written reports. Due to annual rotation of officers, our new code officer for our area is Eric Morse. We will also be getting the new position one day each week, Eric Campbell, who will be looking to enforce garbage cans left out and other problems he observes. New Business: Nominating: Joyce and Linda found the incumbent officers are willing to run for another year with no others interested. Election can be done in February and is uncontested. Program: Possible improvements for Willard Beach were presented by Ted Dearing. Jeff Horvarter, Parks and Recreation Director was available for information and questions. They were interested in getting our feedback and possible letter of approval when they submit a request for funding to the Battle Creek City Commission. They plan to submit a proposal for a grant to the Michigan Dept of Natural Resources Trust Fund to improve Willard Beach. The project is for $400,000 and the city's buy‐in would be 25% or $100,000. It is intended to improve the user experience at the beach. They also want to address a safety issue. Where the boats pass through a channel to get from one end of lake to the other is in the same channel as the public swimming area. Some people do not obey the posted swimming buoys, and some boats do not slow down enough and swimmers could be hit by a boat. There have not been any accidents yet but the threat is there. The proposal is to move the beach to the east into deeper water. The beach would be reduced from 500ft frontage to between 120 to 150 feet. The existing beach will become lawn with some new picnic/shelter areas. The time line on this project is 2 years plus but the money needs to be guaranteed for the grant. The membership will re‐visit this issue at its next February meeting before making a recommendation. Comments for the Good of the Order: a. Public Comments‐none b. Member Comments: • Gary Dodd thanked Linda for her attendance work. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 8:32pm . Next Meeting: February 25th, 2013 Emergency Preparedness submitted by Secretary, Linda Patenaude Members who will not able to attend our meeting for an excused absence please call Linda @ 269‐962‐8514