Neighborhood Planning Council 10 - Lakeview west

WESTALKE/PRAIRIEVIEW NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #10 Meeting Minutes March 27, 2017 The meeting was held at Lakeview Senior Living Facility, 14661 S Helmer, Battle Creek, Michigan Call to Order & Welcome Chair, Jeff Koteles called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm Invocation: A moment of silence was observed Attendance: Members: Chairman: Jeff Koteles, Vice Chair: David Weaver, Secretary: Linda Patenaude, Donna Jaeger, Diana Cole, Gary Dodd, Tom Rose, Donna Kowalski, and MaryJane Cipcic Guests: Jessica Gilbert and Chevy Rocho from the Humane Society City staff: Corporal C Rabbitt, and Eric Morris-code Chair Notes/Correspondence/Announcements: The historic Business District Commission was March 12, 2017 the zoning Board of Appeals cancelled its March 14th Jeff reminded the group that of our standing rule Section 1. It shall be the duty of the presiding officer to immediately rule out of order any person. Whether member or not, who takes the floor for the sole purpose of ridiculing or making derogatory personal references about any member. Whether present or not and /or any attendee at the meeting. Additions/Deletions to the Agenda: Special guest speakers are from the Humane Society. BC Vision will be our speakers in April. Minutes: Dave Weaver motioned to approve the minutes with support from Gary Dodd with corrections as follows: Under Police Reports: Remove “200 postcards were mailed out and we received one new guest” That deleted sentence will be added to the Membership Section. Minutes were approved unanimously with changes. Police Report: Officer Rabbitt handed out crime reports. Speeding traffic issues were brought to the officer’s attention. Pit bulls are running loose on Lakeshore and animal control will be called. There are more officers being hired since 4 officers have left the ‘streets’ and went to work at the hospital. Public Service Announcements from Commissioners: No commissioners present again. It was noted that we have not had any commissioners present for quite some time. Committee Reports: a. Membership: Postcards did not bring in any new people this month. It was suggested that we take some cards and put them in local business and on bulletin boards in our area. Linda will be some next month to hand out. b. Beautiful Battle Creek Award- Since no one is coming up with businesses Linda asked our neighborhood code officer for his suggestions. The group nominated JC Cinema and the Car Wash next to it on Helmer Road c. Lakeview School District- Mary Jane Cipcic shared that the district is negotiating with the new superintendent. Things look positive and he should be hired for July 1. Some building work is beginning at Westlake and Prairieview schools d. Woodland Park- Spring clean-up work on the trails is May 20 at (approximately 8am) Volunteers are needed. City Staff Report: Code reports were handed out. Concerns were voiced about people still not knowing about mattress disposal. They must be wrapped in sealed in plastic or will not be taken away. There were lots of questions/concerns about the new cat and farm animal ordinances. There are more meetings scheduled by the city on these ordinances. Old Business: see comments for the good of the order New Business: none Special presentation: Jessica Gilbert and Chevy Rocho shared information on the work of the Humane Society. They have a free to the public dog park at their location on Watkins Road. It is called the Curtis Whitaker Bark Park. It features a large fenced in area for dogs to run and play off leash and a bone shaped pool for summer fun. Their facility houses about 100 pets. 60 cats and 40 dogs up for adoption. They do not have a time limit on their stay at the Humane Society. Dogs are brought up from Louisiana for adoption here, since there is such an overpopulation there. They also have training and agility classes for dogs. They are always looking for volunteers. They have many events and they can be found on Facebook and twitter. They explained the animal ordinances Battle Creek is looking at adding about feral cats and farm animals and encouraged people to go to the city meetings. Comments for the good of the order: Linda went over a list of accomplishments of our NPC to give to the city for our NPC April spotlight and asked for input from the members. Meeting ended at 8:27pm Next Meeting: April 27, 2017 Submitted by Linda Patenaude Members who will not able to attend our meeting for an excused absence, please call Linda @ 269-962-8514