Neighborhood Planning Council 11 - Lakeview east

Meeting Minutes Minges Brook/Riverside Neighborhood Planning Council (NPC) #11 Central Christian Church Community Room 713 Riverside Drive Battle Creek, MI 49015 Wednesday, May 23, 2018 1. 7:00 PM – Welcome and opening – Randall Champlin 2. Attendance sheet: Dave Hawks. Dan Buscher, Frank Egland, Fran O’Neil, Jan Frantz, John Godfrey, Leah Ortiz, Linda Phelps, Sally Goss, Talia Champlin, Randall Champlin, Dan Boyer, Tate Trujillo, Joan Grieger, Tracie Tomak, Tina Yost, City Commissioner Sherry Sofia, City Rep: Jason Francisco, Battle Creek Police Department Rep: Officer S. O’Bryant 3. Additions or deletions to this agenda: None 4. Approval of the previous month’s meeting’s minutes. Joan Grieger moved to approve and Fran O’Neil supported the motion. Motion passed unanimously. 5. Correspondence sent/received - None 6. City staff reports: City staff reports and Commissioner Comments: · City Commissioners’ reports: Commissioner Sofia reported that the Commission is working on the budget using the priority-based budgeting process. A public workshop was held in early May and the budget will be up for final approval at next June meeting. Comment that a surplus from last fiscal year of about $100,000 that will be put in the rainy day fund. Commission is currently shifting dollars from operating funds to pay for pension funds. Police and fire pensions are adequately funded. Balance of pensions are about .5% under where State wants funding to be. Public Act 202 requires a corrective action plan to show how this shortage will be funded. Question regarding how the commission plans to address this shortage. Legacy Costs Committee is supposed to be generating ideas for this, but no concrete suggestions have been put forth. Concern expressed that City should be obligated to keep the promises they made to former and current employees. Concern regarding being limited to the yield from bonds rather than investing in products with higher yields. Comment regarding the likelihood of being able to push a bill through to reduce property taxes between now and the end of the legislative session. Question regarding timelines for resolution of pension issues. State mandates a plan, but there is not a specific deadline for submitting a resolution. Suggestion that Nancy Mullett from the City be invited to speak to us about these issues. · County Commissioners’ reports: No report · Police Department Report: Officer O’Bryant brought two packets, showing Part 1 crimes (14 in April) and Part 2 crimes (15 in April), plus traffic stops and foot patrols. Officer Rivera and she redid the report so they would line up with our boundaries. For month of April, 48 traffic stops and 60 foot patrols were listed. When residents call to say they are going to be out of town, police will check those homes. Residents are doing a good job of reporting suspicious behavior and locking homes and vehicles. She encouraged us not to give thieves easy access to our homes. Question about projected occupancy of new building. Expectation is for August or September move-in. John Godfrey reported construction is on time and under budget. Question regarding whether police should be called when residents feel uncomfortable about someone acting belligerent in public. Yes – call 911. · City Representative Report: Jason Francisco gave a report that used less paper. He reported that property surveys have begun. All of our 17,000 residential properties are viewed at least once every 3 years. Mattress and box springs must be bagged, but not other furniture. Bags are available at DPW through Waste Management. Mowing ordinance is being enforced. Please call early and often when a neighbor is not mowing, because the grass can get so tall during the ticketing process. Question regarding how long between call and enforcement – usually 1-3 days. Compliment regarding a recent call to Code Compliance that was handled very positively. Compliment regarding an amazing 3-minute response time to a fire call. 7. Committee reports: · Beautiful Battle Creek Award Nominations – Dave Hawks – No nomination · Neighborhoods and Land Use – John Godfrey – There was a meeting today, but the subject under discussion was in another NPC. · NPC 11 Programs – Open Position. Future topics suggested at the recent NPC Leadership meeting included the Historical Society and Willard Library. · Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee update - Randall Champlin/John Godfrey – The group was to submit their recommendations by end of May for the June meeting, but want to wait until they have all the survey responses from the early June water billing before they make their final report. Preliminarily, committee’s recommendations seem to be lined up with public sentiment. If you are not happy about having input on only 3 of your commissioners, as opposed to the 5 commissioners you now can influence, you need to make that sentiment known. · Summer social gathering update – Sally Goss – Minges Brook Elementary seems to be a good location. Suggestions that advertising be done through city water bill, Shopper, and Next Door. May bring an NPC map so people could see where attendees resided. Seniors and children could benefit from knowing/building neighborhood rapport. Decision was made to proceed with July 25, 6pm. To find out if grills are allowed, call Clerk’s office -966-3348. Suggestion – Bicycle parade. 8. Old business: · 2018/2019 NPC 11 Officer elections – Nomination Committee presented the following amended slate: · Chair – Leah Ortiz · Co-Vice Chair – Tina Yost and Dan · Secretary – Tate Trujillo John Godfrey motioned that the slate be adopted as nominated, and Jan Frantz seconded. Motion carried unanimously. 9. New business: · New member nomination: Motion made by Tina Yost to include Eric Campbell, City engineer and NPC 11 Resident, as a new NPC member. Seconded by Dave Hawks. Motion carried. · Monthly informational Program: Colin Sherfield, one of the ministers at Central Christian Church, talked about the Community Garden they are starting and shared ways that neighbors can get involved. Colin has been with Central Christian since December, 2016. He most recently came from Alabama but originally was from Coldwater. He was involved with a group that started a garden in Montgomery, Alabama. He and others have been consulting with Jeremy Andrews from Sprout Urban Farms. Last year, the church challenged members to take Christmas money that may have been spent on unneeded Christmas presents and use the money in service to the community. This resulted in a program that provides non-perishable food items in after-school packs for 70 kids at Minges Brook and Riverside Elementaries. The problem is that many non-perishable items are junk food. 14.3% or 19,000 county residents are food-insecure. Produce from the garden would add healthy food to the packs and may help address local food insecurity. In addition, a monthly potluck style event could help to bring from produce from “farm” to table. Some aspects of the project are still in the planning process. The church wants to encourage neighborhood participation. Colin passed a clipboard so people could sign up to help or just be kept informed. Question on what will be grown. Peas, beans, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, zucchini. Question on what help is needed. Participation, weeding, offering expertise. Suggestion to get the word out through Peachtree School newsletter and Next Door. Comment regarding the ending of the Backpack program for the summer. 10. Public comments: Jason Francisco let us know the city’s paint program is running again this year. Residents in need can get up to 10 gallons of paint in 6 pre-determined colors.  11. Member Comments: Comment regarding appreciation for Randall’s years of service. Question regarding whether the Blue Ribbon Committee is recommending Mayor and Vice- Mayor would be top two vote-getters, or whether candidates must run for each position. Habitat for Humanity just finished their annual Women-Build. Over 100 women worked on the Maple Grove home, and 50+ women worked on the Marshall home. The event was a significant fundraiser with no injuries and great supervisors. Leah Ortiz will be running for Lakeview School Board and asked us to sign her petitions to go on the ballot. Tina Yost reported that our Intermediate School District is developing a program to address the significant truancy problem in the county. 1700 students in Battle Creek Schools miss more than 10% of the school year. She is asking for input from attendees on successful anti-truancy programs. The goal is to have a program in place by fall. The Excellence in Art program raised $11,000+ and over 20 schools participated. Comment that it was frustrating not to get any press coverage on these kind of positive events. Great things are going on by our community for our community. 12. Next Month’s Meeting: Wed June 27th, 2018, at Central Christian Church - 713 Riverside Dr. · Program: TBD 13. Adjournment: There being no further business, Randall Champlin adjourned the meeting at 8:31pm.