Neighborhood Planning Council 11 - Lakeview east

NPC 11 March 27, 2019 Meeting Agenda Minges Brook/Riverside Neighborhood Planning Council (NPC) #11 Central Christian Church - 713 Riverside Drive Battle Creek, MI 49015 1. 7:00 PM – Welcome and opening – Leah Ortiz 2. Attendance sheet: Frank Egland, Helen Larder, Jan Frantz, Leah Ortiz, Tate Trujillo, Tim Martinovich, Tina Yost Johnson, Richard Bolek, Chris Simmons, Ryan O’Connell, Pat Fosdick, Jim Mcdonagh, Helen Guzzo, Cathy Lucas, David Lucas, Jake Smith, Jim Haadsma. 3. Additions or deletions to this agenda  Addition of Helen Guzzo – Senior Services Presentation, for Monthly informational program. 4. Approval of the Feb. 27 meeting minutes distributed via email: Minutes Approved. 5. Correspondence sent/received and upcoming events: None 6. City staff reports and Commissioner Comments:  State Representative remarks  Jim Haadsma – State legislative representative (Email: jimhaadsma@house.mi.gov) i. Received State personal property tax Memo (see scanned below) in regards to Battle Creek’s state revenue reimbursement (Michigan State drastically cut revenue reimbursement resulting with Battle Creek having a $2.4M budget shortfall) – 1. Bottom Line Up Front: The State formula is dependent on growth on new properties. Those cities that are not actively expanding (i.e. battle Creek, Jackson, etc.) will not be reimbursed for lost revenue while those cities that are growing (i.e. Grand Rapids, south east Michigan) get a big bump of revenue from the State. Basically, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. 2. Jim is in work to try to address this, but it seems the only way to change the current formula is by passing new legislation to revise the State’s formula. ii. Roads 1. Question: There is constant talk about the perception of money that was set aside for certain programs (i.e. roads) but funds keep getting diverted a. Jim: There are diverted State dollars that are going to “more important parts” (such as bigger cities/”growth cities” a la same type treatment as above with the State Personal Property Tax). So the “growth cities” are getting more of the funds for these programs. iii. Messaging 1. Question: There seems to be poor messaging from government to road/tax issues a. Jim: Parties will spin their own take on social media and as citizens, we need to be vigilant and check sources for these messages as they can be deceiving.  City/County Commissioners’ remarks  Jake Smith – County Commissioner i. Newsletter to come out soon ii. Raw materials are increasing in price, approved road salt contract for next year and prices have increased 21%. County will try to buy a bit more to hedge against future prices. iii. Hired first chief public defender. 10 attorneys on staff.  iv. County wide transportation study is underway. More information will be linked in Jake’s newsletter and also posted on Nextdoor. Transportation study will be looking for any feedback for the County through studies.  Chris Simmons – City Commission (Email: ccsimmons@battlecreekmi.gov) i. Transportation is being subsidized by city with $900K per year out of city general fund. Since city is facing a $2.4M shortfall for future budget years, they are evaluating the money spent on transportation. ii. Seen higher instances of crime (drugs, human trafficking, etc.) associated with “Transit Motels” where there are long term rentals (some by Beckley, hotel across from Horrocks) and Battle Creek does have a problem with homelessness/working poor. These people have only the Transit Motels option to go to. Many are working poor but cannot rent apartments. School busses pick up school kids out of these hotels. City is looking at other bigger cities on how city could assist/help and not just shut down these hotels that would displace the families onto the street. iii. Recycling will start picking up recycling every other week starting May instead April. iv. Any other questions you may have, feel free to contact Chris at above email.  Police Department Report  Officer O’Connell: Same as last month, not much has been happening in NPC 11. i. NPC Requested some more hard copies of crime reports for next meeting.  City Representative Report  Richard Bolek – Code Compliance i. Going through backlog of permits that have been submitted, cleaning it up. ii. Not much of code compliance issues for NPC. 7. Committee reports:  Beautiful Battle Creek Award Nominations – Dave Hawks - None  Neighborhoods and Land Use – John Godfrey - None  NPC 11 Programs – James McDonagh - None 8. Old business:  None 9. New business:  Monthly informational Program: Helen Guzzo – Senior Services Presentation (see below). i. Administer Senior Millage collected from County - $2.6M annual program ii. Senior Millage was passed in 1996 and will be on ballot for August 2020 to be renewed. iii. For further information, great handouts were given and are below in Minutes. 10. Public Comments: None 11. Members’ comments:  Question: Who has responsibility between Taco Bell and Mega-Bev? There are huge potholes. No city representatives were available to answer. You can report Potholes to Chris Dopp who works at Battle Creek (can be found online on Battle Creek’s website).  E Drive N is also horrible. Is this a County road? Jake’s response, probably a secondary road where the county can foot 30% of bill but the township would have to supply the other 70%.  Member brought up that other bigger cities are turning some of these “secondary” roads into Dirt roads to save costs and have easier maintenance. Jake did acknowledge that  back in the 90s when townships had more money, townships did create many paved roads, but now those roads are crumbling and there is no money to take care of these roads any more. 12. Next meeting: April 24, 2019 at Central Christian Church - 713 Riverside Dr Program: Battle Creek City Planners – Discuss/Feedback Non-Motorized pathways (aka sidewalks/trails). 13. Adjournment - 8:17 PM CITY OF BATTLE CREEK NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL (NPC) 11 MEETING PUBLIC COMMENT PROCEDURES & RULES Welcome to this NPC 11 meeting. We appreciate your taking the time to attend. Everyone will be given an opportunity to speak. Question may be ask when the Chairperson or program speaker invites them. Speakers will be provided an opportunity to address the NPC with general comments during the public comment portion of the agenda Please understand that the meeting participants may, or may not, answer questions from the public that are raised during public comments portion of the meeting. In order for us to have an effective meeting, we ask that you abide by the following rules: 1. Please wait for the Chairperson to acknowledge you before you speak. 2. Begin by stating your name and address, and please write down your information on the sign-in sheet. State your comments, opinions, or questions on the issue being discussed and direct them to the Chairperson. 3. To ensure that everyone has time to speak and that we can address other items on today’s agenda, each speaker is ask to limit comments or questions to no more than three (3) minutes at each meeting, except that a speaker’s time may be extended by decision of the Chairperson. Speakers are requested to speak one at a time on any item and to refrain from repeating the comments of previous speakers. 4. Please be respectful of your neighbors and presenters. Again, thank you for taking the time to attend this Neighborhood Planning Council meeting. Minges Brook/Riverside Neighborhood Planning Council (NPC) #11 Calendar of Upcoming NPC Meetings (4th Wednesday of the month unless otherwise noted) Chair: Leah Ortiz Vice Chair: Tina Yost/Dan Buscher Secretary: Tate Trujillo  All times are 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Location: Central Christian Church - 713 Riverside Drive Battle Creek, MI 49015 DATES: Wed Mar 27th 2019 Wed Apr 24th 2019 Wed May 22nd 2019 Wed Jun 26th 2019 Wed Jul 24th 2019 Wed Aug 28th 2019 NPC 11 meetings have moved to a new location at Central Christian Church – 713 Riverside Drive. This is across the street approximately 1/5th of a mile south of our old meeting location, Riverside Elementary School.