Neighborhood Planning Council 2 - North Central

Monday, April 8th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. 1. Call to Order & Welcome: 6:01pm. Pastor French welcomes. Calls to order. Introduction and what they are thankful for. 2. Attendance: NPC 2 Members (E = Excused - notified an officer/member, X = Present, O = Absent): X Mary Bourgeois X Church of Scientology (Jeff Breedlove – Secretary) O Frank Drury X Faith Temple COGIC (Joe Hooper) X Dr. Monique French - Chair X Grace Health (Eric Gestring) X Lynn Ward Gray X Samuel Gray X Larz Martin-Bey - Vice Chair O Larry Martin X Patricia Martin X Neighborhoods Inc. of Battle Creek/NIBC (Whitney Wardell) O Bettie Robertson X Springview Tower (Brent Heuss) X Ron Sweet O Prentice Thompson O Karen Todd O Cynthia Wyatt Guests: X Quiton Hay Land Bank X Aprillie Vaughn X Shanay Settles X Gail Canales X Kathy Antaya X Heather Ignash BC Unlimited X Bridgette Jones BC Unlimited City Representation: X Cpl. Brad Gentry X Corp Shawn O’Bryant X Helen Guzzo Community Development 3. Adoption of the Agenda: Moved by Breedlove and supported by Sweet to adopt the April 8th, 2024 agenda. Motion Carried Unanimously. 11 votes for, 0 against. 4. Approval / Amendment of Minutes: Moved by Sam Gray and supported by Sweet to approve the Feb 12th, 2024 minutes as presented. Motion Carried Unanimously. 11 votes for, 0 against. 5. Correspondence (sent/received) & Announcements: Pastor French: Quincy Marshall retired. (Please submit all correspondence/announcements in writing whenever possible) 6. Committee & City Staff Reports: a. Police Department/Fire Department: • Cpl. Gentry gives report Mar 1st-31st. No robberies. Added arson on there. 4 of the 9 reporting. Arrests 3 of 9. Traffic stops 2 of 9. Overall, 4 of 9. Looking at increase in traffic stops for summer. Calls for service tend to go up too. • Corp O’Bryant. Will be back in car in May. Did receive call from Fox Ave. house at night same thing being done as on Redner. People are coming over and partying. Will contact officers and coordinate with Sergeant. Already had conversation. Once deemed a disorderly house can do something about it. • Pastor French: arson occur on 450 w Michigan? Gentry Yes. • Corp O’Bryant: there is a problem with impersonating police officer. Calling saying inspection Elliot or saying they are someone. They are scams. If they (the police) want Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov  Monday, April 8th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. to come get you, they will come get you. Be alert. It is on an uptick. Had elderly resident scammed out of $400k. • b. Elected Officials: County Commissioner Monique French: Pastor French and Larz at commission meeting passed zone change from T3 to T4. c. Neighborhood Services: Guzzo brings report. Goes over report. Junk accumulation. 16 junk accumulations in last two months. Discussion. Regarding how long mattresses can stay. 90 Goodale. d. Beautiful battle creek awards. None e. Membership: Shanay Settles nominated herself. Gail Canales nominated herself f. Committees: Pastor French: table meeting for next meeting. g. Battle Creek Public Schools: None present, no report. Pastor French: They are looking for change. What’s going well and what’s not going well. Had that last week. 7. Presentation: Kathy Antaya: Helen Montgomery memorial. Northwest corner of Claude Evans park. That memorial was installed many years ago. In 2019 worked with city and got trees and stones removed. Planted 40 trays of flowers. After first planting realized planting was too big. Asked city to help and they did. Kathy, Mary and JR have been maintaining monument. But there is no water to it. Reduced the size and put in mostly perennials. Her proposal, presented to many leaders. If she gets a grant, can she install this stone wall. Like the sign at Second missionary church. Similar color of stone to memorial itself. Would make it easier to maintain and let city mow around easier. (sent pics around for people to look at) Finish by June 14th. Hope to start anytime. The city will pick up the blocks and do the install. Nothing will change with existing bed. You will still see stone. Will not detract from stone. Discussion about water. French: question on table to see if she has support from NPC2 to build wall. Ron sweet moves. Sam gray supports. Voted yes unanimously. BC Unlimited: Heather Ignash: talk about career opportunity at Double Tree downtown. 170 new jobs created. Hospitality. Management staff. Guest services staff. Beautiful space. Pay rates competitive. This is Suite Collaborative. Partners come together to create resources. Not just for hotel. New opportunities at KCC. Associates degree. Calhoun County career center. Activities at BC public schools. Classroom at hotel. Community partners can use that. There will be an HR person to focus on career development. Open house April 17th. At KCC 4-7pm. Snacks. Network. Opening soon. Bridget Jones. VP of operations of BC Unlimited. August 1st anticipated day of opening. Target date. Assets: remodeling the former McCamly to Doubletree. Have to follow brand standard. Restaurant that is outward facing. Open to everyone. Marketplace on first floor. Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov  Monday, April 8th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. Basement, mechanicals. All new. The reception desk different. Lobby bar. Which will be new. Add a few restaurants. Pool was in good shape. 16th floor bringing back cocktail lounge. Three meeting rooms can be one or break out rooms. Can lease entire 16th floor. Did take down atrium. A lot of dead office space. Replaced space. Will be walkway to hotel. All enclosed. Will be gathering space for downtown events. People can come in and use bathrooms. Can rent that space. Will feature beer garden. Will have art exhibit to feature local artists. A lot of money was put in the basement. Took care of water in basement. Had to order main switch gear 56 weeks in advance for opening. Screen fence in area by ballroom area, so people can walk out. Ballroom can hold about 500. Have three additional breakout rooms. Will refresh entrance. 247 rooms. Rooms didn’t change. One feature, put barn style doors for bathrooms. Everything is pretty much brand new. A few weeks after that will have grand opening celebration. Has been a long journey. BC unlimited owns hotel. Has management company to manage jobs. This is a way to keep dollars in community and recycle money in community. Our next will be housing. Tried three different times to get developers to do it and they didn’t so we did. Discussion on restaurant. Eric Gestring from Grace Health. Introduces himself. 8. Old Business: Pastor French breaking ground April 25th. For first house. Asking to continue to support to make a beautiful neighborhood. First one on Greenwood. 25th at 2pm. Reception set up over there. Take a tour of house that will be renovated. One of seven that have been done. Received mi hope funding. Received an additional 125k. hired project manager. Shanay Settles. Let you know progress. Community carnival July 13th. No Miranda in park. Starts at noon. Go the hotdogs. Will have some celery and carrots. Prayer breakfast. May 16th. Bc foundation. $15 tickets. Speaker is mike Singletary. 7:25am. 9. New Business. Eric Gestring: Grace Health. Wrapped up additions to dental area. Medicaid. Noncommercial. Wanted to be present to more involved with community. Have conference rooms available. Call and get scheduled. Encourage people to stop in. happy to be here and help out. Goal is to keep it nice in facility. Purchased mobile. Will do dental work. Can get to schools. Should be completed in next 5 months. Starting on renovations on west building. Pastor French. Land bank is planning on building houses on Hancock. Food truck at Claude Evans park. Next advisory meeting this wed 6-8 at Washington heights. would love you to join. Share knowledge. Lunch and learn at noon. In partnership. With b c foundation. One is Tues and one is Thurs. would love for you show supports. 10. Public Comments/Member Comments: Guzzo: yard waste collection started. Grass over 9 inch long will ticket. Community needs next Tuesday. For community development block grants. 750k spent. July 1st will put Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov  Monday, April 8th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. 500k in minor home improvement. It’s exciting. Sam gray. Juneteenth. Underway. June 15th. Will do movie at Washington Heights. On the 14th. Also couple other churches are in collaboration to do event around 15th . The movie will start at about 6pm. Try to do a family friendly movie. Event on Saturday 11-6pm. Kmart area. One step closer to doing housing in that area. Come to our meeting on 4th Tuesday of month at 3 pm. Voice your opposition. Meeting at housing authority. Kellogg manor ground floor. Several other projects going on in community. Lynn Ward Gray: BC Area association of realtors. Home ownership workshops. Coming up 530-730. dinner. April 11th. Sorority hosting pasta dinner. Marinara or meet. Drive through on Friday 19th. Dinner. Support scholarships and programs. Sam Gray: Regarding Housing authority. If there is some opposition show up and express for or against. Sam looks forward to it. Housing tax credit. Naturalization river project. Working on getting 55 units, cost 15 million . all housing development depends on MSHDA low income housing tax credit. Housing choice voucher discussion. Only one in 10 that get a voucher will find housing. We have a lot of families that cannot find housing. Discussion. Heuss: Volunteers of American helps train people on how to maintain and take care of house. Revising of bylaws. Subcommittee, Ron sweet, Heuss and Whitney. Will get to it. 11. Next Meeting: Monday, May 13th, 2024 at 6:00 PM @ Washington Heights UMC. 12. Adjournment: Moved Breedlove and supported to Lynn.. Motion Carried Unanimously. 11 votes for, 0 against. Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:17 PM by Monique French, Chair. Minutes recorded and submitted by: Jeff Breedlove NPC2 Secretary NPC 2 Mission: To improve the quality of life by listening and engaging residents. NPC 2 Vision: A safe, friendly, family-driven neighborhood where everyone wants to live. The City of Battle Creek will provide necessary reasonable auxiliary aids and services, such as signers for the hearing impaired and audiotapes of printed materials being considered in the meeting upon reasonable notice to the City of Battle Creek. Individuals with disabilities requiring auxiliary aids or services should contact the City of Battle Creek by writing or calling the following: City Clerk Office (269) 966-3348/TDD Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov  Monday, April 8th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov