Neighborhood Planning Council 5 - Urbandale

URBANDALE NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL Minutes from January 8th, 2018 E-Mail: ​Besteele@gmail.com Phone: 269-274-0029 1. ​Call to Order & Welcome​: Fill-in Chairperson Kathy Antaya called the meeting to order at 7:03. 2. ​Attendance Members Present: Secretary Brian Steele, Kathy Antaya, Deborah Owens, Fred Bachman, David Moore, Sara Schmanske, Hal Longman, Patricia Graw, Curtis Roberts, Johnny Vick, Terry Lancaster, Beverly Case, Nancy Hoard, Wayne Hoard, Roger Ballard City Staff: Dennis McKinley, Officer Robert Henley, Officer DeAndre Perry, Comissioner John Griffin, Jenny Mualhlun Guest: Rep. Dr. Jim Bizon, Police Chief Jim Blocker, Bernadette Llewellyn Excused: Chairman Robert Whitfield, Vice-Chair Freeman Thomas, Joshua Fausey, Walt McIlroy, Catherine LaValley, Regina Kilgore 3.​ Announcements:​ Chairperson Robert Whitfield had a work emergency and Vice-Chair Freeman Thomas is sick with the flu and Antaya filled in. 4. ​Additions or Deletions to the Agenda​: None 5.​ Approval of Previous Minutes:​ The previous month’s minutes were approved. 6. ​Police Report​: Officers Henley and Perry gave a verbal and written report about the arrests in the Urbandale area in the past month. Community Engagement Coordinator Jenny Mualhlun gave a verbal and written report about the Citizens Police Academy. There will be classes every Wednesday evening March 7-May 16 and from 6:00-9:00 and on Saturday, April 14th, 9:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m. The police department is aiming for more transparency and trust within the community. Mualhlun took questions, thanked the committee for our time. More information is available online from the city of Battle Creek’s website. 7.​ Guest Speaker: ​No guest speaker tonight. 8. ​Committee Reports: School Report: None to report. Code Report: Dennis McKinley distributed the report and took questions. McKinley mentioned that they are also working on curriculum to train new NPC members. Beautification: 2 Maurer Drive 9. ​Old Business: ​The Fall Festival committee gave an update and the first meeting is going to be January 23rd, noon at Spanky’s Bar and Grill. Leftover supplies from the Highway Clean-Up program was picked up by Terry Lancaster. There is also a ULABA meeting on January 17th at noon at Spanky’s and anyone is welcome to attend. The only other news was that nobody has claimed a hat that was left behind at a previous meeting. 10.​ New Business: ​It was proposed to increase voter turnout on the northside of Battle Creek and to work on increasing civic participation on the north side. 11. ​Nominating Committee​: Nothing to report 12. ​Public Service Comments from Commissioner: ​Comissioner John Griffin reported on the whether we will directly elect the mayor. He said he will be talking to this NPC on whether we are interested on serving on a committee to discern on whether we want to directly elect our mayor. He also gave an update on the federal order that is attempting to rescind the policy that state’s can regulate marijuana businesses. This could be an issue since Battle Creek has been exploring this issue locally. 13. ​Comments for the Good of the Order: Public Comments: State Representative Dr. Jim Bizon gave a brief verbal report about what is happening in state legislature. Police Chief Jim Blocker gave an update on the police department’s recent programs and took questions. Member Comments: The voter turnout issue was discussed more. We will look into this in the future as well. Dr. Jim Hines, candidate for governor, will be speaking on January 25th at the Kool Center 6:30. 14. ​Next Meeting​: February 12th, 2018 15. ​Adjournment: ​The meeting was adjourned at 8:03 p.m.