District 5 Advisory Board

Page |1 District V Advisory Board Minutes July 1, 2019 www.wichita.gov The District V Advisory Board meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at Fire Station #21, located at 2110 N. 135th St. W., Wichita, KS 67235. ATTENDANCE Members Present Philip Zevenbergen, Associate Planner, MAPD Nancy Duling Steve Degenhardt, Public Works and Utilities JV Johnston Cory Buchta, Community Services Trevor Kurth Representative Jose Gutierrez Rachel Murphy-Thomas Guests Roman Rodriguez Stephanie McCurdy Ben Kittrell Alan Kailer Jill Kerschen K.T. Zoerk Angela Breer Shelley Wilkinson Troy Palmer Russell Sliter Alissa Unruh Cheryl Taskinen Trey Rios, Youth Member Frieda Biebalouge Council Member Bryan Frye Dennis Clary Marylin Sharp Members Absent Dana Brown Deb Shevlin Staff Present Eric Miller Lt. Matt Schulte, Wichita Fire Department Jim Marlett Officer Lori Hahn, Wichita Police Department Tom Ewert David McGuire, Park & Recreation Department Ernie Misek Tracie Partridge, Senior Librarian ORDER OF BUSINESS Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Bryan Frye Approval of May 6, 2019 Agenda: 11-0-0 Approval of June 3, 2019 Agenda: 11-0-0 PUBLIC AGENDA This portion of the agenda provides an opportunity for citizens to present issues that are not part of the regular agenda for the meeting. There is a five minute time limit for each speaker. 1. Scheduled Items None 2. Off-agenda Items NONE Recommended Action: Receive and file 1  Page |2 BOARD AGENDA 3. Updates, Issues and Reports Scooters are coming soon. We have some offers from two different companies that we are considering. We make a revenue off of these. This is a pilot. We can make changes or get rid of it if we like. All-America City award. In Denver last week. 5th time we’ve won it. Several reasons we were chosen. Traffic. 37th and Tyler. 4 jurisdictions that have control of that intersection Maize, Wichita, Sedgwick County, Maize School District. Hoping we can all come together and pay for a light there. Tragic Accident – 34th and Ridge Road. Car turned into oncoming traffic and a woman was killed. Traffic count doesn’t meet minimum for a light unfortunately. We are looking at lowering speed limit. Light might not have prevented the accident. Still researching the crash data we have. Hopefully a lower speed limit could help. Looking to plan for a sidewalk on ridge road to Ridgeport north on 37th. Several families use that for the schools in the area and they don’t have a connection there. Budget Simulator Results – Police, Streets, Fire got the most increase. Most people were ok with a small tax increase. Is that what we’re going to do? Too soon to tell. We’ve done a great job without raising taxes. STAFF REPORTS 4. Fire Department Report Lt. Matt Schulte reported:  281 incidents in D5- 254 medical, 25 service, 2 apt fires. Had another today. Both on Central and Ridge. o Got first 35k in damage. Careless smoking on decks. o 140k in damage. Smoking on deck.  As temperature goes up and everything dries out, that cigarette smolders. Put it in sand. Put it in water.  Fireworks season. 10 units out on 3rd and 4th from 7pm until 2am. Issuing citations. Out patrolling till midnight tonight. Shoot ‘em where you bought ‘em. Fines are hefty. Have a bucket of water to throw fireworks in when done. Don’t put in trashcan. Don’t put near your house. 5. Community Police Report Officer Lori Hahn reported:  Beat 19 –  Increase in vandalism with school out. Reports of vandalism to HOA pools. Can’t get them on trespassing. It’s a curfew law if they’re under 18 because residents of HOA.  Calls of people fishing in HOA lakes, but it’s people that live there. Even if it’s late at night.  Increase in vehicle thefts. Not sure what is causing it. Stealing stuff out of cars as well. Making some arrests.  2 police and 1 firefighter going out to patrol. 6. Park & Recreation Department Report David McGuire reported:  Dealing with river issues. Finally starting to calm down. Cleaned up after it several times. Still affecting recreation programs. Paddle boat were all cancelled in June. Moved them to Watson Park. Multiple events planned and they are all full. Very popular.  Lots of tree issues with the storms. Broken or hanging branch, call us. 2  Page |3  No city wide declaration of disaster so we aren’t coming around picking up branches, only if they are blocking sidewalks or streets.  Recreation activities – Barry the Bison, and the City Crew. Kids can sign up. Every 2 weeks a party for kids. This side of town coming up July 20 at Harvest pool. All 3 mascots will be there. They get monthly emails from the crew. 600 members in City Crew.  Kids under 17 can play golf for free this year.  Several glow tours at Watson Park.  Touch a Truck going. For kids at Watson Park on July 13th. 7. Wichita Public Library Report Tracie Partridge reported:  Will be closed on July 4th  During summer, branch locations closed on Sunday, but ALL will be open on Sunday.  June 24th ALL got chrome books to check out to customers. Need library card in good standing for 3 hours and has to be used in the facility. Funded from a gift by Google.  Still registering for reading incentive programs for kids. Birth to age 17, 3 reading groups. 10,000 kids signed up. Westlink has 2600 signed up alone.  Birth through age 5 story times weekly. Completing summer section week of July 15th. Starts back up in September  Wed July 10 opera Kansas will do songs to the moon at ALL  Modern Pop Art Experience ages 9-17 and parents. Michael Albert makes collages out of boxes. Will take teens through that process. Has taken program to over 1000 places in US. Only time it will happen in Kansas this summer. Sat July 13 at Alferd Branch.  Fall gardening series. Starts July 30th at Alferd Library. Tuesday at 6. Repeats at Westlink Thursday at 6. 8. Public Works & Utilities Report Steve Degenhardt shared the following:  Still working on 2018 OPP. Microsurface on 13th from 199th to Maize Expecting it to happen this month. o Major streets on central ½ mile west of maize road. Asphalt and overlay to occur 2020 o Tyler road on Maple. Overlay and pavement repairs for 2019. o Will begin preservative seal maize road near hoover. Process that will preserve the integrity of surface asphalt. Make it last a lot longer. Few days to complete that work altogether.  Projects under construction. Hoover bike path zoo to 29th. Spring 2020 construction. Include traffic signal zoo and hoover. 29th and maize intersection. Maybe funding in 2020. C (CM Frye): We will be better off if we just do the lane improvements instead of completely redoing the whole intersection. 2 turn movements will solve problem right away and cost a lot less money. Action Taken: Motion to receive and file. Motion PASSED 11-0-0. NEW BUSINESS 9. CUP2019-00020 and ZON2019-00026 Philip Zevenbergen, Metropolitan Area Planning Department, presented an application on behalf of Brian Lindebak—MKEC Engineering Inc. (Agent)/ Marv Schellenberg—Estancia LLC & Tier 1, LLC. 3  Page |4 (Applicant). The applicant is seeking both a zone change from LC Limited Commercial to SF-5 Single Family on a portion of the subject property and a CUP amendment to the existing DP-337 to remove a portion of Parcel 13 from the CUP. The amendment moves 4.3 acres out and rezone from limited commercial to single family. Q (DAB): Is the commercial side still vacant? A (CM Frye): It’s occupied A (DAB): They did a ribbon cutting a few weeks ago. A (CM Frye): Resort-type health care. After medical procedures you go there for rehab. Like a hospital with medical. There are people working there. The rest of commercial addition is still getting developed. No details on what’s going on for development with rest of it. No questions from Public. Action Taken: Motion to APPROVE the application as presented made by Troy Palmer. Seconded by Trevor Kurth. Motion PASSED 11-0-0. 10. Trap Neuter Release Stephanie McCurdy, Past Chair of Animal Services Advisory Board, presented a proposal for an ordinance that covers Trap Neuter Return (TNR). TNR – formerly trap neuter release. Few years ago TNR was important to Wichita community. Developed committee to research. Reduce outdoor cat population by spay and neuter and return to environment. Ensure animals are well taken care of. Undergo the surgery, ears notched, given a few days to recover, then returned to their environment. It’s a method of reducing outdoor cat populations. Protects people and animals. Halts reproduction of cats through sterilization. Reduction of cat colony. Elimination of colony. Decrease nuisance complaints from cat fighting, mating, odor, and way to ease burden on community resources like shelters flooded with cats. Currently Wichita Animal Shelter almost at capacity. Can rehome and get up for adoption, kittens and adults. Steps of TNR program. Cats trapped or captured, transported to clinic, neutered, ears notched, recover, transported back to environment. 2017 survey. People thought feral cats were a nuisance and wanted something to be done. Met every month until December to put forth a final draft. Q (DAB): How many people took this survey? A (Public): 800. A (Stefanie): Not sure that’s accurate. Consensus on draft ordinance was not easy. Passed board but by 1 vote. City of Wichita recognizes need to addresses feral cat program. TNR viable option to deal with feral cats. Relies on volunteer caregivers. Return to property owner with property owner permission. Address over population of cats but also addressing euthanasia rate in shelters. In 2013 – 2,961cats euthanized, in 2015 – 2,118 cats euthanized, in 2016 – 1,630 cats euthanized, in 2017 – 1,227 cats euthanized, and in 2018 – 920 cats. Organization that provides service started doing TNR in 2015. Last year TNRed over 1,000 cats. Wichita Animal Shelter keeps animals 8 days. Costs $23 per day for them to keep the animas/ Cost $10 to spay neuter and ear tip 1 cat. Mandated registration of cat colonies. Annual reporting. Animal Services enforces. 4  Page |5 Benefit from community buy in. Intake costs more than a million $ annually. TNR reduces that. Right now we are doing a half approach. Large scale sterilization program depends on volunteer support. Supported by several people in community. Lethal control doesn’t get support. Without TNR shelters stressed and overwhelmed. Gives false expectations to people who bring in animals to shelters. Questions? Q (DAB): Who enforces ordinance? A (McCurdy): Wichita Animal Services Q (DAB): Timeline you expect colonies to decrease or be gone? A (McCurdy): Not a lot of studies out there on that. Oklahoma City intake went down 50% over 2 years. Q (Public): Any opposition to this? A (McCurdy): Lots. Why I have police escort tonight. People say 1 rabies vaccine is not enough. But 1 is better than none. No confirmed rabies case from cat since 1940. C (Public) Kelly Jones – 6130 E Central: State of Kansas Rabies Lab – statistics reporting from rabies. Last 6 years – 2013 374 cats tested. 2 positive. 2014 391 tested 7 positive. 2015 370 tested. 11 pos. 2016 369 tested. 5 ps. 2017 324 teste 3 pos. 2018 317 tested. 0 positive. More horses tested positive than cats in Kansas. For all of Kansas. 1-3 humans test positive a year. Really low incidences. C (Public) Bill Langely – 944 north Crestline: Opposed to ordinance. Some confusion. People want to save feral cats from euthanized. 1 issue. Science journals over 10 years of large areas have not found TNR to decrease cat populations. We have been advocating the science at these meetings and we’ve been ignored. Feral cats in Wichita? We don’t know how many. 148-188 million cats in US. Rounding here to assume how many in Wichita. 105 thousand feral cats in Wichita estimate. Within a year 70% of female cats would have to be neutered to decrease cat pop. Only 10% of cats in Wichita are feral. About 105k. ½ cat are female and 70% need to be sterilized. Would require TNR people to trap and sterilize 365 cats per year all female. Each colony has 8 cats, add males and females. Would be 919 cat communities in Wichita not owned by anyone. In your neighborhood. Not saying something shouldn’t be done but this isn’t the solution. Saving cats is a great idea but dropping them back not good. C (Public) Marilyn Overton – 2331 North Lorraine: I’m allergic to cats. President of neighborhood association. Many cats in my neighborhood. We have an infestation of cats. Maybe not in your neighborhood. Hate to say euthanize. If you live where I live, they live in blight homes. Not everyone is feeding them. Not allowing trash service to be picked up at blight homes and these cats are eating out of trash. Cats carry diseases. Humane Society can’t take care of dogs let alone cats. This will not work. I love animals but we have an infestation of cats. We have to face it. You heard about Bel Aire. Lady on my block has 31 cats. I pay my taxes and I don’t agree with this. My solution may not be the one, but Q (DAB): Are you for or against? What would be your solution? A (Overton): When I say infestation you have to see what I see. Feral cats are not like your pets. No one is taking ownership of them. Feral cats are out there. They are dangerous, they have attacked me. They need to be euthanized. Our city will be overrun by cats. 5 cats walking down my street. Spray my house and make me sick When I said I would do something to that cat, they said they’d put me in jail. Put that cat over me? What are we doing? C (Public) Tom Ewert – 5820 North Legion: Former president of Wichita Audubon – Position against ordinance. Drafted by small group of activists. Not widely considered. Did not include wildlife groups. Animal Advisory board passed it on 4-3 vote. Mayor’s appointee veterinarian voted against. Can’t solve feral cat problem. Doesn’t work in city this size. Until you solve outdoor pet problem, you’ll never reduce population of these cats. Veterinarians said it could take 10 years before 1 colony is reduced to nothing. Folks mean well and want to save the cats. This is not the answer. Kill birds. Will use your 5  Page |6 backyard as litter box. I have an indoor cat. 8 feral cats in Florida that have contracted rabies. My vet says I need to vaccine ever year. City of Wichita is liable if child gets scratched or someone gets rabies. Need to protect parks and other places. Need more aggressive pet dumping laws and adoption laws. Many cities treat cats and dogs the same. This has been voted down at all the other DABs. C (Public) Marcia – 1159 North Firefly: I have trapped and released 8 cats. I feed them. They sit on my lap. They are tame. People have dumped cats on me. They have not caused any problems on my property. Possums and raccoons are messier than feral cats. They aren’t a nuisance. They can become people’s pets. C (Public) Eric Miller – 952 Faulkner: Find it humorous we all agree there’s an issue. The way we are going about is what we’re arguing about. Program is to reduce number of cats. Trend for euthanasia is going down and TNR number going up, plateau for number we are TNRing. We need grants to be able to TNR more and make a difference. Cats here are abandoned animals. Community care takers are not abandoning animals. Taking care of animas that have been abandoned. I have 5 studies from cities where there are successes of TNR. TNR is a way we can address euthanasia. I’m an engineer. Data leads to solutions. Only way to get data is to have some type of structure to this program. Look at data. Spay then urine stops smelling. TNR then there are no more kittens. When you get to a set that isn’t breeding, population will start to go down. Additional laws need put in place. I think you should need a license to breed animals. All pets should be altered. In summary, we need to do something to collect data. Volunteer orgs are asking to legitimize this to get additional grant funding. Other cities have done it. It’s worth us trying. C (Public) Kelly Jones – Once you spay and neuter cats there’s a vacuum effect. When spayed and neutered, they don’t allow other cats to come into colony. They protect that territory. Colony dies off. We want to target colonies. Stop cycle of breeding and have them defend that territory. Euthanasia doesn’t work. We need to do something different. Need to find pet owners that aren’t responsible pet owners. Kittens grow and breed and make more kittens exponentially. Q (Public): How do you know cats will defend colony? A: I know cats. I work with cats. They are territorial. C (Public) Cheryl Taskinen – President of Friends of Felines. Assist caregivers in TNR – We don’t have to go out looking for cats. People come to us with them. Already care givers out there that exist. People contact us, they go to website and fill out application. Goes to caregiver support coordinator. Contacts caregiver, gathers info, sends off to TNR coordinator who schedules trappings and surgeries. Typically we do about 2 large TBR weekends. Do about 50 cats max in clinic. Mobile unit comes down. We have standing appointments for pets. When raining or hot out, difficult to trap. Vacuum effect is scientific and proven. Topeka has TNR ordinance. Have had it for 9 years. First 2 years, 28% reduction of cats intake. Don’t answer complaint calls, they refer them to program like ours. Feral cats not socialized to humans. Won’t attack, but will stay hidden. Caregiver might be able to pet them but no one else. TNR working on individual basis. Been doing since 2005. Ramped on when K-State got involved to help with surgeries. C (DAB ): Friends of Feral Felines. Started by Sedgwick police Chief Ray Huff. Q (Public): Feral cats don’t attack? A: No they are afraid of humans. C (Public): I have seen them attack. C (Public) Charlotte Harry – 20 North Road: We feed the birds. We have 6 foot picket fence around yard to keep dogs out. Interested in birds. 1 free roaming cat can wipe out a neighborhood of birds. Would like to see some kind of protection for us. Cats are not natives. Not equipped to defend against that. Worries me that people are taking very good care of feral cats, but a lot of people who treat them like throw aways. Regulation could help with that. 6  Page |7 C (Public) Jim Marlett – 1728 Wt Nottingham Court: Biological standpoint. We deal with carrying capacity of an area. Limited by food water shelter. When you provide food water and shelter to feral cats to increase the carrying capacity of them. We see a pretty good likelihood TNR has potential of increasing population of feral cats. Has been seen in City of Miami for example. Dealing with it right now. Claim neutered cats protect territories. Neutered cat reduced territorial imperative. I don’t think TNR is effective. Would rather see mandatory licensing and spay and neuter requirement. Will never get handle on feral cats without that. C (Public) Rich Ruth: Against TNR proposal but not against TNR. Not implemented properly over the years. Only 1 place shown actual reduction of cats in Massachusetts. 20 years to get rid of 200 cats. 50% reduction is reduction of cats going into the shelter, not cat population. Twisting the stats. Bad for cats. Unethical. Reason I’m against this proposal because it takes away legal rights of home owners because caretakers are not owners. Proposal does nothing about spay neuter. Over 100 cities looked at by TNR subcommittee all additional measures were ignored. Many cities had leash law. Some had requirements for catios for containment. This is cat over people. Read from the advisory board. Someone suggested community cat before any discussion. Whole process undermined the democratic process. Say no to this draft and let us revisit it. FOFF not licensed and not inspected. We should not allow FOFF to run around with no oversight. Wichita Animal Shelter has obligation to protect citizens. 6 days is average stay of a cat not 12. Accounting done on this quarter of million to house is questionable. Wichita wants transparency they have to be better if they want transparency. Hasn’t happened on this board. Yes vote rewards that behavior. Q (CM Frye): Still a draft ordinance being brought to council – this is 5th out of 6. How many meetings did ACAB have between beginning and now? A (McCurdy): Brought out in January 2018. Total of 6 meetings we only talked about this. Plenty of time for input and community interaction. C (CM Frye): I’ve gotten dozens of emails. Open meetings. Opportunities for people to engage. Still in draft and has to go to council. A (McCurdy): Still has to go to WPD. Internal committee meeting on it. After DABs we will meet before it goes to council. Q (DAB): If City adopts this, it takes responsibility off cat owner. True? A: Not owner, just care giver. Q (DAB): Also talking about people that have cats and let them roam through neighborhood? A: We’re talking about community cats not owned cats. If feral cat damages property, caregiver not liable. Follow nuisance law. Cats could be confiscated if nuisance continues. No liability from care giver. Q (DAB): Punishment, that would be the steps to removal of all cats from caregiver? A: Yes unless they can determine which cats. Q (DAB): Caregivers can own cats as well, would that include those? A: If they have indoor cats and outdoor cats, they would only take the not owned cats. Q (DAB): Rabies vaccinations – what’s average lifespan on feral cat? A: Avg life span of house cat 20 years. Not exposed to same things as feral cats. Community cats live between 8-10 years. Q (DAB): When would it go into effect? A: We have zero control over that. A (CM Frye): Typically ordinance has second meeting – usually following council meeting. No specific date on this. Q (DAB): Is there a review process for ordinances? Concern this doesn’t go far enough or isn’t right method. If we pass this can we decide in 2 years? 7  Page |8 A: Oklahoma City gave it a 1 year time and at 11 months they decided it was successful and did it again for another year. A (CM Frye): With ordinances we do have a review process at end of a year to see how things are going. Like scooter pilot process. At end of year or 2 years we see what kind of progress. Q (DAB): How would we measure success? A: Contrary to what you’ve heard euthanasia rate in shelter is the euthanasia rate. That’s a pretty good success rate. Keeps us from using tax payer dollars. TNR not funds coming from Wichita tax payers. FOFF don’t keep animals so they don’t need to be licensed. Rescues need licensed. Numbers of euthanasia came from animal services. TNR already happening in our community. This gives assistance. 3 DABs voted no. All 3 boards gave recommendations back that will go to our board and council. They gave things they thought would be helpful. One was a split decision but they also have recommendations. Q (DAB): If animal trapped and neutered would not have to be returned to same area. What process for citizen to say they don’t want cat back? A: Property owner. They can say they don’t want them back. If active nuisance going on. Multiple damage complaints. WPD out there. Animal service out there. Those cats aren’t going back. We can rehabilitate those animals and take them somewhere else. Q (DAB): Says Wichita Animal Shelter approve any new colony. Criteria for colony? A: No registration process for colonies. Don’t know where they are located. But this ordinance requires registration so we will know where they are. Have to identify how many cats in colony, vaccinate, chipped, so if nuisance complaint, WAS can say colony nearby check it. A lot of colony caregivers that don’t want people to know they are caring for cats. This allows us to know where they are. Q (DAB): Who would make ordinance? Why don’t we have mandatory spay neuter in Wichita? Why isn’t that part of your recommendation? A: Would be behind mandatory spay and neuter. Hobby breeders still breeding. Need license to do so. We have mandatory spay and neuter on pit bulls. A (WPD Officer) Lots of ordinances people don’t follow anyway. This helps. People who want to do it right will register. Would eliminate problems. Q (DAB): Why aren’t cats treated like dogs in ordinance? A (McCurdy): Have you ever tried to leash a cat? C (DAB): Something that puts more restrictions in there. I think the program is awesome, but needs something that takes it a little further. Action Taken: Motion to APPROVE the proposal with a time frame of one (1) year to review and take all District Advisory Board recommendations made by Jose Gutierrez. Seconded by Roman Rodriguez. Motion PASSED 7-4-0. Meeting was adjourned at 8:13 p.m. The next DAB V meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., Monday, August 5, 2019, Fire Station #21, 2110 N. 135th St., Wichita, KS 67235. 8