District 5 Advisory Board

District 5 Advisory Board Minutes Monday, October 4, 2021 • 6:30 p.m. Attendance Members Present Staff Present Dennis Clary Chief John Eck, Wichita Fire Department Wendy Carter Officer West, Wichita Police Department Trey Rios Tracie Partridge, Wichita Public Library Lamont Anderson Jamie Prothro, Director of Wichita Public Library Trevor Kurth David McGuire, Park and Recreation JV Johnston Department Nick Penner James Wagoner, Public Works and Utilities Brynn Murphy – Youth Member Cory Buchta, Community Services Council Member Bryan Frye Representative, City Manager’s Office Members Absent Rachel Murphy-Thomas Jose Gutierrez Angela Breer Jill Kerschen • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Order of Business Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by JV Johnston. Approval of October 4, 2021 Agenda: Motion PASSED 6-0-0 Approval of Minutes from September 1, 2021: Motion PASSED 6-0-0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Board Agenda 1. Updates, Issues, and Reports Council Member Frye shared an update from City to City visit last week in Oklahoma City. CM Frye shared an update from the en banc meeting with Sedgwick County last week. DAB 5 • October 4, 2021 •Minutes• Page 1  NDO coming back to City Council next week. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Public Agenda 2. Scheduled Items None 3. Off-Agenda Items None Action Taken: Received and filed. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Staff Reports 4. Wichita Fire Department Report Chief John Eck presented: September 2021 in D5, 7 fire alarms, 255 medical, 63 service, 60 other, total of 385 total incidents. Shared which stations made most alarms in D5. Shared which stations responded in county. Fatality fire on the 25th. Still investigating. Near 13th and Ridge near Country Acres. 5. Wichita Police Department Report Officer West reported: Catalytic converter thefts in Patrol West (more than just DAB 5) – 25 in September, down from 43 in August. All of 2020 233 thefts. 955 city wide YTD. All of 2020 541. Starkey gets his so much they don’t even report them all. No way to set up special assignment on this because it happens all over the place at all times of day or night. Did special assignment a while back with etching unique number on catalytic converters. Wednesday this week Coffee with a Cop. Park West Plaza for Beat 199. Scholfield Honda will have trunk or treat on Oct 30. Some churches as well. Sunday Oct 10 Prairie Fire marathon will close a lot of downtown streets so be aware – 7am to 3pm. Halloween coming up. Safety tips printed off and placed in the room. Stealth stat was placed in a neighborhood. Shared results of that. 1,869 vehicles – had less than 10 vehicles speeding. In another neighborhood 864 vehicles counted, average speed was 28.7mph. C (CM Frye): On your way out, can you go east on 21st? There’s a deer carcass on the side of the road. A: I’ll go check it out. Q (DAB): Do you have an average call on how much the catalytic converters are selling for? DAB 5 • October 4, 2021 •Minutes• Page 2  A: $25 to $100 maybe even a couple hundred. They will sell them to another individual who will take hundreds or thousands of them to another state and that person will get many hundreds of dollars. The people in Wichita can’t extract the precious metals from them. Sometimes they load them up in a box truck and takes them down there. Q (DAB): If someone tries to sell one and they can tell it’s stolen, can they just keep it and call the cops? A: Yes, they have the authority to say they will call the cops and hold it. Q (DAB): Regarding hunting in the county, is there a particular place where you get a lot of calls? A: 13th and 21st near 135th. Won’t always make it all the way to 911, but a lot of times they’ll let them know it’s in the county. It’s not illegal in the county even when not during hunting season. 6. Park and Recreation Department Report David McGuire reported: Held Open Streets event. It was very well attended. Probably had 8,000 people showed up. Two years ago had 25,000. Riverfest was last weekend. Pretty well attended. Wicked Island open Friday and Saturday nights through October. Junior Football – Torchys is sponsoring. Team is nominating opponent player for good sportsmanship. Pickle ball tournament at Riverside Tennis Center. 9 new courts. 1 st tournament had over 200 people in it. Noticing pine trees dying like crazy. Nothing we can do about it. Normal progression right now. We can only remove them. Backlog of about 12-18 months. You can call and let us know. Didn’t have enough resources last year with COVID to clean restrooms and parks. Closing them earlier in the year, so some are already closing. Swanson Park pedestrian bridge has bid back. $217,000 design work being done now. Set for October 9, 2022. Q (DAB): Restroom deal is just a budget thing? A: Yeah public works cleans them for us. They have a finite amount of money so we are trying to stretch that as much as possible. CDC suggesting cleaning multiple times a day, and we went with 2 a day. 7. Wichita Public Library Report Tracie Partridge reported: Story times are back this fall! For health and safety reasons, we are hosting our story times outdoors in the cool fall Kansas weather, weather permitting. We have several story time series scheduled at different locations. Visit www.wichitalibrary.org/events to learn more. Family Storytime – Tuesdays at 10:30 at Westlink through the end of October Captain Underpants Party – Sunday, October 10 from 2:30 to 3:15 Outside on the library lawn, celebrate like George, Harold and the principal turned superhero with underwear-inspired races, book trivia, and more. For ages 8-11. Registration is encouraged, and current social distancing protocols must be observed. This year, the Library has been working with a business called Sonify, along with Envision and the Wichita Community Foundation, and members of the blind and visually impaired (BVI) community to create projects around data-driven storytelling. The purpose of this project is to make data sets more accessible to the BVI community through auditory means, like podcasts and music. Last month, the group met with experts in data research and sonification and took a deep dive into this new trend of communication. We look forward to continuing this work and seeing how we can incorporate this method of information sharing into the Library culture. DAB 5 • October 4, 2021 • Minutes • Page 3  The Library recently launched a pilot program to increase accessibility to the Library’s e-collections to those that do not have library cards. Overdrive, the Library’s e-book vendor, offers an Instant Digital Card (IDC) that allows community members to sign up to access e-books and audiobooks with a cell phone number. The IDC authenticates off zip code so residents in Wichita can access these e-materials. This is a great way for customers who aren’t familiar with the Library to still use Library services. This new service is being promoted at the airport through brochures – an ideal place for people who need access to a book for their flight. Customers will see some positive changes when placing holds on materials through the online catalog. Part of this year’s budget process included the implementation of no hold fees. Previously, materials placed on hold through the catalog were charged 25 cents. Those fees are now gone. We will still charge a $1 per item fee if a customer doesn’t pick up their holds within the reservation period of seven days. You can browse the online catalog at catalog.wichitalibrary.org. This month, we welcome the next Director of Libraries back to the Wichita Public Library. Jaime Prothro began service as the Director of Libraries on October 4. She began her professional career with the Wichita Public Library as the Evergreen Branch Manager and later the Customer Services Manager. She spent the last several years as the Customer Experience Director with the Pierce County Library System in Tacoma, Washington. Action Taken: Received and filed. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • New Business 8. Design Concept and Supplemental Design Agreement No. 3 for Hoover Road from Zoo Boulevard to 29th Street North James Wagoner, Public Works and Utilities, presented on the project. Hoover Road between 21st Street North and 29th Street North is currently a two-lane asphalt mat street with ditches on each side and no sidewalks. The design concept for improvements to Hoover Road include a three-lane roadway with center turn lane, curb and gutter, and underground storm sewers. The project will also include a 6-foot wide sidewalk on the west side and a 10-foot wide multi-use path along the east side of Hoover Road. Construction is planned for 2023 and one lane of traffic will be maintained at all times during construction. Provided background on the project that is actually in District but near the border of District 5. There was some public opposition. Decided to make some changes. Held a public information meeting in September prior to the DAB 6 board meeting. Concept was approved unanimously. Showed revised concept of road redesign with a path that will resolve many of the public complaints to the original design concept. C (CM Frye): This will use existing sales tax dollars. Not a new tax. Q (DAB): 21st street portion will get done in 2023? A: Hard to pin down right now what’s happening with Water Treatment Facility. 2023 is their end date. Will try to coordinate with that. This road will be closed one direction. Probably south bound coming into the city. Water treatment facility has plans to do phases. They don’t have anything on paper to tell us what they’re doing and when. Part of the design build process. Our schedule sort of matches up with theirs. Hopefully we can get our project bid and line up with theirs and save a few bucks. Our construction will take place after from theirs. They will need to build and we don’t want them going through our new stuff DAB 5 • October 4, 2021 • Minutes • Page 4 and created patches. We’re installing a signal. Typically when we do a closure it will be into the city that stays open so people aren’t late to work, but maybe take longer getting home. Action Taken: Motion to recommend APPROVAL made by Nick Penner. Seconded by Trey Rios. PASSED 7-0-0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:22 p.m. The next District 5 Advisory Board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, November 1, 2021. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Guests • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Respectfully submitted, Cory Buchta, Community Services Representative, District 5 DAB 5 • October 4, 2021 • Minutes • Page 5