District 6 Advisory Board

District 6 Advisory Board Minutes Monday, October 5, 2020 • 6:30 p.m. Virtual Meeting • Zoom and Facebook Live • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Order of Business The District 6 Advisory Board meeting was held online at 6:30 p.m. via the Zoom platform. Seven DAB members, six City staff, and five members of the public were present. Members Present Staff Present Sergio Devora-Najera Ana Lopez, Community Services Melinda Kellogg Representative, City Manager’s Office Scott Lucas Captain Bumgarner, WFD Greg Boyajian Gentry Thiesen, Park and Rec Shaun Rojas Sean Jones, Wichita Public Library Angela Martinez Officer K. Weidner, WPD Linda Matney Officer C. Chrisman, WPD Members absent Bill Longnecker Gisela Pena James Deckard Bill Washburn Alayna Welch (Youth) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Order of Business Pro-Tem Chair Scott Lucas called the October 5, 2020 DAB 6 meeting to Order. Staff Reports 1. Wichita Fire Department Captain Bumgarner, Wichita Fire Department Reports on a few commercial structure fires during the month of September. Fire prevention week this year is very different than what we've had in the past due to COVID. WFD normally goes to schools and do a lot of interaction with kids. This year, we can’t do that, and WFD has opted for doing virtual meetings with our fire prevention bureau. This week is safety in the kitchen. Kitchen fires are one of our number one causes of house fires within the city. We have over 100 year kitchen fires that cause a lot of injuries. Things that we suggest obviously is don't leave on attended food. Make sure you use a timer. If anybody's interested in fire prevention week they can log on to the City's Facebook page or the Fire Department DAB 6 • July 15, 2020 • Minutes • Page 1  Facebook page for social media fire prevention tips. October is the semiannual time change and Wichita Fire Department encourages residents to check batteries on fire alarms during this time. If you are a homeowner and are not able to purchase a fire alarm or batteries for your current alarm, please call City of Wichita t 316-268-4510 and they will provide and install a new fire alarm or batteries. Recommended Action: Receive and file. 2. Park & Recreation Department Report Gentry Thiesen, Senior Management Analyst, Park and Recreation, The Tennis Center at Riverside is really moving along quite nicely. They're pouring the new courts and replacing another one and then planning the expansion. I would recommend that you guys drive by and take a look at that. That's a really exciting the progress going on there. There is a survey online right now through social media. An email was sent out to Parks and Rec users about a Park and Open Space survey, we'd love to get your feedback about how you use and what we can improve on in our parks and open spaces. We’ll be sending a recreation specific survey in a couple months. There was a pickle ball tournament last weekend at Riverside Tennis Center, which had a really great turnout. We're hoping to do more of those. Immunizations are still going on at Evergreen, with KU Flu immunization coming late this month. A Forestry and Maintenance staff member is meeting with the Benjamin hills and Pleasant Valley neighborhood associations tomorrow night to discuss the tennis courts at Columbine Park. They mentioned wanting to convert the courts into pickle ball courts currently there is no CIP targeted for improvements in that park, but something that we can look at in future years. The Futsal court has been completed at Evergreen where two tennis courts were converted into Futsal courts. The mowing season is starting to slow down, and Park and Rec will be reducing mowing cycles. As the weather is staying unseasonably warm right now, and things keep growing we will maintain our presence up at your parks. Recommended Action: Receive and file. 3. Wichita Public Library Report Sean Jones, Communication Specialist, The Library will present the following virtual programs in early October. More information (including links for registration) can be found at www.wichitalibrary.org/events:  Learning Circle: UFO Studies; Mondays, Oct. 5-26; 6-7:45 p.m.; register online at www.p2pu.org/wichita  Simple Antenna Design; Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6:30-7:30 p.m.  Sell Online This Holiday Season with E-Commerce Tools with Google; Wednesday, Oct. 14; 11 a.m.-Noon The Friends of the Wichita Public Library is hosting a virtual book sale through October 7. Visit www.wichitalibraryfriends.org to place your order for a bag of books ($10 each) based on your favorite genre, select a pick up time and stop by the Advanced Learning Library on Saturday, October 10 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. to pick up your bags. Fiction, nonfiction and children’s books available. All book sales are final. Bags must be purchased in advance. No cash will be accepted on the date of pick up. No refunds, discounts, bag changes or book swaps. Voting and elections are vital obligations for a functioning democracy. The resources page on the Wichita Public Library’s website will help you become more informed about how to get involved with the election process, learn more about current election issues and find out who the candidates are for state and federal offices. There are multiple ways customers can access Library materials while browsing the shelves is temporarily unavailable: 1. Each location is offering a concierge service. If customers know which materials they’d like to borrow, or have an idea of titles or authors they’d like to explore, they can ask staff for assistance and staff will grab materials for them. DAB 6 • October 5, 2020 • Minutes • Page 2  2. Customers can use the Library’s new reading recommendations and grab bag services on the website. Visit www.wichitalibrary.org/readingrecs and fill out the appropriate forms. Library staff will work with customers to select materials. 3. Customers can access the Library’s full catalog of materials online at catalog.wichitalibrary.org. Using their library card, they can place holds on materials and pick them up using curbside or drive up window service, or come inside to retrieve holds with staff assistance. Recommended Action: Receive and file. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 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. 4. Scheduled Items There are no scheduled Public Agenda items this month. 5. Off-Agenda Items Any individual present that did not request to speak on the Public Agenda prior to the meeting may speak at this time. Recommended Action: Receive and file. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • New Business 6. Community Policing Overview Community Policing officers from the Wichita Police Department will provide information about community policing and will field questions from the DAB and public. Officers will also use this time to provide the routine WPD staff report which covers District 6 crime trends and statistics, special assignments, department updates, and relevant safety topics. Community Police Officer Chris Chrisman, In addition to answering 911 calls CPO’s Do a lot of the crime analysis and look for crime trends. For example if there is cars getting broken into in a specific area it would be up to us to go out and investigate that problem and create solutions. CPO’s attend nearly all Neighborhood Association and DAB meetings providing community stats as well as listening to the issues of that community and relay that information to their Beat teams. Beat 21 Report- Aggravated battery and robbery was down 5% and auto theft was up by 1%. With the reopening of Old town larceny to autos was up by 5%. The South community policing team did a special assignment last week. There had been reports of aggressive pan handlers in the Old Town area. Overflow shelters will be open on November 1st Community Police Officer K. Weidner Beat 49 Report – There's been an increase in burglaries and larceny from autos with people breaking into cars around the Moorings and Harbor Isle. We’ve also seen an increase in Graffiti tags. If anybody out there has any video or knows of anything, please let me know. DAB 6 • October 5, 2020 • Minutes • Page 3 Shaun Rojas, did somebody report the graffiti that was on the Carwash at 21st and Arkansas? Officer K. Weidner, replied yes. Angela Martinez, reports that there is a lot of car racing down Arkansas Street, between 17th Street and 21st Street. It is out of control mostly on weekend evenings and driving at high speeds. Officer K. Weidner, I'll look into that and relay the message to Officer Soto. Officer Chris Chrisman, one of the things that we're really pushing to do is to increase Community Policing. We really want to reach out to the community and just ask if there is anything going on in your neighborhoods that we don't know about? Is there anything that we're not doing that should be doing? Is there anything that we could be doing better? So with those three questions in mind, we would love to hear any input from citizens. Officer K. Weidner, on that note, as well. If you have a neighborhood association meetings that you're a part of, especially on Beat 49, please let me know so I can start being a part of those meetings. Scott Lucas, ask if City Staff has Neighborhood Association contacts. Ana Lopez, we maintain a list that gets updated at the end of each year. As of right now the list is currently up-to-date. Bumgarner, WFD normally attend Neighborhood Association meetings but we have not attended any sense COVID. If there is any virtual one’s going on, let us know and we'll be happy to attend. Ana Lopez, Yeah, of course. We'll try to get that updated as soon as possible. City Staff is also working on the District Advisory Board meeting calendar for 2021, including the District 6 Coffee dates. Scott Lucas, comments that the Neighborhood Association he attends has not met since COVID. Back to Officer Chrisman’s question, I can just tell you my own personal experience. I live across the street from Columbine Park and there was some shady stuff going on. I reached out to Officer Johnson and got a really quick response the day I reached out. He walked me through best actions and the best actions for what I had was whenever I saw anything somewhat shady to just call 911 . The shakiness has stopped so no more weird cars at weird hours. I would just encourage anybody to reach out to their CPO by email. Officer Chris Chrisman, you can email your community policing officer, but 911 is probably the best resource. Officer Weiner and I get a report every morning on any case that's made in our Beats. Ana Lopez, we have comments on our Live Facebook feed, and they're wanting to thank you Officers for your service. Officer K. Weidner, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Officer Chris Chrisman, thank you. We appreciate it. Recommended Action: Receive and file. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • DAB 6 • October 5, 2020 • Minutes • Page 4  Board Agenda 7. Updates, Issues, and Reports Reports from Council Member Cindy Claycomb and the DAB on any activities, events, resources, issues, or concerns in the neighborhoods, council district, and/or city. WPD encourages residents not leaving valuables in their cars. Ana Lopez, October is also known as Walktober, and Bike Walk Wichita would like Wichita residents to join them as they step out this month in celebration of Walktober. Walks exploring Wichita's parks, murals & neighborhoods are scheduled for Wednesday evenings & Saturday mornings. Find a list of walks at: www.BikeWalkWichita.org/walktober. Additional walks are being added regularly. In addition, you can add your own walk to the calendar! The activity of walking is truly the easiest activity that can be done to improve a person’s health. It decreases the rate of obesity…diabetes…heart disease…osteoporosis…and depression. These benefits can be seen by walking just 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week. Whether you walk alone or in a group, LET’S GET WALKING! Angela Martinez, shared that the NorthEnd Historical Society has requested use of Nomar. Recommended Action: Receive and file. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 p.m. The next District 6 Advisory Board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., Monday, November 2, 2020 virtually. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Guests Libby Eaton Amy Draut Aimee Chuck Graber Nancy B. And Facebook Live viewers • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Respectfully submitted, Ana Lopez, Community Services Representative, District 6 DAB 6 • October 5, 2020 • Minutes • Page 5