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Permalink Reply by Adam McFadden on October 21, 2010 at 3:27pm

19th Ward Community Association

Delegates Meeting
Minutes – 9/18/03

Welcome / Introductions

465 Post Ave
This property is again being solicited for corner store status by someone who has previously been affiliated with that property and has a poor reputation as a property owner. A motion was made by Barbara Sullivan to write a letter on behalf of the 19th WCA to oppose the release of this property at this time; seconded by Eleanor Coleman; motion passed

Brooks Landing – John Borek
The decision to approve the building of the proposed hotel was delayed due to a park land issue but it was noted that over the last century it has been a site for 5 other hotels. As a result, there will be an announcement at the October 21st City Council meeting approving the project and its funding streams with a formal announcement to the public on 10/22. Construction is slated to begin in the spring.

Coffee Shop – John Borek
John reported that the 953-957 Genesee Street property (also known as “The Borek” or the old Carr Pharmacy on the corner of Genesee & Brooks Landing) was condemned and taken by the City. The building will be given to the community in mid-November. It must be foreclosed first, go to the City, then to us.

John announced that he is now the President of the Sector 4 CDC in a part-time capacity. He will continue to be the Community Service Representative for the 19th Ward.

John presented a check of $3,293 from SWAN to the 19th WCA which will go toward the expenses for our annual community functions (Square Fair, Merchant’s Dinner, etc.).

John encouraged folks to view the two new facades on buildings located on Genesee Street south of Brooks on the corners of Congress and W. High Terrace. They are very upscale and have made a pleasing difference.

Regarding the Coffee Shop, John announced that the City will grant us $100,000 if we come up with $50,000. He asked that the 19th Ward donate $10,000 to begin this fundraising effort. There was some discussion on how this compares with the $10,000 grants we have previously given out with that amount covering several agencies. The Coffee Shop operation would be not-for-profit, which could lead to an opportunity to again provide grants for neighborhood development and improvement. It was also noted that Cornell students published a study they had done of that area and determined that a coffee shop would have an 85% chance of success. A motion was made by Barbara Sullivan to approve the $10,000 donation toward the Coffee Shop; seconded by Victoria Simmons; motion approved.

Chili Ave Construction Report – Barbara Sullivan
• Good reports related to the general contractors (Villager)
• Noise ordinances were granted but they are not taking advantage of them even though they’re working through the night; working mostly on water lines in commercial areas, which really can’t be done during the day; no jack hammers; no complaints to date
• October 2004 completion date still stands
• Pavement work will start in March
• For the winter, the roads will receive a skim coating so that plowing and driving will be possible; catch basins for drainage.
• Temporary electrical wiring will be established; complaints should go to the City or the contractor.
• The next 19th Ward newsletter will have Barbara’s updates on the Chili Ave Project
• Barbara added that she is very impressed with Villager; they are well prepared and clean up after themselves at night; very few complaints
• Good news: one of the two rehabilitated homes for sale on Chili has a purchase offer on it.

NET
• The NET office is looking for a temporary location; one of those locations could be Bullshead Plaza. John reported that the City is now considering Dave Etzel’s earlier offer to build a new building that would house his business and have the needed room for a NET office. This location would be on the two vacant lots across from Dave’s current sporting goods store on Genesee St. It was also noted that there Thurston Road was considered for the permanent and temporary location, but there just isn’t any property that can accommodate the needed 3,000 sq.ft.
• Earl distributed information on how to apply for lead abatement grants offered by the City to both homeowners and renters; Eleanor noted that SWAN and the Building Blocks program will be focusing on the lead poisoning issue; they currently have students working in a group to research lead poisoning.
• Attorneys working with the NET office are trying to close the property at 565 Chili (near the corner of Chili/Thurston; balcony), which has one of the highest calls for service and drug arrests.
• There is a concern about the open drug market in the area of Gardiner, Salina, and Chili
• There have been many complaints about Arnett, Rugby, and Woodbine related to parking, loitering, and drug activity.
• Barbara noted that there is a property at the corner of Ardmore & Chili that is partially boarded up and has broken glass & high grass; she asked that Earl investigate this property.
• Rosemary asked about the property at 311 Congress; no word yet.
• Pat Steele spoke with Snuffy and his wife and confirmed with Joyce who works at the Thurston Rd. Post Office that she is trying to purchase this property.
• There was some discussion on building fences and Earl noted that you need a permit for building a fence as well as making changes to an existing fence.

Treasurer’s Report
Steve handed out a 2003 Year-to-date Income Statement through August 31, 2003. Overall, expenses are in line. We have a $2,539 shortfall in donations, but the United Way should help with the shortfall when that money comes in, which would actually take us over our goal. Rent & utilities are higher than expected due to a bad winter. A deficit in insurance was due to timing.

Crime Prevention Committee – Tim Driscoll
No report for this month though they will be meeting with the new CPO. There will be a report next month.

Candidates Night
A Candidate’s Night is scheduled for Tuesday, 10/28, at the Presbyterian Home at 7:00 p.m. Adam would like to see us really get the word out and to make sure we invite all School Board candidates.

House Tour
Has been cancelled; not enough homes that would commit.

Garden Tour
Marion Boutet from Melrose is excited about hosting the Garden Tour which will be held on the 2nd Saturday of June (after the weekend of the Square Fair). Eleanor noted that School #29 specifically moved their Health Fair for us from the 1st Saturday in June to the 2nd Saturday in June and expressed concern about then holding an event on the same day. It was suggested that the Health Fair actually be on the Garden Tour and it could feature medicinal plants and herbs. It would also give the Community Center and Madison a chance to showcase their “Good Grief Garden” on the McCree Way side, which is an extension of the Grief Groups run by the Madison Wellness Center and links life situations and values to plant life (forgiveness, life and death, getting rid of negative things in your life/weeds while they are small and more easily removed, etc.).

Barbara Sullivan suggested a “Holiday House Tour” that could feature some homes that have special holiday decorations and represent the diversity of religions and spirituality of our community. The Presbyterian Home offered their bus for transportation and their facility for the final stop at which refreshments could be served. This event would need to take place in early December and will be a fundraiser.

YMCA
The YMCA Child Care program on Thurston Road has openings:
• Universal Pre-K – 10 openings; 9-11:30 a.m.; must be 4 years old before 12/1; FREE
• After-School child care – 8 openings; up to age 12; financial assistance available; vacation fun clubs when school are closed for recess

Nominating Committee
The following people were approved for participation on the Nominating Committee for new officers for the 2004 year: John Borek, Eleanor Coleman, George Radney, and Don Hanks.

Convention 2003
The Convention will be held at James Madison (200 Genesee St) on Friday, 11/21.

Complaint
Bill Dixon, a resident from Post avenue, expressed great concern over damage done to his property by City equipment used to address an issue in a neighbor’s yard. After much discussion, it was decided that this issue would be brought to the Executive Committee for review and to make a decision about further action. Earl noted that a damage complaint cannot be done because the property discussed is between the street and the sidewalk, which is considered City property.

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Permalink Reply by John Boutet on October 22, 2010 at 5:46am

I attended the SouthWest Common Council meeting last night. There was just a little bit of discussion regarding the CDC Board of Directors meeting at the end of a very full agenda that focused on crime and on the river front development plans. I also talked to two board members and one staff member of the CDC after the meeting.

The vote to waive the use restriction with the undisclosed conditions yet to be agreed to was: 10 in favor, 1 opposed (Bill Sullivan representing the 19th WCA), and one abstention (Colleen McCarthy representing the U of R to avoid conflict of interest questions).

From what I was told all board members read each of the letters before starting deliberations. I assume the deliberations took serious note of the community input that that was factored in to the discussion of the undisclosed conditions that the seller and buyer would need to agree to and sign.

They have not made the conditions public yet because there may be some required negotiation with Lyjha and the Rabbi to get a signed agreement with them that the CDC negotiators are in agreement with. If an agreement is not reached this deal might yet falter. CDC Board members and staff I talked to at the Common Council meeting could not say anything about the conditions. Once conditions are agreed to by the buyer and seller the deal goes back to the CDC Executive Committee which is a subset of the Board if I understand correctly and they have to give their OK if they are happy with the final deal.

Near the end of the Common Council meeting, while discussing the Boulder issue, it was suggested that this whole coffee house project history be written up in detail and used in seminars as a case study to try to make future projects less contentious and more transparent to the community. A lot of people agreed this would be a good thing to do.

After the meeting Eleanor Coleman and I talked and agreed it would be helpful for transparency's sake to set up a way to have the CDC reports and Common Council minutes posted on Location19. It would also probably be useful if someone who understands it all could diagram the interrelations and structures of the various organizations and list who the players are.

That is as much as I know right now. Hopefully Eleanor or someone in the CDC can provide a clearer picture of of where things stand in the next day or two.

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on October 22, 2010 at 8:00am

thanks for the update John. A detailed case study write up would be interesting and would require that a number of key people work TOGETHER on creating it otherwise it will be just one version of what happened.
I watched all of the youtube clips from the meeting that was held 2 weeks ago- it was really clear that there are a number of different perspectives on what happened in the past, what was agreed to, how money was intended to be used, etc.
Many relationships in our community are completely fractured right now..... we might not be killing one another with guns and knives but it almost feels like we have our own version of gangs! I hope that we can keep communication flowing and that we can get UNITED about some common issues.

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Permalink Reply by John Boutet on October 23, 2010 at 4:34am

Note that to promote transparency the SouthWest Common Council and CDC will start posting their reports and minutes in the new Discussion I have started: Sector 4 SouthWest Common Council and CDC Minutes and Reports http://www.location19.org/forum/topics/sector-4-southwest-common

We will try to post all document as HTML files when possible to try to make it easy to scan through the list to find specific minutes of reports. We will try to post them in chronological order.

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on October 25, 2010 at 7:35am

Margy, the first bullet has been answered. But I too am wondering how long before we know the rest of the details of the decision and why the CDC felt THEIR decision was best for this community of 35,000 + residents. It was their decision (best for the community) to sell Urban Brew that got us to this predicament. And too, just like this last decision was done behind closed doors w/o community input. The deal had already been cut before the meeting on October 11. There are only a handful of us left that attended the first Sector meeting at Brown's Race so long ago and I can say, the focus and mode of operation has changed tremendously. Seems a monopoly of power now exists for what ever monetary gains reason. My feelings only, but I'm sticking to 'em!!

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on February 1, 2014 at 4:08pm

This is an OLD thread BUT.... were the "conditions" of the Boulder sale to the Rabbi ever made public?? Seems that we need to know that information NOW given that the Boulder owner is AGAIN selling the business. I am not sure that the CDC reports (listed above in John's post) ever made their way to this site.

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