Monday, October 12, 2009
Durham Public Schools Staff Development Center
2107 Hillandale Road
Durham, NC 27704
6:00 to 8:00 p m
Facilitators:
Cheryl Shiflett
Bill Anderson
Meeting was called to order by Cheryl Shiflett at 6:05 p.m. and in the absence of Bill Anderson, David Christie was a co-facilitator.
Kudos to Mike Shiflett for the September Meeting minutes in my absence.
David Christie provided a power point demonstration of the PAC2 Website. You may access the Website at PAC2durham.org. This is an impressive Website with all the information you need to keep current with events even if you miss a meeting. The minutes of the meetings are there and you can access information by Topics. All forms required for many needs are accessible on this Website via Contact Links. There is a “Get involved” section in which you can say thanks to a Police Officer and it goes directly to the Police Department. Another form to say “Thank you” to other
Departments will be added as well COP information and forms required for their service, and updates on National Night Out.”
David has done a great job and he asks that you please contact him with any suggestions and additional information needed.
COMMUNITY CONCERNS:
Closing the Pool at Edison Johnson: Many citizens use the pool for exercise and pay dues for a year in advance. Now the pool is being closed and traveling to other sites is not an option. They are concerned about losing the money paid in advance and have heard the annual dues are going up from $100 to $400. Audrey Gill responded that due to Budget cuts, the pool will close mid-December to the end of May. A price increase has been implemented for 2010 and you should contact the Supervisor, Susan with your concerns. Audrey Gill will check on this.
ABC Permits: These are done on-line now. Harris Inc. is a beer Distributor and they had to apply for a permit. Why does a distributor have to have a permit and why do we not vote on permits as a group? Yes, a distributor does have to have a permit and this was changed to on-line because of the time constraints involved. Meetings are once-a-month and some permits expire before the next meeting. We will ask Steve Hall to address this.
Northgate Park: There was a break-in today. Have you arrested anyone? Police responded, “We picked up a suspect but there is nothing to tie him to the Break-in at this time.”
Police Dogs were called to Valley Drive recently. What was the reason and did you catch anyone? Captain Smith will investigate.
PAC2 meetings are held at Durham Public Schools Administration Building. They need a “head count” of attendees at each meeting. This was taken.
Departmental Updates:
Cynthia Mebane-Watts: Neighborhood Improvement Services
A Landlord Training Workshop will be held Saturday, Nov. 7 at Durham City Hall from 8:00 to 4:45. A registration form was attached to the PAC2 Newsletter. This is for all Landlords, property owners and property managers.
A workshop on foreclosure and prevention, “Saving Your Dream Workshop” event was held on Sept. 17, 2009 with 49 people attending. To date 402 participants have attended these Workshops and as a result Foreclosure is down by 40% from a year ago!
A “Small Developers Meeting” is in the works for Boarded up and vacant properties.
A Weed & Seed Grant is coming to look at the effects this program has had for our Juveniles
DURHAM PARKS AND RECS:
Audrey Gill reports that Edison Johnson will close in Mid-December and reopen June 1.
Some programs have been cut but there are some Senior Trips planned and a Halloween party is planned. Lucille Patterson reminds us that Teen Nite is held twice a month on Friday nights, 7:00 to 10:00 p m for teens age 13 to 17. She also reminded us of certification training for Safe Sitters. This is available for all teens between the ages of 11 & 17 and the next training session is October 26, 2009.
Whippoorwill Park will close at 10:00 p m, the lights on the Tennis courts will go out and the gate will be locked. This begins mid November.
West Point Park is looking for a Care Taker. You will live in the Mangum House, rent free, and perform basic duties. Requirements are you must be single and have no pets. Call Beth @ 471-1623, option 1 if interested.
Walltown Park: They continue to hold meetings to discuss potential recreation programs to be offered at the new Walltown Park Recreation Center. A flyer was attached with a list of dates, times and places for these meetings.
Solid Waste:
Mitch Archer reports there are still some problems with recyclables and trash pickup, but overall it is going quite well. A lot of homes in Northgate Park on Gresham Street were missed last week, but this has been resolved. A Citizen mentioned there was an attachment in her Water Bill last week about not recycling can lids and broken glass. Mr. Archer said we have a new processor now and that information is out-dated. Please do not recycle butter and yogurt containers.
Mr. Archer reports with the new recycle carts and many people recycling now, the garbage amount going into the Landfill has decreased by 55,000 tons. We are on the right track. The amount Recycled has increased from 88 to 91%. Solid Waste is struggling to keep up. They are now able to track the speed of the trucks. If a truck appears to be speeding, please call and they can track this via computer. The City is pushing forward on recycling. If these are not picked up the same day, please leave the carts out for 72 hours. It should never take that long but please leave them out. Seniors are exempt from this.
Presently we ship our garbage to Virginia and pay them for it. The less going into garbage saves the City money. Our Contract with Virginia is up in June 2010 and there is no word on a new Contractor yet. It is now a State Law to recycle most items. A plan is in place to define the person putting recyclables into their trash and these will be fined.
One person reports the lid on the Cart collecting rain water and making a mess. She was advised to call 560-4168.
Durham Animal Control
Cindy Bailey reports that on 9-24 &-25-09 a dog killed 4 cats. The dog was caught and euthanized. There was a lot of discussion on the Listserv about returning a dog to its owner and Cindy wanted to clear up any confusion about the authority of Animal Control to return animals. By State Law, Animal Control does not have the authority not to return the animal to its owner. If an animal attacks and approaches you in a dangerous manner, they will investigate.
A question was asked: Is it legal to let your cat wonder outside. Yes. There is no leash law for cats. But it can’t be a nuisance. If it is you must initiate a written complaint and the owner can be fined $50 for each complaint. Animal Control does set out 80-90 traps a week to catch unwanted cats.
Barking dogs penned outside is an issue. Call the Police non-emergency. You do have to file a complaint and show up in Court. Send an e-mail to Animal Control and they will investigate and see why the dogs are barking. The Law changes in January and dog pens must meet certain criteria.
CODE ENFORCEMENT:
Activities were reported in the Newsletter. Under Code Enforcement remediation, the owner is fined and if not paid the City takes a lien on the property. There have been a lot of foreclosures and Banks do not cut grass, so this gets a little more involved.
PROGRAMS:
A. H. (Angie) Ashby, Crime Scene Investigator with the Forensic Services Division gave a very interesting program on the work of this division.
This division of the Police Department has just moved to a new location in the District 5 Substation at 516 Riggsbee Avenue. Office hours are from 8:00 to 4:00 but they are on call 24-7. They employ 12 Technicians and 4 Investigators who supervise the Techs. CSI members do not carry weapons. (There are 4 Tech positions available at this time.)
She made us aware that while it is not as glamorous as seen on TV, their job is to gather and preserve evidence from Crime Scenes to determine what happened and possibly make an arrest.
She obtained finger prints from PAC2 members and it was interesting to see how some showed up clearly and others did not.
There is one full time Latent Investigator who investigates crimes against children on the Internet.
They have a Mobile Crime Lab that is used to process and store evidence and they make presentations at schools. DNA evidence is sent to the State Lab for analysis. Firearm processing is done in house.
Property Crime Scenes and break-ins are investigated based on priority of other calls. If you are a victim, do not disturb the scene if possible.
Phone number for this Division is 560-4432 or Angela.Ashby@durhamnc.gov.
NEIGHBORHOOD INPROVEMENT SERVICES:
Rick Hester & Darryl Hedgespeth clarified responsibilities of IMPACT Team and Solid Waste.
Garbage, Junk and Debris on Curb Side or 10 feet from Curb is Solid Waste. Anything else in the yard is Impact Team. Other duties of Impact Team are Boarded up houses and overgrown yards. Impact Team also handles removal of graffiti (unless it is too dangerous) illegal dumping and shopping carts.
If you have any questions, call Rick Hester at 560-1647 ext. 34236
Darryl Hedgespeth strongly encouraged all Communities to take advantage of ComNet. We were the 4th in the State to try it, it worked well and now we have stopped. ComNet enables neighborhoods to use easily operated hand held computers with digital cameras so that street level conditions, such as pot holes, illegal dumping, weedy lots, litter and vacant houses can be quickly captured, recorded and prioritized for action. Please take advantage of this technology to improve conditions in our communities.
Please contact Bennie Fields, Senior Code Enforcement Officer with the Department of Neighborhood Improvement Services at 560-1647, ext. 34246 Bennie.Fields@durhamnc.gov or Cynthia Mebane-Watts at 560-1647 ext. 34265 cynthia.mebane-watts@durhamnc.gov.
Cheryl Shiflett announced that next month we will learn how navigate through the Court House to observe trials in process. We were encouraged to do this, but it has proven quite confusing.
Meeting Adjourned.
Carolyn Best
Recording Secretary