In the absence of our volunteer Secretary, we thank Mike Shiflett for this month’s notes!
Partners Against Crime District 2 (PAC 2) meeting notes from September 14th, 2009
Co-chairs Bill Anderson & Cheryl Shiflett
Meeting was called to order at 6:10 and representatives from neighborhoods, City Agencies, Durham Police Department and non-profits present introduced themselves.
Website Update:
David Christie introduced the new website www.PAC2durham.org to the group and reminded everyone that it includes maps, contacts, links, resources and email connections to the PAC 2 listserve for residents to use. He asked everyone to visit the site and offer suggestions, questions to problems, and improvements to him at dchristie@nc.rr.com
ALE Volunteer opportunity:
Bill solicited those present with an opportunity for 17-18 year olds they may know to contact him in assisting Alcohol Law Enforcement with ‘sting’ operations
Community Concerns
Omar Street: Neighborhood would like some assistance with enforcing construction traffic and parking violations for a recent rezoning in the neighborhood. Referred to Capt Smith with f/u with Mr. Woodard
River forest: A home on Grassy creek has some suspicious activities on going within the neighborhood that they would like investigated. Referred to District 2 DPD
Walltown: Thefts in neighborhood seem to be on up tick particularly in the 1100 block of Onslow
Strip club on Guess Road? NIS and Zoning to investigate
Northgate Park: Round of applause from NPN for recent arrest of suspect in number of break-ins and thefts
Food Lion on Roxboro Road: Illegal Dumping with yard waste. Referred to Solid Waste Mitch Archer
Club Boulevard Magnet School: Speeders are driving by school during prohibited hours. Referred to DPD. Cheryl will follow-up for Speed Trailer. Referred to Steve Hall.
Colonial Village: Thanks to DPD for recent arrest but still concerned about recent break-ins. Referred to DPD
Stonewall Village: Another set of applause for working with neighborhood house with illegal gun and drug activity
Scarsdaile Village: Kudos to DPD
Whippoorwill Park Neighborhood: Thanks to Duke Students for helping out at recent park clean up
Northgate Park: Thanks to Duke Fraternity AEP for assisting in Stream and Park clean up on Sept 12th
Departmental Updates
Parks and Recreation: Audrey Gill and Amanda Johnson handed out most recent set of programs, events and concerts coming up (Playmore Magazine) including WolfStock on Sept 26th in Durham Central Park, Jazz and Art Jamboree on Oct 16 at CCB Plaza along with Teen nights at Edison Johnson Sept 25,Oct 9 and 23rd from 7 to 10PM.
Senior Centers at Edison Johnson and WD Hill will be closed for renovations coming in November for about six months. Preiss Steele and Holton School centers will temporarily house senior centers for these seniors.
NIS: Cynthia Mebane Watts announced Saving Your Dream foreclosure prevention workshop Sept 17th. Landlord training program is again being offered in November (TBA). Weed & Seed is in District 2 and focusing efforts on juvenile programs
Animal Control: Cindy Bailey reminded everyone that it is against the law to temporarily hold dogs or to ‘rehouse’ them. In fact, it is a felony to do so. She recommended that any lost or wandering dog be reported to Animal Control for appropriate handling of these situations and return of the dogs to their rightful owners. January 1st marks the date for warnings regarding the Chaining of Dogs with enforcement following in July of 2010. She also encouraged anyone with unused or extra fencing materials to donate them to the Coalition to Unchain Dogs (not chicken wire). Contact www.animalrescue.net for more information
Solid Waste: Donald Long unable to attend, Mitch Archer reported. He reminded everyone that when a Holiday falls on a Monday (Memorial Day/Labor Day) that the collection schedule will be Tuesday-Friday or one day after your ‘usual’ collection day. There is an ‘exemption list’ that elderly and handicapped can sign up for. If someone was on it before they should be still on it. Contact Mitch for conditions for acceptance or questions, problems. He reported that there are still Yard Waste stickers going out to those that have subscribed to this service (annual fee). Old blue recycling bins are not to be filled and left at the curb for pick up, but residents can either use them privately inside their homes for recycling or they can place them in the new larger blue recycling carts for disposal (recycled).
Yard Waste customers can place up to 5 acceptable (not plastic) leaf bags out each week with their regular Yard Waste bin (Brown) for pick-up. Yard Waste is usually picked up the day following your regularly scheduled Solid Waste (Green) cart pick up day.
Presentations
Crime Cabinet Update:
Newman Aguiar/Barker French/Reyn Bowman panel discussion. Crime Cabinet meets the 2ndFriday of every other month (July, Sept, Nov/Jan, etc) and is open to the public. It is chaired by Howard Clement of City Council and Ellen Reckhow of County Commissioners but includes representation from not only the Police and Sheriffs Departments, but judges, parole, DCVB, Chamber of Commerce, PACS, DBAC, Project Safe Neighborhoods, etc. Advocates for crime fighting and quality of life issues in Durham collating resources, studies and funding to reform or support successful programs/events/depts.
Some interesting statistics were stated during this panel discussion including: 3 out of 5 jobs inDurham County are filled by non-Durham county residents. 10 year trend for crime is down compared to 10 other similar southeastern cities in the US. Durham is average or lower in this comparison along with another 27 cities of similar make up across the US. 14-18 years olds are responsible for a majority of criminal activities with a high incidence between the hours of 7AM to 3PM (school hours). Barker and the other two recognized the Durham Delegation to the NC Legislature for their assistance and diligence in getting recent funding and resources for our judicial system in Durham. While it is never enough it was remarkable that they were able to do so under these difficult economic times
Neighborhood Watch
Brief presentation by Officer Steve Hall: Block Watch Workshop coming up in February (date TBA). Requirements include getting neighbors to commit to attend a minimum of meetings. Rewards are many that not only including making your neighborhood safe but also recognize this achievement with NW signs.
David Harris suggested use of future PAC 2 funds to help facilitate purchase of additional signs. Officer Hall’s phone number is 560-4404 and his supervisor is Sgt. Gibbons.
Meeting adjourned at 9:20