INC NEWS - INC DRAFT minutes -- November

[pat carstensen]

Inter-Neighborhood Council
www.DurhamINC.org
Minutes of Meeting of November 28, 2006

REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT
David Harris	Old Farm
Annette Smith	Durham Parks and Recreation
Kendra Meadows	Glendale Heights Neighborhood
Janet Hitti	Parkwood
Rosemarie Kitchin	Falconbridge
Constance Stancil	Neighborhood Improvement Services
Randy Pickle	Forest Hills
Risa Foster	Trinity Heights
Emily Weinstein	EANG – Solterra
Melissa Rooney	Fairfield
Brianne Dopart	Herald Sun
Bill Anderson	Duke Park
Michael Shiflett	Northgate Park NA
Cheryl Shiflett	Northgate Park NA
Bobbe Deason	Morehead Hills NA
Marguerite Ward
Craigie Sanders	Grove Park
Pat Carstensen	Cross County
Ken Gasch	Colonial Village
Carrie Mowry	Old North Durham
Leslie Frost	Old North Durham
Myers Sugg	Tuscaloosa Lakewood

Introductions – President David Harris opened the meeting.  Members 
introduced themselves.

Neighborhood Improvement Services – Constance Stancil gave an overview of 
the department, which includes Code Enforcement, the Community Relations 
coordinators, and the Impact Team.  The department’s mission is to ensure 
all residents have access to quality housing.  They are tightening 
procedures so problems don’t drag on and on.  They are training 
neighborhoods and other groups on what is a code violation and creating a 
manual to help us understand what is a violation.  They are proactively 
developing an inspection program and would like neighborhoods to participate 
in planning this program.  Getting through all rental units will take about 
5 years and some resources.  They are also being more aggressive on 
boarded-up / abandoned buildings.  NE Central Durham has over 400 abandoned 
houses.  There is a 1-year rule on leaving houses boarded up, but it needs 
to be enforced; they are also looking at examples where owners have interim 
deadlines, like having 3 months to develop a plan.  They are working with 
Historical Preservation on abandoned housing.

Durham Police Department’s Future Facilities – Our current set of facilities 
came about pretty much by what was simplest at the time.  So there are 
problems like having a space heater and a fan for each desk at police 
headquarters.  There is $9M deferred maintenance at the headquarters.  
Leasing space for substations and other functions is also expensive, both in 
rent and improvements we make in space we don’t own, so we want to look at 
getting out of leases over the next 5-7 years.  Thus it is time to start 
thinking seriously about a long-range plan.  Concurrently, we need to look 
at how resources are deployed in order to get back to “beat integrity” so 
that the person answering a call is most likely to answer the call is 
someone who knows problems and has some ownership.  With technology, 
officers work more and more out of their cars than a substation.  So the 
current plan would be to sell the site of the current headquarters, build a 
new headquarters in central location, and have 2 substations (one NE and one 
SW).  This will be a long process, and they are looking for neighborhoods to 
help think this through.

Other Items
1. We approved the October minutes.  We have $407.66 in checking and 
$2228.18 in savings.  Dues will be due in January and notices will be sent 
in December.  We will also be reaching out to try to get new members.
2. Parks and Rec – The signage plan will likely have first meeting for 
community input in January.  There was a good meeting on a skate park.  The 
Senior Holiday Party is sold out.  The director’s position has been posted.
3. If you want to participate in INC entry in the Holiday parade, contact 
Ken Gasch.  He will post details to the list-serve.

The meeting was adjourned.

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