INC NEWS - April meeting minutes -- DRAFT

[pat carstensen]

Inter-Neighborhood Council
Making Better Neighborhoods
www.durhaminc.org
Minutes of Meeting of April 26, 2005

REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT
Ronnie Griffin	Garrett Farms
Melissa Rooney	Fairfield
Lugenia Mason	River Forest
Anne Guyton	Colonial Village
Valerie Huber	Nancy Rhodes Creek NA
Leah Oettinger	Hope Valley Farms North
Diana Peronis	The Mews Apartments
Ann R. Prospero	Valley Run
Josh Parker	Trinity Park
Leslie Laufer	Colony Park
Don Stauffacher	Marquis-Pierre
Bill Anderson	Duke Park
Michael Shiflett	Northgate Park
Cheryl Sweeney	NPNA
Barry Ragin 	Duke Park
Ed Brinson	City of Durham
Alan DeLisle	City of Durham
Dick Mentock	Hope Valley Farms
Ronnie Griffin	Garrett Farms
Barker French	Durham Roundtable
Nancy Cox	Durham Public Education Network
Sam Cravotta	City of Durham
Tommy Clayton	Homestead Hights
Helena Cragg	Old North Durham
Deb Christie	Colony Hill / Piney Mtn
Marguerite Ward	Rockwood
Judy Kincaid	Duke Forest
Caleb Southern	Downtown
Fred Foster, Jr.	Old Farm
Kristina Sigmon	Colony Park
Randy Pickle	Forest Hills
Pat Carstensen	Cross County

Introductions – President Bill Anderson opened the meeting.  Members 
introduced themselves.  Thanks to Anne Guyton for bringing agendas.

Court Effectiveness in Durham – Barker French gave an update on the 
Roundtable’s Committee on Crime.  They have identified a few places where 
more money would make a big decrease in crime: prosecutors to cut down on 
plea bargaining, jobs for at-risk kids, etc.  Go to www.durhamroundtable.org 
to learn more and to support crime reduction.

Multi-Modal Transportation Center – Alan DeLisle and Sam Cravotta gave an 
overview of the Durham Center, which serve three bus systems (DATA, TTA and 
Trailways) as well as other local transportation.  They have pulled it to 
the Heart of Durham site to link with other transportation stations (Amtrack 
and TTA) and are working on making connection to things like the ball park 
and performing arts center work.  The building is 14700 sq ft, with about 
4000 sq ft for restaurants, news-stand, etc.  It is passive solar with low-e 
glass, angles on the roof-lines, and so on.  The one question is whether 1 
elevator will be enough for people changing levels to get up to the 
restaurants and the connection to TTA and an escalator would give the 
building more WOW.

Letter on East End Connector – We approved the letter to NC-DOT.  See 
Attachment A.

Fire Station Needs – Ed Brinson of Durham Fire-Rescue gave a presentation on 
the need for new fire stations.  They have a target of getting to fire in 5 
minutes with enough people to have 2 in the building and 2 outside; after 5 
minutes, fires tend to grow quickly from the room where they start to 
burning up whole buildings.  Because of traffic, they can take twice as long 
as the target to get to some points of the city.  It would take about 4.2 
million dollars to add fire stations in Treyburn and East Durham; this money 
is not currently in the Capital Improvement Plan.  When asked about fire 
stations for annexed areas in Southeast Durham, Mr. Brinson said they are 
acceptably served by the Parkwood Fire Department.  There may be a specific 
resolution at the next INC meeting, but in the meantime, neighborhoods are 
asked to support requests to add the fire stations to the CIP.

CIP – Mike Woodard reported on what is going on with the Capital Improvement 
Plan.  The citizens’ committee has voted to support an $80M bond referendum, 
mostly to deal with problems created by too much deferred maintenance.  A 
subcommittee is coming up with the final detailed list of line items that 
the $80M will pay for.  The best guess is that a tax increase would be 
needed to cover $20M of the $80M.  The committee also believes there should 
be an on-going citizen oversight committee to check and report on progress.  
Some of the money could be spent almost immediately since the design work 
has already been done;  other items could take 8 years to get all the 
details worked out.  Several people said that citizens are in the mood to 
vote down something that has a few line items they don’t like (as opposed to 
voting for something they mostly like) so posing the bond referendum as a 
single $80M package may not be a good idea.  We should also be clear about 
what happens if the cost of steel and concrete continues to rise rapidly.

Other Items
1. .As of 4/12/05 we have $1176.11 in checking, $2224.65 in savings;  this 
does not reflect $75 deposited on April 26.
2. We appointed Barry Ragin as the INC representative to a group looking at 
inventory of pedestrian amenities.
3. Randy Pickle reported lots of trash got cleaned up during Earth Day 
events.  He had talked to Diane Catotti about the solid waste problems and 
she said changes are coming.


The meeting was adjourned.


Mr. Lyndo Tippett
North Carolina Secretary of Transportation


Secretary Tippett,

I am writing on behalf of the Inter-Neighborhood Council (INC) of Durham, 
which represents 33 neighborhood and homeowners associations. We wish to 
reiterate our strong support of the Durham East End Connector highway 
project (U-71), which we endorsed by unanimous resolution in July 2002.

INC joins a broad-based community consensus in Durham in supporting the 
Connector as a top priority, including Durham City Council, the Durham Board 
of County Commissioners, the Durham delegation to the N.C. General Assembly, 
the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO, the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, 
hundreds of individual citizens, and business and environmental interests 
alike.

We view N.C. DOT as a partner rather than an adversary and see this issue as 
a way to show the entire state how neighborhoods and N.C. DOT can work 
together effectively.

Your department has the unique opportunity to build goodwill and public 
trust in Durham by funding and building the East End Connector. When was the 
last time you can remember neighborhood interests actively supporting a new 
highway, rather than speaking out in opposition?

We realize that there are funding issues for projects across the state, but 
given the broad community support and the length of time this project has 
been on the books; it needs to be prioritized

The East End Connector is eligible for money from the state Highway Trust 
Fund, which is immune to N.C. DOT’s "equity formula". The Connector was 
originally planned in 1959, earning it the dubious distinction of being the 
oldest highway project in the entire state that has not yet been built.

In the previous state Transportation Improvement Program, the Connector was 
scheduled, at long last, to begin construction in 2010. However, in the new 
draft 2006-2012 T.I.P, construction of this road has once again been delayed 
indefinitely.

On behalf of Durham INC, I strongly urge you to make the East End Connector 
a priority for N.C. DOT, and to restore construction funding for no later 
than 2010.


Sincerely yours,


Bill Anderson
President, Durham Inter-Neighborhood Council

Cc:
Governor Mike Easley
Durham delegation to the N.C. General Assembly
North Carolina Board of Transportation
Ken Spaulding, N.C. Board of Transportation, Division 5
Durham Board of County Commissioners
Durham City Council
Calvin Leggett, NCDOT
Mark Ahrendsen, Durham DOT