INC NEWS - Draft minutes

[pat carstensen]

Attached are the minutes.  As an update: Bob Ashley offered us the use of 
the Herald-Sun's community room at no charge, so we will meet there June 28. 
  There will be a map on the INC website.

Regards, pat

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Inter-Neighborhood Council
Making Better Neighborhoods
www.durhaminc.org
Minutes of Meeting of May 24, 2005

REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT
Ronnie Griffin	Garrett Farms
Melissa Rooney	Fairfield
Julie Brenman	City Manager’s Office
Bobbe Deason	Morehead Hill
Richard Mullinax	Old North Durham
David Harris	Old Farm
Vicki Schneider	Woodlake HOA
Randy Smith	Solid Waste Department
Stacey Poston	Solid Waste Department
Josh Parker	Trinity Park
Carrie Mowry	Historic Preservation Society of Durham / OND
Cora Cole-McFadden	City Council
Bill Anderson	Duke Park
Michael Shiflett	Northgate Park
Cheryl Sweeney	NPNA
Barry Ragin 	Duke Park
Karl Kehde	LandUse.org
Mike Woodard	WHHNA
Bob Ashley	At-large
Charlotte Woods	Rockwood
Tom Miller	WHHNA
Randy Pickle	Forest Hills
Pat Carstensen	Cross County

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

Smarter Land Use – Karl Kehde spoke about a new process for be more 
productive in development decisions than head-to-head conflict between 
developers and neighbors.  Neighborhood groups have the opportunity to set a 
collaborative team, create a vision of what they want, and then invite 
developers to join the team.  See www.landuse.org.

Yard Waste – Solid Waste recognizes that too much of our yard clippings and 
old appliances end up in vacant lots and on city right of way.  So far this 
year, there have by 6450 illegal set-outs (in front of house on road right 
of way) and 1006 illegal dumps (at the end of a street, for example).  This 
is costing a lot of money.  They are looking at different options, both 
immediate and longer-term.  Immediately they can do some re-arranging of 
schedules to do more.  Longer-term involves buying new equipment, hiring 
people, and doing training and will increase costs by about $1M (from 
$1.5M).  The presentation is available at 
http://www.ci.durham.nc.us/departments/solid/. Old North Durham asked that 
costs should be allocated as a tax rather than fee, to be less regressive.  
A committee was set up to work with Solid Waste on this issue.  It consists 
of Cheryl Sweeney, Josh Parker, Bobbe Deason, David Harris, and Randy 
Pickle.  They will be working with Randy Smith, the Yard Waste Supervisor;  
Mr. Smith’s contact info: (919) –560 – 4186 (x240).

Budget for Court Effectiveness in Durham – The attached resolution was 
passed.

CIP Update – Citizen Committee has recommended bond referendum, including 
what projects from the $700M list of possible capital improvements.  The 
total will be about $108M (some backed by taxes, some from fees for water 
and sewer), broken into about 8 separate bond issues.  A survey of city 
residents indicates strong support if there is no tax increase and 55-75% 
support for the various pieces even if taxes increase.  They are trying to 
be really disciplined about not promising the bonds will cover unrealistic 
number of projects.  Council has not weighed in about keeping an oversight 
committee, but we want to keep the spotlights on how the money is being 
used.


Other Items
1. Minutes as distributed were approved.
2. As of 5/13/05 we have $1376.11 in checking, $2224.83 in savings.  The 
treasurer’s report was approved.
3. St. Luke’s will be renovating so we need to move to a new location.  
Ideas on new locations were asked for.
4. A committee has been meeting.  Pat will put a note on the list-serve for 
anyone who wants to see the draft recommendations or join the deliberations.
5. Barry Ragin reports that the Pedestrian Safety Committee is organizing 
itself.
6. The Taste of Durham Festival is May 27.
7. Concerned Citizens is having a fund-raising barbecue on June 18.
8. There are two openings on Bike / Ped Commission and on Housing Appeals.


The meeting was adjourned.

Whereas

The North Carolina Senate’s budget proposal not only ignores these proposals 
but also reduces or eliminates  funding for Drug Treatment Court, Family 
Court and Dispute Settlement Centers, important tools for fighting crime, 
such as the drug court; and

Durham has an impressive list of committed individuals and groups that have 
been working to reduce crime; for example, the Durham Roundtable has 
identified a number of concrete steps that can be done to make Durham safer 
and has been rallying support to pay for these steps; and

If we do not address the crisis in our judicial system, in spite of the 
valiant efforts of our community and law enforcement, we will continue to 
lose significant ground and our neighborhoods will continue to be victimized 
by habitual criminals; and

The InterNeighborhood Council of Durham passed a resolution in January 
asking the Durham delegation to help to secure funding to add three 
permanent assistant district attorney positions, one magistrate position, 
two clerk positions, and funds to operate the Youth Treatment Court;

Therefore
We, The InterNeighborhood Council of Durham, urge Durham’s delegation in the 
North Carolina General Assembly to find ways to restore funding for the Drug 
Treatment Court, Family Court and Dispute Settlement Centers, as well as 
implement the changes we asked for earlier.