INC NEWS - June minutes -- DRAFT

[pat carstensen]

Inter-Neighborhood Council
Making Better Neighborhoods
www.durhaminc.org
Minutes of Meeting of June 28, 2005

REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT
Jane Clunie	Placid Valley
Fred Foster, Jr.	Old Farm
Anne Guyton	Colonial Village
Bobbe Deason	Morehead Hill
Ken Gasch	Colonial Village
David Harris	Old Farm
Jay Reinstein	City of Durham, Solid Waste
Randy Smith	City of Durham, Solid Waste Department
Stacey Poston	City of Durham, Solid Waste Department
Don Stauffacher	Marquis Pierre
Jessica Eustice	Duke Park
Dick Mentock	Hope Valley Farms
Bill Anderson	Duke Park
Michael Shiflett	Northgate Park
Cheryl Shiflett	NPNA
Rosemarie Kitchin	Falconbridge
Anne Blythe	News & Observer
Mike Woodard	WHHNA
Bob Ashley	At-large
Charlotte Woods	Rockwood
Mitchell Archer	City of Durham
Marguerite Ward	Rockwood
Nancy Grandjean	Northgate Park
Randy Pickle	Forest Hills
Patrick Harkin	US Postal Service
Pat Carstensen	Cross County

Introductions – President Bill Anderson opened the meeting.  Members 
introduced themselves.  Thanks to Anne Guyton for bringing agendas.  Anyone 
interested in helping with calls to remind members about meetings should 
call Bill.

Mail Boxes and Delivery – Patrick Harkin, the Acting Postmaster for Durham, 
spoke. Door to door delivery costs about $147-$180 / year, compared to 
$60-70 for curb-side and less than $40 for centralized (locked boxes for 6 
of more houses).  Since the Postal Service became a quasi-governmental 
entity in 1971, postage costs have risen slightly less than inflation, 
thanks to the use of technology.  Because of the high cost of door-to-door 
delivery, it will probably be discontinues in 3-5 years, except for cases 
where getting to the curb is a hardship.  As people move into neighborhoods 
with door-to-door delivery, they are told to get a curb-side box (or should 
be told to do so); delivery goes to curb-side first.  There was a lot of 
concern from delegates about ugliness and insecurity of curb-side boxes, 
plus some streets have almost no space between the street and the sidewalk.  
On another subject, the Postal Service is aware there are ridiculous things 
like elected officials from one town having addresses for a different town;  
"address support" is developing long-range plans to address this issue.

Solid Waste – Randy Smith of Solid Waste gave an overview of Wed. free bulky 
item collection, which will begin in August.  People who want to get rid of 
up to 5 bulky items (such as old water heaters) can call Durham One Call 
(560-1200) to get on the schedule.  They ask that you give them 24-hour 
notice if you need to re-schedule so others can use your slot.  Once they 
get more knuckle-boom trucks, they will expand the program.  Mr. Smith’s 
contact info: (919) –560 – 4186 (x240), randy.smith at durhamnc.gov.

There was also a discussion on changes to ordinances to make it easier to 
collect fines from people who leave illegal trash.  We will talk about this 
at a later meeting.

Other Items
1. Barry Ragin of Duke Park is our representative on Durham’s Pedestrian 
Study Stakeholders’ Committee.  There will be open houses / workshops in 
July.  Barry set up an e-mail account to receive INC comments: 
durhampedstudy at yahoo.com.   Barry’s full message is in Attachment A.
2. The Library is having a ground breaking of the Northern Regional Library. 
  Also there are events in October around the Durham Reads Together book, 
The Color of Water.
3. Pat Carstensen gave a quick presentation on the Unified Development 
Ordinance.  She will put information on the list-serve.
4. The Nominating Committee will include Mike Shiflett, John Dagenhart, Bill 
Anderson, and Randy Pickle.
5. We will have meetings in July and August..
6. As of 6/13/05 we have $1290.11 in checking, $2225.03 in savings.  The 
treasurer’s report was accepted.
7. The ad for the Neighborhood Hero Awards was in the paper Tuesday.  Get in 
your applications.  David Harris, Mike Shiflett, Bill Anderson, and Nancy 
Grandjean will be the committee for the event.
8. Mike Woodard gave an update on the Capital Improvement Plan and bond 
referendum. We will ask senior city staff to come to July meeting to talk 
about the bond referendum.  We will also vote on a resolution supporting 
having a continuing citizen oversight committee.
9. Charlotte Woods asked people to sign the petition on the electing the 
school board.
10. Fred Foster, Jr. is now Race Relations Director for PA.  He has a survey 
on conditions in Durham, so they can plan workshops around real issues and 
solutions to racial relations in Durham.  See 
http://www.durhampa.org/Bridging.html.


The meeting was adjourned.

For those who are interested, there will be five public workshops held in 
mid-July that you are all welcome to attend.  We’d love your help in 
spreading the word about these workshops, where the public-at-large will be 
given the opportunity to learn about the Plan, take surveys on local walking 
conditions and give feedback on Durham’s pedestrian-related policies and 
infrastructure.  These ‘drop-in’ style workshops will be held on the 
following dates in the five Partners Against Crime (PAC) districts of the 
City.  Presentations will be given at the top of each hour (i.e. 5pm, 6pm, 
7pm).

Tuesday, July 12: 5-8pm @ Eastway Elementary, Cafeteria (PAC District 1)

Wednesday, July 13: 5-8pm @ Durham City Hall, Council Chambers (Central PAC 
District)

Thursday, July 14: 5-8pm @ E.K. Powe Elementary, Cafeteria (PAC District 2)

Wednesday, July 20: 5-8pm @ C.C. Spalding Elementary, Cafeteria (PAC 
District 4)

Thursday, July 21: 5-8pm @ Southwest Elementary, Cafeteria (PAC District 3)

It is not necessary to attend the workshop being held in your PAC District. 
The information presented will be the same, and your input is welcome 
regardless of where you live. So if you have a conflict with the date listed 
for your PAC, feel free to attend a workshop at your convenience.

==========================

I have also set up an email address for you to submit suggestions for 
intersections, corswalks, sidewalks, or other places where pedestrian 
facilities may need to be installed or upgraded.

The email is durhampedstudy at yahoo.com

I will not be replying to any emails sent to this address. I will be 
gathering up all of the suggestions and making sure that the consultants and 
the stakeholders committee is aware of all locations suggested by INC 
members.