[Durham INC] Corrected November minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

November
Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

November 27, 2012

 

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Colony Park – Don Lebkes

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing Creek – Dick Ford

Duke Park – Bill Anderson, Ian
Kipp

Falconbridge Community
Association – Rosemarie Kitchin

Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman,
Mel Norton

Lochaven Hills – Nate Brown

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Magnolia Place – Darius Little

Morehead Hill – Carole King

Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins

Old Farm – Fred Foster, Jr.

Old North Durham – Peter Katz,
John Martin

Old West Durham – Eric Heidt

Trinity Park – Philip Azar

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller, Mike Woodard

Woodcroft – Scott Carter


 

Visitors 

Jim Wise – N & O

Mark Schultz – News &
Observer / The Durham News

Bob Ashley – Herald-Sun

Cynthia Harris – Housing for New
Hope

Joi Stepney – Housing for New
Hope

 

 

John Martin called the meeting to order, and delegates and
visitors introduced themselves.  Rosemarie Kitchin moved and Dick Ford seconded
that we approve the September minutes; this was passed.

 

Joi Stepney and Cynthia Harris
gave a presentation on rapid re-housing
efforts for residents of Lincoln Apartments, who are being evicted because
the facility is closing down. 
Almost all of these residents had been paying less the $500 / month (and
that rent included water); some had been living there for 38 years.  As of November 15, Housing for New Hope
and their partners had moved 5 families, which involved finding a new place to
live, finding the $1500 - $2500 in deposits and first rent to move in, getting
them physically moved, and sometimes getting furniture for the new apartment.
There are now 43 families on the list; the hope is that they will be able to do
a lot of moves next week and have a lot of families with a new and secure place
by Christmas.  Since there were 150
families originally, and some families seem to be waiting until the final
eviction notice to do anything, the list will probably grow.  Housing for New Hope will send a note
to the list-serve, suitable for cascading to neighborhoods, about their needs
in money, volunteer time (to move folks), and furniture (especially beds).

 

Bob Ashley and Mark Schultz
gave a presentation on getting neighborhood news and issues into the
newspapers.  In both cases, as the
main paper has shrunk, they are adding community papers.  With fewer reporters, they need to
allocate professional talent wisely, which means having more “reader generated
news:”

·      
Sent them leads about
developing issues – For example, the Durham News had an article on speeding in
Trinity Park, based on messages on the neighborhood list-serve.  But calling Bob or Mark about a story
would be more effective than hoping they are cruising the list-serve at the right
time.

·      
Write an article and
send pictures for neighborhood events 

·      
Write letters to the
editor or op eds

 

John passed out notices on dues, since membership goes by the
calendar year.  Please pass this
notice on to whoever does the bills for your neighborhood.

 

Nate Brown gave an update on the Parks and Recreation Master Plan.  There have been 8 community meetings plus folks can submit
comments on the questions asked at the on-line forum: http://www.liveworkplaydurham.com.  The comments seem to be about a
centralized rec center, upkeep (the last 10 year plan did a lot of catching up
on upkeep, but there are still issues), and connecting the various greenways.  The next step will be aggregating the
input and coming up with what we can do with what money we have.  

 

In terms of INC
events for 2013, there was definite interest in sponsoring a forum for
candidates for City Council in the fall. 
There was also general consensus that we should look at doing the next
Neighborhood Heroes in 2014.  There
wasn’t much interest in summit on neighborhoods since getting information from
list-serve and web has replaced a lot of the reason for this kind of event.  Depending on issues we take on, we may
want to hold an event to meet with elected officials.  There was interest in doing some kind of social event (block
party, food trucks, treasure hunt, general fun); Debra Hawkings, Ian Kipp and
John Martin said they would be on a committee to develop the idea further.

 

On speakers and
issues for 2013, we agreed that we should be getting input from our
neighborhoods and do issue selection at the February meeting.  Some issues or possible speakers
brought up at this meeting were: group homes and policies around them,
stormwater, how to do food truck round-ups, follow up on the creek restoration
in parks presentation, an update from the Superintendent of Schools, an update
on planning and especially the changes with removing discretionary powers, what
is going on with annexation and services, food security, transportation and
what is happening with new transit tax, an update from Workforce and Economic
Development and neighborhood newsletters and other communications (including
how newsletters are distributed).  

 

On a succession plan
for INC officers, we need to be working now to identify people willing to
at least think about being president in 2013 or be vice-president in 2013 with
the intention of being president in 2014. 
If you are interested, or know someone you would be willing to recruit,
please talk to John.  We will
announce the February Executive Committee meeting so anyone interested in
becoming an officer can come to that.

 

 

Announcements, reports, and miscellaneous news

·      
Peter Katz reported from Old North Durham that the
issue of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center went to City Council on the 20th
but they made no decision. 
Stormwater did do a good job of public education, but it’s too early to
tell what the final product will look like.  There will be a public meeting with PAC 2 on December 10.

·      
Debra Hawkins from Northgate Park asked if other
neighborhoods had seen state officials doing promised managing of plants or
other management along streams.  It
was suggested that Forest Hills might have information.

·      
Debra Hawkins also asked about doing more about
re-cycling in parks.  We could ask
for more funds at budget time and get this into the parks strategic plan.  Others to talk to are Keep Durham
Beautiful and Josie McNeil of Friends of West Point.

·      
Philip Azar of Trinity Park said they have a lot of
concern about speeding on Duke and Gregson Streets.

 

 

 

 		 	   		  
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