[Durham INC] Draft of October minutes

[Pat]

In preparation to the meeting next week, here is a draft on the minutes….
















October Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of
Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

October 22, 2013

 

Attending
the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Cleveland-Holloway – Jan Martell

Colony Park – Don Lebkes

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing Creek – Dick Ford

FCUA (Falconbridge) – Rosemarie
Kitchin

Forest Hills – Donna Laws

Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias,
Rush Childs

Magnolia Place Homeowner’s
Assoc. – Darius Little

Morehead Hill Neighborhood
Association – Angel Redoble

Northgate Park – Deb Hawkins

Old North Durham – Peter Katz,
John Martin

Stage Stop – Dorothy Croom,
Dolly Fehrenbacher

Trinity Park – Philip Azar

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan
Sewell 

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller, Mike Woodard

Woodcroft – Scott Carter, Jose
Sandoval

 

 

Visitors 

Jim Wise – N & O

John Killeen – City of Durham,
NIS

Don Moffitt – City Council

Reynolds Smith – DOST

Tobin Freid – Sustainability
Office 

Dr. Stacey Wilson-Norman, DPS

Dr. Julie Spencer, DPS

 

 

 

 

 

President Scott Carter called the
meeting to order; those present introduced themselves.  There were no changes to the
agenda.   The minutes from the
August meeting were approved after Rosemarie Kitchin moved to approve, and John
Martin seconded the motion.

 

 

Dr. Stacey Wilson-Norman and Dr.
Julie Spencer of DPS gave a presentation on Common Core, the new state academic standards; these
standards are more challenging (first graders have to learn some material that
was taught in the third grade, for example), more integrated across subjects,
more concerned with higher order skills such as critical thinking and more
concretely stated to make it clearer what students and schools are accountable
for.  While Durham is making
progress on its strategic plan (the graduation rate is up 10 points, so nearly
80% are graduating in 4 years, and 81% of those are going on the some form of
higher education), we are expecting a dip in the scores when they are released
on November 7, due to the new standards; other states have seen a 30 point drop.  The speed at which the new standards
have been implemented has been challenging since teachers need to learn the
standards, create new lesson plans, and keep track of changing details all at
the same time; to make it more “interesting,” the state legislature allocated
no funds for texts, technology or professional development.  There’s more testing / evaluation /
accountability; the chart to show all the pieces takes about 10 minutes to go
through.  Students who fail tests
can go to summer school and try again, and there will be “transitional” 3rd/4th
grade classes to get those that still fail 3rd grade tests up to
speed.  For more information, http://www.dpsnc.net/programs-services/academics/new-state-standards.  In addition, the schools always need
volunteers, http://www.dpsnc.net/community/get-involved.  

 

Tobin Freid gave an update on
several programs from the Sustainability
Office, which is a joint City-County entity that was formed as a result of
the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan. 
Charge Ahead Durham is a fun,
new program that makes it easy for participants to take actions in everyday
life to help the environment, save money, and improve their overall well-being.
The program will provide actions and clear guidance on steps to take to save
energy, conserve water, reduce waste, and connect with nature. Participants
report on what they've done and get entered to win awesome prizes every week. The
program will be launching in January, but folks can sign up now at www.ChargeAheadDurham.org to get notified when the program starts.  Another program is Trees across Durham: Keeping It Shady,
which is just getting started and welcomes interested people and organizations
who want to help plan it; the program will work on getting more trees planted
and supporting the ones we have. 
If you have piles of dead pens sitting around, there are bins at the
libraries to recycle dead pens and markers and tape cores; Keep Durham
Beautiful gets 2¢ for each recycled object.  Finally Water for Trees, which lets people make a donation
for trees on their water bill, had only a one-time sign-up so they are working
on an on-line form to let folks sign up on an ongoing basis.

 

Reynolds Smith of DOST gave a
brief summary of the history of trying to get the railroad right of way for the
Duke Beltline.  For all the talk about money and the
value of PR, the reality is the Norfolk Southern isn’t going to move much until
we move on road crossing they want eliminated, which is going to cost 10’s of
millions of dollars.

 

On the cycle time for local historic districts, INC passed a resolution
last year to get planning staff time on this because taking years to do
anything is unfair; for example, new people move into the neighborhoods who
weren’t part of the original petition. 
The county’s reduction in funds for the Planning Department isn’t
helping. 

 

Feedback on the Candidates’ Forum was enthusiastic,
saying it was even better than the one for the primary.  Thanks to Don Lebkes and Dick Ford for organizing, as
well as to John Martin for moderating. 
If you want to see the forum, it is on-line at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JyvXu42VSo&feature=youtu.be 

 

  

Committee Reports: 

•       Zoning: Have met with various experts on wireless towers and learned a lot,
such as that monopoles do fall and that the industry strongly prefers an
administrative process (that is, not a legislative action by a governing body
or a quasi-judicial action of a special use permit).  The old ordinance and the proposed revision award
administrative processes to “concealed” towers, but “concealed” is hard to
achieve with the height of towers that the industry wants to build.  The committee is looking at having
administrative approval for towers far enough away from residential areas and
not too high.  The next meeting is
October 28.

•       Membership and Outreach:  See the report on the
forum above.

•       Nuisance Abatement: The goal is to collect metrics, data and case studies to show where the
process is breaking down.  See
Appendix A.

•       Traffic Enforcement
Committee: Met with deputy sheriff and are
moving toward some recommendations on organizational structure needed to deal
with the problem. 

•       Bike, Pedestrian and
Transit:  Will
meet on October 23.

•       Public Spaces and
Environmental Issues:  Working on the three goals identified.  Is preparing a report on what on what is already happening,
doing a comic book, and thinking about an event.

 

 

 

Neighborhood Reports and Other Announcements: 

·       Northgate Park invited folks to their next food truck rodeo.  

·       We need to reschedule our November meeting since it normally falls
during the week of Thanksgiving.   Based on the conference room
availability, the combined
November-December meeting for Tuesday, December 10, 7pm, in our usual
Golden Belt NIS Conference Room.   

 




Appendix A: Description of Nuisance Abatement Committee from Peter
Katz

 

The idea behind
the formation of this committee came out of an INC delegate meeting earlier
this year in which delegates signaled an interest in an array of nuisance
issues that affect neighborhoods in Durham.  Suggested topics
included:  run-down properties, noise violations, unlicensed group homes,
yard/lawn parking, stores selling alcohol, and animal related nuisances. 
It has also been suggested that this committee might serve as a forum for INC
to address the blighted Duke Beltline, an abandoned railway that circumscribes
downtown Durham.  I’m open to looking into any others that might be
suggested (as long as they are not being simultaneously studied by another INC
committee eg; speeding which is currently being addressed by the Traffic Committee). 

 

   My
particular interest in this topic, and reason for agreeing to chair the
committee, is that I and my immediate neighbors have been in the process of
addressing a specific nuisance rental property and I hope to come away from the
experience with some useful insights which can be shared with other neighbors
in Durham who might also be dealing with similar issues. 

 

   In
the initial meeting I’d like to discuss and formulate the structure and goals
of this committee.  My priors are that this committee be active for a
finite period of time and that we 1.) assemble some metrics and case studies to
get a sense of the impact and prevalence 2.) compile resources and information
to assist neighbors in Durham in addressing nuisance issues 3.) identify recommendations
on ways that existing protocols of addressing nuisance in Durham can be
improved.  Anyone is welcome to participate in this committee, you do not
need to be an active INC member or neighborhood delegate.

 

 		 	   		  
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