February 2005

SUMMIT MEETING NOTES

February 10, 2005

Location: Llanfair

ACTION ITEMS

The key action items as agreed to in this meeting are as follows:

ATTENDEES: (See Abbreviation Key)

 ABSENT:

CH Library
 

AGENDA

Gathering and Introductions

Agenda Review & Modification

Review of Minutes from Last Month’s Meeting

Prayer

Review of Action Items from Last Month’s Meeting

Feedback/Expectations to Churches

College Hill Housing

Hamilton/North Bend Update

NRSA Update

Streetscape Update

Surveillance Camera Update

Website Update

Community Events

Announcements

DISCUSSION:

1.   Review of Dec Minutes – by Ron Cowgill

The minutes for the Dec meeting were agreed to, with the following correction: In item # 6, Streetscape Update, the last sentence should read “Federal Highway funds” not “Federal Highway 127 funds”.  Valerie will correct the minutes before they are posted to the website.

2.   Review of Action Items from Dec Meeting – by Ron Cowgill

(A) Current Summit Mission/Vision Statement – Karen Hartman brought to the meeting copies for everyone of the most recent Summit Mission/Vision statement, which was from the February 2003 meeting of the Summit.   It reads as follows:

“To create a master plan that will make College Hill a better place to work and live.  We do this by working together as a cohesive, unified organization.”

There was a brief discussion of this mission statement, in which the following points were made:

§         The Summit is not an organization, but a “get-together” of all College Hill organizations for the purpose of sharing information.

§         This mission statement seems to be only one step.  What happens to the Summit when a “master plan” is completed?  A true mission statement is more than a step.

§         The mission of Summit is to create a shared vision [for the future of College Hill] and to make sure that vision is in front of everybody.  Everyone can keep going with their individual parts.  A Mission statement is not a plan.

§         We do set priorities in this group, which is stronger than a vision.  We need concrete steps toward the vision.

§         We need to define terms as part of our next conversation.   Mission and Vision mean different things to different people.

Several people volunteered to assist in developing a framework for a future meeting of Summit in which we work on the Mission statement: Frank McGuire, John Copenhaver, and Ken Lyon (volunteered by Carol Lyon).   Ron and Valerie will follow up and meet with these volunteers.

(B) Review of McAuley student website design – this item has not yet been done.

(C) Contact Dave Scharfenberger – this was done by Fr. George and Dave came to this Summit meeting.

(D)            Surveillance - Several people did give Jim Bodmer their comments.  He shared:

─       In a meeting with City Watchers he learned that if we provide our own internet interface, the cost would be cut about in half.

─       He is working on the ensuring that the prior commitment of “almost real time” viewing of images from the cameras will be delivered.  Currently the image is refreshed at one frame/sec which is unacceptable.  20 frames/sec would be closer to real time.

─       They are going to have a meeting with City Watchers and include all the original people involved in the project from the neighborhood and city to work out the ongoing issues.

─       The city has told City Watchers there will be no more contracts with neighborhoods in Cincinnati until the issues in the College Hill installation are straightened out.

─       Marty asked for volunteers to provide technical assistance in the discussions with City Watchers.

(E) Contact Eric Franz about City Watchers – this was done by Jim Bodmer

(F) Send email link about Neighborhood Summit – this was done by Tom Jackson

(G) Set up community ribbon-cutting planning committee – this is not yet done, but will be done by CHCURC.

(H) Get Dec Summit minutes posted on website – this was not yet done.

(I)  Provide feedback/expectations to churches – on the agenda for this meeting.

3.      Expectations to Churches – by everyone

This item was not on the action item list from the last meeting, so not everyone was prepared.   However, some people offered numerous comments.

Phyllis Schoenberger expressed the following expectations:

Ø      Churches should state what their mission is relative to College Hill.

Ø      The churches should think about and communicate what they believe they have to offer the community.

Ø      There is a large need to reach out to youth and young adults in the community.  There is a large arrest and conviction rate.   There is an issue with drugs.   Want churches to help with young people in the community, especially the black churches who can provide adult African American role models for young African Americans in the community.

Ø      Would like to see church members on the street at all times, e.g., anyone sitting down on a bench would encounter a church person nearby to talk to. 

Ø      Being on the street is especially important in the afternoon between 1:00 and 4:00 pm, as the schools are letting out.  Need adults to talk to anyone who is willing to engage in conversation.  Drug dealers are doing this.   Key areas are the corner of Llanfair and Hamilton, and the sidewalk at the Daily Mart.

Ø      Not asking the churches for money, but to build relationships and trust with people in the community.  Walk on Cedar Ave.  Young children report being harassed or bullied by older kids on the streets after school.

Ø      We need a prison ministry which reaches out to the whole family in addition to the people in jail.

Ø      Ministers should ride in a cop car once/month to see what goes on in the community.

Ø      Ministers should reach out and support local small business owners, listen to their issues with the local youth.

Ø      We need leadership from the churches in the community.

Ø      There is a big issue of disrespect shown toward all adults by many youth in the community.  There is lots of trash on the streets, which Phyllis views as symbolic of these community issues.  She goes out to rake it up or pick it up, and has to endure frequent verbal abuse for her efforts.  Some people will deliberate drop trash on the ground in front of her and taunt her.

Ø      As a final point, Phyllis clarified that she is not saying that the churches are doing nothing.  She just doesn’t see much difference in the neighborhood as a result of what the churches are doing now.

Beth McLean expressed a desire to have churches be the “mouthpiece” to the community.  Churches should share information from the Summit to their members to be aware of what is going on and to highlight opportunities for involvement. 

Rick Schroer suggested that youth could do trash pickup/community cleanup as part of their required community service hours for school. 

Carol Lyon indicated that she would be happy to send CHCURC information regularly to all the churches, but needs a list of who to send it to in each church.  She also said that CHCURC would love to have churches make monetary donations/investments in community development.

We agreed that the Ministerium should share with Summit at a future meeting what they and their churches are already doing in College Hill.  

Fr. George thanked everyone for their feedback, and expressed a point of view that the issues raised should be worked on by everybody, not just the churches.

4.   College Hill Housing – by Phyllis Schoenberger & Dave Scharfenberger

Dave Scharfenberger gave us more background on what WIN does.   WIN focuses on (a) educational counseling with people who want to buy a house, perhaps for the first time (b) working with banks to people get loans (c) helping people go through the actual purchasing process and (d) helping people finance home improvement projects.   There are people and institutions which will make “predatory” loans to inexperienced or naïve people, and WIN helps them avoid this.   WIN also tracks home foreclosures, and is concerned that there are a lot of these in the 45224 zip code.   If we know of people having trouble making their mortgage payments, they can contact WIN for help at 541-4109.  Ron offered that there is a website called “Realtytrac.com” which allows anyone to view home foreclosures by zip code.

WIN has offered a home buying class in College Hill before and would be willing to do it again, if we know of people who are interested.

Phyllis shared that they are still looking for a chairperson for the Forum Housing Committee.  She expressed that they will be very happy to work more closely with Dave (WIN).   Phyllis asked for Summit members to forward to her the names of all local realtors so the Forum Housing Committee can start to work with them.  There was a brief discussion of how there are some architectural gems in College Hill, such as Arts & Crafts bungalows and homes with stained glass windows and Rookwood tile fireplaces.   Most local realtors do not understand about these homes and don’t market them well. 

A question was asked about low interest loans and grants for small businesses.  Tom Jackson said that some are available through the city, and Carol Lyon shared that CHCURC has been working with the city. 

5.      Hamilton/North Bend Update – by Carol Lyon

Carol brought the drawings of what will be developed at the corners of Hamilton & North Bend, and Summit members were invited to view them close-up after the meeting.   Carol said that the annual CHCURC meeting went smoothly, was well attended by city and state representatives in addition to the local community, and that we could expect construction to start within a year if all goes well.   Once the developer has acquired the properties, they will put up a sign saying “Coming Soon” so that local people know that progress is being made.

6.   NRSA Update – by Marty Weldishofer

Marty outlined the revisions to the PDA agreement with the city to identify scope of work and budget to continue making progress on developmental sites.   The revisions were:

$45,000 for the Kroger site

$45,000 for the Masonic Eastern Star Home

$45,000 for the SW Corner/West North Bend to Elkton Site

$45,000 for NBD Infill Housing Site

$45,000 for College Hill Citirama Site

Marty also had exciting news to share.  $800,000 of capital monies previously allocated to Walnut Hills by the city became available because the Walnut Hills projects were able to obtain an RDBG grant.  A request was written to allocate those funds to College Hill for the purchase of the Shuler property, and this is expected to be granted in February. 

7.   Streetscape Update – by Tom Jackson

February 21 is the date for “substantial completion” of the construction.  Feb 28 may be more likely because of the weather.   After this point, there will be 60 days for finalizing and completing the punch list, which will include community input.   We are now past the surprise phase, and everyone should keep letting the city know what needs to be addressed: safety, aesthetics, etc.  The east side of the street is completely wired, and is waiting for CG&E to turn on the lights.   Tom will let Phyllis know of the date & time so that she can get the neighborhood out to see it.

8.   Website Update – by Elizabeth Sherwood & Pam Menges

Pam Menges of the Forum Communications & Technology Committee recommended that we focus on using the CollegeHillOhio.org website as our primary website.   It is an address that Forum already owns, it is customary for non-profits to use “.org” as their website address, and the “.org” type of website propagates through the internet much better than the “.info” address does.    It also has become clear that John Cell plans to develop the CollegeHill.info website for his purposes, although for now he would be willing to continue to post the community events calendar.   Forum is bringing on a professional web person to help administer the two websites owned by Forum, CollegeHillOhio.org and CollegeHillUS.com.  Karen Hartman will be the fiduciary person in charge of the websites.

Pam also offered that a local radio station, WVXU, is happy to run community service announcements.

9.   Community Events – by everyone

Ø      There will be a Fine Arts Sampler weekend at McAuley High School on Feb 12, which includes a children’s choir and a steel drum band led by Tracy Wilson.

Ø      On March 11 there will be a presentation about Margaret Garner, including a narrative and part of the opera about her.  This will be at CHPC at 7:00 pm.  There will be a dialog afterwards with facilitators, and a reception being put on by College Hill Gardeners.

Ø      On March 5 there will be a concert by Dave Hawkins and Michael Weston at McAuley High School.  Proceeds will go to help support McAuley girl students who have been invited to sing at Carnegie Hall.

Ø      March 26 will be the third of the Cabin Fever Concert Series in College Hill, to be at Twin Towers Gulden Hall. 

8.      Announcements – by everyone

Ø      ARCH is begging everyone to help make the Cabin Fever Concert Series a success.  Detailed information is available at the ARCH website, 66.49.227.132.

Ø      Please send any Community Service Opportunities for Pleasant Hills students by email to John Copenhaver.

Ø      The Pleasant Hills new elementary school will probably be completed by late summer.

Ø      Pleasant Hills is having a Black History program on Feb 25, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Ø      St. Claire Church is starting a $250,000 renovation of its school.

Ø      CH Business Association is selling raffle tickets for $5 each.  Top prize is $1000.  Drawing will be on March 14.

Ø      The March issue of the “Currents” newsletter has moved up in schedule because of the March 5 concert.

Ø      The College Hill Recreation Center is developing a community service program for teens.  This is being led by Daryl Harris, the Teen Coordinator for the Rec Center.  His phone number is 591-3555.

Next Meeting: March 10, 2005 @ 8:00 am.  Location is still to be determined, and will be sent to everyone by email when it is finalized.  Tom Haid will facilitate the meeting, since Ron will be out of the country on a mission trip.   Valerie will continue to take notes.

                        Summarized by:

                        Valerie Hershberger

                        February 18, 2005               

Abbreviation Key: