January 2005

SUMMIT MEETING NOTES

January 13, 2005

Corrected February, 2005

Location: The Rock Coffee House on Hamilton Ave

ACTION ITEMS

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

ATTENDEES: (See Abbreviation Key)

 ABSENT:

CH Library
Aiken HS
Pleasant Hills Elementary
CCHMC

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

College Hill Housing

Hamilton/North Bend Update

NRSA Update

Surveillance Camera Update

Streetscape 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.   Carol Lyon did not commit to send out previous Summit Mission/Vision Statement, and suggested it might have been Karen who agreed to do this.  Tom Jackson indicated he probably had the document if no one else did.  Ron will work with Jim Cell to get the corrected minutes posted on the website.

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

(A) Current Summit Mission/Vision Statement – No one at the meeting had a copy.  Ron/Valerie will follow up to obtain a copy of this and have it for the next Summit meeting.

(B)            Expectation of Churches – This will be an item on the Feb agenda for the Summit meeting.  The Ministerium is doing monthly walk-thru’s of the neighborhood, and are very interested in what the other College Hill organizations might expect or want of them.

(C) NRSA Priorities – the NRSA group (Marty, Phyllis, Beth, Karen H, Karen D, Carol, Nathl, and Tom J) met on Jan 4 and set priorities grouped under two different funds:

·        There will be a request from CRFD (Community Redevelopment Focus District).  In order of priority, the requests will be for:

$85,000 for Director of Development

$50,000 for Masonic Eastern Star site predevelopment costs

$50,000 for CitiRama site predevelopment (TBD, possibly the old St. Richard’s site)

$50,000 for Neighborhood Business District housing infill predevelopment (location TBD, possibly

              the old A&S Wholesale site)

·        The following request will be made from CDBG (Community Development Block Grant).

$550,000 for Shuler property

$  25,000 for clean up program, incl youth ambassador program

$  25,000 for code enforcement program

$  25,000 for COP outreach and equipment

An update report will be made by Marty at the next Summit meeting.

(D)            Website Update –  Marty talked to John Cell about ongoing updates to the calendar on collegehill.info.  John just got a new job, and shouldn’t be as crunched as before.  But Marty strongly advised everyone to give John at least two weeks advance notice on postings.   Marty also shared that John is not particularly enthusiastic about the idea of transferring domain ownership.  Forum currently owns two other addresses: CollegeHillOhio.org and CollegeHillUS.com.

Pam informed us that John’s webmaster email address is not working, and that community calendar postings should be sent to his new email address, jc@johncell.net, with “calendar item” in the heading line.   All other items can be sent to her.   She requested that we not send “Word” documents, but use Text or HTML format instead.  She recommended that in the future if the domain name is transferred, that it be transferred to a person instead of an organization, and suggestions someone like Karen Hartman, a small business owner in College Hill.

Pam wants to present a comprehensive communications plan to the community within the next couple of months which will include media, not just the website.   She is waiting on the logo/image work that Marty is doing in order to do the creative work in her plan.   Marty will coordinate a meeting to review the design work previously done by McAuley High School students for the website.   Tom Strothers has set up a website for ARCH, and asked to be linked to the College Hill website. 

3.   College Hill Housing – by Phyllis Schoenberger

Last fall, housing was requested to be on a Summit meeting agenda, and Ron asked for more background information in order to understand the concerns/questions/issues involved with the topic.  Phyllis gave the following brief background on this topic:

Forum previously had a Housing Committee, which has since died.  CHCURC had conducted a survey of local housing in 1998/99 with UC students.   About 4000 homes were photographed, categorized as deteriorated or not, and costs projected to repair those that were deteriorated.   Phyllis took photographs again in 2003/04 to update the study, and then the Forum Housing Committee developed and sent a letter to the homeowners of the homes in need of maintenance or repair.   They sent out about 40 letters over a 3 month period.   This did result in some homeowners making repairs, but there has been no further action since. 

Phyllis indicated that there are lingering issues.   Low income residents often need help and education on how to maintain their homes, since many of then never owned a home before.   Many Section 8 housing owners do not follow through on maintenance commitments when receiving money from governmental sources, and there have been studies which show that poorly run Section 8 housing apartments have more crime. 

Phyllis indicated that the Forum’s Housing Committee can be revived if someone can be found to chair it.  There is a Quality of Life committee which is doing some things, but cannot handle all of the housing issues.   Phyllis clarified that this would not involve purchase or rehabbing, which fall more into the vision for CHCURC.   Restarting the Forum’s Housing Committee will be on a future agenda for Forum.

A question was asked of how this connects to or even overlaps with WIN (Working In Neighborhoods).  The discussion indicated that WIN will only come in when invited, and does not feel invited into College Hill.  Fr. George will make contact with Dave Scharfenberger to invite WIN back into the neighborhood and into the Summit.

Tom Jackson also shared that there will be a meeting the week of Jan 17 in the City Manager’s office about code enforcement.   $37,000 is being requested for this.

4.      Hamilton/North Bend Update – by Marty Weldishofer

Developer submittals have been reviewed by the committee, who have recommended to the CHCURC Board that negotiations convene with the top developer selected by the committee.  The Board agreed and a first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan 18, to exchange expectations and highlight what each side brings to the project.  Linden Parks Commons Development Committee (LPC) represents the community in these negotiations.  A letter of intent will be send subsequent to this meeting.

While Marty was not at liberty to tell us who the top developer is, he did invite everyone to the Feb 8 annual meeting of CHCURC, which will include presenting the preferred developer.  It will be held at Twin Towers Gulden Center, per the following schedule:

6:00 pm      Social Time

7:00 pm      Dinner

8:00 pm      Business Meeting

5.   Surveillance Cameras – by Jim Bodmer

Overall status: The computers are up and running at Twin Towers.  The bandwidth at PNC is not sufficient, and it may be necessary to use the fiber optics at Children’s Hospital.  The camera at CHPC was not installed high enough.  About 80% of the contract has already been paid out.  The Police dept is paying for the hardware and College Hill are to pay the operating costs.

Issues: The continuing problems, especially technical problems, is causing the community deep concern about the capabilities of the supplier, City Watchers.  PNC has upgraded twice, and there are still issues.  Software exists that can enable bandwidth through signal compression, but City Watchers has not offered this and continues to work on hardware solutions. 

Next Steps:  Everyone who has a concern should go to Jim Bodmer, who is the community point person for this project.   Jim is working with Eric Franz, the point person for the city to work with City Watchers.  Pam offered to contact Eric to do some technical consultation on the issues.  Gayla will give more information on the situation at PNC to Pam.  Jim will call Eric to find out the results of his recent meeting with City Watchers.

6.   Streetscape Update – by Tom Jackson

The end of January continues to be the target date for completion, barring any further weather delays.  Brickwork is behind by about a week, and Tom continues to push the contractor.  

Beth indicated that the planters will remain in the lot under wraps until everything can be placed at once.  Litchtenberg Landscaping is the landscaping contractor, and has provided a drawing.  Final costs for plantings is being developed.   There will be 4 permanent planters and 21 movable planters.  They hope for completion by sometime in March.

Tom added that Urban Forestries will plant trees to replace any that have been cut or removed.    He also asked that the community pick a date for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony, and help plan it.  After some discussion, May 1 was suggested as a possible date, with more discussion outside of the Summit meeting required to confirm it.   New blacktop on Hamilton Ave will be done in 2006, using Federal Highway funds.

7.   Community Events – by everyone

Ø      The Martin Luther King celebration sponsored by the Ministerium will be held at CHPC on January 16 at 6:00 pm.   Everyone is invited to join the walk from the House of Joy to CHPC just beforehand.  The gospel choir for this event will have a rehearsal on Saturday morning, January 15, at the House of Joy at 10:00 am.

Ø      The community potluck will be at CHPC on Jan 28 from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm.  Come at any time.  Still looking for volunteers.

Ø      There will be a Fine Arts Sampler weekend at McAuley High School on Feb 12.

Ø      A committee is needed to work on the streetscape ribbon-cutting ceremony.  The city has someone who lives in College Hill to do the press releases.

Ø      A community events calendar will be sent monthly on email by the QOL committee until the website questions are resolved. 

8.      Announcements – by everyone

Ø      The CHURC annual meeting is on Feb 8 and everyone from the Summit is invited to attend.

Ø      College Hill has been invited to do a presentation at the Neighborhood Summit about the community working together.  Walnut Hills is also invited.   CHCURC will contact Forum (Elizabeth Sherwood) to coordinate.  The event will be on Feb 5, from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm at the Cintas Center.  Go to www.investinneighborhoods.com to register.  Tom Jackson will send the link to everyone.

Ø      ARCH (Arts Revival in College Hill) attended Summit for the first time at this meeting.  Dave Hawkins explained that ARCH is a spin-off of CHCURC and CHG, and has as its goal for College Hill to be known as a fine artistic community.   They are hoping to plan monthly arts events in the community, and are working toward a large community arts festival on Memorial Day weekend.   Many artistic people are moving into the College Hill neighborhood, drawn by affordable well-crafted homes.  The ARCH website is 66.49.227.132.

Next Meeting: February 10, 2005 @ 8:00 am at Llanfair.

                        Summarized by:

                        Valerie Hershberger

                        February 4, 2005               

                        Corrected Feb 10, 2005

Abbreviation Key: