SUMMIT MEETING NOTES

March 9, 2006

 Location: McAuley High School

 ACTION ITEMS

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

ATTENDEES: (See Abbreviation Key)

 ABSENT:

College Hill Library
Mercy Hospital
Mt. Airy Foundation
ARCH
CH e-Newletter

AGENDA

• Welcome and Introductions

• Agenda Review & Modification

• Review of Minutes from Last Month’s Meeting

• Opening Prayer

• Special Announcements

• Review of Action Items from Last Month’s Meeting

• College Hill Gardeners

• Summit Goals Discussion

• College Hill Housing Team

• Aiken High School/Community

• City Camera Update

• Llanfair

• Gateway Project

• CPOP Update

• Community Events

• General Announcements

DISCUSSION: 

1.   Review of January 2006 Minutes
The corrected minutes for the January meeting were agreed to, with no corrections.   The minutes of the February meeting were not yet available for review.

 2.   Special Announcements

·         Fr. George shared that St. Clare school is consolidating with St. Bart.   Probably the combined school will use the facility at St. Bart because the building has a higher student capacity.   A committee will be formed to study future uses of the school building at St. Clare.

·         Mike Ruhl gave everyone a flyer for the WIN Home Buyer classes coming up in May.   They will be on Thursdays from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the First United Church of Christ.

·         Phyllis shared some of the statistics she has become aware of on home foreclosures.   The national average for states is 1%, and Ohio’s level was 3.3% in 2005.  In Ohio, Hamilton county has the higher rate of foreclosure, averaging 70-80 foreclosures per week.

·         Marty filled in for Merle to say that National City bank has set up a community bulletin board, and it is now available.  It is currently empty.

 3.   Review of Action Items from Previous Meetings

None

4.   College Hill Gardeners – by Elaine Ludwig

·         CHG’s annual plant sale will be May 6.

·         There will a College Hill Garden Tour on Saturday, June 24, from 11 am to 4 pm.   A flyer was handed out.

5.   Summit Goals Discussion

It was decided that the best starting point for this discussion would be to have each organization talk about their goals for the year, and how they could be relevant for Summit.  A brief summary of what was discussed is below:

Pleasant Hill School – It is the aspiration of Pleasant Hill and all the schools in College Hill to be “Community Learning Centers”.   They hope to foster an educational vision in the community.

CCCH – Youth are the focus of CCCH.   Young people have a diminished perception of possibilities for their lives.   CCCH wants to expand their perceptions.    CCCH also wants to focus on building character, such as in Summer Camp.

Llanfair – The community needs to thrive in order for Llanfair to thrive.   Llanfair wants to be very supportive of the community.

CHCURC – Linden Park is CHCURC’s major project for the coming year, along with the Gateway Project, New Facades in the Business District, and development of Llanfair Commons.  Needs help with Director of Development funding.

Ministerium – The Ministerium has spent some time discussing this, and have come to a point of view that the churches need to work on the moral fiber of the community.   Moral fiber is the “mortar” that holds the “bricks” of a community together. 

Forum QOL – Quality of Life is focused on various aspects of housing, crime, youth, and education.   Recent initiatives include getting involved in trying to coordinate all of the city community councils, and joining the Multi-Neighborhood Task Force.

CHBA – Redevelopment of the Business District is the primary focus.

Twin Towers – Sees itself as one of the southern anchors to College Hill.  Would like to see an increase in safety perception, reduction in crime.   Elderly folks hesitate to come to Twin Towers when they have a perception of crime/lack of safety in the community.

CPOP – The focus continues to be on crime and safety.  Specific activities include analyzing crime reports and zeroing in on areas that seem to be particularly involved, such as specific apartment buildings.

CPD – Focus is on partnership with the community.   Track/monitor crime and provide a safe environment.

There was also discussion about the need to balance focus on identifying and solving issues in College Hill with positive “marketing” of  the good things about the community.

Valerie and Ron will take the content of this discussion and bring some proposed goals back to the Summit at the next meeting.

 6.   CH Housing Update – by Carol Lyon

Paul Rudemiller came and spoke to the Housing team at their request, to share his perspectives from many years of doing rehabbing in Camp Washington.   The team found his insights very helpful:

□       Always do the outside of the house first (roof, siding, windows, paint, etc) so that the neighborhood sees an immediate change and prospective buyers are attracted to it.

□       If the home is seriously damaged inside, consider just completely gutting it inside and working with the buyer to customize it.   Most of the homes Paul’s group is doing are being approached this way.

□       Accept that this work is not profitable.   Trying too hard to make a profit results in less quality in the rehab work, which then does not sustain long term.    Focus on what is best for the community.

□       Try to find or develop a source of unrestricted funds.   Paul’s group runs Bingo in Westwood.   These fund allow you to purchase homes & properties as soon as they become available, and to spend more on each rehab.

The Housing Team has completed its survey of Cedar Ave residents, and have zeroed in on one section to begin with.   Paul toured the avenue with the team, and offered his opinion on how to approach various properties which were helpful and eye-opening.   The team is now working on the best way to be organized and how to get started with the purchase of the initial property or properties.

 7.   Aiken High School Update – by Phyllis Schoenberger and Eric Thomas

§         Aiken is now interviewing candidates for University.

§         There were a lot of donations for Aiken at the community pot luck dinner.

Eric Thomas of Aiken College & Careers (C&C) also shared the progress they are making in recruiting and nurturing students, and in improving discipline.

Þ    A survey was done to see how many 8^th graders intended to attend Aiken HS, and found that only 35 of around 2000 Cincinnati 8^th graders had this intention.   They worked on this with a marketing consultant, and have nearly tripled this number.

Þ    They are tracking male students in grades, progression, etc. since male students have historically not done as well as female students.   To support the male students, they founded a Men of Aiken club with students from Xavier University.   This includes some tutoring, but mostly it focuses on interesting activities and fosters personal connections.

Þ    They are tracking year-to-year results in discipline referrals and fighting.  Comparing the 1^st semester of 2005 with 1^st semester 2006, there has been a significant reduction of nearly 50% in both discipline referrals and in fighting.  

Þ    Last year, in all of Cincinnati schools, there were 10 incidents of finding firearms in schools.   4 of those were at Aiken C&C.   This year, so far, there have been none.

8.   City Camera – by Jim Bodmer

The City of Cincinnati is developing a plan to take over camera monitoring of all neighborhoods.   Their plan is based on the success of surveillance camera systems in other cities like Chicago.   Some key elements of this new system would include:

-          Bullet proof box housings for the cameras

-          Cameras can rotate 360 deg and have night vision

-          Noise detection and response (like gunshots)

-          24/7 coverage in a central location staffed by police personnel and trained volunteers

-          Can be mounted on utility poles

-          Can be mounted on residential streets, as long as personal privacy rights are protected

It is not clear how much of the City Watcher equipment and system can be reused, but probably not very much.   The city will need to spend $150,000 to $200,000 initially and possibly much more in technology upgrades.   The target is to approve and implement the plan later this calendar year.  Each neighborhood is responsible for their current City Watcher systems until then.

 9.   Llanfair Update – by Sheena Parton

In the last year, Llanfair and McAuley have been partnering in an “Adopt A Granddaughter” program, which has been very successful.   Llanfair recently nominated McAuley for an award from the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio because of this, and McAuley won the award.   Congratulations to McAuley! 

 10. Gateway & Façade Projects – by Carol Lyon and Marty Weldishofer

Drawings are done for the Gateway Project, and will be available on April 6, at 7 pm, at Llanfair, to give everyone an opportunity to see them.

The Façade Project has a $300,000 grant available to be matching funds for the businesses participating in this project.   Only 10 applications for the money have been received, and more businesses are being encouraged to participate.

 11. CPOP

Analysis of crime reports has indicated that a special focus on large apartment complexes (>4 units) is warranted.  CPOP meets the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesdays of each month at the CH Recreation Center.  

 12. Community Events – by Phyllis Schoenberger & Elaine Ludwig

·         Yard Sale – they don’t have a location yet for the annual CH Yard Sale.   Want to have the Sale on a Saturday in May.

·         Cook Books – there are still cookbooks for sale.

·         Rhythm Race – the Rhythm Race is Aug 18, at College Hill Presbyterian Church.

 13. Announcements – by Everyone

¨      The CHBA Annual Dinner will be April 18.   More information is coming.   There will be a speaker who will talk about what you have to do to be successful in an Urban Business District.  Contact Karen Hartman to make a reservation.

¨      The Great American Cleanup will be April 22.   Breakfast and lunch food & drink will be available.   Would like to have schools involved as much as possible.

¨      The new Parish Center at St. Clare is now under roof.

¨      WIN is turning an old school in Cumminsville into senior housing.

Next Summit Meeting:
April 13, 2006 @ 8:00 am at the College Hill Community Center.

Summarized by:
Valerie Hershberger
March 21, 2006

Revised:
March 22, 2006

Abbreviation Key: