SUMMIT MEETING NOTES
May 8, 2008
Location: Aiken High School

 ACTION ITEMS

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

ATTENDEES: (See Abbreviation Key)

ABSENT:

AGENDA

• Welcome and Introductions
• Host Greetings
• Agenda Review & Modification

• Review of Minutes from Last Month’s Meeting

• Opening Prayer

• Special Announcements

• Review of Action Items from Last Month’s Meeting

• CHBA Update

• CPOP/COP/CPD

• CHCURC Update

• Housing Team

• Schools

• Ministerium

• Community Activities & Announcements

DISCUSSION: 

1.   Special Announcements

§         Marty introduced Jennifer Kinnen, who replaced Tom Jackson in the city Dept of Community Development and Planning.

§         Karen handed out cards for the annual CHG Garden Tour on June 21, from 10 am to 3 pm.  Tickets are available at the College Hill Coffee Co.  300 people attended last year.

§         Karen handed out a flyer for the Mayor Mallory initiative on increasing recycling.  College Hill has a goal of 400 additional residents to begin recycling by October.  Neighborhoods will get funds from the city for new recyclers, and the neighborhood with the most new recyclers will receive additional funds.

§         The Farm Market will start May 22, in the CHPC parking lot.  Free bins for recycling will be available at the Market for residents.

2.   Review of April 2008 Minutes
The minutes for the April meeting were approved, and will be forwarded for uploading to the website.

3.   Review of Action Items from Previous Meetings

Mtg with Rep Mallory – Sheena is still waiting to hear from Rep Mallory’s office for possible dates.   She will update us as soon as she has more information.

Summit Focus Areas – Ron handed out a proposed list of focus areas, taken from last year’s list, and asked for input to it.   (See Attachment # 1)  Summit members said he should start with this list, and begin scheduling the topics as part of the ongoing Summit meetings.  

Contacting Non-Attenders – Valerie handed out a list of people who formerly attended Summit, but hadn’t for a long time.   She asked for current Summit members to volunteer to contact at least one person on the list, since there were so many to contact.   Several people volunteered.  (See Attachment # 2).   The goal as discussed in a previous Summit meeting is to understand why these people are not coming, not to apply pressure or to coerce them.   We also would like to understand if changes should be made to the Summit purpose or the way meetings are conducted.  

Ron has already contacted Anita Triggs, whose name is on the list, and found that she is finishing up her degree and looking for a full time job, probably outside the Cincinnati area.  We wish her well, and hope we can find someone equally gifted in PR to volunteer in College Hill.

4.   CHBA Update – by Karen Harman

Karen reported that the community effort to prevent EZ Mart obtaining a liquor license was successful because EZ Mart dropped their application.   The business has been sold.  Members of the community plan to meet with the new owners soon.

Karen also reported that the new Probation Office is indeed open.   Residents have asked whether it is open because it doesn’t look occupied, but the Probation officers are often out driving or walking the streets.  Check-ins for people on probation are every Tuesday and Thursday from 8 am to 12 noon.  

5.   CPD/CPOP – by Jim Bodmer  and Off. Governor Williams           

The big news is the shooting outside Shakers early in the morning (May 8).  One person is dead, two others are in the hospital.  The police investigation is proceeding.

Shakers previous owner/manager, Jimmy Collins, has relinquished running the business to his son due to poor health.   It now seems to be taking a new direction with the introduction of a strip act and the clientele this kind of entertainment attracts.  The community is concerned.

A brief review of crime stats for April showed the level of crime to be about the same as in April.  However, CPD is on course to solve 3 out of 4 AGG/FEL ASSAULT cases and arrest the perpetrators.

CPD also indicated that they were making liquor inspections of CH businesses that day (May 8) along with Vice.

6.   CHCURC – by Marty Weldishofer

Linden Park – The design is proceeding on Linden Park East.   Current focus is parking spaces and egress onto North Bend Ave.    Two condos have been sold, and conversations are ongoing with 16 interested families.

Business District – The new marketing brochure is on line at the new CHBA website, CHBA.biz.

Gateway Project – An issue has developed with the North Gateway.  Apparently, the owner sold the property to a new owner, then sold a piece to the city for the gateway element.  The new owner is not currently open to having the gateway element on his property.   The city is pursuing legal options to get its money back.   This is a possible fraud crime as well.  

The South Gateway negotiations continue with the new planned Firehouse.   CHCURC would like to obtain water and electricity from the Firehouse for the gateway, but needed to get an estimate of cost before this could be agreed to.   The estimate is approximately $2 per month for the electricity, so the city will probably agree to provide the electricity.   The new Firehouse is expected to break ground by the end of summer, and will have a Gold Leed Certification.

Signs – The final design review for the signs is done, and it will go out to bid soon.  Signs should be done and installed by the end of the year.

Façade – Store fronts between the Shoe Repair shop and St Theresa’s are starting to make improvements, with new windows.  The courtyard of Hollywood Apts is also starting their improvements as well.

Burned Bldg – CHCURC has made overtures to the owner of the burned building on the corner of Marlowe and Hamilton.   CHCURC is willing to purchase and redevelop the property, but it isn’t yet clear what the owner intends to do with it.

CHCURC Finances – Juanita shared with Summit that CHCURC is in dire financial straits, with less than $200 in the bank.   Without additional funds, CHCURC cannot pay Marty, which will seriously impact all of the development projects he currently manages for College Hill.   CHCURC is taking over the Rhythm Race previously put on by the Forum as a fund raiser for CHCURC.   However, since CHCURC is now a 501(c)3 designated organization, donations can now be made directly.  Please contact Juanita or Mike Capel with donations or ideas to raise immediate funds.

7.   Housing Team – by Dave Scharfenberger

A ground-breaking will be held on June 5 at 10:00 am for WIN’s first house to be built in College Hill, at 5836 Saranac (across from St. Clare church).  The date was selected to support the city’s celebration of June as Home Ownership Month.  The house will be architecturally similar to existing homes in the area, and will have 3 bedrooms and a 2 car garage.  It will also be Leed Certified, and have a 15 year tax abatement.    All Summit members are invited to the ground-breaking, as is all of the College Hill community.

Separately, a free dinner will be held for residents of the immediate area around Saranac.   Summit members are also invited to that, but not the whole College Hill community, since it will not be possible for the Housing Team to feed more than the immediate neighborhood.

The next projects for WIN and the Housing Team include building a house at 1304 Cedar later this year, rehabbing a house on Lantana, and tearing down 1402 Cedar. 

Dave also handed out a few copies of the annual WIN foreclosure report.   This year, College Hill had the 7^th highest number of foreclosures among Cincinnati neighborhoods.     WIN is having a a seminar on May 22 at St. Clare for people who are at risk of foreclosure and need help. 

8.   Schools – by school representatives   

Aiken College & Career Update

Karen talked about finishing up this school year and preparing for the next one.

§         They are contacting all of next year’s 9^th grade families to understand the kids more.   They have looked at grades and test scores to anticipate the academic needs.  88 of those who signed up for Aiken have high grades & test scores, so they are likely to do well.   Others will probably need additional support.

§         They had an awards assembly with Nate Foster.  17 students joined up with the “Hip Hop Meets Old School” tutoring program.

Steve Rossi talked briefly about the athletics program

§         They will have a spring sports banquet on May 19th.

§         They may be hosting a football camp by the NFL in July.

Paul McMillan gave special thanks to Chris Miller, Rick Schroer, and Llanfair Retirement Center for helping with the Men On Campus day.  They had 50-100 guests for the Men On Campus day, which was also a kickoff for the Mentoring Programs.    He also shared:

§         They will be taking students to a Student Leadership Conference on May 27-28, in Columbus, Ohio, in the Governor’s Office.

§         The Talented 10^th Program will be June 16-20 with 25 male students.

§         They are continuing to develop their Credit Recovery Process, and are currently planning for the summer program (summer school).

Aiken University – by Virginia Rhodes

Virginia outlined their academic improvement program in the context of their Environmental focus at the school.  This included:

o    The school has an increased science focus.  They have increased from 8% to 34% of students passing the state test.

o    They are working with Cincinnati State to implement a 3 track environmental academic program:  Environmental Engineering, Chemistry & Environmental Health, and Field Studies (soil, water sampling). 

o    They continue to participate in No Kid Left Inside, using outdoor activities to help change attitudes toward academics.  Recently, they found an African-American cowboy in Mt. Healthy who led students in horseback riding.   Rock climbing was another recent activity.

o    They have formed an extracurricular Green Team, which will take on special projects such as increasing the rate of recycling in Cincinnati.

o    Of interest is that this year’s valedictorian is a student from College Hill.

Pleasant Hill Academy – by Treena Goodwin

Treena shared several recent highlights for Pleasant Hill, which included:

§         Their recent Math Night was a great success.  This is a night where families come in and learn what the kids are learning, enabling them to be more skilled when helping with homework.  Parents enjoyed this so much they have asked for more.

§         Pleasant Hill will be getting students from Schwab in Northside.

§         They are working on the traffic pattern for cars dropping off and picking up their children.

§         May 28 is the last day of school

9.   Ministerium – by Fr. George Jacquemin

-         The Ministerium is sponsoring a blood drive.   Watch for more details.

-         The second Bridges Dinner, aimed at enabling conversations between Caucasians and African-Americans, went well.

-         Ron Witt of Christ’s Community is doing Fund Raisers to support his work among the College Hill youth.   A flyer was handed out for a spaghetti dinner on Saturday, May 17 at the Hilltop United Methodist Church at 1930 Galbraith Road. 

-         The Rec Center is partnering with CCCH on Thursdays to do Extreme Sports.

10. Community Activities

Ø      CHG Garden Tour is June 21, from 10 am to 3 pm.   Tickets are available from the College Hill Coffee Company.

Ø      CHBA’s Meeting on May 20 will feature Roxanne Qualls as the speaker.  Topic will be Zoning and Smart Codes.   It will be at Twin Towers at 8 am.

Ø      The Farm Market will start May 22 at the CHPC parking lot.  Entertainment has been added this year.

Ø      The Block Party will be Aug 5-8.   Friday night will be Unity Night.

Ø      Aiken Graduation will be Thursday, May 22, at 8 pm at the Cintas Center.   Everyone is invited.

Next Summit Meeting: June 12, 2008 @ 8:00 am.  Location to be clarified.

                                                                                                Summarized by:

                                                                                                Valerie Hershberger

Abbreviation Key: