DPNA Meeting Minutes

June 9 , 2005

Board members Present: Barry Ragin (President), Rob Dilworth (Vice President), Claire Doyle (Secretary), David Eustice, Daniel Kirk (Members-at-large)

Neighbors present: Jesse Eustice, Diane Wright, Bert Chessin, Rob Lineberger, Sara Dowdy, Greg, Michelle and Abby Old, Bill Anderson

1. Big Trash Pickup
Oversized trash pickup will be this Saturday. People need to get their stuff to curb Friday night. No hazardous waste (chemicals, batteries, paint), tire must be off the rims, no yard waste. Volunteers should meet at the park main entrance at 8am. Coffee and donuts will be provided. There will be 3-4 hours riding the trucks. Sometimes you find good junk!

2. Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Pam Campa can’t be here but filed an email to report that our bank balance is $2,342.73.

3. Park & bathhouse
The playground is done! And it looks great! Paving the loop is still in progress, should be done in 1-2 weeks. There will be water fountains installed. The city will charge DPNA $1/year to rent the bathhouse providing we have liability insurance. It is $275-300/year and would cover all DPNA functions, not just those held in the bathhouse. Our usual income is around $1500/year. Diane: Can we rent the bathhouse out as an income-generator for DPNA?  Answer is unclear, we would need to do some research. Michelle Old volunteered to be chair of the bathhouse committee. She’s looked into grants (around $500) to see if we can get paint, etc..  She will put out a call on the listserv looking for people to help. SWOOP is a group who may be able to help out (Strong Women Organizing Outrageous Projects); the Junior League has also done work in our neighborhood. Larger grants are usually matching grants but she’s looking at that too.

4. Timberlake trail
Claire Doyle spoke at the June 6 City Council meeting in support of the trail, along with two neighbors from Old North Durham and two people from Triangle Rails to Trails Conservancy. Dianne Catotti has recommended that the city allocate $1.5 million in the 2005 bond issue (up from an already allocated $1 million). This is the amount necessary for Durham to pay its share of the purchase. Claire is the DPNA chair for the Timberlake Trail committee and will report back as more news comes available.

5. Yard waste
DPNA last year made a proposal to the city to change the yard waste policy. Houses have piles of yard waste because they haven’t paid for the service, which is pricey for some people. Inter-Neighborhood Council and other neighborhoods signed on, and the city is now rethinking the policy. City made a presentation at an INC meeting. There is a document on the Durham city website describing what the city is thinking about now (for 1-2 years down the road). The city is setting up a working group with INC to work with the city on hammering out the details of the policy. There is a problem deciding between mandatory payment via property taxes vs. voluntary participation via a fee: people scream if you raise taxes, but with the fees, yard waste clogs our drains because people don’t participate. The city is definitely willing to listen on this issue. This could set a precedent for the city working more closely with the citizens/neighborhoods. They may buy vacuum trucks—you could just sweep your leaves to the edge of your property and they’d pick them up without bags/carts. The trucks could be used for street cleaning the rest of the year. Diane Wright: Does the city do any education on this issue? Answer: They do several times a year at the dump, about composting, etc. But they could do more outreach, come to meetings like this, through agricultural extension. We could arrange a demo for DPNA.

6. East End Connector
The Transportation Advisory Committee of the Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting last night: members are from the Durham City Council, Chapel Hill City Council, Durham and Orange County Commissions. Everybody on the committee support the East End Connector. Calvin Leggett of NCDOT won’t release the funds to start construction until 2012. There was $2 million two years ago allocated to the Eno Loop. That was cancelled do to citizen resistance, and replaced by the East End Connector. Barry Ragin thinks this is payback for forcing NCDOT to cancel the Eno Loop. We need to lobby, send emails, etc. to NCDOT and other parties to make this happen. Check out durhamloop.org to send a letter to NCDOT. Nina Schlossberg of NCDOT encouraged us to lobby our state representatives as well. The East End Connector. is the lynchpin for all the other traffic calming measures that we have in mind for our neighborhoods. Michelle Old: Will this affect traffic on Washington Street? Barry said not directly. Washington St. is different from Roxboro, Mangum and Avondale in that it doesn’t connect to either 147 or 85. Washington St. will be a through street that hooks up with Corcoran St. downtown. It is too wide, especially at Club Blvd. It will become a speedway once the bridge is complete. It could become the gateway to downtown, have a divider with landscaping, make it a nice street, there are trails along there. The bridge over 85 won’t be finished for a year.

City has hired a consultant to assess streets, sidewalks and crosswalks throughout the city. Barry is on the “Stakeholders’ Committee.” 16 are city employees, 3-4 are citizens. Barry represents the INC on this. The idea is to have a fair, rational, scientific plan for who gets funds for improvements, rather than rewarding squeaky wheels. This committee will publish surveys online as well as public information sessions and a chance to speak to the planners. Those will probably be in mid-July.

Jesse Eustice: trucks on Camden are shaking the houses so much that they are causing damage. There are trucks going to and from a quarry and the city dump as well as other trucks. Jesse and a neighbor may put together a petition, appeal to council. Barry will look into this. City is unwilling to put in speed humps there.

7. 4th of July Potluck
There will be no DPNA meeting in July. The potluck picnic and kids’ parade is on July 4. DPNA brings paper goods and drinks. Followed by parade around the loop. There’s been a piñata the last couple of years that has been brought by neighbors.

8. National Night Out
The Old North Durham Neighborhood Association has invited us to join them for National Night Out this year, which is scheduled for the first Tuesday in august. We would hold it in Duke Park. Motion passed unanimously.

9. Summer newsletter
The summer newsletter will be the first “Arts” issue. Claire Doyle has put together a list of neighborhood artists, performers, musicians etc. to profile but is trying to put the word out to find more. She would like help in interviewing, photographing, and writing up profiles of the artists.

10. Nightclub
Ken Gasch of the Colonial Village Neighborhood Association sent an email to Barry regarding a restaurant on Foushee St. that was busted for operating as an unlicensed nightclub (Foushee St. is the short street on the other side of I-85 leading to the Wynn Dixie shopping center). This business is now trying to get a license to operate as a nightclub. Ken is asking for support in opposing this. Northgate Park is also opposing it. Some people asked, what is the problem with having a nightclub there? Jesse Eustice would not join with the other hoods unless it was clear this place is a problem. Daniel Kirk: what is the zoning issue?  All agreed: we need more information.

11. The abandoned K-Mart
Jesse Eustice: Foster’s Market used to be a lawnmower shop; they built a nice façade. Could that be done with the K-Mart? Sara Dowdy: we could use a cafeteria in town, and that would be a good location. The owner of the facility is open to neighborhood input about that space.

The next DPNA meeting will be held August 11. July 4 will be the Fourth of July potluck picnic and kids' parade.  

Archive of Minutes of previous meetings