DPNA Meeting Minutes

DPNA Board Meeting, June 26, 2005

1. Newsletter
Summer issue is in progress. We need to get more people involved, especially selling ads. Barry would like to see the calendar be a bigger part of the newsletter, if so, we would need a calendar editor. Claire would be willing to take on high school or college students as interns.

2. Rails to Trails
Barry talked to the girlfriend of Dan Clever of TRTC: the downtown part of the tracks—from the point east of Avondale where the RR track splits—is still for sale. Barry will talk to Dan to see if TRTC is going to pursue this. He doesn’t think Duke Park and Old North Durham have enough pull to pressure the city ourselves. Also, rumor has it people are living under the bridge again.

3. Park Renovations
Andrew has a boilerplate contract for the bathhouse with the city. If we want to do this, we need to get liability insurance. We’d need to do some of the maintenance, too. Barry said we should ask the city to take responsibility for maintenance (like they do the pavilion) and then we are just users who get to use it with reservation, like anyone else, but we’d get first dibs for 4th of July. Liability insurance would cover all events. Many neighborhood organizations have insurance. We may want to get DPPI involved so that tax donations can be tax-deductible. Barry is going to try to talk to Randy Pickle in Forest Hills about their arrangement for the building in their park. Barry has heard that if we rent the bathhouse, the city will get the money, not us. Pam said there is a similar arrangement at Hillandale golf course, but she’s pretty sure the city does not get the income. Andrew believes we would not have to pay for utilities or perform major repairs (e.g., fixing a roof leak) other than the initial upgrade or future upgrades (e.g.,adding windows).

Calvary Methodist wants $1 per person per meeting for our monthly meetings. That adds up. Bathhouse would save us money.

The city has added another 100 feet of drain pipe, has removed some gravel and broken glass, planted sod.

Agreed that we need to take this one step at a time and make sure we don’t get in over our heads. Insurance would not be a bad idea regardless.

The city has $80k allocated for a skateboard park in Duke Park in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Board signaled willingness to approve it last year, but it was not unanimous. Several non-board members opposed the park. Do we want to re-open this issue or just give the city the green light? Most agreed to let it lie rather than officially re-open the issue. Andrew would like to see one side as skateboard and one side for tennis. Barry thought neither would be ideal solutions.  Andrew pointed out that the wall would act as a sound barrier. Beth Timson  of Parks & Rec is willing to speak at the  DPNA meeting in August.

4. Next year’s board:
Daniel & Rob will be dropping off, Peg has moved out of the neighborhood. Barry would like to remain on board but not as president. Katherine would like to recruit a renter from Green St. or Markham. Andrew would come back on the board if need be, but he’d prefer just to do projects. Brought up names of people to recruit. Will talk to people individually, put together a slate of candidates.

5. Farmers’ Market Pavilion Tour
Ellen Casilly is willing to give DPNA a tour of the Farmer’s Market project, Saturday 8/13 at 10am.

6. July 4th
We are still planning to have the picnic in the park, open or not! Guillo has assured us it will be open.

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. Shootings on Green St.
UNC public health did a study in that area last year; Katherine has posted the file on the yahoo group site. There are “next steps” listed that nobody has taken yet. Katherine would like to enlist Melissa Godwin to become involved.

9.National Night Out
Will be doing national night out with Old North Durham on 8/3. Len Stanley and Denise Shriner from OND arrived at the meeting. Len has flyers printed up. Idea is preventing crime by knowing your neighborhood, walking around. They decided a few years ago to make it a parade, recruited Chuck Davis (dancer) to lead it with dancing, noisemakers, etc. They had a band, other musicians at the park. This year: OND wants to meet at the Grace Baptist parking lot and march down Mangum to Duke Park. Need a short walk because of the heat, and a support vehicle for carrying the potluck dishes. They want Barry and Liz (ONDNA president) to be the “king and queen” of the parade. Barry would rather be the duke, or the earl. Discussed having a second contingent from Washington/Markham, but that would require police to stop traffic. Gather at 6:15, parade starts at 6:30. Barry suggested recruiting Mr. Rainbow to join the parade.

10. Eddie Culberson honored
Barry just got an email before the meeting: at the county commissioners meeting, Dddie Culberson will be honored for his efforts on behalf of the Duke Park beaver. Ellen Reckhow asked Barry to write something to be read into the record.

The next DPNA meeting will be held August 11.  

Archive of Minutes of previous meetings