Inter-Neighborhood Council

Making Better Neighborhoods

Minutes of Meeting of November 30,2004

REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT

Pat Carstensen	Cross County	Don Stauffacher	Marquis-Pierre
Deb Christie	Piney Mountain / Colony Hill	Ginny Skalski	Herald Sun
Jay Reinstein	City Manager’s Office	Kelly Jarrett	Old West Durham
Jacqueline Olich	Erwin Area Neighborhood Gr	Betty Greene	Old West Durham
Sheila Miglarese	Westwood Estates	Richard Mullinax	Old North Durham
Lynwood D. Best	Housing and Community Dev	Michael Shiflett	Northgate Park
Josh Parker	Trinity Park	Cheryl Sweeney	Northgate Park
Patrick W, Baker	Eno Trace / City Manager	Helena Cragg	Old North Durham
Bill Anderson	Duke Park	Carrie Mowry	Old North Durham
Randy Pickle	Forest Hills	John Compton	Old North Durham
Delilah Donaldson	Durham Human Relations	Mike Woodard	Watts Hospital – Hillandale NA

Administration and Announcements

President Bill Anderson opened the meeting. Members introduced themselves.

Get Acquainted with Interim City Manager – Patrick Baker spoke a little about his background, especially his work in nuisance abatement. The Code Enforcement Nuisance Abatement Team (CENAT) has 2 code enforcement teams and is researching landlord training or licensing, starting community outreach and education teams, and exploring better technology. Perception is an issue; we have a window to capitalize on good things happening in Durham. Internal meetings within city government are trying to figure out how to be more effective. Yard waste plan was not Al Davis’s idea; Mr. Baker is trying to empower department heads more to avoid things like this. They are looking at new park bond, so see need to be more accountable about what happened with last park bond money. Accountability is finally with City Council, so will need political support to get changes in right direction.

Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) – RSVP helps people 55 years old or older find good volunteer opportunities. Their 3 most important programs are looking for new participants. Senior Care gets lower cost prescriptions for people over 65. Tax Counseling for Elderly will do taxes for free for anyone, but especially seniors. Reading Buddy has volunteers in all the elementary schools, spending time with students who need more help. Their website is www.durhamtech.edu/html/aboutdt/rsvp.htm.

Court Funding – We finally voted to support better funding for Durham courts. Pat will draft a letter.

Treasurer’s Report – The treasurer’s shoebox has been re-arranged. We have $981.28 in checking, $2223.72 in savings. We voted to change banks as more convenient to the treasurer, free checking, and get new checks with dates that don’t say 19__. Pat and Randy will deal with documentation to get this done. Dues were due in October – we will be sending out notices.

Website Committee – We need to figure out what web site should look like, how we get new content for it, how we decide what other organizations it links to, and so on. Randy Pickle, Mike Shiflett, and Helena Cragg volunteered to be on the committee. We also voted to spend up to $100 to register the domain name DurhamINC.org for 10 years.

Information / Committee Reports / Business

§ Crime perception will be topic of future meeting

§ Come to State of Human Rights breakfast, which will honor Howard Clement, Dec 10.

§ Come to Domestic Violence Candlelight Vigil in lobby of City Hall, Dec 15.

§ UDO committee should have report by end of month.

§ Executive Committee will look into the requirement in bylaws that neighborhoods have at least 40 houses, since Marquis-Pierre is not this big.

§ Environmental Roundtable is starting discussions among different organization. Pat Carstensen and Mike Woodard were at first meeting. We’ll see where it goes.

§ A Citizen Advisory Committee on Capital Improvement Plan is starting to meet to look at infrastructure as part of build-up to bond referendum.

§ Results Based Accountability – 8 committees at various stages of progress. Will come up with a way to get a “report card” on how Durham is doing on safety, health, environment, housing, and so on.

§ Jacqueline Olich and Deb Christie reported on efforts to purchase land “formerly known as Duke Forest” on the Durham / Orange County line to keep it as open space / parkland instead of a development. The sticking point is Crosland’s $500,000 for their “lost profit opportunity.” Erwin Area Neighborhood Group will come back with a resolution for INC in January.

The meeting was adjourned.