July 19th Meeting Minutes

Here are the meeting minutes from our last gathering in July.  Please review & let us know if you have any questions.

UHNA Meeting Minutes

July 19, 2016

Attendees:  26

Guests:  Officer Gomez, IMPD; David Wantz, UIndy Executive Vice-President and Provost; Pam Fox, Director of Facilities at UIndy; Scarlett Martin, Team Builder for Southside QOL Program; Allie Kast, Mayor’s Neighborhood Advocate; Patrick Musall, President Hunger, Inc.; Bob Craig, Vice President Hunger, Inc.; Pastor Floyd, Jeff Miller, City Councilman

I.               Call to order and introduction of UHNA Leadership:  Debby Doan and Jeri Warner, Co-Coordinators, Margaret Crail, Acting Secretary; John and Karen Barten, Web Masters and Coordinators of Social Media

II.              Minutes: Submitted and approved with 2 corrections

III.            Officer Gomez, IMPD.  Questions from attendees fielded

a.     Debby Doan expressed concern about intersection at Lawrence, Shelby and Madison.  One fatality at this intersection this year already.  Officer Gomez indicated the city engineers would be the ones contact.

b.     Safety Issue Concerns at Southern Plaza

c.     Personal invitation to National Night Out for all Police officers able to attend

IV.            Grant Proposal:  Jeri Warner

a.     Community Building Committee of the South Side QOL proposed application for an Early Action Grant to fund a Tailgate Party on October 22, 2016 prior to a UIndy football game.  Proposal was made by several neighborhood organizations and David Wantz of UIndy.  All Neighborhood Organizations would be invited to the Tailgate Party.

b.     Quality of Life Grant proposals require letters of support from the Neighborhood Associations.  Deadline for the grant application was June 30, UHNA bylaws require a vote by the members.  A letter of intent to apply was submitted with the provision that it would be brought to the members for a vote of support at the July meeting.

c.     Tailgate Party would occur on the parking lot south of the Health Center.  The game is at 6 pm and the party will start at 4 pm.

d.     This would require no funds from the Neighborhood Association.  If the grant is not approved, another source of funding will be obtained.

e.     The Grant would support payment for t-shirts and food.  It would be a support for UIndy as well

f.      Approval of UHNA for the grant application was moved, seconded and approved

V.              Gratitudes -  Debby Doan:

a.     Railroad crossing sign at Lawrence and Weaver was fixed following a call to the company

b.     Neighbors for support

c.     Meeting Space provided by UIndy

d.     Daughter for her support and patience

e.     Contributions for National Night Out

VI.            Parking Update – Ruth Soper

a.     Neighborhood association categorized parking as the primary concern to be addressed.

                                               i.     “No Parking here to corner” – State and Castle the most dangerous intersection, but are requesting signs at all intersections; 30 feet from intersection would be impacted by city ordinance; work orders are in place; hope to get in place as quickly as possible.  Working with city of Indianapolis with UIndy support.

                                             ii.     All Way Stops – If new corner need stop signs there would need to be petitions and work with representatives.  Intersections of Castle and Mathews and Otterbein and Markwood.

                                            iii.     No parking one side of street – Need 75% of property owners to agree:  to enact it, which side of the street to prevent parking.  Looking at Mathews first for this restriction.  Will have DPW walk through.

b.     DPW wants to be sure all owners have off street parking available

c.     Garbage trucks and emergency vehicles must be able to travel down street

David Wantz, Pam Fox – representing UIndy: 

Met with President Manuel of UIndy re parking issues, President Manuel strongly supports finding a resolution of the problem.

                                    Code enforcement representative toured the area.

Parking in public right of way on east side of State north of Castle and on Castle between State and Mathews. It is causing a quagmire in the dirt at the edge of the road.  David Wantz requested placement of stones and marking of parking spaces to prevent parking in the grass and dirt.  University police can ticket illegal parking if legal parking spaces are marked.

All changes will shrink the number of parking spaces available.

UIndy will also request a variance to increase the ability to have gravel parking lots to increase the number of spaces available.  Current regulations require paving parking lots after a year, but future use of the gravel parking areas is unclear, therefore UIndy would like to avoid paving them. 

Jeff Miller, City Councilman – Will contact the enforcement agencies to discuss the needs to arrange for assessment and signage installation.  Question whether 75% of owners consent required if the street is too narrow to allow passage of emergency vehicles.  He will go to Fire Department to follow up.  Stressed the importance of safety.

VII.           Scarlett Martin – Southside Quality Of Life-

a.     Quality of Life Planning is in its last phases –Writing goals for each group; Building relationships with focus on how to implement plans. 

b.     Late September or early October the plan will be unveiled.

c.     Meeting with city re DMD certification which will give neighborhoods more voice in zoning and land use. The Southside group has been selected as the group which is in progress

d.     Eleven Early Action Grant Applications accepted and under review

e.     2 more meetings:  July 26 and August 9 at the Emma Donnan Middle School

VIII.         New Mayor’s Neighborhood Advocate – Allie Kast

a.     Represents Perry and Franklin Townships

b.     Handed out cards to attendees

IX.            Hunger Inc., Local Food Pantry

a.     Patrick Musall, President

b.     Bob Craig, Vice-President

c.     Location 1416 E. Epler

d.     Serves Perry Township and Beech Grove

e.     Started in 1983 by South Side Ministerial Association, non-ecumenical, all volunteer

f.      Temporary food assistance, can obtain assistance once every 30 days, will provide a minimum of 3 meals for 3 days, require current address proof, Social Security card for each member of household served, and Photo ID

g.     Looking for long term volunteers

h.     Donations direct (food or money) or through Meijer (July 31 through September 24 Meijer will match donations, September 1 through 3 will double match donations)

X.              National Night Out – August 2, 2016 from 6pm to 8 pm at University Heights United Methodist Church to Honor Police

XI.            Announcements – Debby Doan

a.     Minutes and agenda will be emailed, only a few copies will be available at the meetings

b.     Suggestion box will be available at meeting

c.     WOW cards will be available at the meetings

d.     “What we need list” will be out at meetings for signing up to assist with events

e.     Survey on food availability was emailed, please fill it out and return it.

f.      Information on how to respond to student parties which are out of hand is available

g.     Please bring items for school children to the National Night Out.

XII.           Pastor Floyd invited attendees to 3 prayer meetings  first one is at South Side Park,

XIII.         Jeff Miller, City Councilman

a.     Infrastructure - Received $50 million from state for city infrastructure

Working with Jefferson Shreve to identify needs

Need to hear from constituents what needs are seen by residents

b.     IPS Coke Plant Deal – Largest land downtown – in 1 year IPS can leave deal if it is not successful.  Risk is low

c.     Department of Code Enforcement renamed to Business and Neighborhood Services

Next meeting September 20, 2016 at 7 pm