Midtown Neighborhood Association

Minutes of General Meeting held March 16, 1999

Wright Elementary School

GREETINGS

Brad Holland, MNA President called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm.

 

MINUTES

The minutes of February 16th were approved on a motion by Martha Cooper and a second by David Kha.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT (David Kha)

There were deposits of $24.00, expenditures of $592.12 leaving a balance of $3,394.76. All but about $32.00 is committed to the Bike Club and a sculpture for the Children’s Park.

 

UPDATES

  • John B. Wright Report (Lisa Langford):
  1. Based on a ballot of staff at the School, the $1,400 in donated funds will be spent on an Artist in Residence ($1,000) and on uniforms and P.E. equipment ($400)
  2. The February Gala celebrating African-American month was a huge success with performances by students and City staff.
  3. March for Parks update will be in the next MNA Newsletter.
  4. Burger King Credit Card - get a card from Lisa at JBW. You will get a free item after ten purchases at the store at Grant and Alvernon. Lisa reported that the store manager has been a big help with activities at the school: he has donated food certificates for honor roll and excellent attendance programs. He also sends letters or recognition to parents of the winning children.
  • Y2K and Chili Booth (Margaret Leonard)
  1. Oct '99 Chili Festival - Midtown will have the only Tamale booth. We plan on making 3,000-4,000 tamales. Volunteers are needed, both to assemble the tamales on several weekends preceding the event, and to provide freezer space to store them. Twenty-five percent of the profits will go to the Botanical Gardens; the remainder will be split between MNA and the Wellness Center. MNA portion will go to fund a neighborhood beautification project.
  2. Y2K - According to Margaret, The US Senate Y2K group has said there will be SOME disruption to services. She would like to organize 5-6 house "watches" to be sure that those with special needs continue to get food, medicines, etc. while the bugs are worked out. A good side effect is that neighbors would get to know each other. The emphasis on this idea is PREPAREDNESS NOT FEAR. Margaret wants to organize a Y2K conference among neighborhoods. Brad Holland suggested she start a Y2K discussion table at next month's MNA meeting to further develop this idea.
  • Graffiti Report (Brad Holland in place of AnnaMarie Pattie):
  1. The neighborhood continues to get hit hard with taggers. If you see paint, please call Ana Marie or Brad Holland. MNA has paint and volunteers, but needs to get the permission of the property owner to eradicate the graffiti.
  • Bike Club Report (David Kha):
  1. David is getting about two calls per week for bikes. He has about 200 bikes to give away in exchange for work in fixing them up.
  2. To raise money for continuation of the club, David is selling Entertainment Books. The books cost $35 of which $7 goes to the Bike Club. Get your order in to David by the end of April and the books will be out in the fall and good from then until the end of 2000.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Town Hall Meeting (Martha Cooper): On Tuesday, March 23rd, 6:30-8:30pm, at Peter Howell Elementary, Fred Ronstadt will hold a town hall meeting to discuss MNA Learning Center, the new City Hall, the El Con Situation, transportation issues, and geo-based policing.
  • Regional Transportation Open House (Martha Cooper): On Thursday, April 1st, 4:00-7:00pm, at the Randolph Golf Course Club House, an open house on the City's 5-year transportation plan will be held. The City is taking input on the plan before final adoption.
  • MNA Library-Learning Center (Martha Cooper): The City and Pima County are developing and IGA for the construction and operation of the Center. Brad Holland pointed out that this is an example of good communication and cooperation between the City and MNA; the Pima Street re-striping that recently took place was not.
  • Pima Re-striping (Brad Holland) - Pima Street was recently re-striped to reflect what the MNA fought against--a 5 lane thoroughfare. Brad complained vociferously to Transportation Director Tony Paez. Tony sent an apologetic email back and explained that the striping was not done to intentionally provoke the neighborhood. It was a programmed piece of work and an oversight that it was done against the wishes of the MNA. Brad did receive a commitment from Tony that the street will be re-striped to 3 lanes no later than June of 2000.

 

 

 

GUEST SPEAKERS

  • Captain Ken Mayhew, Midtown Substation and Frank DaMonico, Lead Patrol Officer
  1. Captain Mayhew Introduced himself and Officer DaMonico. He will try to personally attend neighborhood meetings every 6 months and send an officer to every monthly meeting. He is in Midtown for at least two years.
  2. In emergency, call 911; to get or file a report call 791-4444; to get his personal attention on any matter, contact Brad Holland who has his personal phone number. If Brad deems it is warranted, he can call Capt. Mayhew directly.
  3. Voice mail system has been neglected in the past. Capt. Mayhew is asking LPO's to respond to all voice mail, so give it a try. Each LPO now has only 3 neighborhoods assigned to them, so response should be faster.
  4. Several questions were entertained by Capt. Mayhew: how does neighborhood program mesh with NET teams (answer: overlap in personnel between neighborhood outreach and NET team members); why not stop rotation of officers out of neighborhood assignments--instability is a problem in building rapport between neighbors and police (answer: it is a product of turnover and promotions and not much can be done about it--police personnel must move on in their careers); Why do helicopters circle neighborhood--is it routine patrol (answer: no, only responding to call for help by patrol officers); how does TPD respond to panhandling problems (answer: difficult to stop--it is not against the law--TPD will respond to aggressive panhandling which is a crime).
  • Bob Walkup, Candidate for Mayor - Bob introduced himself and was available for questions after the meeting

 

 

ADJOURNMENT

On a motion by Martha Cooper and a second by Bonnie Cummins, Brad Holland adjourned the meeting at approximately 8:00 pm.

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