Lewton-Rich Neighborhood Association
March 17, 2005
Welcome—meeting called to order at 7:00p.m.
1.
Pledge
2.
Introductions
3.
Minutes were read and approved.
4.
Treasurer’s
report: Charles reported $227.95. There is still a $100.00 check outstanding,
and we received a donation for $10.00 last month.
5.
Lansing Police
Department report: Officer Sarah Nolan gave us a report. Things have been pretty
quiet. Sgt. Linda Wright is now a detective, and her new number is 272-7484.
There was an incident at the trailer park, and an incident at Shop-Rite of a
purse being stolen. Sarah recommends keeping a close eye on your purse in the
grocery store. (eg: do not leave your purse in the cart, unattended) Officer
Jason Block has been keeping a close eye on our neighborhood. Officer Amy Reidel
is also working in our neighborhood. If there are any problems at all, Sarah
recommends that we call, the non-emergency number is 483-4600.
6.
There were no
city council members present as they were busy with Budget meetings elsewhere.
7.
County Commissioner’s
report: Vic Celentino was present. He mentioned that the correct web site for
Ingham County is www.ingham.org.
The phone number is 676-7200 if you are interested in being involved in a county
board seat. The new animal control director will be present at our May meeting.
Not a lot is going on at the county, except that they are beginning to look at
their budget. If we have any questions, we could ask Vic. He also talked about
the airport issues, and said that Clinton County has expressed interest. This
will be discussed on April 20.
8. Code Compliance Officer’s Report: Greg Scrimger reported that he sent some letters regarding commercial vehicles being parked in the area, also some zoning letters, exterior violations, and fencing letters. A question was asked as to whether these letters were public information, and Greg said that they were, but you would have to go to the office to find out.
9.
Michigan
Senator’s Report: Joe MacDonald was here from Virg Bernero’s office. Tomorrow
Senator Bernero is launching an elder-abuse task force; he is looking at 3 areas
of abuse: financial exploitation by care givers, commercial fraud and scams, and
physical abuse by care givers. If interested or having a problem, call Joe. (His
number is: 373-1734. This task force meeting will be held from 11:30-1p.m. on
March 18th at the Farnum Building in Lansing.
10.
Neighborhoods-N-Bloom: We ordered our flowers. We got enough for Dwight Rich
Middle School and Mayflower Church. They ask that we go and work for 2 hours on
the night that we get the flowers (June 1, from 4-6 p.m.)
11. Public
Comment: Kathy Dunbar brought the Southside Community News newsletters. If you
didn’t get one at home, call Kathy. The weekend before the Taste of the South
Side event, Z101.7 will promote the event. Kathy is going to run for the
at-large seat on City Council. (Also running is Brian Jeffries, and possibly
another person).
12. Old
Business
a.
Bea Christie
dinner: It was a very nice dinner with many people attending.
13. New
Business
a.
Neighborhood
Beautification Project meeting was held on March 10th regarding the
corner of Pleasant Grove and Holmes (the Bad Habits/Quality Dairy corner).
Students from MSU are heading up this project and are trying to get feedback
from the neighbors about what the neighbors would like to see happen in that
area. The next meeting will be held on May 5th,
at Trinity AME church on Holmes at 7:00p.m. (We
encourage all our neighbors to attend, if at all possible) It was mentioned that
we should go into the businesses and voice our discontent, that the area is
dirty and unappealing and that for those and other reasons, we do not choose to
shop there. The issue is not the neighborhood, but Von’s. A suggestion was made
to remove the area of Von’s market, since no one from our area frequents that
area. And crime emanates from Von’s. Kathy mentioned that she talked to the
students after the meeting and was disappointed that there wasn’t a plan. The
students responded that there needed to be community input first, before a plan
would be developed.
b.
There will be a food festival at St. Joseph Melkite Church: 725 Mt. Hope Ave. on
Friday, April 22nd and Saturday, April 23, 2005. It is a
middle-eastern food festival and all are welcome to attend.
c.
Summer Garage Sale: Last year, it was the last weekend before Memorial Day. It
was suggested that we do it at the same time.
May 21 is
the tentative date, and we’ll talk about it more at the next meeting.
d.
Calling Committee: Anita Beavers, President of the CVNA mentioned that Colonial
Village has a calling tree. Patty already sends the information by e-mail, but
it doesn’t seem to help. We’d like to continue to think about this issue to
improve attendance.
14.
Comment on agenda items: There were no comments
15. Raffle
16.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:25 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Micki
Micki
Fuhrman, Secretary