Lewton-Rich Neighborhood Association

January  18, 2007

  1. Welcome—meeting started at 7:01 p.m.
  2. Pledge
  3. Introductions—17 people present
  4. Minutes were read and approved
  5. Treasurer’s report: Balance of $219.60. Anyone is invited to donate!
  6. Guest Speaker: Trent Adkins, Emergency Management Lansing Fire Department Chief
    1. Our local unit acts like “FIMA”. Looks at issues like power outages, school crisis, arson, elderly falls, train wrecks, chemical spills. These are peace-time issues and there are many programs.
    2. Emergency disaster systems. If there is a tornado, flood or  terrorist attack, this group is able to work with Lansing Police Department. They also deal with Homeland Security monies and work with City Council.
    3. They have a human services group—which helps to service people with special needs during a disaster. They also take care of the first responders and their families.
    4. They deal with risk reduction—helping people become aware of the risks that they face, and ways to deal with them, working with agencies like Tri-County Office on Aging, and the Red Cross.
    5. Chief Atkins provided many resources and hand-outs to help us be prepared for a disaster. One website is www.do1thing.us.  Another is www.ready.gov.
    6. They work closely with LPD on projects like Common Ground, Silver Bells in the City, the recent Neo-Nazi rally at the Capital and other events.
  7. Josh Hovey from the Mayor’s office invited everyone to come to the State of the City address on Jan. 29th. Josh mentioned that the city is drawing more involvement downtown, purchased some land at the School for the Blind and is planning on doing some renovation and building new homes on some of the property. His office is in the Mayor’s office and you can reach him by calling the mayor’s line—483-4141     —ask for Josh. His email is jhovey@ci.lansing.mi.us.
  8. Lansing Police Department’s Report: Sgt. Frank Koenigsknecht passed out a crime map, and commented that things were very calm. There were a couple burglaries on the other side of MLK. He urged us again to make sure that we lock our doors, and if we notice vehicles that are not usual to our neighborhood, report them, and to make sure that we lock our vehicles our driveways.
  9. County Commissioner’s Report: Vic Celentino thanked the neighborhood for their support during the recent election. He is no longer the chair of the board, as you can only hold that office for one year and his year is up; his new assignments includes finance and law enforcement.
  10. Neighborhood Watch: Patty mentioned that neighborhoods that have   Neighborhood Watches have less crime, and the statistics show that.
  1. Code Compliance Officer’s report: (Gregg Scrimger). Greg mentioned    that not much else was new. He is working on trash issues, zoning   I    issues, and red tag houses (down a bit from last report).
  2. No City Council Report as no City Council members were present, as they were all at a Committee of the Whole/City Council Meeting which started at 7:00 p.m. tonight, (the same time as this meeting), due to MLK Holiday on the 15th. Hopefully we’ll see some of our City Council members at our February meeting.
  3. Nominations will take place in February.
  4. Good and Welfare—no comments
  5. Raffle
  6. Adjourned: Meeting was adjourned at 8:57 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted by Micki Fuhrman