Lewton-Rich Neighborhood Association Minutes
October 16th, 2008
1. Welcome –– 7:05 p.m.
2. Pledge
3. Halloween Safe Houses, during trick-or-treat period with donuts and hot cider/coffee. Neighbors are encouraged to drop by.
. 2223 Bedford Street
. 2501 Hampden Drive
. Old town and other places in Lansing are having Halloween events.
4. Introductions –– 24 present
5. Approval of Minutes
a. Accepted.
5. Treasurer Report
a. Same as previous balance of $150.45
. Received donation of $16 not yet deposited.
. Any contributions are most appreciated
6. Guest Speaker –– Sgt. Frank Koenigsknecht - LPD
. Crime map is clear for our area.
. Couple of break ins on Victor and Bedford.
. Victor Avenue reported a stolen vehicle and bad guy was caught, but he is now bonded out.
. Bedford had some suspects.
. Prevent opportunity by
. Locking up cars to prevent thefts.
. Shutting garage doors.
. Place items in the trunk (out of site).
. Disable the in-car trunk release, to help protect items.
. Take your garage door opener inside when parking outside at night at your home.
Do not leave valuables in vehicle.
4. Motion lights deter crime.
. Crime is on the rise all over and not just in Lansing.
. The suspects are traveling in metro areas looking for opportunity.
. Recent increase is not just juvenile pranks. They target both older persons and juveniles.
. Report Truancy’s to Police; kids this time of year, belong in school during the day, not on the streets, looking for trouble. Reporting truancy will prevent potential problems.
. Please put you homes on a vacation list with police department when going on vacation.
. Regular police inspections (by team officers in your neighborhood) help the home owners by informing contact person to help assist in situations where there are problems.
. When a pipe breaks.
. Doors and windows break.
. Loitering Vehicles
. Recent plate ran and LEAN indicated that a person had name and birth date similar to a sex-offender. But the person was NOT a registered sex offender and has legitimate reasons for being in our neighborhood.
. Police invite calls about loitering persons and vehicles.
. Please call if you have questions about possible “hear-say” rumors. It is best to clarify possible problems from mis-communications.
. It is still important to report loitering. As there was an actual break-in a while back where a neighbor did see a suspicious vehicle during an actual break in.
. The job of the police is to prove if persons are harmful or persons are innocent.
. At a Moores River Drive gated community, a resident left their keys in car and it was taken. So please don’t do this!
. Late at night, it was reported that persons in a car were seen knocking on doors and driving suspiciously. And police will be on look-out for such cars that fit the description.
7. Mayor Virg
. Handed out of City Hall update, monthly to neighborhood leaders, groups and business.
. $6M from HUD from foreclosure assistance.
. Foreclosed homes have added to Red Tag problems. As they are now mostly forecloses.
. P&D need to submit plan to Fed on use of money.
. It can be used to help keep out of foreclosures and/ fix up homes and we need feed back as to what we want.
. Perhaps 100-140 homes could be fixed with $6M, but they may not sell.
. Others suggested to use money to prevent foreclosures but this may only stall inevitable.
. Wants to prevent homelessness.
. Wants to fix worst of bad houses.
. Must be done quickly not to lose money.
. Not enough money to fix everything.
. Credit Finance.
. City is not caught up with this as we are not in bonding process.
. Other cities are now paying up to 15% for new bonds.
. We hope that it will return to normal before next bonding projects.
. BWL Ottawa and is moving forward with good funding.
. New State Police Building is coming along well.
. Market Place is unaffected by previously planned project.
. City Council rejected Deficient Elimination Plan
. Still $3.2M needs to be addressed.
. Guided by Charter and Municipal Finance Act.
. Now Administration needs to propose new plan while enacting a current budget
. Have not had to forcefully lay off the planned 50 employees.
. Much moving/bumping and as efficiency improvement, this may result in only 1 or 2 persons to be laid off.
. Current workers are working harder to make up for reductions.
. Council has delivered priorities for next year and needs to plan next budget.
. It is found that spending the same deliverables have increased costs. So status quo is not sufficient. Thus, we need to become more efficient.
. Property Taxes are falling as property values are decreasing.
. What areas do you want to improve, cut or support?
. Next estimate will be 4 to 5 M$ deficient.
. Suggestion to privatize cemetery -- that is good example to be evaluated.
. Regionalism; means looking at shared costs for shared facilities, such as Potter Park Zoo. Possible Waverly Golf Course; 80% of the people using are not city of Lansing residents.
Ranny Skate Park users are from the East Lansing area.
n. Mayor feels he is not selling off city assets, but we cannot sustain features for non-citizens for free.
. Police and Fire use 55% of budget ,but no cutting of person count. We will cut other things before Police or Fire.
. 50% of attendees that go to Fenner Arboreum are not from Lansing.
. Other Communities can help pay for these services.
. Looking for input to help resolve differences between Mayor and City Council.
. Question: Can individuals fill out requested needs? P&D is looking at how to define these and they are not known yet.
. Working with Greater Lansing Housing Coalition will help individuals for the qualifications.
. General comment: As new home owner in Lansing we found it difficult to understand how Lansing works. Like trash and such.
. Need to work with Neighborhood Associations to create a Welcome Wagon.
. Call the Mayor any time
8. County Council –– Dale Copedge
. Victor Celentino had another meeting; please remember him when you vote on November 4th, as he is up for re-election.
. Glad to hear about our presentation from CATA last month.
. Looking forward to passing CATA Mileage
. Restore County Mileage back to 6.8 back to 1970 levels.
. Or else there will be cuts.
. Proposal A and The Taft Hartley Act rolls back previous mileages.
. Please vote yes on #4.
. This will not change the assessment value for operations.
2. City Council ––A’Lynne Robinson
. Thanks for participating in Halloween Safe House.
. So this will help prevent problems and may prevent mischief.
. Deficit Elimination Plan was turned down for specific reasons. Not just to be difficult but Council had reasons.
. Code Compliance Manager-person was eliminated and they feel this is position was extremely valuable to the neighborhoods.
. Sale of West Side Ramp, was off (by some estimates) by a $1M, and they are not trying to prevent LCC expansions.
. Bumping and re-assignment has potential to moving positions to un-qualified persons.
. Code Compliance position has management problems with being at neighborhood meetings
. Concerns about priorities.
. And previous safe guard clause is now being questioned.
. Many neighbors are asking to raise taxes to meet current features.
. Golf courses –– Voted 7 to 0 to enter litigation. Administration has not met the Councils outlined desires. Council has exhausted it’s requests to use budgeted money to use as directed.
. Q: different golf courses have different skill levels which prevent some from using the only open courses.
. Mayor could have vetoed this line item, but chose to leave it in.
. Sycamore is now a driving range for First T Programs, and Sycamore is open as a full course, which is a high skill level course.
. Several labor units were not able meet the expected cost reductions of benefits.
5. Gregg Scrimger –– Our Code Compliance Officer
. Not available.
. Home on corner of Hampshire and Hampden, with pool is empty. They may have moved out and may have given home to son.
13. Good and Welfare.
Question asked regarding the following dates and approved by proper motion (by the body present):
. June 20, 2009 (Fathers’ Day weekend) is planned for LRNA Annual Garage Sale
. Yearly picnic is planned for National Night Out (August 4, 2009) and would be planned for the intersection of Hampden and Woodview/Colonial Plaza (in the street) instead of Francis Park.
3. Raffle
4. Adjourn 8:30 p.m.
Michael P. Flaga, Secretary and Web Master