Januray 19th 6:00PM Neighborhood Association Meeting Minutes

Southside Cowart Place Neighborhood Association 

Meeting Minutes for January 19th 6:00PM   

(draft- awaiting approval of members)


A. Heidi Hefferlin, President called the meeting to order at 6:00PM at Mean Mug Coffee shop
B. Membership – Reminder to pay dues and be ready to vote for new officers.
C. Meeting Minutes from 10/13/2011 were approved by unanimous member vote.
D. Treasurers Report – The bank balance is $1,996
E. Speakers


1.  The City of Chattanooga Traffic Engineer John Van Winkle provided updates on the procedures for speed bumps and other traffic control options. Mr. Van Winkle understands that we are concerned and have experienced errant traffic bypassing the major roads by using our neighborhood and will continue to assist in evaluation of traffic calming options.  Additionally, he is interested in idea of where and how to provide visibility at problem corners, such as Cowart and Main were parking to the corner negatively impacts visibility.


2. The City of Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd w/ members of his senior staff.
    Please call if you see ANYTHING of concern. The details of any potential issue can feed into data base which will help find the next hot spot before it becomes an issue. 
Country Hearth Inn has and continues to offer police full access to facilities and is cooperating completely with the local police, the source seem to traffic and transients centered on Kanku’s.  Police do park there, but are unable to stay at that location constantly.


F. Committee Reports
Liaison Committee
Armando Rodriguez – Chairperson, Tom Prevost-co-chair, Patty Streip, co-chair Chair, Stephen Fairley, Perry Storey, Carol Prevost, Chris Sorenson
Tom Prevost reported continued contacts with city official and seeks help with attendance to city committee meeting for traffic and parks department.


PR Committee 
Cynthia Nesson – Chairperson, Jeff Styles, Chris Sorenson, Myra Ireland, Mary Eubanks
# 1 Priority – Received grant from Neighborhood Services Project for $2,000 funding Stationary and Postage, Decals, business cards. 
#2 Develop a new business and Neighbor welcome package which will be funded by the city grant
#3 Block Party in the spring to be hosted in the ally between Cowart and Williams and 17th and 18th street. 
#4 Good neighbor program – Certificates were approved for those businesses supporting LLoyds Saturday morning clean up walk. These businesses were given complimentary memberships for their contribution to the clean up efforts through use of their dumpsters. These businesses are Koch’s Bakery, Best Motors and Enterprise Car Rental.


Security Committee
John Stevens - Chair, Heidi Hefferlin - co-chair, Dave Cochran and Audrey Ceraff
#1 Priority – Speed Humps on Cowart Street between Main and 20th.  After the determination that the location did not meet guidelines. Mr. Van Winkle agreed to work with the committee to study traffic calming methods. The committee will contact him to set up a time to meet.
#2 Priority – Crime prevention program – Neighborhood watch is under development with about 25 block captains, group email accounts sharing information with neighboring groups. Teal Thibaud is scheduling neighborhood walks. The first on of the year will be February 7th. Look for e-mails from her regarding upcoming events.
#3 Street Lighting: Sidewalk lights are CITY and Light on utility poles are EPB’s responsibility. Please forward any EPB issues to Association member Lisa Miller and the association.  To report outage of city sidewalk lights via 311.


Public Space Committee
Lloyd Longnion Chairperson, Craig Kronenberg, Cynthia Watson, Stroud Watson, Cynthia Nesson
# 1 Priority is a pocket park at Battle Academy that will be used by the school and the Neighborhood. County. With the fundraising efforts at MainX24 about $3300 was raised.  Additional funds from Lyndhurst of $10,000 been transferred when our paperwork is complete to support the park. Craig Kronenberg needs volunteers to assist with the park development. Please contact Craig@hkarchitects.net  to get involved.
#2 Block Party – A spring block party was approved. Angela and Cynthia will be organizing this.
#3 The Public Space Saturday Morning Walks (Trash Walks; not to be confused with trash talk) start at 8:30 in the morning. The walks focus on picking up trash and identifying issues to report. Hot spots will be identified and posted. Members are encouraged to initiate Trash Walks on a 24/7 basis around their part of the neighborhood Please join in effort if you are able.
#4 The Trash Walks will join the Great American Cleanup campaign by Scenic Cities from April – June and participate as a task for in the Clean & Green event in April. 


Event Planning Sub Committees
#1 Proposed are a spring Cornhole toss tournament and a boot sale.  Possibly staged at the same time as the Downtown Clean and Green event.   (Hot dogs purchased for the MainX24 are available for sale) Funds raised will be used for Pocket Park.


Preview of Next Meeting:  Neighborhood Visioning project.  The goal is to put on paper what we want the neighborhood to look and feel like.  Identify the features where we need help from the City or County to achieve our goals and prioritize these items.  The Pocket Park feeds into this program. Ideas for tools to use in improving the neighborhood or locations that need improvement to be sent to info@sscowart.com.  These items will be forwarded to the visioning team.


Meeting Adjourned!


Next Meeting April 12th 6:00PM