I'm bringing these over from the forum. I didn't start taking notes until the Oct meeting.
Bushmaster Park Community Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
Met in the Thomas School gymnasium. Mediocre attendance—some new faces which is always good. Officer Radford and Durbin were in attendance as was Mike O’Connor from the City Public Works Section, and Eric Betz from the Arizona Daily Sun.
1. Officer Durbin gave a little background and history of the meetings—sparked by a rise in crime stats for the park. Meetings have taken place monthly since April.
2. Marguerite spoke about the blog/forum aided by laptop and projector to see it. The purpose was to be more proactive about crime in the park rather than just calling the police after a crime had occurred. Also looking to provide a place to post community events, local business advertising, etc. She spoke of a recent discussion she has had with park user regarding the forum who thought it was a little too “big brother ish”. Looking for feedback from the attendees regarding the presence of an online community and whether it was something others supported.
One comment/suggestion involved advertising the blog at the park. Mr. O’Connor suggested that posting at the park wasn’t allowed and a further suggestion was made to post it in the City Scape. Mr. O’Connor made a note of the suggestion and reiterated that he would like to provide a link to it from the city’s website. Marguerite invited further suggestions/criticisms either to her personally or directly on the blog.
3. Officer Radford presented statistics about the park (see attached). He responded to Isaac’s question from last meeting regarding the Siler Homes patrol. The guys in the golf cart that you see in the park are employees of Siler Homes (therefore the city of flagstaff). They log patrols with the PD. Officer Radford was going to find out how many reports they made and possibly add that to the statistics.
4. Mike O’Connor responded to questions from last month’s meeting regarding streets/lights etc.
Speed bumps are not allowed in Flagstaff due to snow plows. One attendee mentioned the temporary rubber ones used by CCC. Apparently they are too labor intensive and compromise the road surface according to Mr. O’Connor. The city is currently looking at the use of mini roundabouts to slow traffic.
Additional street lights or reporting problems—situation with street lights is complicated. The city pays for electricity and maintenance on all lights—even those belonging to ADOT. The maintenance is contracted out—efficiency of response to issues is getting better, but one of the problems is that they aren’t allowed to go into the APS realm—so they may fix it on the city side, but need to wait for APS to get their part. Some of the issues in the park have been addressed, but some are waiting on APS. As far as new or additional lights in the Lower Greenlaw neighborhood, they are currently conducting a street light inventory, but the additional lights are tied to amount of traffic—and there is probably not enough traffic on these streets to warrant additional lighting, but a full traffic study would have to take place.
Similarly with sidewalks—a full traffic study would have to take place. Mr. O’Connor wasn’t even sure the city had the right of way in the Greenlaw neighborhood because the neighborhood had been in place for so long.
The same story with signs for special needs children (deaf, blind) a full traffic report apparently needs to take place.
Cutting of the grass in the park—apparently there is an effort to get native grasses growing on the east side of the park, so they have to wait to mow it until the natives have seeded. It was pointed out that there are many non-native invasive grasses as well—they are attempting to address that issue.
Dangerous intersections of Burkhart and Schevene and Miller and Tindle were discussed briefly. Likely that all that could be done is to ask the PD to monitor them more closely.
Officer Radford mentioned that any time speeding was a concern, citizens can call the PD and ask for a radar trailer to come and monitor traffic speed.
Alleys were discussed. It is the homeowner’s responsibility to clean up alleys. In Sunnyside there has been some coordination between a homeowner and the city. The alleys are mowed and cleaned up and the trash taken to the end of the alley—city is called and they come and pick it up. There was some interest by attendees in organizing such an effort in Lower Greenlaw.
After the meeting Marguerite asked Mr. O’Connor about drainage and Lockett. He said he pushed really hard for that during the last bond issue session, but apparently the cost was outrageous.
5. Mr O’Connor also discussed the Hermosa Vida Study conducted by North Country and a professor at NAU. Julio had previously discussed this study at a meeting several months ago. Apparently he has acquired a new job and it will take a little longer to get the report. Here is the link to the project HYPERLINK "http://www.northcountryhealthcare.org/what/community-services/beautiful-life.php"http://www.northcountryhealthcare.org/what/community-services/beautiful-life.php or on facebook HYPERLINK "https://www.facebook.com/HermosaVidaFLG"https://www.facebook.com/HermosaVidaFLG. There will be a report at the next Parks and Rec Commission Meeting which will take place on November 14, 2012. Mike encouraged all people interested in Bushmaster issues to attend to tell the city what we want to see at the park.
6. Miscellaneous topics. Included
Skunk problems were mentioned and the suggestion was made that if there were severe issues , and Animal control officer could be called.
Halloween—the curfew will be the same as every other night
Mr. O’Connor suggested that folks take a look at Bond issues 405 and 406 in the upcoming election. HYPERLINK "http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/DocumentCenter/View/40300"http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/DocumentCenter/View/40300, HYPERLINK "http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/DocumentCenter/View/40276"http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/DocumentCenter/View/40276
Permits to hold larger events at Bushmaster (the suggestion was to have a large neighborhood picnic with egg and spoon races, balloon toss, etc—Glorice Pavey is the person to contact.
Next meeting will not be on the third Wednesday of November because that is the day before Thanksgiving, but will be on the 14th (same day as the Parks and Rec Commission meeting) probably at Thomas school again.
Gymnasium was empty at 7:30 pm.
Bushmaster Park Community Meeting Minutes November 14, 2012
Met in the Thomas School gymnasium. Only 2 couples, Officer Radford, and Lieutenant Roberts 1. Officer Radford gave the current stats for the park year to date compared to last year. Still looking like a slight improvement for the majority of categories.
2. Lt. Roberts brought to our attention a trend of concern at the park. Their crime analyst has put together 3 separate incidents that took place in early November. All 3 victims were intoxicated and unable to provide accurate descriptions, but all spoke of 7-8 men who attacked them claiming that they were invading their turf. The last victim said that they were all white men wearing red shirts, but Lt. Roberts reminded us that the victim was intoxicated and his description may or may not be accurate. The first man was stabbed and the last said the men tried to take his backpack wielding knives and he thought he heard a gunshot. All incidents took place after dark. Citizens are asked to pay special attention to groups of men that might fit this description and to take extra care when visiting the park. We discussed how perpetrators often start with easy “prey” and then with each success their confidence builds to the point where they may decide to attack a sober person. Please be careful.
3. We discussed the lighting issue again. Lt. Roberts stated that the Dark Sky Ordinance would likely keep any additional lights from being placed in the park. He was unsure if the same rules would apply to a motion sensing light or one on a timer.
4. We also discussed having some type of guest speaker at the meetings to try to increase attendance. Some suggestions were self-defense, first aid, gardening or rainwater harvesting. Officer Radford stated that he and Officer Durbin were going to brainstorm to come up with a list of ideas. Marguerite spoke with Tim Hillis at Arizona Elite Mixed Martial Arts Studio. He expressed an interest in providing a free seminar in how to “not be a victim” with subsequent full self defense courses to those interested. The follow-up courses would be $5/person/session—but the initial seminar is free with no requirements for subsequent enrollment.
We are going to postpone the next meeting until January due to the holiday season and associated festivities. The next meeting will be Wednesday January 16 at 6 pm.
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