Post date: Mar 17, 2019 10:21:5 PM
> Garfield Park Neighborhood Association meeting March 12, 2019 minutes
> Stewart called the meeting to order at 7pm. Each attendee received an agenda plus a proposed site plan for renovation of Garfield School. Stewart pointed out an error on the agenda: our next meeting is May 14, not March 14. Attendees introduced themselves.
> Tammy Woodman gave a report on design guidance committee progress on the Garfield School renovation. Tammy received answers to some of the neighbors' questions from Kim Patten. Buses will continue to pick up and drop off students on Dixon as before. All students will stay on the property during renovation. The covered play area will have one wall for basketball and wall ball. In fall of 2019, there will be more information about equipment staging for the renovation. Currently there are no plans for security cameras on the property. For dust control, the city has guidelines which will be followed.
> Comments from attendees: 1. There need to be security cameras. The community garden kiosk has been vandalized four times. 2. Have ingress and egress on Garfield, not exiting onto Dixon. 3. How about moving the covered play area closer to the building? Jefferson School's is attached to the building. 4. Where will modulars be placed during construction? 5. Traffic flow needs to be arranged to keep people dropping off and picking up kids off the neighborhood streets. Local traffic is terrible. 6. In the proposed parking lot on Dixon, what size vehicles will be accommodated? How will the area be monitored to be used for staff only?
Tammy observed that the plan is not finalized. There have been two meetings: one was a meet and greet, the second one was about parking and traffic flow. The proposed design keeps the full sized soccer field, provides a larger parent drop off zone, and increase parking although they are still two spaces short of the city's recommendation.
> There was concern about kids walking through redesigned parking lot to get to the school. Tammy mentioned that there is a plan to divert the kids to a safer route through use of foliage. Also, since the gym and possibly some of the new classrooms will be used in the evenings, the entrance will be through the gym so parking will still be on 11 th.
Other comments: how about painting curbs yellow on Dixon to make bus drop off safer and give neighbors a break from people parking there? What about lighting? Will the lights be turned off at night? Perhaps motion detector lights? Stewart said call the police if there is a problem. Kathi pointed out that the police do not respond. Other neighbors agreed that there is not a great enough police presence in the neighborhood. Stewart said Todd Easton at the city handles complaints about matters related to the land development code. It is also good to let Nancy Wyse know.
Councilor Wyse gave a report: the TSP was approved and language about the removal of neighborhood parking was taken out. The SOP was adopted which should help councilors prioritize goals. Council held a work session on homelessness. HOAC in being reworked and will be managed by the county. A vote on the levy is in May. If it fails, Parks and Rec, library, Majestic Theatre, Osborn will be severely impacted. There will be no impact on property taxes because the levy replaces the expiring bond. Expenses are greater than income in the city in spite of personnel cuts and reorganization of committees. Without the levy, the city cannot maintain the current level of services. With the levy, the voters get to decide instead of council choosing the cuts.
Stewart said he would put information from the meeting on the association website. The meeting was adjourned at 7:55pm.
Respectfully submitted by Stephanie Mehlenbacher
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> Sent from my iPad
Below is a link to a drawing of the site plan