Meeting Minutes - November 2009

Welcome

Announcements

• Proposition One ($125 million bond proposal for a new public safety complex) garnered a large margin of victory on November 3, with 66% of voters saying “yes". Congratulations to our police, fire, & emergency workers! The actual site of the new complex is still under negotiation - the proposed site east of the library is not a done deal yet. Other sites are still being investigated. The average property tax increase for a homeowner, per year, will be $75 for this new complex.
• Bike lanes on Main Street will not happen this year. Contractors encountered problems removing the existing painted lines from the street - their removal method was causing excessive damage. The project has been put on hold for the time being and should be completed in the spring. The existing four lanes of traffic (two each way) will be converted to a middle turning lane, one car lane going each direction, and one bike lane going each direction.
  

Police Update from Detective Potter

• With baseball season over, we can expect crime (especially car prowls & graffiti) to continue to decrease. The vast majority of car prowls over the last few months were perpetrated in parking lots associated with the ball park.
• All (of the few) car prowls that happened away from the ball park involved a valuable item such as a purse, wallet, computer, or iPod left in plain sight in the car. Avoid being a victim! Don't leave stuff in your car in plain sight - and lock your car doors.
• A temporary, solar-powered speed monitor has been implemented on northbound West Temple, near 1800 South. This was done in response to complaints of cars speeding through this section of West Temple.
  

October crime stats for People's Freeway District:
Arson = 1, same as September
Aggravated Assault = 4, down from 6 in September
Burglary = 12, same as September
Car Prowl = 23, up from 22 in September
Car Strip = 3, down from 5 in September
Robbery = 3, down from 7 in September
Sexual Assault = 0, down from 2 in September
Stolen Vehicle = 3, same as September
Vandalism = 18, down from 24 in September
Weapon Drive By = 0, down from 1 in September

Open Forum

• How can we get improved street lighting? There is not really any money in the city budget for improvements like this right now. However, Community Council chair Bill Davis is currently putting together a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) application for our area, and he will include this in the application. You can read more about the CIP here.

• Palmer Court is at full occupancy, and things are going well. The Road Home is working closely with police to resolve any problems that occur.
  

Discussion of proposed updates to Community Council bylaws

• A number of minor changes were proposed, mostly fixing odd wording and clarifying existing bylaws.
• Renaming our area from "People's Freeway" to "Ballpark". General consensus is that the name "People's Freeway" is quite vague and does not really help define our community. Spring Mobile ball park is the second most-used sports facility in Utah (after Energy Solutions Arena), and is centrally located within our Council boundaries, giving our area a name that is much more tangible.
• Eliminating the Executive Board, and instead granting the Board the ability to create specialized committees as needed. Any such committee would be announced in monthly Community Council meetings, and regular updates on the committees actions will also be provided to the Council.
• Changing election terms for board members to a staggered system, so an election is held each year, for two (or three) board members at a time. This would prevent turnover of the entire board at the same time.
• As of November 2010, the chair must a resident of the area. Remaining four board members can be residents, business owners, or property owners.
• New proposed bylaws will be posted on this site for review, and will be voted on at the next Community Council meeting.

Election of new board members

• Bill Davis re-elected as chair. Bill owns a business, as well as rental properties in our area. He has served us well for the last two years, and has agreed to stay on for another year.
  
• Jessica Berrett re-elected as vice chair. Jessica is a resident of the area for five years, and has been active on the Council during that time - including representing our Community Council on the advisory board for the Palmer Court project.
  
• Sach Combs elected as vice chair. Sach (pronounced "Sash") is a resident of the area for six years. He supports changing the name of our area, and is looking forward to being active on the Community Council board.
• Elke Phillips elected as vice chair. Elke is a resident of the area for seven years, and lives close to our northern boundary. She is enjoying her involvement with the recently constructed community garden, Peoples Portable Garden, at 200 West 900 South.
  
• Bryan Berrett elected as Secretary. Bryan has been, and will continue to manage the Community Council website, email mailing list, and minutes from monthly meetings.

Thank you to all who attended!

Proposed New Bylaws

It is proposed to change the bylaws and name of the community council to Ballpark Community Council. The proposed new bylaws can be found here (http://peoplesfreeway.org/Ballpark_CC.pdf)