Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association
General Business Meeting
June 15, 2009, 6:30pm
The Granite Room – 211 Peters St.
MINUTES
Laurel Emery called the meeting to order at 6:38.
The May, 2009 General Business Meeting minutes were adopted and accepted.
ACERT Training – Bernard Coxton (404-546-7060, www.acertga.org)
• Emergency preparedness training
• Self-sustain for up to 72 hours
• They train people in a community to be the central contact for emergencies and ensure residents are prepared before emergency personnel can get to you
• Let us know if you want to be involved in ACERT training; they will come to us and train us as a neighborhood
• Looking for someone to spear-head this trining in Castleberry Hill
• Contact Allison Parker if interested in getting involved!
APD – Lt. Little (Evening Watch Commander, dlittle@atlantaga.gov, precinct – 404-658-7500)
• Lt. Spillane not available this evening, Lt. Little’s focus is narcotics & vice
• Officer assigned for the next 30 days, road blocks, etc., tend to be productive in CH
• Crime report for this past couple of weeks is on the Public Safety page of the website under “Crime Reports”
• Need to call 911 – the dispatcher takes the call and prioritizes it then alerts the zone and they act on it, there is very little or no delay once they get it
• Nelson Street Bridge seems to be an issue with escape, Lt. Little wasn’t familiar w/ this particular issue
• Kidnapping w/ Yukon’s and large vans, report suspicious behavior, DON’T GET IN THE CAR W/ THEM!!!!
• Always be cautious and aware of your surroundings!
• Public Safety meeting at Castleberry Point last Thursday and Lt. Spillane was there and said we would get the reports to post ton the website
• If they see something happening and can’t get in they can’t help so if you are in a gated community please notify Zone 5 and give them the code or access # for the property
• APD Task Force being formed to deal with the retail theft
• CLEAN CAR CAMPAIGN – KEEP THINGS OUT OF YOUR CAR!!!
OFFICERS REPORTS
Secretary – Spur Sale last weekend, raised almost $300 for the dog park
COMMITTEE REPORTS
PR/Communications
• Helping to promote all events, can always use your help, have a lot of events coming up, make sure to check the new website, info on the home page and on the calendar, you can sync the calendar w/ Google and iCal
Membership
• Make sure to sign the sign-in sheet and join the neighborhood association at www.castleberryhill.org
Loft Tour
• Sponsorship packets are being finalized, Scott, Stefan and Allison are heading that up, can email sponsors@castleberryhill.org about that; also accepting sponsors from outside of the neighborhood and we are 501c3, which is important for a lot of businesses, especially larger ones; taking submissions for lofts, let us know if you want to submit or know of one that would be good for the tour
• More information on the Loft Tour at www.castleberryhill.org/lofttour
• 85% of neighborhood working budget comes off of Loft Tour so important to engage folks on that front
Transportation
• GRTA bus hearings to discuss increasing the number of buses in the downtown area; Heather has been involved since Oct 2003 with issues arising from this, the concerns are the bus routes and parking; Cobb, for instance, comes in an hour early to miss traffic and parks in traffic routes for an hour, working with them to fix these issues is a focus right now. Main concern is the general congestion and the way it tears up the streets and we pay for that, not the people from the suburbs who use the buses. They are talking about using stimulus funds to increase GRTA buses.
Business & Economic Development
• Surveys available on Business Development page of the website for both businesses and residents; here’s your opportunity to voice your opinion
• Business networking event at 255 Tapas on June 23rd from 6:230-7:30
Neighborhood Relations
• All events this Summer are going to the Dog Park
• Paws for Wine, 3rd Thursday’s from 6-8pm at the Wine Shoe
• Sunday, June 28th – Puppy Pride Party at the Glenn, 2-5pm on the roof, $20
• 4th of July party on the roof at Castleberry Point starting at 5pm, $10 for non-members (free for others), $10 for beer cups
Clean-Up
• Good participation, waiting for trash pick-up, which should be in the next couple of days
• Thanks to SLICE for pizza at end of the work
NEW BUSINESS
MARTA Public Hearings – Paul Grether
• Dire financial situation for MARTA, service changes, etc. being discussed tomorrow, ending at midnight instead of 1am; some stimulus funds should help carry through fiscal year 2010
• www.itsmarta.com has proposed service changes
• Meeting starting at 6pm tomorrow night, Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Two Sisters Market – Krista & Kelly Ruggles
• Opening grocery store/market in Castleberry Point in center in COP
• Asking for blessing from neighborhood for alcohol license, they are a specialty food store, will be selling only beer since Wine Shoe has wine
• Not a convenient store license, can’t sell lottery tickets, etc.
• Looking at having the following hours, very tentative: M-F 8-8pm, 8-9pm Sa/Su, 9-7pm Su
• Hoping to be open in the Fall and promotin at Loft Tour
• There will be a little bit of indoor seating in the mezzanine level and there’s a view of the fountain; you can also eat in the courtyard
• Unanimous decision to approve license
Green Door Market – Charles Bryant
• Every Sunday 11-4pm
• Working w/ other NPUs to get more traffic and more signage
• thegreendoormarket@gmail.com
• Had about 120 people come and 9 vendors
• Always looking for vendors, cost is $20 to be a vendor, has bathrooms, etc.
Central Atlanta Progress – Downtown Encore Plan – Jennifer Ball (jball@atlantadowntown.com)
• Not-for-profit business development group
• Planning initiative called the Imagine Downtown – it’s been 5 years since implemented, framework for most of the downtown area
• The handouts are or the original plan, not the new plan
• Directional signage to help people in CH to find the highway, bus station, Underground, etc. and maybe downtown to get people to CH
• There is a little money that can be used for certain livable community initiatives, such as the Nelson Street Bridge work (5 year plan), definitely pedestrian, possibly vehicular, both city and railroad have strong cases for ownership; but it is in the tax-allocation district, which can help
• 222 Mitchell – very active plans and possible movement soon, same owners as Studio Plex
• Vendor program – City of Atlanta has always allowed vendors to sell on the street and for the last 20 years there have been regulations on this to obtain permits and they have had to pay very little ($50-75/year) and there has not been enough money raised to regulate this; goal is to encourage entrepreneurship and permitting and regulation has been tough, current administration has been working on a better way to handle this, to do this they went through a RFP process and are working on finding better ways to handle this.
Le Flash – Stuart (curator)
• www.leflash-atlanta.com
• Evening performance art festival, we’re working up to 24-hours, but only lasts 6 hours here, this year it will be October 2nd and will end at Elliott Street Pub
• Aim to have over 50 artists w/ light-based art throughout the neighborhood; looking to close Braberry for performance art
• Part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography and they have an anonymous donor to help with funding; looking at having all businesses involved
OLD BUSINESS
NEIGHBORHOOD ANNOUNCEMENTS
Any New Businesses Opening in Neighborhood
Any Other Announcements
Ded Serious Results, Personal Training – Dedrick Henry
• Targets Castleberry Hill, can do at buildings or individual residences, has flyers at the front
Jerald McBride – July 24th Art Stroll Installation
• Highlight stop-motion (photos pieced together to look like animation) graphic artists and looking at being involved in Le Flash
• Will be setup at 354/360 Nelson Street the night of the Art Stroll, this is the area in between JR Erickson and Fulton Supply and will have to direct traffic down Mangum through the back
• May have a small fee to enter the venue
• Alcohol is a possibility and they will have a special events permit for this event
• They are working w/ Joel Roth at Fulton Supply, who owns the property
Art Stroll
• Art community in Castleberry Hill has met and decided to move the Art Stroll from the 4th Friday to the 2nd Friday
• The first one will be October 9th, following
Cortland Jackson (255 Tapas) stated that there would be a Castleberry Hill organizational merchant meeting at Pascal’s on Tuesday, June 23rd from 11:30-1pm; looking at having Buckhead community members, CT Martin, APD and others to help drive interest in the area and help fund additional work throughout the neighborhood concerning various elements
Castleberry Point – Jerry Miller
• JR Crickets moving into the Nelson/Chapel side of the project and Jerry Miller stated that they have been working with the owner to make sure the company would fit the neighborhood and development, this has taken some time and they would not allow a business to come in without understanding what the neighborhood focus and concerns are.
• Matt McCusker stated that he is a major opponent of this property and concerned about the business and franchise; Jerry Miller said that DJs will not be in place and the tavern concept will not be implemented here; the model most closely resembling this location would be the one on South Cobb Dr, which is more of a family establishment; curious about what happens if they don’t abide by what Jerry and they agreed to, Jerry will be the lease holder
Troy Taylor – Emerging Art Scene will be opening in later August and they are at the corner of COP and Chapel
RuChDa, www.ruchdawings.com, 404-753-2323683 Cascade Rd
• Located off Bankhead and just wanted to make sure that we all know they are there and brought wings and coupons
SPECIAL GUESTS: CITY, COUNTY, STATE, & FEDERAL OFFICIALS
City Council
Jay Tribby – Kwanza Hall’s office
• Pointed out that none of the City Councilmembers from CH are being included in Cortland’s organizational meeting on June 23rd
• Big thing this month is the budget, newsletter at the front lays out the big things; Mayor outlining 7% property tax increase, please let your City Councilmembers know how you feel about this, Mayor has tied this increase to the police/fire furloughs and this is creating a big issue, go to www.atlantaga.gov to see all of the budget information and contact Kwanza Hall, Cleta Winslow and Ivory Lee Young’s offices to let them know how you feel; this year the reassessments of property values have been taken into consideration, but next year the impact could be extreme
APD
• Presented at beginning of meeting
Meeting adjourned at 8:00pm
