Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association
General Business Meeting
September 21, 2009, 6:30pm
Granite Room – 211 Peters St
MINUTES
President Laurel Emery called the meeting to order at 6:30pm.
The August, 2009 General Business Meeting minutes were adopted and accepted.
MAYORAL CANDIDATE – KASIM REED
www.kasimreed.com
• Bring back children’s recreation centers to give kids something to do and potentially help with the gang issue in the city
• Stricter laws for repeat offenders
• Fully funded police and fire departments
• Expand police force 100k new residents in the city, only saw an increase in police of 300
• Redirect revenue towards public safety; $1M would have ended furlows, $40M floating around out there
• Youth crime is up, used to be 17 year olds, now they are 14-15 years old; closing the rec centers didn’t help with this
• Gang activity settling into the area not being acknowledged by City officials. The adult is in the car and they send the teens in to do the job since they get more of a slap on the wrist.
• Beltline – very valuable, but supreme court struck down funding, Kasim Reed helped reverse funding options
• Merge traffic & municipal savings to save money
• Has been able to effectively work with Republicans to change legislation
• Changing MARTA funding – got past the Senate, that’s further than most. Kasim feels the City vs the State issues is fairly superficial.
• Water issues are a major concern
• Crime issues, mainly with repeat offenders – got to keep them off the streets, youths commit crimes and juvenile hall can’t keep them so they are sent home. There needs to be a more comprehensive approach. There needs to be a change in who can grant bail – should only be State court judge, that’s not the case in Fulton county right now.
OFFICERS REPORTS
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Public Safety – There have been 18 road blocks in the past few weeks, very few in Castleberry Hill and only a couple of people at the meeting were ever stopped at them. Brochures are being worked on, will be printed and circulated. The APD is getting the crime reports to us in a timely manner and are being posted to the Public Safety page of the website. Notices are sent to those who are listed as the building contacts for Public Safety, those individuals should be circulating to your buildings. Public Safety phone # is 404-903-7844, please leave a message if you call or we will not return the call. The incident report (found on the website) should be filled out after every event and after 911 has been contacted.
Clean-Up – Big thank you to everyone who turned out in the dreary rainy morning for the clean up, unfortunately the weather didn’t break enough to make it happen. Make sure to clean up around your own buildings. If everyone just did a little around their own property it would keep everything looking great. The City finally had the sidewalks trimmed along COP and Castleberry Point had folks clean up the island at COP/Walker/Nelson.
Loft Tour – Volunteer email coming soon, the even is this weekend, we are hoping for no rain and asking everyone to help spread the word!!! Sept 26 & 27, kick-off/VIP party Friday night, Sept 25th during Art Stroll (hosts, sponsors, media); Volunteers still needed, clipboard going around, shifts are short, you get a t-shirt, sport water bottle, snacks during shift, ticket to tour and party Sunday night at Paschal’s; Best in Show/Neighborhood Raffle & Separate Buy-In Raffle
PR/Communications – Focusing right now on Loft Tour, still looking for folks to help with website. Looking at options for the street banner replacement throughout neighborhood.
Neighborhood Relations – Halloween Trick-or-Treating, Saturday, October 31st starting at 6pm, meet at Mueller. More information on calendar and home page of website. Chili Cook-of on Saturday, November 14th at Castleberry Point, make sure to visit the website to download a form and make your payment for the event!
NEW BUSINESS
OLD BUSINESS
Le Flash – www.leflash-atlanta.com
• Proclamation from the City from Kwanza Hall
• Maps printed and distributed
• Sunday, Sept 27, 3-4pm – setup/test-run
• Thanks to Castleberry Point for volunteering space and the neighborhood for helping with everything
• Hoping to be 24 hours next year
• 7 off-duty APD officers hired to be around that evening
• Volunteer parking at HJ Russell
• Shuttle from Garnett MARTA station to Peters/Fair
• Anonymous donor, now going for 501c3 to help make it bigger and better
NEIGHBORHOOD ANNOUNCEMENTS
Any New Businesses Opening in Neighborhood
Any Other Announcements
Wine Shoe – up for ADDEA – Atlanta Downtown Design Excellence Award, they are holding onto the top spot so vote today! http://www.atlantamagazine.com/ADDEA2009/View.aspx?ID=129199
SPECIAL GUESTS: CITY, COUNTY, STATE, & FEDERAL OFFICIALS
City Council
Cleta Winslow
• Plaque presented @ National Night Out (NNO) event for community involvement
• Free block captain training October 10th @ City of Atlanta Police & Fire Headquarters
• DOT gateway grant for $50k for old state highways, Peters would qualify for this
APD
Meeting adjourned at 7:30pm.
