Howell Station Neighborhood Association
Neighborhood Meeting Notes
I. Introduction by President Trey Hudson
a. It’s been a while since our last meeting. We are working to stick to the bylaws requirement of one meeting every other month. The next meeting is tentatively set for May 12.
II. Special Guest: Ivory Young, City Council Member District 3
a. Mr. Young told us a bit about himself. He has been a lifelong architect. Our neighborhood is active and benefits from our involvement. We successfully fought BFI. He sits on the planning and zoning committee, so he is actively involved in zoning requests.
b. Mr. Young encouraged us to be active in our NPU-K, NPU-K Agenda, MAP. The new president of our NPU-K, is Joel Alverado. He, lives in Washington park. To get his contact information, call 404-330-6145.
c. Zoning Process: After plans are submitted, one form of input is community input from citizens of the NPU. Their views are taken into account when the council makes a decision on zoning.
d. Mr. Young is looking at our requests for playground improvements (assuming the swing set) and his committee will review.
e. Mr. Young offered to appear in court with residents who received fines for parking just off the street on “sidewalks” that don’t exist. His hope is that the situation won’t go to court, but it would be beneficial to get the court cases to bundle the cases to facilitate Mr. Young’s appearance. Also, the case is at a supervisor level, so it is hoped that the situation can be resolved before going to court. Mr. Young has offered to help begin a DOT review of the problematic area. Also, areas where we would like sidewalks should be submitted to him via the Neighborhood Association.
f. Mr. Young asked that we really pay attention to the jail and the surrounding land owned by Fulton County. The county does not require zoning before constructing buildings or additions. There’s a potential for negative impact on our community due to this lack of zoning. Just something to be aware of.
g. Mr. Young hopes that the next mayor will reverse some of the reforms of the current administration. Some of the changes include eliminating the requirement for police officers to attend traffic hearings. This has caused millions of dollars in lost revenue for the city.
h. Mr. Young talked about city finances. The Council is required to have a balanced budget by law. Every year we’ve had huge influx into the city. Improved revenues mean we should be able to reduce the millage rate. Projected tax revenue is ~$470M dollars, which leaves a $73 million deficit. The Council recommended cuts in specific areas, totally $20 million in savings. This should have been enough to prevent furloughs. The Council felt there were ways to reduce the budget. The Mayor felt taxes must be raised. The disagreement has been a major, publicized issue. The bookkeeping has been poor. The new CFO is working to improve things. The information available to the Council was unreliable. Fundamentally, the Council felt that raising taxes was not an option since they books were not accurate. They felt that the accounting must be fixed before taxes are raised. It looks like a tax raise is immanent, but the Council demands accountability in the finance department. The new financial software, Oracle, is helping show areas of inefficiency. The new CFO expects to have books reconciled this Summer, and hopefully they can be reconciled monthly as they should be.
i. Mr. Young spoke well of Mayor Franklin, but felt that her cabinet was not up to the task. In his opinion, Commissioner level employees were not qualified for their responsibilities.
j. Questions:
i. Are you running for re-election? When is that election?
1. Yes. Elections are November 2009. A word of advice: when selecting a Council Member, be sure your candidate of choice has a day job. Not having income of their own is a corruption liability.
ii. Thank you for your help with the swing set. How realistic is it that the city will subsidize or help subsidize? We are collecting competitive bids. Can we share them with you?
1. Mr. Young will try to get us a swing set. He asks that we copy him on all bids. Our diligence and scoping work is appreciated and will help Mr. Young help us. He is happy that the Parks and Rec folks are being so engaged in the process.
iii. There is a group of 10 households pursuing a lawsuit to have the “mountain of dust” moved. We want you to be aware.
1. When it gets to court, get it on Mr. Young’s calendar. He will attend to help the case. The Beltline can help us plan and trend zoning to be less heavy industry and more neighborhood friendly. The car rental tax from the airport is funding the purchase and renovation of the quarry into the new park.
iv. What is the progress of the new park?
1. We are finalizing the acquisition. Preliminary planning is coming to a close. The Council will be approving next steps based on available concepts. The work is in progress, but results won’t be overnight. Mr. Young has a CD he can duplicate for us that has the Subarea 9 Master Plan.
v. There were media reports of rail lines being expanded. Can you tell us more about that?
1. The DOT made a plan that supported widening rail lines along West Marietta Street, which would eliminate an entire neighborhood along the corridor. Although the legislation was tied to the Beltline, the Council pushed for the Beltline projects to continue without the rider that proposed the expansion in the Marietta Corridor. The Governor is working to create a new transportation authority that would abolish the DOT. Mr. Young finds the state’s distaste for federal bailout money and the timing of this proposed change to be too convenient.
k. To contact Mr. Ivory, please feel free to contact him directly. He is fine with criticism, and encourages us to continue to “not be shy” and bring up the tough issues.
i. Consider contacting a board member to funnel communications to Mr. Ivory. Of course you are encouraged to contact Mr. Young as you’d like.
III. The NCA (Northwest Community Alliance) meeting was last week.
a. Area Development: the Brickworks is moving forward. 5 Seasons should be open at the end of April.
b. Code Enforcement: Trey will need to step down from his unofficial role due to time constraints. We need a new volunteer to self-police to prevent a sweep by the City that would cause many citations. It involves a Saturday class to become certified.
IV. Updates on Activities Affecting Our Neighborhood / Topics of Interest
a. Website (Carl Feldhaus): We continue to work on features and content. We will be looking for help on gathering content. More details to come.
b. Listserve (Carl Feldhaus): We have approximately half the homes on the email list. Let’s try to get everyone on there. Sign up at howellstation.org. Please make a point to reply to individuals when appropriate instead of the entire group so as to keep the volume down.
c. Dues (Carl Feldhaus): Pay by check to Trey Hudson, Jennifer Higgins or Carl Feldhaus or by PayPal (admin@howellstation.com). It’s $25 a year.
d. Park Cleanup and Barbeque (Jennifer Higgins): We are planning the annual cleanup. If attendance is high enough, we will split into groups and clean up other common areas as well (like near our signs). Also, we wil have big grill so bring food to cookout and donate what you can to help.
e. Easter Egg Hunt (Tonya Brodie and Starr Brown): Saturday, April 11, 10am to 12pm. Held in conjunction with the Sherrif’s department. They are providing the eggs. The Easter Bunny is visiting.
f. Swing set (Starr Brown): The city is gathering requirements to us (environmental impact, arborist report, permitting). At the least, we expect the city will provide land preparation. Hopefully we can get the city to pay for the actual swing set. This is proof that when we organize and get involved, we can accomplish things. Starr left imagery and placement photos for review.
g. Walking / Yoga / Fitness (Kate Garrett): We’ve been walking with a small group and it’s lots of fun and low key. Mon-Wed at 6:45. Morning walkers can organize as well. Contact Kate. Yoga is coming to the neighborhood at a cost of ~$10 per person per session. We are waiting for approval from the church to use the space. More info to come.
h. Mail: It seems to be a neighborhood-wide issue where mail isn’t being delivered. Some neighbors get notes on their doors about their boxes being blocked. [Neighbor 1] is checking with the mail delivery lady since she has a good relationship with her. An update will be coming via the Listserve.
i. Elementary School (Kristen Decarlo): In the past, kids from our neighborhood went to E. Rivers. We are zoned for Centennial Place. Her son has been there for a year and very happy at the current school. The PTA is very active and the administration is very involved. In May, there will be an Open House / Tour day aimed primarily at Kindergarten registration, but it is open to the public. The school is very high tech and a great benefit that we are in that school zone.
j. Stop Signs at Tilden and Church (Trey Hudson): Trey is still working to get the stop signs at this intersection. It’s a slow going process, but he is still tying to get it done.
k. Jail Land Use (Chadd Jonesmith): pointed out that any changes made to the Jail could be used to piggy back on for changes to Rice St. The jail is terribly overcrowded, so there are immanent changes. We must be vigilant and aware of potential expansions.
l. Rice St at Marietta Blvd:
i. Adding a perpendicular intersection would slow traffic and hopefully deter some traffic.
ii. Trey has requested a No Through Traffic sign and Jail Traffic Use Marietta Boulevard sign at Rice Street at West Marietta.
iii. Closing Rice at Marietta Blvd is contentious. While curtailing traffic would be good, losing access could be very bad.
iv. Some of the worst speeders are attending the Church at West Marietta and residents of the neighborhood.
v. Add stop signs on Rice St? It would slow traffic.
vi. Trey would like to petition to have the speed limit lowered.
vii. Perhaps rumble strips in between the speed humps?
V. New Announcements:
a. Westside Park preview: April 18th. Email coming with details.
b. A neighborhood directory is coming on the website. More details coming.
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