Inter-Neighborhood Council
Making Better Neighborhoods
Http://www.rtpnet.org/durhminc
Minutes of Meeting of February 24,2004
REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT
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Virginia Bridges
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The Herald Sun
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R. Gaye Weaver
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Old West Durham
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Pat Carstensen
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Cross County
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Barbara Deason
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Morehead Hill
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Cheryl Sweeney
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Northgate Park
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Renata Wend
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Tuscaloosa-Lakewood
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Cathy Abernathy
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Hope Valley
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Randy Pickle
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Forest Hills
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Risa Foster
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Trinity Heights NA
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Dale Stouch
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Placid Valley
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David Harris
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Old Farm
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Timothy Bellamy
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Old Farm
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Tom Miller
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Watts Hospital - Hillandale
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Bill Anderson
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Duke Park
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Howard Price
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The Brickman Group / Guest Speaker
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Lynwood D. Best
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City of Durham, Housing & Comm Development
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William Crosmun
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Parkwood
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Duane Clark
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Durham Police Department
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Vicki Schneider
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Woodlake HOA
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Lugenia Mason
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River Forest
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Robert Larson
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Grove Park
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Mike Shiflett
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Housing Appeals
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Ned Kennington
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Watts Hospital - Hillandale
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????
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Durham Public Schools
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Administration and Announcements
President Cheryl Sweeney opened the meeting, and members introduced themselves.
Park Maintenance Howard Price of the Brickman Group gave the basic costs structure for various aspects of grounds maintenance. The Brickman Group is a national provider of landscape maintenance; locally they take care of grounds at a number of large corporations and malls. Each case is different, depending on what is acceptable (mow 40 times a year or 8), what needs to be done (using a 21 mower is 7 times more costly than a 60 mower), and what kinds of technology and materials are being used. There are some easy things to do such as mulch around trees so that mowers not tempted to get so close to trees that they bang into them and do things the right way at the right time of year (quit planting trees in June). Simple trash pick-up is daunting in some areas. We agreed to have Brickman Group look at costs of doing maintenance at Oval, Walltown, and River Forest parks to get some benchmark of how efficient the city is being. Other items discussed:
1. Adopt a Park In spite of question of needing to pay taxes and contribute to park maintenance, having an umbrella of city liability for work being done can be good.
2. Raleigh is nationally known for their parks program. What are they doing different?
3. Forest Hills raises money and has work days; pays for some of the grounds work.
4. Durham Parks Trust Sell off some parks that dont fit parks needs, use proceeds plus 3 years tax base as endowment to take care of parks left. The controversy is what to do about places that currently have no parks.
Speed Humps Ned Kennington and Tom Miller gave a presentation on the height of speed humps. Durham is in the process of installing about 100 new ones around town. All 8 humps recently installed in the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood were found that violate City of Durham standards by being too low (more than the 1/4 allowed) and being of the wrong shape. Ned and Tom demonstrated the method for measuring speed humps in case other neighborhoods want to check the ones in their neighborhood. City Engineering has not been effective at responding to concerns. We will also bring a resolution (see below for proposed text) to the next meeting.
INC Priorities We put up about 4 pages of possibilities and did dots on them. Executive Committee will compile for next meeting.
Information / Committee Reports / Events
§ Dues are due. 11 neighborhoods have paid dues. We have about $1100 in the treasury.
§ Homeowner Association Pool and Pond Workshop, March 13 at Grove Park.
§ Great Human Race, March 27, to raise money for non-profits. Dale Stouch is looking for volunteers to seek sponsors for Durham Literacy Center.
The meeting was adjourned.
