Sunday, June 5, 2005

LONA Meeting Minutes of May 9, 2005

Lyell-Otis Neighborhood Association Meeting Minutes of May 9, 2005

Meeting Began at 7:10 P.M.

WELCOME& Review Of Minutes:

Mike V. (Pres.)

- arrest list of area prostitutes

- housing/property-in-need-of-action "hot" list

- sex offenders in our area

Announcement:

any more recipes to be added in to the Northwest Rochester Cookbook must be turned in at the next LONA meeting on June 13th, 2005

Burglary/Robbery: part 1

pretty bad month for our area

- Three (3) on Sherman St.: walk-ups with a gun

- Three (3) on Emerson St.: in the same area on the same day - Paul’s Service Center, Avery Street, Glide Street

- Curlew St.: auto break-in

Housing Report:

- Showed a list of all the problem locations that have been taken care of and have been removed from our "hot" list -

GREAT THANKS TO ALL WHO WORK ON THIS ONGOING PROBLEM!!!

- More locations are going to be added soon

Sharon-NET:

- ## Otis St. - "K" letter sent to the owner - must give NET schedule of work to be completed or face large fines.

- ### Glide St. - some progress is being made; to be completed by August 2005.

- ### McNaughton St. - cars to be repaired are coming in on flatbed trucks; inspector did not see the activity on two spot checks, but there still is an open zoning case and a C of O case open on the property as well.

Question: Couldneighbors clean up the property? Apparently Chuck Hanes bought the property as of 04/27/05 - Environmental Services told the neighbor that the owner must clean it. Mary (NET inspector) was to get the door and broken window boarded up. Garage is NOT secure with the ladder there - the 2nd floor bedroom door opens to a porch that could be accessed using the ladder. Sharon (NET) said that as long as the door was secure, the window needn’t be boarded. This property has been in foreclosure. Grande guy owns this property - someone (past tenant?) still has access via a key. Also, someone has been driving by trying to intimidate neighbors not to "make waves" - too bad for those bad guys!

- Glide St. corner building - orange paint looks bad / in poor taste for the area.

- ### Glide St. and ## Cameron St. - trash totes are out all week long, well after trash has been collected.

Burglary/Robbery: part 2 - Police Officer Elena Vaughn:

PAC-TAC Saturation Walk - second one this spring on Tues May 10th, 2005

- no training required, meet at 6pm at NET, leave at 6:30pm --- Bring water to drink!!

- About a dozen people showed up at last month’s walk on April 12th - using community van as well.

- PCIC meeting at Westside H.Q. reported the following: violent crime is down 7.1%, p+1 down 12.9%, increase in robberies - drug related, arsons do not seem to have a pattern at this time.

- Good Bust!! A tip regarding suspicious activity led police to 24 Myrtle Hill Park - no arrests to that time, but ... Removed from the premises and taken off the street were: four (4) guns, one (1) pound of marijuana, two (2) golf ball sized amount of cocaine. Order to vacate was issued.

THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL POLICE FORCE!

THEY WORK HARD, AND WE APPRECIATE ALL THEIR EFFORTS!!

- 148 Cameron St. - Removed three (3) pounds of marijuana, drug records, and an order to search cars was issued

- Drug arrest was madeat 684 Emerson St. and a gun was removed from the premises as well.

- 348 Murray St. - arrested drug buyer who was robbed from his bike and stabbed as well!

- Michigan St. (near ###)- loud music and car racing (low profile wheels), mini-bikes/mopeds - kids could get hurt

- Bergen & McNaughton Sts. - bikes must be registered to be driven on the street, driver must be 16 years of age. Mini bikes ridden on their own property is fine.

- Speed detector unit - a member volunteered his yard to help alleviate the problem.

Traffic enforcement will be on the lookout!

Bob Stevenson (City Council): Mike Cracoski (sp?) has the speed gun - to be re-calibrated in Albany

- IMPACT is back - two (2) week rotation, overtime details will be ON

- call in license plate numbers

- heard on Bergen St. and ## Isabelle St. - car in driveway Sat. & Sun.

- music from house - officer wasn’t available, go to NET to sign deposition

- Acceptable Noise Levels: 50' from house before 10pm, or at property line after 10pm

- any suspicious activity at A+ at Lyell & Sunset - 1149 Lyell closed - working out front of doorway around 10:30pm/11:00pm - not getting gas - past employee was fired for drug sales in the store

- reports were written on the store - points are assessed to property

- ### Glide and house on Sunset

Sharon (NET) - a W. Main St. location had problems - owner voluntarily closed at midnight to help area - the owners could lose money, but they did so anyway

- Frank L. knows Sally (manager) of A+ at Lyell & Sunset - would speak to her to get her help

Contact Officer Vaughn 428-7344 with plate numbers, house numbers

- once a week, with 311, sends "soft letter form" to owners of vehicles or property

BobStevenson (City Council):

- meeting in April - not gone through all the prostitutes

- B-misdemeanors - plead down violation - one was working across from the NET office that same night

- spoke with DA Mike Green - the ADA had NOT been instructed to agree to plead down charges

- only two (2) people will be able to handle these cases from now on

- past Thursday -police rented four (4) vehicles

- out of twenty-two (22) people, forty (40) warrants were issued, sixty-three (63) warrants outstanding combined

- one (1) was on parole, one (1) violation of probation - for fifteen (15) bail was $1000, for one (1) it was $1500

- seven (7) received pretrial release - May 27th - on bench warrant - in-house division,

- STD tested and given a physical - in county lockup or in jail

- this Thursday May 12th - ten (10) pretrial, five (5) more on Friday - determine if guilty or not - sentence?

- Frank, his mom, and four (4) others on court watch - seven (7) fit into van (or pay more to park!)

- ages of local prostitutes run from twenty (20) - fifty-five (55)

Neighbor recently bought a home on Rockview Terrace - her daughter was asked if she was soliciting as she walked home from school - directed to go through Center for Dispute Settlement - Sharon (NET) requested that the daughter be present to get both sides - neighbor said the daughter provided proof of who she was at the time of inquiry

- four (4) prostitutes arrested on Lyell Ave. / N. Plymouth Ave. (929 & 780), 40 Lorimer St., 305 Glenwood Ave., Lexington Ave., 292 Driving Park, Otis St. - it depends were they make to offer of solicitation

Question: If the prostitute lives on Isabelle St, what do we do?

Answer: Call 311 toreport activity - describe prostitute, for example: age 21 Cassie Bouroughs - very young looking

- one of our members saw a prostitute get in a John’s car on Lyell Ave. and Mt. Read Blvd. - he followed the car onto Wetmore St. to Jay St. - they went to Gates Motel - so he called 911 - officer was called

- it costs $5,000-6,000 to do a single sweep

- new judge - will listen to reason, asks for twice the regular fine

1. Broad St. tunnel from Exchange Blvd. to Brown St.

- Brown St. portal to Allen St. - all the steel is rotting badly, past the point of restoration, the rest is concrete - has shirring problems, these might be able to be restored, ten (10) miles = approximately ten (10) streets

- is it necessary to "cut & cover" to spend $1 Million in material per year,

- the drainage is a problem, approx. 8/10ths of a mile long

2. Mayor plans to spend $$ on capital improvements

- what are plans? City government, budget C.I.P. = capitol improvement program

- city budget - yr1 yr2 -- yr5, 400+ pages long

- Mayor’s budget vote on June 14th, on computer to view by Thursday May 12th

- comparison is in plan already, carefully look at budget lines - that comes in from federal and etc.

- pick similar to similar, pick date to date, cannot forfeit funds cannot use in budget

Question: Broad St. tunnel - $ bestow & etc, why fill in area over tunnel?

Bob V.S. (V.Pres.): point out aqueduct

Bob Stevenson (City Council): federal funds comes, money doesn’t come to city directly

- Genesee Transportation Council POT goes to communities and different counties

- about $21Million - allocated for given purpose - fill, pack, concrete repair

Bob V.S. (V.Pres.): questioned quality of engineers used by the city

Bob Stevenson (City Council): NYS Dept. of Transportation - oneof 34th worst - bridgethat is rated at 2.5 (very bad)

Sharon (NET): already spent funds, also street scape as well

Bob Stevenson (City Council): pure waters, Frontier Field, no funds to relocate lines

Mike V. (Pres.): to the neighbor who just bought a home on Rockview Terrace - speak to Capt. Davis regarding her daughter being mistaken for prostitute - LONA would help her go through system

Frank Louk, Quality of Life Committee:

- finalizing how to communicate within sector to all of the associations

- goes to Sector 3 for avote

Give Marleen phone numbers for contact list

Question: Karnes St. - read letter re: sex offenders

- received six (6) pictures in Sector 3 of Level 3 Offenders (the worst kind) - they are living on Dewey Ave. near School #34, also on Curtis, Austin, and Curlew Streets, as well as 723 Glide St.

Houses Grant Funds:

N.C.S. - Cheri Adam 548 Lake Ave. 254-8090

- June 6th - Residential Assistance Program - 9am - 4pm - not 1st come 1st served, ranked on priority of need, emergencies and code violations, it is easier to come in person than to phone, program is for home owners

- can get up to $3500 - if received grant last year, then no ... eligible every four (4) years

- electrical, plumbing, storm doors, security lighting, not roofs, there are income limitations

- also ABC - has possible grant funds available for weatherization, hot water tanks, furnaces, windows, etc - contact Rodney Washington

Question: Does anyone know what occurred or came of the quality of life meeting held by Carla Palumbo?

Answer: Sharon (NET) - Information was gathered, nothing was sent out yet, and Bob Stevenson (City Council) spoke on prostitution - what role does the county play

Closing Remarks:

- any recipes to be added into the cookbook must be turned in at the next meeting on June 13th, so the book can go to print

- May 24th - meeting regarding vacant buildings, Linda M. Stango, AIA (?)

Meeting adjourned at 8:28pm