(There was no February LONA meeting due to weather and illness of members.)
Lyell-Otis Neighborhood Association Meeting Minutes from March 13th, 2006
Meeting Began: 7:04pm
Announcements
--- Neighborhood Safety--- there has been a rash of robberies in our neighborhood where the criminal brandished a gun; LONA officers were not informed about these events until long afterward, so that is why LONA neighbors were not informed in a timely manner.
- CPO Steve Boily is out with a sprain from pursuing / catching a perpetrator of unrelated crimes
- Lyell NET has lost 2 crime prevention officers, as they were promoted to a higher rank
- NET’s new administrator Jose Cruz suggested that we contact Westside’s Commander Corridi regarding lack of information about the recent robberies
Housing - Code Violations "Hot List" Top 15:
- we meet on Thursday 3/23/06 at 11am at the Lyell NET office
V.P. Bob Van Sice listed the properties that we have removed from our list - 12 since last year
Flower City Work Project: many applications are being reviewed; the work is performed by teens, so there are reasonable guidelines as to what tasks they can do
NET Updates and Information:
- New NET administrator Jose Cruz has been in the Rochester community since 1965
- previously was a mortgage broker at HSBC and Bank of America
- he is also an Eastside Legislator for Rochester
Week of May 8th - Spring Cleaning: open areas, lots, vacant houses; clean / raking will be done
Sat. May 13th - area volunteers will help out
- area around the Sykes Building (was burnt last year) at corner of Jay and Whitney Streets, will be cleaned; also a possibility of putting up barriers so residents / visitors won’t have to see rubble
NET’s Business Walk: started at Lyell Ave and State St, working Westward
- introducing themselves to the area businesses, scaring some folks who might not be on the level
NET’s Neighborhood Walk Through: look into anything of note or out of the ordinary
- they will walk every street in the NET’s area
NET’s Communication: with the area, how can they do it better?
- it was suggested that leaders of all the neighborhoods in our NET’s area hold a monthly meeting
- keep everyone informed / see what resources are needed
- hopes to empower folks to do for self
Informal Survey: Pres. Mike asked LONA meeting attendees to participate and offer their opinion on the NET
- varied emotions; some had no problems while many others voiced complaints over the lack of speed of service / response time
NET’s Jose Cruz responded:
- they have patience as well, what they want doesn’t happen either
- cases are open on what is still private property; owners supposedly screen applicants of rental property
- small amount of funds are set aside for burnt out vacant homes
- 450 houses are on the demo list; $12K to $14K to demo a house, especially with asbestos
- Mayor Duffy’s goal is to catch up on demolitions
- Jose and Chuck work with community groups; rest at NET are office staff, officers, & inspectors
- Lyell NET receives and works on over 350 cases per month
- Mayor Duffy has given all the NET offices 1 year to show improvement
- those property owners who are making effort at improving their property; less ticketing
- wants to go after those owners who aren’t making improvements and are bringing down our area
NET’s Chuck Stechna: he has been dealing with absentee landlords
- one was living in London, England
- another one lives in Texas and has never even been to Rochester or seen the property!!
- he needs us (the community) to observe, record and report
- the city of Rochester demos a property every other day
- NET can’t do everything, but they will point us in the right direction
- effective soon, the NET offices will be open at night; cycle / take turns around to each office, so that there will be later coverage
County Legislator Carla Palumbo:
- she is interested in creating a community newsletter
- there are county budget concerns; suggestions from legislature and community members
- proposed $30K to $40K savings from the sheriff’s road patrol, as we were paying without getting any of the benefits
- water authority, city pays $6Mil per year, wants to transfer that cost to the county
- list of ideas are on the county website and on a citizen blog
- new legislators in the caucus; new era of civility, but not yet cooperation; she meets with other legislators to build rapport
- 90 day deadline for Monroe County budget is coming up soon
- Medicaid Tax Intercept will cost the city $50Mil, we must find a better solution
- DSS is a big concern; moved Patricia Stevens out and put someone else in, reorganize and overhaul; concern about recommendations; worth more than $2Mil in savings
- force county department heads to have a response, must come back with an action plan, the legislature hasn’t seen that yet
Sex Offenders: 3 new ones have moved into our neighborhood
- 205 Curtis St Scott Wilbert Level 3 with photo - check our website for his picture
- Level 2's doesn’t provide detail information on Pablo Burgos and Kevin Unterborn
Next Year’s Meeting Place for LONA: starting in August of 2006
- Lyell Branch Library’s Community Room will be our new and much improved meeting location; two nice parking lots at the libraryand it is accessible to all!
Meeting Adjurned at 8:33pm
