GREATER AVENUES COMMUNITY COUNCIL Minutes
April 3, 2002 Held at the Sweet Library

 

Chair Dick Smiley opened meeting at 7:00 pm and welcomed all here. Sorry about the misdating of the meeting in the newsletter as Wed. Apr. 4.

Announcements:

Tomorrow morning at 7 am is the mayor’s roundtable. Is there anything you want me to bring up?

On the 8th we all have a chance to rally against nuclear waste at the Gallivan Center. The occasion is Monday night, April 8, 6 pm at the Gallivan Center. Public hearings on this are 2-5 pm and 7 pm at the Salt Palace.

Proposal by a group of Latinos to add the name of Caesar Chavez to 6th South. If you want to give input to that tell Dick or the SLC Corp community and Economic Dev program. Want to determine level of community support. Phone 535-6354 to give your comments to Jackie O. Gesparic principal planner to SLC.

Avenues area clean up starts next week and will continue for 2 weeks. It is the law in the city to have branches that hang over the sidewalk not hang lower than 8 feet. Any brush must not cover the sidewalk as well.

Reports:

Police: Kim you can compare info on the web site with what we tell you tonight. In our area we had a gang related incident. Responsible citizen saw man appeared to be a transient. Did find one of the individuals backpack. Treated it as found property. Hash pipe in there. Has come up as gang related. 5 burglaries, a beer run was one. Other was a business with tools and unforced entry. One home vacant back door was wide open and large TV taken. Forced entry on back door—probably daytime. If you see something that doesn’t look right or feel right, call 799-3000. Other 2 were not forced entries. 12 auto thefts--all were real thefts. Ignitions were damaged for some. One was a car recovered from a Canadian theft. We have a 97% recovery for vehicles. Low-jack program is not available in SLC. Use anti theft device. SLC uses a bait program. Most burglaries are off the street or in unsecured parking lots. Don’t let somebody see you put your purse in the trunk. A lot of thefts happen while you are at the ward house. Money in the ash tray. For help call Lyman Guess 799-3444 or Kim Guest 799-3476.

School Board: Karen Derrick was not here last month because she was up at the legislature but does have 4 topics tonight. Big issue this year was budget shortfall. For SLC district it is 1.3 million dollars. Will be for this year --July 2002-2003. They will not decrease class size or fire employees. Will help by not rehiring in some areas. Are keeping media representatives. Other thing is big concern is the issue of what will happen with Ensign and Wasatch with the rebuild of Lowell closing and those children going to Hawthorne. Neighborhood Lowell students are assigned to Wasatch and Ensign . How to help those 2 schools absorb those children will include portables etc. The 2 schools will receive some sort of assistance so that class size will not be impacted. Facility of Lowell timeline is bumped back a year so it will go on as before for this fall. There is a Charter school application for Lowell. District is considering moving Beacon Heights down there for a year while it is rebuilt—or one of schools on the west side. Either way there will be children at Lowell. Have received another charter from Wasatch. Charter schools can be sponsored by the state or the district. It is still public school but it allows them greater freedom. Q: does the Salt lake Arts Aacademy come out of Wasatch? The principal involved in it is the one from Wasatch and the program is being done there. It’s for grades 5-8—a great opportunity for kids. One right thing about charter schools is that they can limit class size. Q: what is our rank with expenditure per student? We are last in expenditures for pupil. We have a great tax base here –brings SLC well above average. Charters receive more money if chartered by the district. Karen is hoping that will happen. Q: what is your sense of board’s position? Concerned that needs of the Arts Academy will be met. This discussion is in the newspaper tonight. Read Deseret News for more info. Lowell will be talked about at next board meeting, the 16th of April. Biggest question about that application is, will the site be available to be used? Q: Was Darlene Robles’ contract renewed a year early and why? We felt like she’d been doing a great job and to let her know we supported her in what she was doing. Vote was 7-0. Phone 355-8232 for Karen Derrick if you have questions.

City Council: Eric Jergensen has traffic people here to talk about South Temple reconstruction. Library block construction includes a science center, new library building, should other part be housing, green space, or putting green? Voted last night to move forward with open space. Develop a budget to include an amphitheatre, park, and be a wonderful place for us to go. Access to mass transit. We can walk from lower Aves. to library block. Will be a TRAX stop at the library block. Design will be a public process. Not going to increase taxes. Q: Rice fountain? Haven’t seen anything on it. Have the caldron down there is also an idea. Some type of Olympic legacy should be in that park. Green space means more watering. Series of activity spaces not all lawn. Will have to conserve water. Give community example of how that will happen (xeroscape) This block is between 2-3 East and between 4-5 South. Housing component of that master plan should be very clear. We need to go back and rework some old housing and provide some new. On library block, it would max out at 120 units for housing but even that may not happen. Central city master plan is very slow. It’s a long and tedious process. Is open space near the library a good idea? We are talking about options of what to do. Facility of park and ride makes a great deal of sense. Avenues and Capitol Hill are only group in the city who had the backbone to close Main Street. We must have our cars. If we closed it clear to 3rd south and let TRAX be our mode of transportation it would be wonderful according to Eric. Denver has 16th Street Mall and it is incredibly successful. Why not have little 4 or 5-seater jitney busses to go around and around and around for those who can’t walk that far or get tired?

June 15 is Memory Grove cleanup. We should expand our cleanup to more than just both sides of Memory Grove to help people who are shut-ins or unable to take care of themselves and keep up their properties. Let’s find 6-7 projects to work on and join at Memory Grove at noon or 1 pm (after the work is over) for a picnic, band, face painting, balloons, etc. Comment: we have discussed that before but had difficulty in having someone to do the groundwork and get the houses set up ahead of time. Eric has talked to churches, city etc to get the organization together. Talk to Dick if you want to volunteer.

2 more things: I walk my dog every morning and I pick up 2-3 handfuls of trash. Around our neighborhood I have suggested we walk around our block once a week and pick up trash. Has talked to school principals to ask kids to do it as well. If you can do that it would be great. Next let’s hear about the South Temple Reconstruction.

South Temple Reconstruction: Rick Johnston, John Haser, Pat Peterson, work for Max Peterson, the City Engineer: We have a very beneficial project planned. Time to go to construction. The bebuild South Temple from Main Street to Virginia is mainly financed by Federal highway funds. It upgrades curb and gutter, streetscape, utilities. Will be a very long project—approx 2 years. Are bidding the project now. Probably project will start around end of May to first part of June. Will be done in fall of 2003. Big concerns are about how to handle traffic and minimize disruption of our lives. There is some cobblestone under asphalt on side streets. Will document what is found. South temple is a national historic district. Goes back at least 100 years. Have to photograph and measure it. Document where it is. A lot of things we have to save and protect. Stuff we can save we will refurbish it and place it first at Cathedral and Governor’s Mansion where we can save it. If we cannot save it, it will be disgarded. Can’t go cut new sandstone—if it’s old it’s old. Areas of sandstone will decrease in size. Original trolley poles will be refurbished with new light on them. Onion dome lights will be reused. Those are historical elements. Carriage steps will be preserved but temporarily removed. That’s a little bit of what you’ll see historically. Web site will be available for historical things going on with South temple reconstruction. Trees are classified as historical elements. Have to cut down 6-7 because they are diseased. Will plant about 150. Can’t widen the street, narrow it, or add traffic calming, because it is an historical element. Have at least 3 sets of trolley rails under to road to get. Can people in neighborhood buy the stones you will discard? You can possibly buy it. It becomes the contractor’s property. City is not planning on keeping it because of the scale of it. Only cobble is at B Street at the bottom of the hill. Southtempleconstruction.com is the website. It’s one long word. First thing to be done is utilities and every fiber optic in the world will be there. Water main will be on each side and storm drain in the middle. Will work in 2 blocks at a time. That part will be really ugly. Hopefully all utilities will be replaced by this Nov or Dec. When utilities get to 7th East, they will go back to Main and start with street surface. Don’t have enough room to keep a lane open in each direction. Will step up the street in pieces. Hope to have 1st part done to 5th East by this fall, then work on eastern part next year. Intersections going North at 5th E, 7th E., State, Virginia, will be open throughout. Contractor will always have someone available to answer questions and discuss concerns. They have to go to community councils to update people on progress. Pat Peterson is the public construction coordinator at 535-7235. Call her for questions or complaints and she will try to solve the problem. 535 6240 for John Haser.

Jim Jenkin report: Report from Lisa Bridges from Smith’s: They are waiting approval from Kroger headquarters. Can’t yet start remodel.

Regarding proposal from city to put stealth phone towers. Jim wants remuneration to city for using space. First they have to get zoning approval and then they will report on how much money we could get for what they want to do. Each installation requires a separate permit.

Larry Rigby won’t be here tonight to report.

History of GACC: Ray Gardiner said that exactly 32 years ago almost to the day was when the Avenues improvement league was formed. It was the forerunner if you will of various city councils that have sprung up. Referred to July 1970 meeting minutes. Nine members were there and he named them. The purpose is: to maintain Avenues as desirable area. Enforce zoning ordinances. Upkeep parks. Etc., etc. Is a thrill to see in 32 years what you as community council have spearheaded. They tried to get a series of mini parks established in the Aves by taking vacant lots and turning them into parks. Will see many parks throughout city that started here, with Avenues improve league. Traffic was not on the original agenda. Worked very diligently to get all the traffic trying to come through here to move to six lane roads and eventually worked with university such that ultimately 1st south became major thoroughfare for university traffic. He read an editorial of SL Tribune of Aug 1970 about a failing sense of community across the country. Decay of neighborhoods trend has reversed. Want SLC to be a place to live in not just a place to use, to rescue run down sections in all parts of the nation. Organized nonprofit avenues improvement league to maintain avenues as desirable residential area, to foster dev of parks, & restoration of all properties. Attempt to mobilize interest in whatever aspects make a neighborhood pleasant to live in.

Q: has any of this ever been written up? Could board help get some of this historical record written up? Ray would be happy to work with someone to help get that done. Board is to follow up on this and help get it done.

Pedestrian & bicycle planning: Wayne Green checked up on SLC bicycle & pedestrian master plan. City has had bicycle plan for 10 years. Maps are available. Hadn’t taken pedestrians into master plans. Decided to fold that into bicycle plan. Go to SLC government web page and transportation dept and look at master plan. This is a last draft on web page now. Not much opportunity to give input now. Orange flags and countdown time for crosswalks are recent changes--and the “look” things written on the streets. 4 general types of facilities: neighborhood plan, downtown plan, city bikeways, shared use paths (like Bonneville shoreline trail, limited to bikes and pedestrians only). Can use this plan to help get improvements in sidewalks etc. Go to web page and check it out. Run by city transportation dept. There is a phone number on web site. To replace your sidewalk talk to Kelly Corman at 535-6999. If Kelly not available, ask for sidewalk replacement program.

Preparedness Fair: Don & Donna Busath. As we contemplate the disasters that might come, let’s make some preparations. This is going to be the event of the year. You don’t want to miss it. Will have around 25 exhibits. Alternative cooking going on etc. Good solid info. Preponderance of CERT qualified people are women. Really suggest we men get qualified. 2 training sessions coming up on April 16, and May 23. This preparedness fair is 4 hours only on a Saturday. It’s May 11, 11 am to 3 pm at 680 East 2nd Ave parking lot.

League of Women Voters: Genevieve Atwood reports the League of Women voters is studying how the city councils differ from the rural areas. Handed out a survey to take back and tabulate.

Legislature: Ralph Becker reports legislature is over. Capitol restoration has begun. Dave Hart could come again and talk about this. Memory Grove Park will tie in to restoration, and the road by the Capitol doesn’t need to be 7 lanes wide. That will changed. Q: can you circumvent a special session? No we don’t have that ability. Introduced Greg Sanders from Davis County who is running in Davis County. He is here to learn our issues.

Open Forum
Have had a major urban deer problem and no wildlife people want to deal with it. 13 deer in Van Langeveld’s yard. Ralph Becker will take a look at it. In the East, hunters were chosen to selectively thin the deer to limit how much they ate things down. Does (females) were chosen instead of bucks.

Move to adjourn at 8:50 pm.

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