GREATER AVENUES COMMUNITY COUNCIL Minutes
May 1, 2002 Held at the Sweet Library

Chair Dick Smiley opened the meeting with a welcome and announcements at 7:00 pm. Someone called Dick and complained that zoning says that city rules say we cannot have rocks or similar things on parking strip. That is on the agenda for the meeting in the morning. City rules used to say it had to be grass until last year, but now it can be rocks or xeroscape, etc.

This is a planning meeting where they are changing some of the rules. (Thurs) One discussion is of a commercial parking lot at 132 South State street. Making facade of the Orpheum Theatre and a parking lot behind it. Also at 6:15 will be heard a padlock at 6th So and 5th E. It’s regarding putting a pad on the corner by Fred Meyer. Call Dick Smiley for and update.

There is a United Way partnership food drive next Sat. Feed the hungry through the mailman. Sat. May 11.

U of U has a community forum that meets on the 4th Wed. of every month except Nov. and Dec. They talk about wonderful things. The next one is May 27th at 5 PM room 241 Union services bldg. If you are interested in U bldg and construction, attend that meeting.

Police won’t be here tonight because their statistical machine broke. But there is a Drug bust report that occurred on K street. Beverly Sorenson (recently moved here from out of state) reported her children and she were getting sick during mid-March and she discovered the neighbors were running a drug lab. She gave her house filters to DEA and they were loaded with cocaine. Trash on the curb is public property which enabled a search and drug paraphernalia was found. This was at 565 K Street and nearby property. It’s 50 yards from Ensign Elem. 2 of the tenants are still there. When you have a situation like this it could be volatile. The Law would love to force the landlord to evict the tenants but at least 2 more neighbors need to call and start making a paper trail. If you see something suspicious report it at that address. It wasn’t a meth lab so doesn’t get shut down immediately. It was a cocaine lab, etc. Between 11th & 12th Ave on K street. Call Kim Guess at 799 3000 to report this kind of activity. They will bring in zoning, health, whoever is necessary. They have clout with the agencies that we need.

Legislator Ralph Becker: We had a veto override session and special session on Mon. Will have another one in a couple of weeks. The bill involved judicial conduct commission. It serves as a check on improprieties in the system. Make recommendations to the Utah state court. Legislature was going too far in imposing legislative will on another branch of govt. It was overridden by the legislature. The bill didn’t do that much. Just changed the process a little bit. People who were the most knowledgeable seemed to feel it didn’t accomplish very much. Governor can veto a bill in 60 days. He vetoed 9 bills and legislature decided to come back and do a veto override session.

City Council Eric Jergensen: Notice the traffic calming on 2nd Ave. Would appreciate you input on 2nd Ave.

June 15th is the neighborhood cleanup. Phil Carroll is helping organize this. It involves Lindsay Gardens, Memory Grove and Warm Springs Park (in the Capitol area). Let’s go and clean up together at 8:30 or 9:00 am and in midafternoon (12:30 or 1 PM), eat lunch in Memory Grove.

2nd thing trash pickup. Once a week go with your family and walk around the block and pickup trash. Best outcome is that several people are joining in. Contact me at 532-4844 or 799 3000 ask for Kenna (??) and she’ll find me.

School Board Karen Derrick: Several things. 1st of all on Tues night we will discuss charter school policy at Lowell school. If you want to speak at that time, call ahead of time. 5:30 PM is the time for the public to have input for about a half hour. Check on the internet for updates.

May 7 is the board meeting. Working on buildings next year that are to be worked on. Boundary committee on Lowell closure is meeting now. The use of that building being discussed now is to bring children in from other buildings being rebuilt. A charter school has applied. Charter schools have increased autonomy. They are sponsored by the State. Salt Lake Education Foundation it the place that allows individuals to donate money to school district.

SLC traffic engineer will talk about street lighting: Gordon Haight who is with the SLC transportation dept. has (in part) responsibility in planning city street lighting. He displayed the lighting map from the master plan that the city is divided into. Each area of city selects a type of streetlight. Most areas have already decided on a street light style. Streetlights don’t stop crime. People comfortable being out after dark is more effective at stopping crime. Lighting needs to be conducive to pedestrian activities. Prefer going with a metal hal-light that has a whiter bluish light, but it’s a lower wattage and thereby conserves more energy. Fairly bright. Colors and conrtasts are clearer. Color rendering from whiter light is more effective. Uplight (sky glow) creates glare. Light trespass.deflector will keep light from shining into a bedroom. It’s done with the more sophisticated cover. Full cut-off light allows no light to go above 90% angle of the fixture. Causes lots of reflected light from down to up. This kind of light demands more poles and fixtures. 2nd type of light is cutoff and allows 2-1/2 % light to go up. Poles are further apart than the full cutoff 3rd kind is semi cutoff which allows 5% light to escape above 90 degrees of light fixture. It allows spacing poles at maximum distance. We recommend in the master plan the semi cutoff This is all of the public lights. Now, let’s discuss our private lights. Some problems are dependent on ability to match grants. Question: Do we have to do the lighting? What if we don’t want lights? That will have to be worked out. Maintenance is also an issue. The master plan recommends the city takes over the neighborhood lighting maintenance. They are looking at solutions. Q: How would this be implemented? Mr. Haight has met with 18 community councils and has 12 or so to go. They will then present the results to the planning commission and then to the city council. The plan could be adopted by late winter. They wanted to make sure they had met with all Community councils to get our input. One method to adopt their plan is to implement it thru attrition. 2nd method is (recommended) the city would look at implementing a street lighting fee on sewer, water, etc., fee. Cost range would be from $1.75 to $2.30/month. Comment: maybe we don’t want any more lights. Suggest we consider energy conservation. Answer: That will have to be dealt with. The funding will have to be on its own. It will be underground wiring house to house. Assessments are prorated at a lower rate if you have already paid for the light and pay for the power to operate it. Question: Some don’t want additional lights—what will happen. Answer: In a democracy the majority ends up getting to pick how everybody lives. That’s not currently how it’s written up, however. This will need to be decided. Please fill out the questionnaire and hand it back. Comment: 20 years ago we voted to reduce to lighting in the lower Aves.

School closure discussion by Larry Rigby: First he showed the Olympic torch he ran in St. George. Reported on issues that don’t normally get reported on by the school board. Called John Ogilvie who has filed a SOS (save our schools) lawsuit. Suit will go forward that alleges that the school board abused its discretion. Can find out more about this at web site boardlight.org. There is a political campaign that will challenge school board incumbents. There could be a demonstration as well.

Charter school discussion by Nancy Winitsky: from center city school here to let you know about our school. Have openings for students in grades 7-10 this fall. They are in their 2nd year of operation. They are one of original 8 charter schools. To get a charter they had to write up a description of their plans and goals for the school. 85-95% students come from SL district. Other students are from all over the place.

Our differences: 1st we think our current high schools and Jr. high schools are way too big. Have cut back scale enormously. Target maximum enrollment is 400-500. 25 would be a huge class at our school. We know all the kids at our school. Students participate in decision making and have more hands on experience. They work in groups to solve problems. 2nd we don’t give letter grades. Rather we give narrative reports to parents. Are studying Utah history (currently the mine disaster that happened 100 years ago today.) Have a well-educated faculty. Are located at North Temple and Redwood Road. 3rd the don’t have a principal because they cost lots of money and perks. 596-8489 to contact re charter school.

Avenues Street Fair report by Ken Bronston: We are just starting up planning for the street fair this year. The first meeting is this Sat. at 668 “F” Street, phone 366-0172. Date for meeting is May 4, at 8:00 am. This Fair is typically done on the 3rd Sat in Sept but the final date is yet to be decided. Question about beer garden and would it be a benefit us financially? Reponse: that is not certain. We talked about it at length last year and this year it would have to be a committee decision and would need real consideration. This is why this meeting is planned so early.

Closure of Rio Grande Café discussion: Jim Jenkin summed up what he knew about the lease by the State of Utah for that building. State has failed to find a place to fund a home for archives. This building is recommended by state as a place for these archives because it is an expansion to the museum. State is in an exploratory fact finding mode after which they will present a number of options for that bldg which may include many options for that bldg. No decision will be made until the end of summer at the earliest. Pete Henderson was introduced to talk about the restaurant. The Café opened in 1910 and has been used as such since then (continuously). Lease expired 3/12/02. Contact Joe Jenkins at DFCM and let him know you don’t the restaurant to leave. Comment: Café could be on historic register. Look for website saveriogrande.com. There is also a petition at the restaurant. Will take an awful lot of effort. Rio Grande café is on legislative appropriations for coming year. Archives are a serious issue. They need to find a space. City council and historical society are on the café side.

Preparedness Fair Organizers Don & Donna Busath: May 11, Saturday, 11-3 PM Great opportunities to learn about several aspects of preparedness. Come one and all.

Open Forum:

Doug Nelson running for board of ed. ER doctor at Primary Children’s Hospital home #532-5457. dougn@mdxperts.com

Radioactive waste control. We don’t tax as much as other states. If we have to take it, lets tax it appropriately for education and part for taking care of thinks we want etc. Talk to Frank

Lon Richardson 3rd. Olympic rings and traffic reporter caught traffic up there new gates are eing put in. mitigation from rings. Selling lots below it. Rehab has it way better than it was before. Mayor is sending triple police patrols up there. It’s okay.

There will be a Home Depot fair at the Jubilee Center. Here at Sweet Library on May 29 will be instant runoff voting.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM

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