Attending:

Due to Chair Wynn Johnson's illness and Vice-Chair Peter Corroon's absence, last year's Chair Dick Smiley opened the meeting at 7:00 pm.

Letter to discuss - get writer on agenda for next time. Chris Biltoft requests 15 min block of time of 9/3/03 to discuss road issues. Quiet Title Action regards 27 roadways. Has to do with cabin access through forest. Increased number to 22 roads in watershed and among popular hiking trails. Issue is likely headed to litigation. Wants roadways identified. Get county to conduct open process and get claims to roadways to meet reasonable criteria and remove cloak of secrecy.

Commend task force on cat mutilation. Some animals had fox hairs on them and they found a den of foxes on 14th and H Street.

Olympic legacy project discussion - any ideas brought to this meeting please hand them to Dick Smiley and he will pass them on. Think about what you might want to do if you haven't done so.

Reports:

Judge dismissed case against school board.

Eric could not be here this evening. Mayor's office will be here later.

South Temple construction - Pat Peterson reports an apology for mess on 12th E and Virginia Street. It looks gorgeous on 7th East. Will open up 9th E to 7th E this weekend. (only have 4 1/2 blocks more to go) Virginia Street is closed and 13th E is closed. Temp parking stickers are available for neighborhood members who need to park in the area where the road is so bad. Comment: thank you - you folks did a wonderful job. I street and 7th East sank because electrical contractor forgot to put in his conduit and he ran it under temporarily. When they do it permanently he will fix it.

Street Fair: Jill Van Langeveld said street fair is on Sept. 13. Pat has promised South Temple will be wonderful from 9th E to 7th E. Entertainment is tagged down. All kinds of little things are being worked on. We need help with the children's area because the person who was going to do it can no longer do it. Call Ruth or Judith or Jill or Walt or whomever. Starts at 9 am with children's parade and goes until 7 pm. Tours will be available at governor's mansion, Masonic temple, Utah art council, etc. Harp place plans to provide people to play in the governor's mansion. Normal raffle and another one (passport raffle) will come out in the Sept. newsletter. If you use a business during that time they will stamp your ticket and it will be included in a raffle. Talk with Ken Bronston about power in front of the Masonic temple. How do you know if you have booth space or not? Emails went out Monday to give booth approvals.

Wasatch Plunge Feasibility Study - Nelson Knight from the Salt Lake Planning Division hopes for money to go forward to make this study and determine if building could be renovated. Western Avenues and Capitol Hill and Fair Park neighborhoods have been without gym facilities since Deseret Gym left. In 1 921 the building there now was built with 2 pools fed by natural water that came through. Had locker-room, barbershop, café-- tourist attractions never really got underway. Used until 1976-- it was closed because of declining use and potential structural issues. Converted into children's museum of Utah. Museum has outgrown it and is looking to expand into Gateway. County funds were voted to help them move and they expect to in 2005. After they are gone it will be possible to put something back into that spot. Renovation expects to cost $12 million overall. Gymnasium facilities are possible. Am here to gather input to find out what you would like to see in this development. Also would like a letter from you supporting this idea. Right now hot springs couldn't be used for the pool because the chlorine needed reacts with the minerals in the water. Plans are that we could have 2 pools - small one used with hot springs and could be purified without chlorine. Larger pool would be a racing pool. Would like to turn it back to its original use. In any case like to reuse the building. Now it's a fully indoor pool. Was once an outdoor pool but no plans for that at this time. Suggestion made to keep old pools as they are because of nostalgia. One old sign said please don't stand in doorway without swimsuit on. Was about 23,000 sq. feet originally. Would add about 13,000 sq. feet for the gym. Can you use hot springs to heat facility in the winter? Springs are apparently a lot cooler than they were 50 years ago. These average about 106 degrees. Thank you for your time. If any of you would write a letter supporting this study... (follow-up with Chair Wynn Johnson about this)

Legislature: Ralph Becker says Senator Paula Julander is sick and excused. This is the quiet season. State is safer this month. Any comments? This is the time of year when we can devote more attention to subjects we have a hard time dealing with otherwise. Has Utah or is legislature considering any law considering same sex marriage law for/against? Would not be surprised to see a proposal come this fall. Transportation around Capitol Hill - what is going on with that? Discuss Traffic issues and how to address them- are trying to find ways to reduce impact on neighborhoods. A lot of the changes like 4-way stops you see on Capitol Hill and avenues - a whole variety of things have come through that committee. Proposal from UDOT came through that had some promise for the first time. Put 2 lights on Columbus on 5th No and 6th No. UDOT owns some houses. Ralph sent letter to chairs containing info of what came out of that meeting. This is before the CC now for recommendations. Thought it was most encouraging suggestion coming out of UDOT. Something will be coming forward. What about saving money by turning off air quality monitors?

School Board - Doug Nelson - all 3 avenues schools are having construction done now. Stuff at Lowell is nothing major. Extensive construction is happening at Ensign and Wasatch. Will not be finished by school starting. But all will be safe by then. Wasatch construction is very difficult because of timing with South Temple street construction. Ensign starts at 8:20 but will now start at 8:30 because of bussing. Kids at lower end of avenues really need bussing. Will school open at the same time so parents can still drop kids off if needed as in the past? Doesn't know the answer to that. Teachers may not be ready for them - he will check on that. How do you determine eligibility for bus? Once you have 10 kids that live 11/2 miles away from school as many kids as need it can ride the bus. Call school district and ask for transportation to discuss these questions. Probably include space available. Will be a small bus for Wasatch as well. Trying to come up with a new gun policy that is legal. Our current policy is illegal by the state but we still don't want guns on school property. Why can't teacher's get into their classroom sooner than the day before school starts? No answer to that.

Dave Hart reported the capitol restoration/preservation began in 1999. Dave asked Rob Pett to join him - is an architect on the project. Established to help capitol survive as long as possible. Had some major structural problems. Had 1000 page document that uncovered many things that needed to be repaired. If earthquake came it was not at all capable of handling it. When force hits building it can't accept the motion. Structural system that the capitol used wasn't adequate. Structure was very brittle. Dome and the drum were worse off than the bulk of the building. Concrete wasn't done well especially for winter conditions. It did not hydrate or cure properly. One of the things we have to do to protect building is to go up and fix the drum. Need to add structure to inside or remove structure from outside and add it back. Mechanical systems were very bad. Has the sick building syndrome. Could not fully exhaust itself. In a fire we would take that smoke and pull it into the center of the rotunda and return it to the rest of the building. Have then to redo the mechanical system. Electrically it's a state of confusion and hodgepodge of stuff. Systems of building need to be upgraded. To restore capitol we couldn't occupy the building. 2 new buildings will be used to house all capitol workings for 3 years while capitol is restored. Hope to have it done by 2008. Those new buildings will be open in March of next year. Legislature and governor's office will move back into the capitol. The other buildings will then be used by auditor, the attorney general, and a cafeteria. Will house legislative staff. Meeting rooms will be in the new building. Limited remodeling will be done to new buildings after the first usage is finished and they take on their permanent roll. Everything for the first 3 years will be temporary. Most of traffic coming through Capitol Hill will not be affected by all of this remodel. Do we affect significant increase of employees on Capitol Hill? Has been 17% growth in last several years. Growth is less than 1% a year. We continue to only see 3000 to 5000 trips a day during legislature. Trying to address parking issues. Biggest problem is over on Columbus. Parking is being shifted from Columbus to East Capitol. Roundabouts are being considered but they are difficult to put on a hill so this is all being discussed. Have not found a good solution at this point in time. What are fencing grounds on capitol grounds--None except for construction. Elliptical walk will be tree-lined. Will not be a fence but vehicles will not be able to pass through. Have 35 security cameras but will be able to walk about freely unless threats come in. They made their plans for the new buildings historically consistent so the new would be compatible with the old. Are talking $200 million for reconstruction and it will be determined whether we go forward this year. Will be a special bond because there is no way we can raid any other projects. Are you taking care of your critical facilities? 20% of legislature won't commit to bonding at all. Basic decision has not been committed to yet. Already in process but not yet bonded. Either way it will be a debt. How do we pay for it is the question. Normal building bonds are 6-7 years. Cheaper to borrow on interest rates now than to pay cash. Big discussion for this fall.

Peer Court representative Kathleen Zeitlin needs adult volunteers for help with the Peer court program. They offer connections to youth services, classes, anger insight program, tobacco drug and alcohol programs etc. have a 90% plus success rate in this program. Are a nonprofit program. Hearings are held in courthouse. We are there nearly every Thursday during mid-September through May. We are off on all school holidays. Thella Mae Christensen has already called and is going to be a volunteer for the year. Kids tend to be harsh when disciplining their peers and have to be trained in this. Punishment is not what we are about. All panel members are mentors.

Mayor's office report - Gwen Springmeyer reports program where people can receive rewards for arrests and conviction of criminals. It's completely anonymous but there is money value if you see anything illegal like illegal dumping. If you see something dumped in front of your house and get a license plate you will receive $1000. Posters are available along with refrigerator magnets.

Meeting adjourned 8:45 pm.