Greater Avenues Community Council
Council Minutes Nov. 3, 2004
Sweet Library - 7:00 p.m.

Congratulations to Peter Corroon as our new County Mayor!

Announcements:
-Hearing for rezoning for 518 - 3rd Avenue will be on Nov. 16th @ 7:00 p.m. in the City County Chambers. Hearing on rezoning land next to it.

-Qwest new boxes for DSL lines. Hearing date passed. These are the locations: 402 Virginia, 395- 12th Ave; 704 NE Capitol Blvd, 1304 Federal Heights Drive, 699 - 13th Avenue.

Reports:

Police Dept. - Burglaries up 7, (three were arrested). 15 car prowls. 0 gang related activities; 1 sexual assault; 10 auto thefts (6 recovered, 2 unfounded) 0 robberies. Holidays are coming up; don't leave anything in sight in car.

Traffic: Jim Jenkins, our rep to City Transportation Advisory Board. City will develop a master plan in downtown area, focusing on mass-transit. Will report back as that develops.

School Board: Doug Nelson: (I am late because I was taking care of a child who was injured tripping over their dog named "Lucky.")
AYP- (Annual Yearly Progress) which is an imperfect way of measuring. Very difficult to achieve. 30 of the 37 schools in the Salt Lake District made the cut off. West High made it; East and Highland did not.
QUESTION: Do you have to pay for text books? Yes, you have to pay extra fees for text books, but not on the regular classes, just on special classes.
QUESTION: How much funding do we get from trust lands 0.3% of our budget from our trust lands funds. It goes directly to the schools and they can use it as they want.

Hospital: Wayne Green - Hospital Committee meeting at 4:00 at LDS Hospital to address noise issues in 6th floor conference room. Meet in the lobby and then go up. (What date?)

Elections:
GACC Board Members:
Please volunteer to help and be involved. JOHN SITTNER: Our attitude is one of inclusion. If you want to be active involved, please volunteer yourself. Our main purpose is to structure the agenda. In other community councils the board makes the decisions, but here it is the whole council.
- Vote either for the whole slate, or for individual members.

Any other nominations for Chair-elect, treasurer, or secretary?

NOTE: We need a helper for Brook who is the secretary, who loves the job but is a court reporter and sometimes has trouble being at the Wednesday meeting because she is writing a late-breaking story. Could someone please volunteer to help with the job once in a while when she is not here? (Jaynie Brown will help in an emergency.) Anyone volunteer to help with the newsletter?

SPEECHES:
JIM JENKINS: "I have lived in Utah since 1991. I am a lab researcher at the U of U. I have been involved with the council since that time. I have focused on traffic issues - I am the Chair of the Traffic Committee. I serve on the Mayor's Trans. Advisory Board. I am seeking this position because I have been involved with GACC for some time and feel I have the experience and interest. I live at 212 - 5th Avenue.
QUESTION: What do think are the most important issues facing the community council? RESPONSE: The biggest issue is the number of people who showed up at this meeting to vote. We would really like to see them at all the meetings, for this is what community building is about.
QUESTION: What do you want to do in your term if you are elected? RESPONSE: I have just become more involved and decided this was what I wanted to do, so I decided to run again. The community issues that have stirred me to action are to get people to take more ownership in our community. Some issues we tried, like Park Cleanups, and the traffic signs by the children, have been issues that I am interested in. I would also like to have more participation in the Council.

STEVE MECHAM: I am Steve Mecham. I live at 1180 - 1st Avenue. I have lived here for 25 years. I am an attorney with Callister, Nebeker and Mc. I was on the Public Service Commission regulating utilities. If you're having trouble now with utilities, "Let's go get the bums." Before that I spent time working for Gov. Bangerter, part of that time as chief of staff. I have been on all the Community Councils for all the schools where my children went, here in the Avenues. I coached a girl's soccer team Member of board on the Panther soccer league, I don't have an "agenda" - I want my service to be one of inclusiveness. Opportunities are almost limitless. One of my focuses would be to make Avenues a safe and wonderful place. I am interested in reducing crime. (I am a runner, see broken glass almost every day in the summer as I run the Avenues.) I want to make this a livable and safe community. See problems that arise. I don't have a monopoly on the right answers, but would like to have help in all this.

PETER CORROON, outgoing chair:

We want to thank you all for you have done to help me this year. I have loved the community council. It has been one of the areas that are near and dear to my heart. We got out a business directory and how you will support businesses in the Avenues. We are also in the process of making a map of the businesses. We want the new President to continue with getting out the map. So we'll force whoever wins to continue this project.

QUESTION: Peter Corroon, Have you slept any? Yes, I am at peace with myself, so I can sleep well.

We will announce results at the end of the meeting.

Wayne Green reporting on the new "City Pedestrian & Bicycle Master Plan." They adopted the new bicycle walking master plan Sept 14th , 2004. If you want a copy it is on-line at www.slcgov.com/transportation. You can buy one downtown for $10. I have pared the 70 page document into one page. The City had a bicycle plan since the beginning, but the City had no walking (pedestrian) plan, so they updated this to include both into this one document. The plan is to integrate with the long-range Wasatch plan.
They want to be able to connect with other transportation nodes. They also want businesses to consider. Elimination of barriers is another concern. Downtown is kind of a problem because the city has wide streets and long blocks, which encourages people to speed, making it scary for bicyclists. Another issue is that sidewalks are not well-maintained, and in dark streets it is a little dangerous. It is also asking businesses to support walking or biking, like providing showers so you can shower if you bike to work, or have a place to park your bike.
4 types of things are needed depending on the areas: 1) On quiet streets like Avenues streets, just maintain sidewalks and streets and add street lights. 2) City bikeways - shared use roads and bike lanes. 3) Downtown: overcome problems such as not any bike racks, can't ride on sidewalks, large buildings like Salt Place malls 4) shared use paths and trails - for recreation. Biggest ticket item are the shared-use paths - major financial drain. If you are interested, you can contact the City Council and see if you can volunteer to serve.

QUESTION: Can the City look at our sidewalks? Too many of them are not safe.
NOTE: City will pay 50-50% with sidewalk area repair. Curb and gutter area. If your sidewalk is broken, and someone trips on it, you are liable. You can go and ask for them to replace it on a 50% basis. We also have a "Special Improvement District." We have asked them to do a SID for the entire avenues area. There is a tax that is assessed according to what work is done. Engineering will go property by property. They will look at all, if it is more than a one inch (which they can shave down) difference, City engineering will repair it and charge you a tax of 50% which can be paid over long-term

DRIVER Education: You have a legal obligation to stay 3 feet from a cyclist.

Neighborhood Watch: If you want to volunteer call Wayne Green, as he also does Neighborhood Watch.

How about a directory of all the volunteer efforts available in the Avenues?

House of Hope: Our main home/office is on 7th East and "I" Street. We were formed to help women who are alcoholics. We are nonprofit. Bought 1st house in 1956. We have 5 facilities right around the Avenues. We serve 60 women (single or homeless moms). Oldest treatment in US who helps only women in the USA. We have a rich heritage, but you wouldn't know if when you see sheets up at windows because we can't afford curtains.

We have a great concern for children who come from these addictive families. We have 40 kids, Hope Center for Children. They live in facilities or we help them find housing. We do every thing we can to help these needy children. Burton Foundation and Eccles Foundation gave us a challenge grant. We raised $79,000. We have $21,000 to raise in 28 days, or we will lose the $100,000. It will purchase a building nearby to treat children. We need help.

PLEASE HELP US RAISE THE FUNDS OR WE WILL LOSE IT ALL.

Adopt a kid for Christmas. We need help with the children and the Mom's Christmas. The Moms have to work for it, we are not a dole system. Please help us.
People can "adopt a room" in the house and do anything they want to make it better.

We have children's wish lists. If people want to donate a toy -- drop-off at I street and South Temple. CALL LISA IF YOU WANT TO HELP: Lisa 355-8536 ext. 312

ERIC JERGENSEN: First will answer questions and then talk about Shriner's Hospital Parking.
QUESTION: Is the City going to enforce the snow and ice removal this year? Walking up and down the streets is dangerous and terrible.
REPLY: I have written to the Mayor on this snow removal issue, explaining that we need to explain and educate the people about their responsibilities and when the snow removal will take place. There are also a number of widows and single women who can't clean off . We need to band together and do what we can for those who can't clear them off.

Shriner's Hospital: They do a tremendous amount of good for children who have orthopedic needs from all around the Intermountain west. They built a new building and now need 110 new parking stalls. Their desire to build these stalls without negatively impacting the surrounding neighborhood. SHOW MAP: 5 suggestions: (NOTE: I did not get all the details of these five plans. Call Craig Patchin at Shriner's Hospital to get the details.)

1. take the green area in front for parking
2. build a 2 LEVEL parking structure
3. extend parking into city open space in the back.
4. take green space for parking on the south
5. North of hospital is Popperton Park with 30 spaces. In front of it is open space that is not really useable open space. We could put City parking that could be used by Popperton Park for the soccer fields on Saturday, and there is great need for the huge crowds that park on Saturday. But during the week day then employees and patients could use it. That would provide 50 + more stalls; then put some on Fairfax Road. Add a few stalls near existing parking west.

If you did the double-decker parking, during 6 months of construction the parking would be not available. Much discussion on these plans.
COMMENT: Shared use with the Popperton Park is a great idea, but you need to berm the sides of the soccer field so the balls don't run into the cars. We need to have a little green left because if you left it a straight open street the cars would go very fast, as they do any way.
ERIC: We have really tried to have options that provide the least amount of impact on the neighbors. Let's make it a win-win saturation. Thanks for the great input and we'll take it back to the Engineers. .

City Creek Water Treatment Plant:

Wanted to upgrade our treatment plant, but because of financial constraints we have put off this project for the past two years. We have a contractor. Our day to begin in Nov. 8th. Plan is tear down existing building and replace it. It was built in 1954. Hasn't had a serious upgrade since then. Needs a lot of work. We will maintain a high quality water source. 50 year old plant has problems. We will also provide for future water needs. Another part of project is Pleasant Valley Reservoirs. We have not used it for 10 years. This summer part of the roof collapsed (20 x 20 ft section). Serious liability. We will collapse it on itself, then bring in dirt and re-vegetate it. It will be completed in 2006. During the construction there will be a lot of heavy traffic - over a 1000 trucks up the Canyon. That means a truck every 15 minutes. To ensure safety of the recreation we have discussed limiting options - 4 day work week, closing the traffic in the mornings, opening in after 3:00 p.m. and bringing trucks through Bonneville from Beck Street. We are also interested having a recreation committee to help us decide what would be the best ways to not inconvenience the recreational users. CALL IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE Canyon Users Advisory Committee. Call City Public Utilities Engineers Bob Sperling.

Mayor's Office: Left a calendar, with all the details on it.

VOTE: Steve Mecham is the new chair. No write ins, but got several people who wrote their names on to be helpers. We will call them.

Meeting Adjourned at 9:00 pm.