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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-12-17 INC Minutes THE INTER-NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL (INC) MEETING OF BOZEMAN, MONTANA DRAFT MEETING MINUTES Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017 Attending: Kathy Powell (UNA), Ginny Cowan (BCNA), Evette Allison (MarLin), Gail MacMillan (BPNA), Dave Chambers (NENA), Jack Tyler (Flanders Creek), Amanda Griffith (Bozeman Pond), Maddy Weisz (VUNA), Joe Genovese (NHVN), Lisa Prugh (Cooper Park), Bob Wall (SENA) QUORUM Present Chuck Winn (assistant City Manager) Tanya Andreasen (new Neighborhood Coordinator) Mayor Carson Taylor Officer Andy Knight, Bozeman Police Dept. Chief Josh Waldo, Bozeman Fire Dept. 4:30 Kathy convened the meeting Commission room in City Hall Public comment – Lisa Prugh is looking for a new INC representative for Cooper Park. Reviewed Sept. minutes. Amanda moved to approve the minutes. Gail seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Chuck Winn – City Assistant Manager Introduced Tanya, new Neighborhood Coordinator. New City Manager starting Nov. 1. Tanya will report directly to her. Tanya gave her background. Grew up in Bozeman, moved away, moved back and got Public Administration degree. Worked in Alaska helping non-profits, schools, and other organizations to be viable. Worked on foster care on the side as well. Lives off S. 19th behind Hope Lutheran Church, in Meadow Creek. (Area is working on forming an association). tandreasen@bozeman.net 581-5707 Will be connecting with Matt Caires, Dean of Students at MSU, soon. 4:45 Andy Knight – Bozeman Police Dept. Working on problems with local drug dealers, related robbery. Community Resource Officer position is currently vacant – Jennifer Johnson had a baby on Sept. 6 and will be on leave. When she returns, she will fill the office until a perma- nent replacement can be hired. Last Saturday, did Kids, Cops, and Cats event. Partnered with Bozeman Police Founda- tion, R-Bar, and Pickle Barrel to take some kids to the Bobcat game. Police officers were escorts, gave the kids lunch, went to the game. Planning to do something similar with a Bobcat basketball game. Dept. has created a door hanger to notify people that are leaving old couches and other garbage in the median that it is not legal to do that. Lets them know how to dispose of the trash via Bozeman Sanitation or Republic. Try to find owner for apartment buildings. Lost position for proactive snow removal inspections. Dept. is currently sending letters to everyone that has been charged in last two years, to help curb repeat offenses. Don’t put out radar trailers after it starts snowing. Dept. is now putting out weekly reports on activities that aren’t in the daily police re- ports. Available on the web site or Facebook. Just completed hiring phase – 4 officers currently in academy, just offered conditional of- fers to five new officers. Offered to send someone to help inform neighbors when incidents occur in neighbor- hoods; could schedule a meeting the next day to help inform neighbors. 5:00 Capt. Josh Waldo – Bozeman Police Dept. Rental Safety Initiative – program is still running and is still voluntary. Not seeing the number of people involved that they had hoped. Reaching out to fraternities and sororities this fall. Dept. will come out to help with safety inspections, fire alarm tests and placement, and related work on request. Fire Prevention Month – trying to visit all the schools, do outreach. There is a Facebook page called “Bozeman Alerts” that does have some current infor- mation on incidents. Also, City and County have partnered on a reverse callback system that can notify city-wide, within neighborhoods. Works well with landlines, not so well with cell phones. Need to register for service – go to readygallatin.com. Can register cell phones there. As of noon today, responded to 3,400 requests for service this year. About a 10% in- crease over last year. Feel like the Dept. is keeping up with growth and increasing de- mands for service, providing a good level of service. Insurance ISO rating has been improved recently, and this could result in lower premi- ums. State Farm doesn’t currently use this rating. Finalizing Master Plan – submitting to Commission on Nov. 6. Includes training, emer- gency preparedness, other plans. Most likely to be of interest is proposal for new fire sta- tion. Will ask residents for suggestions about how to increase usefulness of current sta- tions, postpone need for fourth station. Joe had positive feedback about the fire staff that are working out at the gym. Jack had very positive feedback about consultant who came and addressed the City Commission with glowing reviews of the Fire Dept. Department working on a 3-5 year process to get accreditations. Chuck had some positive comments about the Police and Fire Departments, their pro- gress, and the great work they do in a difficult time. Josh also urged people to reach out to police officers, as they will often do with fire people. Both are tough jobs. 5:15 Mayor Taylor’s update A lot of our current struggles seem to revolve around dealing with growth. Hoping that neighborhood associations will help facilitate communication between citi- zens and the city government. Part of UDC is being revised. There will be ongoing updates, such as the NCOD, park- ing, and related issues that will be coming. Had a discussion about how to increase involvement and improve communications. 5:30 Action Items Kathy got handouts about energy conservation and renewable energy resources, in ad- vance of winter, or to start working on projects that will take longer to complete. Handout on NW Energy efficiency plus program. Sustainability representative will be at Dec. meeting. Exploration of neighborhood branding and block captains to increase NA involvement. Kathy will serve on a working group, looking for others to help on that group. Evette and Ginny can help. Time frame for recommendations is pretty loose. Holiday party planning – Maddy, Gail, Amanda will work on that. 5:30 FYI items from Chuck Mayor Taylor asked if Tanya’s roll will be an ongoing extension to what Jessica was do- ing – that was affirmative. Decided not to do the late night talk to the students going home from the bars. Ginny asked whether anyone had any feeling for how the new City Manager views the neighborhood program. Chuck felt that she understands and supports the importance of the program. Kathy relayed some input from a neighbor – had a rental property next door. Previous inhabitants used to notify them when they were going to have a party, etc. That has since fallen away. Suggested that the Good Neighbor Committee remind students of the importance of communicating with their neighbors about things that will impact them. Maddy said they are considering door hangers to help remind people. Kathy also asked if the Committee could emphasize avalanche safety. FYI from Kathy Proposed ADU recommendations were sent to the Commission. Letter was received by the Commissioners. Commission might start reviewing the ADU ordinance soon. FYI from Jack Their working group has met with Minnick Management again (Chanel Mumford), and they are planning to meet with other property managers again. Not having any luck reaching out to Peak Property Management. Seems like there is some concern or opposition from property managers that might be turned into advocacy, but will take some work. Jack and the working group have uncov- ered some issues that contribute to the problems. Most of the new development is west of 27th St., and most of the residents there are in an HOA. Jack relayed some ideas about how the focus and interaction of the INC might change if a larger chunk of the City, and particularly in the newer parts of town, was involved. Working group submitted some recommendations. Discussed how we might work with property managers and HOAs – maybe use them as a way to reach out to residents, but to move past that to form neighborhood districts inde- pendent of HOAs. Ginny suggested tabling discussion on recommendations until people look at them more, let Tanya review. 6:28 Neighborhood Announcements Flanders Creek, NENA, UNA, NHVN having meetings coming up in Nov. VUNA cancelled social due to rain, trying to plan another gathering before winter. 6:32 No objections – meeting adjourned. Minutes recorded by Bob Wall.