|
SUMMIT MEETING NOTES
June 8, 2006
Location:
Cincinnati
Children’s College Hill Campus
ACTION ITEMS
The key
action items as agreed to in this meeting are as follows:
|
Item |
Responsibility |
|
1. Send
electronic version of Garden Tour poster to Tom S. for posting
on website. |
Phyllis Schoenberger |
|
2.
Add details to top Summit Goal Focus Areas for July meeting. |
Valerie Hershberger |
ATTENDEES: (See
Abbreviation Key)
|
Jim Bodmer |
CPOP, CH Forum |
|
Pamela Bowers |
Central Clinic at
Pleasant Hill School |
|
Rev. Chappie Chapman |
CCCH |
| John
Copenhaver |
Pleasant Hill School |
|
Ron Cowgill |
Facilitator, CHPC |
|
Trena Goodwin |
Central Clinic at
Pleasant Hill School |
|
Barbara Gordon |
College Hill Fundamental
Academy |
| Tom Haid |
Twin Towers |
|
Valerie Hershberger |
Facilitator |
|
Fr. George Jacquemin |
St. Clare Church,
Ministerium |
|
Sheena Parton |
Llanfair Retirement
Center |
|
Mike Ruehl |
WINAOP |
|
Dave Scharfenberger |
WIN |
|
Phyllis Schoenberger |
Forum QOL, CHBA |
|
Tom Strothers |
CPOP |
|
Sr. Marilyn Trowbridge |
Franciscan Sisters of
the Poor |
|
Kevin Ward |
CCCH |
|
Marty Weldishofer |
CHCURC |
|
James Wright |
|
ABSENT:
|
ARCH
|
|
Aiken High School
|
|
College Hill Library |
| City of
Cinti, Dept of Comm. Devmt |
| CH
e-Newsletter |
| McAuley
High School |
| Mercy
Hospital, Mt. Airy Foundation |
AGENDA
Welcome and Introductions
Agenda Review & ModificationReview of Minutes from Last
Month’s Meeting Opening Prayer Review of Action Items from Last Month’s Meeting Special Announcements College Hill GardenersCollege Hill HousingCPOPElectronic PortalCHCURC Update
DISCUSSION:
1.
Special Announcements
(a) The group welcomed James Wright as a visitor to this meeting.
James is a member of the Finneytown School Board, and attended in
order to observe the Summit in action. He would like to help people
in another community come together in this way.
(b) It was announced that this was the last Summit meeting for Mike
Ruehl, who is moving to the state of Wyoming. We will miss him.
(c) Fr. George shared that June is a big month for St. Clare’s,
with the school closing and the new Parish Center opening.
2. Review of May 2006 Minutes
The minutes for the May meetings were agreed to, with no
corrections. They will now be posted by Tom Strothers on the ARCH
website.
3. Review of Action Items from Previous
Meetings
A. CPOP survey: participants in this meeting could not
recall the specifics of this survey, and decided no further action
was required.
B.
Police Security for Block Party: it was decided that this
will be covered by the committee currently planning the Block Party,
and should be removed from Summit followup.
C.
CHCURC Survey: Marty indicated that this has been completed,
with very good participation by both organizations and
individuals. Results are being tabulated, and will be shared at a
future Summit meeting.
D.
Dream Center Development: no one has been able to find out
any further concrete information on this. It is unclear whether
this is primarily an aspiriational dream or if it has progressed to
having specific and concrete plans. The Forum is continuing to
follow up on this project.
E. Camera Shut-Down: CPOP, Forum Council, and Forum
members all agreed to request that the cameras be turned off, and
CHCURC has sent a letter to City Watchers and the City of Cincinnati
severing the contract and requesting camera shutdown. Additional
follow up will be needed to actually remove the cameras so that
community residents are not misled into thinking the streets are
being actively observed. Jim Bodmer is following up with Capt.
Butler to have this done, since the City owns the cameras.
F. Feedback to Cincinnati Magazine: John indicated that
his PTA has sent a letter to Cincinnati Magazine, outlining the
progress that the school is making and expressing disappointment
with the negative comment about Pleasant Hill School in the May
issue. The magazine responded with regret, and promised to print
the letter in the next issue. Barbara Gordon also sent a letter to
the magazine, pointing out that they did not mention College Hill
Fundamental Academy at all, which is a magnate elementary school.
G.
Summary of Summit Facilitation Memo: Valerie shared that she
had tried to set up a meeting with Kay in order to more fully
understand what kind of information she wanted in this memo, but
that Kay seemed disinterested in such a meeting. Phyllis said that
Kay has since obtained a facilitator for her group, so the memo is
probably not needed.
H.
Goal Focus Areas: to be covered later in the meeting.
4. College Hill Gardeners – by Phyllis Schoenberger
CHG’s Annual
College Hill Garden Tour is Saturday, June 24th, from
11 am to 4 pm. The tour is self-guided and leads to 8 local
gardens. Tickets cost $8 and are available at - College Hill Coffee
Co., Schwartz Jewelers, Visconti-Lechler, Piazza-Discepoli, PNC
Bank, National City Bank, Hartman and Erhmatraut and LaRosa's.
Phyllis will send Tom
Strothers info in an electronic format so he can post it on the
website.
The Housing Team
currently has three main focal areas:
(a)
To determine how the housing effort
fits into the current organizational structures of the community.
A proposal was made to CHCURC requesting they consider being the
overarching non-profit entity for this effort, and discussion has
been ongoing. CHCURC created a list of questions to which the
Housing Team has responded. CHCURC representatives and the Housing
Team will continue this discussion.
(b)
To choose an existing non-profit
housing developer to partner with us to do
the actual rehabbing, rebuilding, and in-fill construction. The
Housing Team is excited to have found two excellent non-profits
currently established in Cincinnati, both with good track records of
working in other neighborhoods and who have good financial
stability.
(c)
To help start up a home maintenance
ministry, for residents who are unable to do their own maintenance.
CCCH is willing to coordinate this effort, if a volunteer project
manager can be found and recruited. The Housing Team is drafting a
job description to aid in finding someone to fill this role.
Several volunteers have already approached Phyllis, indicating their
willingness to the maintenance work once a project manager is in
place.
·
Tom commented that CPOP, COP,
and Court Watch are closely allied and highly cooperative in their
efforts. He praised Amos Robinson and Emily Harris, who have been
both diligent and faithful in going to court and tracking
offenders.
·
CPOP is currently focused on
identifying apartment units that have renters who are a problem in
the community and have renters who are a benefit to the community.
CPOP has been meeting with the management companies of various
apartments, and have found them to be very interested in identifying
any renters who are disruptive in the neighborhood.
·
Ken Lyon is interested in
writing and printing an article in the e-newsletter about the work
of CPOP, COP, and Court Watch.
·
CPOP is pleased that recently
more residents are coming to their meetings. Meetings are the 2nd
and 4th Wednesday of every month, at 6:30 pm, at the CH
Rec Center.
·
CPD recently reorganized how CPD
interacts with the neighborhoods, and after giving it a good try,
College Hill is finding that there are some significant issues with
the new system. The previous system of having a dedicated
neighborhood officer has been replaced with having six CPOP
officers, which was supposed to provide more complete police
coverage. However, the way the system is administered, these
officers have so many responsibilities that none of them are able to
focus on community defined priorities. It also seems that many of
the things Officer Herb Noble did for College Hill, such as
providing a monthly statistical report on crime and even
participating in community activities on his own time, were not
known or recognized by his superiors. CPOP is committed to
continuing to work with CPD to see if we can make this new system
work better for us.
7. Electronic Portal – by Tom Strothers
Tom has been working
with Ken Lyon on a “portal” website for College Hill. It would
have very little content of its own, but would act as a connector to
all other existing websites that someone might be interested in,
providing a “one-stop shopping” for visitors in cyberspace. Tom
handed out an example of what this website might look like (see
Attachment #1), and the Summit participants encouraged him to keep
working on it, expressing agreement and support for the direction
via a straw vote. He did clarify that this is not the current
Forum website, which must continue to be focused on the needs of the
Forum.
8. CHCURC Update – by Marty Weldishofer
Marty handed out a
flyer for the June 20 celebration of the start of demolition of the
Shuler Wigwam property. There will be a program at 10:00, which
will include an update on the Linden Park plans. Coffee and light
refreshments will be served afterwards at College Hill Coffee
Company.
Marketing packages
for the condos and retail space will be ready later this week.
Neyer needs 40% presale to start construction, which is hoped to be
this coming October or November. The condos will be very nice, and
will sell for $200,000 to $350,000.
9. Summit Goal Focus Areas Exercise – by
Valerie Hershberger & Ron Cowgill
Ron posted the list
from the brainstorming at the last meeting, to which one item had
been added (regarding housing). Everyone was asked if there were
any additional items to add and there weren’t. Then everyone was
asked to select the areas of focus via “power-dotting”, ie, everyone
was given 3 dots and asked to post them next to items on the list,
with no more than 2 dots on any one item.
Results were as
follows:
6 dots Foster
a healthy business district
6 dots Break
down barriers between residents: racial, socio-economic, etc.
Build
relationships and celebrate diversity.
5 dots Focus
on youth and young adults (age 12-25 yrs old)
5 dots
Continue improving communication in the community: between residents
and
various organizations, and between organizations.
5 dots Get
more involvement from residents in College Hill, more diverse
involvement.
3 dots
Continue working together of CCCH, Rec Center, and schools.
3 dots Image
of schools is key to bringing people into the community.
2 dots
Continue to create a positive perception of the community.
2 dots Make
College Hill the lowest crime rate among Cincinnati neighborhoods.
2 dots
Increase the number of businesses in the business district.
1 dot
Public space for events
1 dot
Improve housing: increase ownership, reduce rentals, eliminate
blight
1 dot
Improve the safety and perception of safety in the business
district.
We agreed that
Valerie will take these results and bring back to the group some
additional details that could be included in the top items, which
can be discussed and used for actual goal formulation.
10. Community Events & Announcements – by
All
¨
National Night Out
– This is part of the planned Block Party. Phyllis handed out
preliminary flyers and asked for volunteers to make more copies (in
color). Volunteers will be needed, and more to come on this.
¨
Community Yard Sale
– There will not be a yard sale this year, but the plan is to have
one next year.
¨
Celebrate Housing
– The 7th Annual Celebrate Housing event
will be held June 24, from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm at the WELC Center at
1814 Dreman Ave, South Cumminsville. This is sponsored by Working
in Neighborhoods and Communities United for Action. There will be
a variety of booths and workshops. Dave handed out a flyer and
invited everyone to attend. (See Attachment # 2)
¨
Kevin Ward Installation
– Kevin Ward will be installed as the new Pastor/Administrator of
Christ’s Community on June 25th, at 3:15 pm, at College
Hill Presbyterian Church. All are invited.
¨
Alert
– there is a woman in College Hill going around asking for money,
and sometimes even offering to do yardwork (which she never
completes). She has been told to stop her begging, and that she
can get help at Christ’s Community. If anyone encounters her,
please do not give her money, but instead direct her to Christ’s
Community.
Next Summit Meeting: July 13, 2006 @ 8:00 am at
Twin Towers.
Summarized by:
Valerie Hershberger
June 20, 2006
Abbreviation Key:
|
ARCH |
= Arts Revival in College Hill |
|
CCCH
|
= Christ’s Community in
College Hill |
|
CCHMC |
= Cincinnati Children’s
Hospital Medical Center |
|
CHBA |
= College Hill Business
Association |
|
CHCURC |
= College Hill Community Urban
Redevelopment Corporation |
|
CHG |
= College Hill Gardeners |
|
CHPC |
= College Hill Presbyterian
Church |
|
COP |
= Citizens On Patrol |
|
CPD |
= Cincinnati Police Department |
|
QOL
|
= Quality of Life
Committee of Forum |
|
