SUMMIT MEETING NOTES
March 13, 2008
Location: Grace Episcopal Church

 ACTION ITEMS

The key action items as agreed to in this meeting are as follows:

ATTENDEES: (See Abbreviation Key)

ABSENT:

AGENDA

• Welcome and Introductions
• Host Greetings
• Agenda Review & Modification

• Review of Minutes from Last Month’s Meeting

• Opening Prayer

• Special Announcements

• Review of Action Items from Last Month’s Meeting

• CHBA Update

• CPOP/COP/CPD

• CHCURC Update

• Aiken  College & Career Progress

• Community Activities & Announcements

• Focus Topic Reconnect

DISCUSSION: 

1.   Special Announcements

MUSE Cincinnati Women’s Choir – Rachel Kramer from MUSE handed out a flyer and postcard for their upcoming concert called “HOPE Come True” at the House of Joy on Saturday, April 5, at 8 pm, and Sunday, April 6, at 3 pm.    The event will include Central State University Chorus, and Linda Tillery, a Grammy-nominated recording artist.    Tickets may be purchased at the College Hill Coffee company or online at www.MUSEChoir.org.

2.   Review of Jan & Feb 2008 Minutes
The minutes for the January and February meetings were issued late, so Summit members did not have enough time to review.  These will be approved at the next (April) meeting.

3.   Review of Action Items from Previous Meetings

Mtg with Rep Mallory – Sheena is still waiting to hear from Rep Mallory’s office for possible dates.   She will update us as soon as she has more information.

Summit Focus Areas – continued at this meeting.

4.   CHBA – by Sheena Parton

-         CHBA Annual Dinner - Sheena handed out a flyer for the upcoming CHBA annual dinner.   There will be two speakers, Roxanne Qualls, Cincinnati City Council Member, and Professor M. Triantafillou, University of Cincinnati College of Design & Architecture.    The dinner will be at Llanfair on Tuesday, April 15, at 6 pm.   Cost is $20.   Reservations are due to Karen Hartman by April 9.

-         EZ Mart Liquor License  - The hearing for the EZ Mart Liquor License will be at 11:00 am on March 31.  This is opening day, so plan for heavy traffic.   Also, there is another hearing right after this one, so come early to get a seat.  The room will hold around 50 people.  

-         The community owns 5 cameras from the previous street monitoring project.   CHBA had two companies give bids for getting cameras operational.   They are also seeking a mini-grant for reinstalling two of the cameras.

-         Probation Office - CHBA clarified with the city that the new probation office in College Hill will only cover Northside and College Hill, not other communities like North College Hill.  If other communities want a similar substation, they will need to go through the process College Hill went through to get one.   The Probation Office will soon do a sweep of the community to check the status of all people on probation.

5.   CPOP/CPD/COP/Court Watch – by Jim Bodmer & Off. Jason Pechiney

CPD is forming a solid partnership with the probation officers assigned to College Hill.  Mike James will be attending the District 5 Roll Call, and has toured the neighborhood with Off. Governor Williams.  CPD is proposing to have investigators (detectives) work out of that office.  This is still in discussion.

CPD continues to encourage the community to call the police about non-urgent issues in the community, such as loitering which blocks sidewalks or car traffic or gang graffiti.   Please include specific street addresses whenever possible. 

CPD reviewed the February Crime stats.   Overall, Feb crime was up and down vs. Jan, with no particular patterns.    In March, a recent crime was of particular interest.   Apparently two men were severely beaten by a carload of other men just in front of Shakers.   The investigation is continuing.

Finally, CPD handed out two pages of key contact information, including various phone numbers for the Health Dept, CPD, and Public Services.  Information from one of these documents was attached to the January Summit Meeting Notes, but was slightly revised, so it  attached again to this document as Attachment #1.  Information from the second document is included in Attachment # 2.

CPOP has moved into the new probation office / substation.

CPOP requests that everyone renew their ROE (Right of Entry).  The city decided that these need to be renewed each calendar year, so the forms need to be filled out and resubmitted.  Note that they also need to be notarized.  Jim Bodmer has the forms.   Work is still ongoing to work out kinks in the system, such as use of the ROE stickers which do not have any indication of expiration.

Court Watch did not have anything of particular note to report.

6.   CHCURC Update – by Marty Weldishofer

Annual Meeting – the CHCURC Annual Meeting was well attended, with 150 people.

Linden Park – The Sales Center is open!  Hours are Thursday 5-7 pm, Saturday & Sunday 1-4 pm.  A Grand Opening was held March 6 with community leaders/supporters, realtors, city employees, etc.    One condo has been sold with contingencies, and 3-4 others are being discussed.

Gateway – It is expected to take until the end of the month to resolve the issue of the buried water tank under the property purchased for the North End gateway.  Other questions to be resolved for both gateways is the use of electricity to light up the gateway at night, and maintenance of the landscaping around the base of each  one. 

Signs – Six signs have been purchased, with five to be installed and one to be stored.   The committee is finalizing the last details for the design.

7.   Aiken College & Career Update – by Paul McMillan

Paul handed out a summary of key Aiken C&C projects.   Three have been completed in the last month: a Black History Art Gallery in the Aiken Library, Men on Campus Day, and a Community Appreciation Breakfast.   A major project currently underway is preparing students for Ohio Graduation Testing.   Aiken C&C has 40% special needs students, who are getting staff assistance to undergo the testing consistent with their individual IEP (Individualized Education Plan).

Other activities/projects briefly discussed included:

o       A 2^nd Men on Campus Day scheduled for Friday, May2.  Send ideas to Paul.

o       Continuing a tutoring program with Aiken students tutoring at Pleasant Hill Academy.

o       Seeking to develop a program with Llanfair where students could visit and build relationships with elderly or infirm residents.

o       Attending a PRIDE Conference in downtown Cincinnati April 2-5.   The focus is drug and alcohol prevention, and only a few CPS high schools were invited to attend.

o       Setting up a Graduation Action Team, the focus of which would be to ensure young African American male students successfully complete the 9^th grade and eventually go on to graduate.

o       A southern college tour in the spring.

Summit attendees expressed appreciation for the help Aiken students recently gave at the Community Pot Luck Dinner.    Paul asked to be contacted for any additional community events where Aiken students could be helpful.

8.   Community Events & Announcements

§         WIN Walk/Run – The Annual WIN fund raiser Walk/Run will be April 5.   A brochure was handed out.  This is WIN’s 30 year anniversary.

§         Good Friday – A community church service sponsored by the Ministerium will be held Good Friday at Grace Episcopal from 12 – 3 pm.  All are invited.

§         Bridges Dinner – The next Ministerium sponsored Bridges Dinner is scheduled for April. 17.   This was previously scheduled for Feb 21, but bad weather caused it to be cancelled.

§         St Clare – In 2009, St Clare Catholic Church will celebrate its 100^th anniversary.  More details to come.

§         Pleasant Hill Letter – Pleasant Hill Academy brought letters written by the children thanking the community for passing issue 10.   Each organization will look at the letters, then pass them onto the next organization.

9.   2008 Focus Topic Reconnect – by Ron Cowgill

Ron asked what Summit would like to do regarding focus areas for 2008.   After some thought, it was suggested that we might cover:

1. The business district and overall economic development of College Hill.   This is going to be a really important focus area for the community, not only the CHBA, in the coming year. 
2. Continue to focus on youth in the community, particularly now that CCCH has a youth worked.   Perhaps we could have updates 2-3 times per year.  
3. Hear more about what Chris Miller is doing in her position at CHPC.
4. Perhaps we could invite speakers from time to time on key topics of special interest to the community (like economic development).
5. Should we have someone from Real Estate as a member of Summit?

Finally, there was a brief discussion about reconnecting with Summit members who have not attended a meeting in a while.   More follow up will be planned at the next meeting.

Next Summit Meeting: April 10, 2008 @ 8:00 am at McAuley High School.

                                                                                                Summarized by:

                                                                                                Valerie Hershberger

                                                                                                March 13, 2008

Abbreviation Key: