Meeting Minutes – August 2017

SVCA Minutes for August 17, 2017

Sunset Village Community Association

Meeting Minutes for August 17, 2017

Meeting Location: Bethany United Methodist Church

3910 Mineral Point Road

Madison, WI 53705

Member Attendees: Sue Reynaud, Liz Vowles, Linda Fahy, Ulrike Dieterle, Brian Anderson, Bev Flanigan, Andrew Behm, Mackennie Arney, Karyl Andreoli, Carl Baumann, Ann & Brian Walsh, Tim Kessenich, Marge Hamacher, Jenni Briggs, Linda & Peter Krug, Stephanie Williams, Toni Aleman, Sara Wirth, James & Rochelle Ratkaj Moser

Guests: Jay Lengfeld, Alyssa Souza, Eric Dundee, Andrew Zwieg

(Note: Our regular secretary, Anne Raffa, was unable to attend, so these minutes were compiled by several participants.)

Our meeting was brought to order at 6:30 PM, followed by a review of the agenda.

Midtown Police Station construction update by Capt. Jay Lengfeld, Madison Police Department.

• There have been 6 arrests for vandalism in the past few weeks; none since the fence was installed.
• Crews should begin working on Aug 29th to clear out anything in the building that cannot go into the landfill, followed by work to remove the building, trees, and parking lot surface, plus regrade the site as called for in the plans. [Note: These plans were changed in Sept/Oct so that re-grading of the site won’t occur until later in the process.]
• Somewhere around Oct 1st, there will be an official groundbreaking ceremony, followed by concrete work for the new building (in October), steel work (in November) and continued construction throughout late winter into spring.
• Working hours will be 7am to 4pm; there should be no one on the site before or after those hours.
• The project manager will be Ryan Ballweg, who will likely work out of trailer put on-site.

The building is scheduled to be finished an occupied by late August or early September of next year (2018). Estimate there will be 65 staff, split among a number of shifts.

Introduction: Alyssa Souza, our new neighborhood liaison officer.

• Ryan Henderson has been reassigned and Alyssa is taking his place. You can contact her through the non emergency number or her email at asouza@cityofmadison.com (Do not use the email for urgent issues).
• Alyssa has a Masters degree from Bowling Green university (in Ohio) and spend time in the Peace Corps.
• She mentioned that theft from cars and theft of bikes are still two big issues in our neighborhood. So keep your car locked and put bikes away or lock them also.

2017-2018 Street Construction Projects, Eric Dundee & Andy Zweig

• Work on Sunset Court continues. There is still a lot to do including the installation of a huge storm water pipe. This pipe will connect to one that will be added to the Midtown project to help divert stormwater away from Westmorland Blvd and Sunset Ct.
• Westmorland Blvd will be repaved in 2018. The work will start as soon as possible in the spring (likely April) so it can be done well before the new Midtown station is operational (target is by July 4th). Eric & others have already held a separate meeting with Westmorland residents.
• Alden, Standish, Hammersley and perhaps Hillcrest will be done in 2019.

Fall Event Preview

Organizers of the two fall events could not attend, so Sue Reynard passed along the following information:

1. SVCA Block Party
   Saturday, Sept 16, 11:30am–1:30pm (Badgers are away at BYU w/ 2:30 kick-off)
   Island of North Hillside Terrace
   Josh says: More people need to come and drink beer!
   Volunteers needed! Email Josh at: jlarnold360@gmail.com
2. Halloween Parade
   Sunday, October 29th, 2-4pm (no Packers game that day)
   Sunset Park
   Volunteers needed! Contact Alice Yuroff at alice@yuroff.com

Note: We have $150 left in the budget for social events plus $250 in the discretionary fund. Sue will use those monies already approved in the budget to support these two events.

Safety Meeting report from Sue Reynard

See separate handout (later in this file) for notes that Sue took at meeting that the Madison Police Department held with westside neighborhood association representatives.

Friends of Hoyt Park:

Anne Badey Raffa could not attend so another resident pointed out that there are regular

Treasurer’s Report: Sue Reynard using info from Brian Andersen

Expenditures are mostly on track with the budget was approved at the February meeting. We may go over in the newsletter budget, since slightly more than half of the budgeted funds have been used on the two newsletters this year. Current balance is about $5640, not including an expense of $500 owed to Westmorland (for July 4th) nor the deposit of $470 taken in at the Ice Cream Social.

Other issues

The City of Madison’s Water Utility Well #14, well serving the Sunset Village neighborhood, does have a sodium level that exceed the EPA guideline. The well report from April 2017 details this (http://www.cityofmadison.com/sites/default/files/city-of-madison/water/documents/Well14QualityReport.pdf). Madison Water Utility is investigating this and is looking at contributing factors including road salt. To read more information on this subject, please go to the Madison Water Utility website https://www.cityofmadison.com/water/insidemwu/sign-of-things-to-come-road-salt-infiltrates-madison-drinking-water-well.

• Overall, the MPD seemed very open to working with neighborhoods to reduce and prevent crime.
• 28,000 calls to West District from Jan to July 2017; avg 5.5 calls per hour
  • Want citizens to still report anything suspicious so they can look for patterns, but obviously the PD needs to filter crimes based on seriousness and solvability (clues, witnesses, evidence) to determine what gets assigned for further investigation. Only about 200 of the West District calls have been assigned to detectives.
  • When to report? Use your knowledge of your own neighborhood. If in doubt, you can call the non-emergency dispatch number (255-2345) rather than 911. Or self-report something via the “citizen self-reporting system” via 245-3662 or use the website: https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/selfreport/selfReport.cfm
  • Theft from vehicles still a big issue district-wide, though down in SVCA. Almost all are related to unlocked cars.
• 9 incidents of shots fired into or at occupied dwellings or cars in the West District. “Just a matter of time” before innocent bystanders are seriously injured.
• The 60% increase in “shots fired” city wide is largely a home-grown matter
  • These are not outside gang members from Milwaukee or Chicago coming up hereto cause trouble. These are long-term residents.
  • In fact, largely not directly related to gangs (though some people involved are gang members)–mostly personal issues (money, relationships, drugs).
  • Estimate the number of gang members at close to 6000, from 55 different gangs.If you see gang graffiti, report it to Officer Emily House, ehouse@cityofmadison.com
• MPD has several presentations they will make to neighborhood groups upon request.
  • CPTED: Crime prevention through environmental design (led by Sunset Village resident Rodney Wilson)
  • Good Neighbor Project: evolved out of Neighborhood Watch programs, but is more low-key. Focused more on neighbors getting to know neighbors. Training and contact through a GNP listserv is available.
  • Fireside 5-0: An officer can come to your house and meet informally with a small group of people. Anything is fair game.
• Nuisance Abatement
  • Legal action to remove the offender can occur only if there has been 3 separate incidents over a period of at least 3 months that led to citation or arrest (not including domestic violence)