Comstock Meeting Notes February 24th
Attendees: from Comstock Roster:
Alicia Powell ?(city of Spokane urban Forestry,)Carol Few, CherylClosson, Elaine Thorne, Eric Lester – city of Spokane, Geoffrey Bagwell, Hal Ellis (Community Assembly Rep Comstock), Jackie Caro-( city of Spokane Neighborhood services), John Schram (Clean and Green Chair Comstock), Jon Snyder-(City of Spokane, City Councilmember), Robin Redman,Ted Henry, Whitney Welch
Among attendees from Manito/Cannon Hill Neighborhood- Zach Bankston, Dixie Zahniser, Michael
Rainis
Zach Bankston opened the meeting- asked city officials to declare intentions if present
Open Forum-
John Schram- Someone chopped down a lone 50foot tree on High Drive. He has cited an award he will present of $50 if the person is found. Neighbors looking out for neighbors
Neighborhood Conditions Officer (N.C.O.): Tim Ottmar- C.O.P.S presented and answered questions (Captain Richards could not attend)
Ongoing issues- Chronic nuisances drugs- There is an uptick of garage burglaries. South Hill has a low crime rate of assault but South Hill has been hit by garage burglaries. South Hill is ripe place as it has good items. Culprits drive by and enter open garages to steal bikes. They remove the bikes quickly. Keep garages closed.
Oneresident asked about the whereabouts of those who had broken into homes, as she was concerned about a burglary on 17th- SgtOttmar said after arrests they could be back on the street as property crime offenders are not always incarcerated. There are various points earned for felonies.’
Route checks and hot spot checks are being made where there are high crime volume noted.
Also a criminal analysis chart is made and vehicle theft, thefts, and assault are plotted.
If an officer is not on a call they are directed to hot spots to patrol. The emphasis is to push crime out. For example in Lower Cannon Hill hot spots the results are now reduced crime.
Downtown prowlers were an example where officers had done an excellent job and criminals had moved out. They needed to find resources for transients and make arrests for vehicle prowlers. A community court at the library was established and has helped reduce crime. Now people can get help with IDs, housing, GEDs, etc. This is a big resource and they are seeing less and less people.
St Marks held a safety meeting recently. There was a discussion about garage burglaries and SgtOttmar summarized what was presented at that meeting.
Elections- Hal Ellis directed the meeting for the election portion. Discussed roles of the Neighborhood Council Board- Comstock needed officers to continue as a Neighborhood. Currently only had the Community Assembly Representative. The Community Assembly was part of the city charter and conduit to bring forth issues and pull resources for the neighborhoods.
Clean and Green Chair- John Schram explained the need for a community voice to be heard from the Comstock Neighborhood.
Call for nominations – no nominations. Call for volunteers-
Chair- Elaine Thorne self nominated for Comstock Neighborhood chair- unopposed voted into officer
Cheryl Closson- volunteered to run for Safety Chair- unopposed-elected into office
Zach Bankston opened discussion about meeting dates and times. Motion made to conduct meetings with Comstock and Manito/Cannon jointly. We will reevaluate over time if we want to continue to meet or have separate neighborhood meetings.
Hal Ellis informed the neighborhoods that the Community Assembly met the 1st Friday every month Anyone could attend Community Assembly meetings. The representative from your neighborhood recognizes you and then you are allowed to provide feedback in the government process.
A discussion about the meeting place and dates for Joint Meetings of Manito/Cannon and Comstock were discussed. It was motioned and seconded that we would continue to meet the 4th Tuesday of the month at Wilson Elementary. This would make it easier for planning rather then alternating dates and meeting places. Comstock would lose the privilege of having meetings in their own neighborhood and might draw more members for Comstock but if meetings were on a regular basis people could keep one uniform date in mind rather then forgetting and missing meetings.
Discussion of traffic patterns-Elaine Thorne- High Drive project might start sooner due to weather then later. Plan routes accordingly when construction is underway.
Jackie Caro led the discussion about the Traffic calming program. There had been traffic calming workshops the previous month and presentations about projects and who applied for them. Jackie also informed the neighbors that a traffic calming tool box (guide book) was available for planning projects and several were distributed to the members at our meeting, Traffic calming Program applications were due March 2nd. It was joked about that a full traffic stop light would not be appropriate on a residential street but could be a solution for an arterial street. Residential traffic calming project proposals required 50% of the residents’ signatures within a 400 foot buffer of the location of the traffic calming project. For an arterial signatures are not required.
Anyone in the neighborhood can bring up project needs. The neighborhood chair can direct it.
Every year there can be a project as a traffic island or traffic circle. These can be submitted anytime of year? If a project is on a boundary line then the neighboring council needs to also approve it.
Zach talked about the 18th and Grand cross walk going back into use. There were crossings at 20th, 19th, and 17th? Rockwood and Manito worked on crosswalks together.
Whitney Welch discussed that at Jefferson Elementary there was no crosswalk on the North side of the school. Crossing guards have to know when to cross and busses come in on the North side of the school. One application to be considered is for sidewalk on Division where there are no side walks. At Teko there is a sidewalk issue where the sidewalk ends. There is a 50 foot gap that is a problem. It was proposed to have sidewalk go all the way around.
John Galow felt that creating sidewalk alone would not solve the crossing issue. The sidewalk has to connect to the crosswalk. A proposal was that perhaps to have a project for Manito Boulevard- However the problem is Manito curves. Various discussion followed. Property owners would not pay for the sidewalk. Signatures were already being gathered for a proposal with the goal to keep kids off of the street.
Robin interjected that the city can only do so much and they cannot predict where children will go. Parents need to educate their children about safe routes. Other discussion followed and it was suggested that the PTA direct traffic and get parents trained. Also it was discussed that parents that drop off students need to be educated.
Jon Galow also suggested during the discussion that planters could be used and that the sidewalk could be pulled out towards the street so combined with planters could be used to calm traffic. Then there could be a crosswalk and gaps could be filled in. Signatures have been obtained for the Jefferson School area traffic calming proposal.
There were various factors to consider in planning traffic calming such as pedestrian volume issues, designated crossing issues, calming vs safety aspects. Sidewalks might solve some problems if they reduce the traffic radius. It was said that property owners did not want sidewalks pushed through a corner. Jon Galow suggested a project that could combine dollars and it would be easy to combine a project with a sidewalk proposal.
John Galow had a proposal to calm traffic in the area of 29th to 32nd on Grand. Stripping had been used on Sprague to slow traffic. 2 lanes from 30th street and move the merge sign was suggested. Jackie Caro explained that the city would rank the projects submitted and each neighborhood could submit one arterial and one residential traffic calming project for consideration.
John Covert presented a project about urban canopy in the Manito Neighborhood using a grant from the parks department. The project included: Entrance to Comstock on Poststreet and- planted trees with Wilson on Park- (One neighbor (Nancy) plants trees in honor of her daughter.)
There are various opportunities to plant street trees for example to help storm management. John Covert has catalogued properties to put in street trees if there is room in Manito/Cannon Hill neighborhood. He has worked out the width of the planting strips.
The Grant application allows up to $5,000 for 2 projects as a neighbor submission or up to 3 projects at $5,000 each if a neighborhood council submits. Property owner must water the trees. The advantage is that street trees improve property value. Cost are about $350 for a big tree- one project would have 14 trees if filled in. The neighborhood would be canvased if the dollars where there for the project and 14 people could be found.
. Alicia point to grants- Lincoln Storm Gardens put in planting strip for storm garden. If canopy trees in Lincoln then widen strips- Grant Applications open 1 March to 1 June
29th to 18th put trees in that area thru High Drive
Manito to Grand green space under City Urban Forestry the Park project is urban forestry
Proposals for tree planting grants must be scoped by the Urban Forestry and the area must be suitable for tree planting - 10,000 trees planted by 2016 is the goal
Neighborhoods can have 3 applications up to $5,000 based on Green Space mapping consensus and application approval.
John Covert has researched specific soils and storm water to plant trees for his project
Clean and Green report from John Schram-
2015 Curbside pick up will be Tues. October 13 (after Columbus Day) will collect all that will not fit into a can such as tires and mattresses, etc
Clean and Green and Hazardous Waste Halloween October 30th at Sacajawea School
NO latex paint allowed- will have a metal recycling bin,
Will have assistance by the department of corrections
Postcards- will be sent in the future to neighborhoods
CA report what projects are currently being discussed- No project for short term rental
Looking into Proactive Rental Inspections