I am also happy to report that many city officials were in attendance including 2 city councilmen, a county council representative,our Deputy Mayor, Chief of Police, Fire Chief, heads of Redevelopment and Community Housing.
The first order of business was to address concerns expressed by the residents present at the first town hall meeting:
- Streets torn up by utility companies: The Mayor reported that he always tries to work with utility companies and not surface a street only to have it torn for repairs of utility lines or pipes. He has a plan to resurface State St. from 265 to Arni's but the water company will be installing a 30in. pipe. So the resurfacing will have to wait. He also stated that the streets belong to the people not the city.
- Police cars should be parked in high density neighborhoods when the officers are writing their reports: Chief Applegate replied to this issue. He asked everyone to report sightings of police cars which are on duty but are sitting in parks. He went on to say that our police force is down to 54 offices with 5 in the Academy and 2 serving in Iraq. With 3 shifts that only leaves 4 or 5 officers on the street at one time. He also went on to say that 85% of the city's budget goes for public safety. They also rely heavily on block watch groups and neighborhood associations. He asked everyone to watch for cars that are not normally in the neighborhood. Yes, everyone has guests but look for unusual activity.
- Flooding in neighborhoods: This is the responsibility of our Storm Water board. They are trying to clear the creeks of debris so the water can flow to the river. Their number is 948-5320 ext. 26 if anyone wants to report any problems.
- Trash on Hwy 64 in view of West St.: This falls under the responsibility of INDOT and they have been contacted.
- Repairs to Spring St. Hill: Scheduled for August.
- Code Enforcement: A new person will be hired to help Pam Badger. They intend to make a sweep of the entire city and address all of our problems.
Mr. Bob Lane from the Housing Authority spoke at length giving a profile of the average resident of public housing. He said that 57% of residents are on Social Security or SSI and the average rental rate is $158.00 per mo. He went on to say that 45% of the residents are very young mothers aged 17 and under. The residents also must pass both a criminal background check and credit check. He went on to answer several questions.
Q. Are people coming to New Albany from other cities and moving into our public housing?
A. Although it is illegal to discriminate, preference is given to Floyd County residents. Also many people are losing their homes and forced to move into public housing for the first time.
Q. Aren't a lot of people just spending a short time in our projects? And don't their children spend a short time in our schools?
A. This is true, some residents are transients.
Q. Louisville has a plan to convert their public housing to single family homes or duplexes, can we do that here?
A. There is no federal money to do this, it would require a huge investment from the city.
Q. Do we have off duty police officers to guard the streets? People are afraid to let their children play outside.
A. Although some police officers do act as security for the Housing Authority, they are already stretched so thin that they don't have the time. Surprisingly the worst time in the day for crime is 2:00PM to 10:00PM.
This covers about the first hour of the meeting. If I continue this article will be way too long.
All in all it seemed to be a productive meeting. I think people appreciate that our city officials are taking the time to listen to our concerns. I know that I did. The heavy presence of city officials showed that they are interested, and this is not even an election year!
Part II will be posted in a couple of days. Thanks for taking the time to visit.
17 comments:
I didn't know there was another town hall meeting. Thanks for posting the re-cap. I'm excited to hear about the new code enforcement officer to help Pam out. That will be awesome.
Also glad to hear that the issue of the police cars being parked around is being brought up.
From a fiscal point of view, England has done a pathetic job as mayor.
My point of view is that we need to come to a meeting of the minds. No increase fees, or higher property taxes for England's feel good projects. Wake up our city is broke and broken.
I can't do a real analysis of what was said.
And frankly, it may be just me, but I would MUCH rather hear Doug say, "were not sure how were going to fix (insert problem of the moment here), but we'll keep trying, please be patient", than the deafening silence we got the last six month's.
Is two way streets a real priority?
Wake up New Albany itrs all about the Dollars not the taxpayers,there belief like all local governments is that we are cattle if one goes another idiot will come along and buy England's bullshit.
It might be fair to say that some folks won't ever ever EVER believe any answers they were given,
"What's the meaning of X?"
"X"
"LIES"
Of the ten people or so I chatted with in church today seven of them said they were not going to shop downtown or join the YMCA.
I'm with them on this, even with the malls/walmarts in New Albany and Clarksville.
Sorry to disagree with your praise of the meeting at Jones AME church on Ealy Street.
This did not sound like a citizens/taxpayers meeting.
It sounds like a pre-planned pre-programed meeting with City Officials taking all the time to give their pitch.
If I mae the meeting sound too much like a "pitch" from city officials I am sorry.
There were surprisingly few questions this time. I don't know why. As for myself I was too busy writing to do anything else.
The next meeting will be in the fall. I don't know the date yet but I will let everyone know in advance so we can have more attendees.
I think these meetings are a good idea whether or not there is a lot of participation from the attendees. At least we have a chance to ask what we want. The council meetings are so limited for the average citizen. We have to stick to the agenda and speak in less than 5 min. or wait until the end of the meeting to have our say. By then everyone is tired and we all just want to go home.
I want to encourage everyone to write letters to the Tribune Editor also to express your concerns. It seems like there are more Editorials and columns from the same people most of the time. We all need to speak our minds and this is a good place to make ourselves heard. Believe me, people do read these letters. I get comments all of the time about my letters (mostly good comments) thankfully. But I even appreciate the negative comments just like here on this blog. Nobody should be afraid to express their opinion, within reason of course.
LET'S DO SOME POLICE MATH......
IT WAS SAID THAT THERE ARE ONLY 54
POLICE TO COVER THE SHIFTS.
IT WAS SAID IN THE NEWSPAPER THAT THEY ONLY HAVE 1 POLICEMAN TO COVER THE WEST END NEIGHBORHOODS.
THERE ARE FOUR SIDES TO NEW ALBANY.
EAST SIDE---- WEST SIDE----
NORTHSIDE---- SOUTH SIDE----
54 POLICE DIVIDED BY 3 SHIFTS = 18
18 POLICE ON DUTY PER SHIFT.
1 POLICE PER SHIFT FOR WEST END.
THAT LEAVES 17 POLICE TO COVER
NORTH, EAST AND SOUTH AREAS.
NORTH, EAST AND SOUTH COULD HAVE
ABOUT 5 POLICE PER SHIFT.
@ anonymous regarding the church members not shopping downtown? Did they say why or is it just for spite? Talking about cutting your nose of too spite your face. With more business in downtown, the more taxes the city will collect and the more money that could go back into the city.
@Shirley, people don't want to write letters to the editors because they'd have to stand by their names and their words. the Trib won't print anonymous letters.
Props to you for keepin' it up though.
Hows the West End Neighborhood Assoc going? Any progress?
The comment above said that the more
taxes collected downtown meant that more tax dollars would go to the city.
Sorry-- you may not be aware that they have made the Downtown Area a designated TIF Area. That means that those tax dollars would NOT GO
INTO THE GENERAL FUND TO HELP LOWER OUR TAXES, BUT, INTO THEIR TIF FUND THAT THEY CAN USE.
anonymous, I don't think I said it would be to lowering our taxes.
The money would be reinvested back in our city, is what I meant.
Ceece,
Thanks for your support. The neighborhood association has not started yet but it will.
It may seem like I'm dragging my feet but I'm not. I have been waiting for some people to help but I'll just go ahead and do it myself.
More news to come.
RE: the police officer math.
I was thinking the same thing when I read that article in the paper. CM Messer even said the same thing Monday at the council meeting. He is the only officer on duty on his shift in the West End.
Sounds like something that needs to be addressed either by calling Mr. Messer of Chief Applegate.
How many police officers should New Albany have for the population (32,000 citizens?)? Does the FBI have a recommended ratio of officers to citizens? Are there too many administrative positions in the police department and not enough patrol officers?
Good question about number of police officers on the street compared to those in administrative office positions.
Why are we paying for police cars and gas to follow up on the street sweeper ?
Protection and safety from crime should be the first priority of the
Police Dept.
It was brought up to me that with the police dept. talking about their lack of officers the criminals now know which areas to hit.
Scary thought.
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