TOWN HALL MEETING 7/12/08 (PART I)

I am happy to report that the Jones Memorial Church hosted another Town Hall meeting yesterday. The meeting was presided over by their Pastor, Rev. Evans, and Mayor England.



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.

APPLES, ORANGES, ETC.

My husband, Jim, wrote the following article and asked me to post this for him since his typing skills leave a lot to be desired. Since I wanted to post this article in this decade I typed it myself, but the words are his.


To Mr. Apples & Oranges,


To separate them, you need to know which is which. But in your case, I don't think you do. But we will let the people decide.


You use words so unusual that someone must have to tell you what they mean.


You talk about being physically fit but since you own a hot dog and pizza stand, I don't see how you can eat this food and stay fit.


I don't know if the city gives you a tax break, but the regular people in New Albany don't get one. But the taxes paid by the people of New Albany are what keeps Community Park going, not the taxes paid by people from Louisville.


If you were going to a picnic at Community Park you would probably stop on Grantline Rd. to buy everything you need, but me, I'm not stupid, I would bring everything I need from home.


Your friend,


Jim Baird
(HA HA)


Jim didn't mention this, but he did tell me July 4th that if Community Park collected just one dollar from every out of town visitor we would have the funds to pave our streets and do everything else we need to do. I must agree. A water park paid for by the kind citizens of Louisville, what a concept.


BTW I pay taxes for the privilege of working in Louisville.

Shirley

4TH OF JULY ALL OVER AGAIN

If you were looking for excitement and continuing fireworks last night's City Council meeting did not disappoint.



There was a capacity crowd, some probably remained after the smoking ban meeting, but that is a different story. The residents and some of the council members had a lot to say and did not hold anything back.



The first speakers were residents who had taken part in the redistricting committee. One resident was offended by an article he read in the Courier Journal in which a council member was concerned that he was being forced out of office because part of his district had been merged with another council member's district. This resulted in two council members living in the same district. Of course they will have to face each other in the next election or flip a coin to see who will run "at large". As it turned out, this happened in another district also. So there will be four council members living in two districts. The 2011 race could be quite interesting.



The general consensus was that the proposed redistricting plan is perfectly fair as far as the population per district but splits precincts and disrupts neighborhoods. In general it leaves people without a sense of community.



This theme was repeated when the west end residents spoke about the Lopp Real Estate company who are trying to develop the west end. Some of the residents were afraid that they would be forced to sell their property at a loss. Several council members assured them that no one can force a homeowner to sell. It is totally up to them to take or reject any offers. It was brought up that some of the residents are being offered an incentive to talk their neighbors into selling their property. This is has the effect of pitting friend against friend and neighbor against neighbor. One resident spoke eloquently about older people who had lived in the same house for decades and were confused about all of the talk. She asked for the same respect as would be given to a homeowner in a more affluent neighborhood.



Another resident said that he was offered $18,000 less than his property appraised for twelve years ago. He too was assured that he is not obligated to accept any offers. One of the council members asked if the rezoning would help or hurt his property value. The gentleman did not know the answer but said that if his property value stayed the same as it was 12 years ago he would be OK with that.



This resolution passed after a little tweaking from a few council members with a vote of 7-1, one member was absent.



The sparks really started flying when it was time for the city officials to speak. As I said earlier a few of the council members were not happy with the proposed redistricting plan. One member said that per state law the council is responsible for drawing the district lines. Another said that the city was obligated to do something quickly because of the law suit which was filed earlier. All three of the council members who were members of the committee agreed that there was no regard to politics and that the decisions were solely based on population numbers from the 2002 Census.



Between the council members trying to out talk each other and comments from the crowd it was hard to keep up with what was happening. But the final vote was 4-4 on the first reading. Certainly more to come at the next two readings.



I am sorry to admit that I left at 9:30 so I did not hear the votes on the other Ordinances which included additional funds to hire more police officers. This is a very important issue but I just could not stay any later.



My feeling about the redistricting is this: yes the numbers are as fair as possible but there are other things to consider. People do consider themselves part of a neighborhood. If they have a problem they want to be able to rely on their council representive. It makes it difficult when the precints are split and some residents don't feel that they are part of their own neighborhood. It will also be very confusing at election time when people are told to vote elsewhere. Some may even be given the wrong information and refuse to vote out of general disgust.



I also think that the council members should have been considered in this plan. If the people of a certain district vote for a council rep they want that person to represent them. Council reps should not be pitted against each other as they try to work together. Objectivity is fine but some things are subjective and should be considered.

WE NEED OUR THREE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was an interesting comment posted July 3 in regard to a previous posting. It gave the entire explanation to the debt owed to the EDIT fund from TIF.


I wish to thank the person who contributed this valuable information.


"Minutes from New Albany Redevelopment Commission, dated November 12, 2001 (page 2) states, IN PART.


The Director (Carl Malysz) brought attention to the State Street Parking Garage and stated general concerns regarding the Bonds. One concern the Director stated was that the bond payments are accelerating and becoming substantial. The Director explained that there will be a greater implication on EDIT funds. The Director also stated certain complications with TIF and EDIT revenues, as follows:

1. The Parking Garage finished a year or two prior to the bank building. The TIF proceeds started later than anticipated in the underwriting. From '98 thru '01 there was an accumulated TIF shortage of $256,000.


2. The bank was originally to have five floors completed and occupied. There are two floors that were left unfinished so that the assessed value (av) of the building is less than what was estimated, resulting in less TIF funds. (BTW, sure looks as if they finished those two top floors now; as they being taxed now?)


3. The original assessed value included a bank drive-through, but the site could not accommodate it. The New Albany Redevelopment Commission should add the drive-through to the TIF district to capture additional TIF proceeds.


4. EDIT funds are budgeted to be payable for a particular year. The Director suggested that the city budget the EDIT funds and have them available to Redevelopment Commission before the payments are due. This gives the resources available on time without scrambling around for the funds to make the payments. In order to get on a valid schedule, an appeal has to be made to the Council and the Controller to receive the EDIT funds available not to be current with the payment.


5. A lease Rental Reserve was required in the bond agreement. This costs around $40,000 a year for five years or $200,000.

The Director noted that in order to be current by the end of this year, there needs to be approximately $580,000 or EDIT funds allocated to the Redevelopment Commission. The Director also stated that by the time the project is paid off, WE WILL PAY APPROXIMATELY $3,696,350 OF EDIT INTO THE PARKING GARAGE PROJECT. The Director stated that once the bonds were paid off, THEN TIF FUNDS CAN BE COLLECTED TO REFUND THE CITY THE EDIT CONTRIBUTED, IN RETURN, "THE CITY CAN USE THOSE FUNDS FOR OTHER CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS".

Other documentation includes a document dated 8/21/07 from Cyndi Kraus, Financial/Compliance Manager and John Rosenbarger, Director of NARC to the CITY COUNCIL stating IN PART:

Per your request received August 17, 2007 I'm providing the following State Street Garage Operating and TIF information.

1. State Street Parking Garage Operating Fund

Year 2005 Receipts $82,874.65 Expenses $69,118.24

Year 2006 Receipts $76,772.71 Expenses $54,306.52

Year 2007 (thru 7/07) Receipts $32,828.40 Expenses $22,651.74

2. Total TIF captured between 1999 and 2006 is $1,004,949.31

3. Total Debt Service paid with EDIT is $3,613,698.46

Please pay the monies back of England can have some money to work with Redevelopment. PLEASE?"

I must add an additional "PLEASE" to this request. There are so many important projects in the works and the $3M+ is desperately needed.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

TODAY IS JULY 4TH. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO EVERYONE.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD STUDY

The preliminary results are in for the latest neighborhood study.



The City hired consultants Marcia Nedland & Eileen Flanagan from Fall Creek Consultants from New York to help revitalize New Albany. The ultimate goal is to make New Albany an All American City as it was in the 1960's. This is quite a challenge as everyone knows.


The final results of the study will not be revealed until September. But several items were discussed which we could start to implement immediately.

1. As everyone probably guessed is clean up. The "Adopt a Corner" plan was mentioned and the consultants thought that was a good idea. We need to keep the trash out of the streets, yards and alleys. More neighborhood clean ups are planned.


2. Housing is another big issue. We need to have more people moving into homes and fixing them up.


3. Along with the lack of affordable housing comes the unsafe housing. No one wants to move next door to an abandoned home which is a magnet for drug dealers or curious children. Not to mention rats and other unpleasant creatures.


4. We need affordable financing if we are to put people in these homes and ask them to do a major renovation. The banks and lending institutions need to help with this. It was mentioned that New Albany has several ways to help low income families buy homes. I think these plans need more advertising. Some people may not know that they could qualify for a mortgage.


5. In addition to people purchasing modest homes, it was mentioned that we need people from the East End of Louisville to look at New Albany as an affordable alternative to Cresent Hill or the Highlands. This idea needs to be marketed also. Many people in Louisville look at the river more as the Atlantic Ocean than the Ohio River.


6. The downtown needs to be associated with the Greenway. We all know that it is there but we need to visit there and tell others to do the same.


7. Keep our neighborhood schools open. Schools work as community centers as well as education centers and the fabric of the neighborhood is affected when an elementary school closes.

Basically we need to compete for the next generation of home buyers. The young people need to stay here or the city will become stagnant. It was said that young people need to start thinking of New Albany as a "cool" place to live. It seems that some people are moving back to settle down and this trend needs to increase.

I know this is a tall order but it can be accomplished if we each do a small part and keep our elected officials aware that we are serious about this. We need more people to attend the City Council meetings, especially West End residents, and make our voices heard.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING 6/19/08

Our beloved City Council managed to vote on 10 Ordinances and Resolutions last night, and all before 10:00. I think they earned their paychecks for this meeting.

It went something like this: This is a very condensed version of the agenda.


R-08-23 Expanding a TIF area to include the Loop Island wetlands: vote 8-1 with Steve Price having the only nay vote


R-08-33 Concerning M & V investments, sorry I didn't quite get the story on this one but it did pass 9-0

R-08-34 A zoning resolution for the West End: The discussion went on forever on this one. Dan Coffey wanted to change some of the zoning so that the residents could build single family homes and duplexes but have a more difficult time obtaining zoning rights for multi family residences and retail businesses. There was a disagreement between Mr. Messer and Mr. Coffey as to whether property values would suffer because of the red tape developers would have to cut through. This is similar to the type of zoning in Cedar Bough and Catherine place. The vote was 6-3 (against) with Mr. Coffey, Mr. Price and Mr. Gonder having the yes votes.

A-08-08 Appropriation for a grant to purchase an AFIS machine. This was neat. Thanks to Baron Hill and a Federal Grant, New Albany will have a state of the art fingerprint database that will link up to the entire country. We will be more advanced than Louisville. In fact they will have to ask Sgt. Fudge (our fingerprint expert) for help. Vote 9-0 of course.


A-08-09 Additional Appropriation for the Riverboat Heritage Fund. No brainer.
Just use the $50,000 in private donations for fireworks at our July 4th celebration.


A-08-07 Additional Appropriation for roads and streets, this is to use the $500,000 we already have to pave the streets. This passed 9-0 of course.


Z-08-08 The Gary McCartin Charlestown Rd development. After hearing from several residents speak against this, the entire council voted no.


Z-08-10 Amendment to Code...Silvercrest Hospital development; all votes were yes.


Z-08-11 Storage units on Paoli Pike for the apartment complex. All voted yes.


Z-08-24 SDR Development - the development on Grantline Rd. SDR will pay tap in fees in advance and help to allow the surrounding homes access to city sewer lines. All yes on this one too.


Sorry about the lengthy post but it was a long night.


On a personal note, I was able to corner John Rosenbarger after the meeting about a comment he made in regard to the next Redevelopment meeting, Tuesday 6/24. It seems that Redevelopment has decided to include the entire city in the proposed study about home ownership. (see previous article)

Mr. Rosenbarger had me on his "call list" of local citizens to interview. The commission will be interviewing people from all parts of town and all age groups to determine how to encourage people to want to live in our fair city.
The target demographic will be younger people (under 35) and baby boomers who are looking to downsize and purchase retirement homes.