THE VIEW FROM BLAIR HILLS
The Blair Hills Association August, 2006 Edited by Bobbi Gold
BLAIR HILLS GENERAL MEETING
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2006 7:00 PM
OHR ELIYAHU ACADEMY
5950 STONEVIEW DRIVE
AGENDA:
Neighborhood Safety
1. Recent incidents
2. Starting up a neighborhood watch again (coordination, schedule, signup for different time slots)
3. (if possible) Representative from the CC Police Department
Traffic
1. New city reports (if any are available)
2. (if possible) Representative from the city
3. How to set up residents-only-parking in areas of our neighborhood
4. Discussion on environmental concerns, public transportation, etc.
Emergency Preparedness
1. Ohr Eliyahu school emergency plan
2. Further tips for preparing our homes
Plans for a Summer Neighborhood Event
Traffic. Danny Price of Lenawee Avenue reports that the City will be photographing license plates of motorists driving through Blair Hills during evening rush hours on a couple of week days soon. This information will be used to help determine how much of the traffic is due to residents returning home. When that is done, we hope to meet with City staff to discuss possible remedies for the excessive traffic.
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook: Construction of Visitor Center
Lee Brennan of the Hetzler Rd/Thompkins Way neighborhood reports as follows on a June 20 meeting between Barney Matsumoto of State Parks and the Hetzler Rd neighbors (note that the last bullet point affects Blair Hills, too):
· Construction will probably start in mid July and will last about 14 months.
· They are going to close down half of Hetzler at a time and provide traffic control so that we can get into and out of our properties. They are widening Hetzler, eliminating the wall and flaring the road to be perpendicular to Jefferson. We noted that trucks continue to park along Jefferson blocking views and making it difficult to turn left on Jefferson, this will obviously be improved by the new flaring of Hetzler, but we asked if they could put up signs to stop trucks or large vehicles from parking immediately adjacent to Hetlzer's exit. The State notified us that this is a City issue and we would have to present to the City Council or Planning commission.
· They are planning to put up "No parking" signs along Hetzler to stop people from parking on the road and we notified the State that this was a problem for the residents due to the lack of parking in our area when we have parties or events, especially around the holidays. The State indicated they might be able to let us use the parking lot above our residences but I think that was just to placate us. I believe that this will be an issue still to be resolved.
· We asked the State to give a monthly update to the residents.
· We asked the State to give us the name and number for the on site superintendent.
· We asked if the State would allow us to utilize their contractor to fix Tompkins Way, it was damaged by the gas companies and others when Hetzler road was paved. The State notified us that we could not commingle funds and therefore we would have to handle this among ourselves.
· We asked about water pressure and it appears that they are coming from the Blair Hills side of the site for accessing utilities.
· It was asked if the whole park would be closed to the neighborhoods on both sides during construction and it appears that it might be for liability purposes. We asked the State to come back to us with any thoughts on keeping part of the park open to the residents. This will have to be discussed with the Contractor as they are ultimately the ones responsible for liability of the site.
Mary Ann Greene and another Blair Hills resident also attended this meeting.
BHA Dues Drive and Directory
The drive is nearing an end, with three streets remaining to be finished. The name and phone numbers collected in the drive will be used to update the BH directory, since people have moved in and out of the neighborhood since the last printing and some other phone numbers have changed. Membership chair Bobbi Gold hopes to get this wrapped up in a week or so, after which she will update the directory, print sufficient copies and get them distributed to all homes that paid dues.
Bylaws. The proposed bylaws attached to the last View were approved at the June meeting. There were some suggestions for further changes, but it was felt to be much easier to simply adopt them as printed and deal with more changes later than to try to incorporate new changes and have to resubmit the revised draft to the whole neighborhood again.