Madison Park

July 9th, 2007 Meeting Minutes

Jul 11, 2007

Madison Park HOA Agenda 7/9/07
www.neighborhoodlink.com
28210


Welcome

39 in attendance plus one officer

Meeting called to order at 7:30 by President Marty Doss

Update from Matt Magnasco about the street light petition for Murray Hill/ White Oak
?• the plan is still not complete. The plan is still missing the final two blocks of Murray Hill
?• Matt and volunteers plan on going door to door on July 14th and 15th from approximatly 12-4 pm to start the petition drive. (weather permitting)
?• For more information, visit: www.madisonpark.freehostia.com
?• On a side note, Matt had his fire alarm go off recently one night (thankfully a false alarm). The fire department had problems finding his house at night because it was so dark. Hopefully by adding more street lights, this problem could be prevented. Matt did not have his house numbers visible. City ordinance requires every property to have their house numbers visible. If you know of homes that are in violation they should be reported to 311. Give the adjacent property numbers to the operator.

Crime Stats Officer Hairston
- 5030 Prentice- credit card fraud
- 5100 Baker- theft of motor vehicle parts, license tag stolen
- 1126 Woodlawn- breaking and entering, rear window broken
- 816 Brockbank- harassing phone calls
- 612 Woodlawn- breaking and entering. Officer Hairston thinks it was possibly juveniles that broke in. Please call 911 if you see any suspicious groups of juveniles
Also- Officer Hairston will be collecting donations of children?’s school clothes and school supplies for the fall. These will be passed out to needy families. For more information, contact Officer Hairston at phairston@cmpd.ci.charlotte.nc.us The Westover Division has a store each fall for children in need. They accept school supplies and clothing. Please drop your donations off at the Westover Police Division at the corner of West Blvd. and Remount.


Welcome to City Councilman Andy Dulin. Councilman Dulin was able to stop by to say hello at the start of the meeting.

Fred Sader with Operation Life Saver Presentation
- Operation Life Saver was started to help keep people safe around railroads, cargo trains and light rail trains
- The three E?’s of the program: Education, Engineering and Enforcement
- Always pay attention when you come to a railroad line crossing. The light rail trains that we will have along South Blvd will be traveling up to 55 miles an hour. At that speed it will take at least 600 feet for the train to stop. Also, trains can not swerve to avoid problems like we can in cars.

John Olsakovky passed out some of the ?“Stop Thief?” tags that were brought up last meeting. These are tags that have been handed out in the uptown region. The tags are to let potential thieves know that there is nothing of value in your car, and also to remind you to remove things of value from the car. John has extra tags if anyone else wants one. These will be available on the entry table at our monthly meetings.

Queens University Sports Complex
Tom Miller contacted President Doss that the temporary construction road behind the multipurpose field had been paved at Marion Diehl. Martin had noticed gravel and mud pouring out onto Tyvola Road the week prior to being contacted during a thunderstorm. It turns out the temporary road was paved at Parks and Recreation?’s request due to maintenance issues, and that is now a service road that will be used to service the locker rooms. Martin told Tom if it becomes an issue for the neighbors we will request it be gated when not in use.

Queens News on Irrigation System
June 14, 2007
Dear Mr. Doss,
Queens University of Charlotte was recently notified by a concerned homeowner that the sprinkler system at the Sports Complex at Marion Diehl Park was not following city-wide water conservation rules/regulations. As you may know, Mecklenburg County is in a moderate drought and as a result, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities has asked consumers to limit water use.
Upon immediate inspection of the unit, maintenance teams found that inclement weather conditions had affected the settings on the sprinkler system?’s time clock, resulting in the over-irrigation of the track and field area of the Sports Complex.
As a neighborhood partner, Queens is committed to meeting all county regulations, established both for the betterment of its citizens and the community at large.
Queens has taken the appropriate measures to ensure these steps are taken. Going forward, the irrigation system at the Sports Complex will:
?• Move from an every day irrigation schedule to an every other day schedule
?• Rotate through key irrigation zones in 30 minute increments, one time a day

Should county restrictions on water use tighten within the coming weeks due to worsening drought conditions, Queens?’ strategic teams will meet to re-evaluate the current irrigation schedule so that the University remains in accordance with all city ordinances.
We truly value the input of our neighbors and invite additional feedback. Should you have any questions or concerns in the future regarding any of our policies or procedures, please feel free to contact me at 704 337-2340.
Thank you,
Bill Nichols
Associate Vice President of Facilities
Queens University of Charlotte

Skateboards and Scooters
The South Division of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has received several questions regarding the use of motorized skateboards (four wheels) and electric razor scooters (two wheels). The following are the most common questions, along with the answers.
Q: Is my 13-year old child allowed to ride a motorized skateboard in the street?
A: No. A motorized skateboard qualifies as a "motor vehicle" under state law; therefore, the operator must have a valid drivers license. In addition, the skateboard must be registered, inspected, and insured. Since, as a practical matter, those requirements cannot be met, no one can ride a motorized skateboard in the street.
Q: Is my 13-year old child allowed to ride a motorized skateboard on the sidewalk?
A: No. Riding a motorized skateboard on the sidewalk is prohibited by city ordinance and state law. This applies to all ages.
Q: Is my 15-year old allowed to ride an electric razor scooter on the street or sidewalk?
A: No. A razor scooter qualifies as a ?“moped?” under state law. The operator of a moped must be at least 16 years old, use an approved safety helmet, and obey all traffic laws. In addition, a moped cannot be operated on the sidewalk.
Q: Are children allowed to ride skateboards (non-motorized) or rollerblade in the street?
A: No. There is a city ordinance that prohibits the use or operation of roller skates, skateboards, inline skates, coasters, toy vehicles, or similar devices on the street, except when crossing at a crosswalk. Again, this applies to all ages.

If you have any questions regarding these laws please contact Officer Ryan Jackson by email at rjackson1@cmpd.org or at the South Division Office at 704-544-4835.  


Treasury Report. Candace Armstrong provided. At the end of June, we had $1,384 in the bank with 82 paid members. It cost $15 a year to join. Please pay your dues if you have not done so. You can mail your check to Dee McCandlish at 812 Fairbanks Dr, Charlotte 28210

311 Charlotte Technical Problems
Mayor and Council,
We have been experiencing major problems with the phone technology that is the backbone of our 311 system. The system is holding calls in queue and will not route them to an agent, even when agents are available to handle the call. Consequently, our citizens are sitting on hold for extreme periods of time and our staff is unable to get to the calls. Our citizens are understandably frustrated and you may be receiving complaints about the service.
We have seen this happen on a smaller scale over the past couple of weeks and each time staff was able to resolve the issue once it was identified. However, starting over the weekend and continuing today the problem appears to have gotten much worse and the short-term solutions implemented by our technology staff are no longer working.
Our technology staff has contacted Avaya, the phone system vendor, and will continue to work around the clock until the system is back to a fully functional state. Our customer service staff at 311 will continue to work with citizens as best they can while we resolve these issues. I will keep you posted as we identify a solution.
In the meantime, we ask our citizens to be patient and sincerely apologize for the trouble this is causing.

Saskia L. Thompson
Executive Assistant to the City Manager
City of Charlotte

If you are having trouble getting through to 311- most requests can be made on-line at www.charmeck.org/Departments/CharMeck311

UPDATE
Mayor/Council:
Below is a press release we will be sending to the media this afternoon concerning 311 service.

CharMeck 311 Technical Issues Resolved
(Charlotte, NC) CharMeck 311, the City/County customer service and information line has been restored to full service following routing problems which required a system upgrade.
Officials with 311 worked with Avaya, the call center?’s phone system vendor to determine the source of the problem. ?“Our technology staff worked with Avaya around-the-clock to address this issue,?” stated Saskia Thompson, Executive Assistant to the City Manager. Thompson explained that maintenance was applied Monday night to the phone switch. A technical problem had caused delays routing calls to agents resulting in long hold times. The call monitoring systems currently indicates that calls are being routed properly. An additional patch will be installed tonight that will improve the ability for agents to conference call connections. 311 technology staff will continue to monitor the system for any additional technical issues requiring attention.
Late Sunday evening 311 identified that the system was not routing calls in a timely manner and immediately notified technicians to implement solutions. Callers continued to experience longer-than-average hold times throughout Monday until the system could be restored to full capacity. Many calls to agents were unable to be routed through the system, which handles over 6,000 calls on an average Monday.
CharMeck 311 operates 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, providing customer service functions for City and County agencies including Animal Control, Code Enforcement, Storm Water Services, Transportation, Utilities, Solid Waste Services, CMPD?’s Crime Reporting Unit, along with Mecklenburg County Tax, and Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Departments.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents can also access 311 online at www.charmeck.org.

For more information contact:
Saskia L. Thompson
City of Charlotte
(704) 502-9722

Neighborhood Councils Focus Group
On June 19th President Doss met with neighborhood development and a few other neighborhood leaders to be part of a focus group to discuss the possibility of Charlotte forming a Neighborhood Council. The council would most likely consist of a small group of people representing various areas of Charlotte. Their job would be to just add or provide another means of neighborhoods getting their voices heard, make recommendations to City Council, and work on resolving common issues that they see that are city wide issues. They would both make recommendations to City Council and City Council could seek their opinion on issues. There are all types of Councils operating in various cities. The focus group will meet again in August 2007 to try and decide if they feel Charlotte should have a Neighborhood Council. Some of the neighborhoods have already grouped their neighborhoods under larger coalitions in Charlotte. Madison Park will possibly one day join with our sister neighborhoods along the South Blvd. rail line to form a coalition to work on like concerns. This will not take away from our current association only add to it. There is already interest in doing this by Sedgefield, Montclaire, and Starmount.

Obstruction of View
A Madison Park resident called President Doss to complain that she had been having trouble exiting Halstead Place to turn on Woodlawn. President Doss alerted CDOT and Codes and they both responded they were very familiar with the location. They both have handled complains on the rental property at 1242 East Woodlawn for not maintaining the hedges next to the public sidewalk. The case remains open as of 6/14/07. If the problem is not corrected soon the city will take care of the problem and bill the owner! If you have bushes next to the street or public sidewalks you must keep them maintained as to not block views of pedestrians or drivers.

New Members / First Time Attendees. Welcome to all new attendees

Call Before You Dig
A resident on Prentice Place contacted President Doss asking if he knew why blue lines had been painted across the right of way of his yard. Martin is providing the following helpful information on Calling before you dig. It explains the various colors of marking paint that is used.
Call Before You Dig
To protect the public water and sewer system, property owners are not allowed to dig in any Utilities Right-of-Way. Before you start digging along your property borders -- or ANYWHERE NEAR public utilities located on or around your property -- pick up the phone and dial the N.C. One Call number at 1-800-632-4949!
Generally a Right-of-Way is a piece of property -- whether publicly or privately owned -- where the City has legal access to perform street maintenance or water and sewer work. (Generally about 11 feet from the curb)
To find out whether and where Rights-of-Way are located on your property, check your property deed or visit the Mecklenburg County Geographic Information System.

Any digging outside the Right of Way is the responsibility of the property owner and does not require a call to the One Call Center.
Were lines marked in your neighborhood?
RED ~ Electric Power Lines, Cables, Conduit and Lighting Cables
YELLOW ~ Gas, Oil, Steam, Petroleum or Gaseous Material
ORANGE ~ Communication, Cable TV, Alarm or Signal Lines, Cables or Conduit
BLUE ~ Potable Water
GREEN ~ Sewer or Drain Lines
WHITE ~ Proposed Excavation
PINK ~ Temporary Survey Markings
PURPLE ~ Reclaimed Water, Irrigation or Slurry Lines

Two Individual Street Lights
We expect the approved two individual street lights to be installed one in front of the Posey home on Londonderry Road and one near the Cravens on Glenham any day. They are slightly past the estimated promised installation date. Stephen Steelman with Duke Energy responded to President Doss on 6/18/07 to expect installation in about 2 weeks. We will stay on top of this with CDOT and Duke Energy until they get the installation completed. Just prior to the meeting President Doss was promised by Duke Energy Stephen Steelman that both lights would be up no later than Monday 7/16/07. He reported that one of the lights kept being kicked out of the system for some reason. Both lights are scheduled to go in the same day.

New Business / Concerns/ Issues
Judy Bratton brought up an issue with the reverse 911 calls that we received about the Spring picnic. She said she received numerous calls on her voicemail. Marty said there was a technology glitch for that call, but for the next event, residents should only receive one call. If anyone does receive multiple calls, please let Marty know.

A resident said she had noticed a couple of water line breaks in the neighborhood. Marty recommends calling 311 to report the problem.

Someone also asked about a burned out street light in the neighborhood. Please call 311 to report problems like this or Duke Energy directly. Duke Energy normally likes a bright ribbon tied to the light pole with the burnt out light to help them find the correct pole once it is reported.

Garden Club- please check on the web site for information about the next garden club meeting

National Night Out
August 7, 2007 Mark Your Calendars
Event starts at 6:30 PM and runs until 9:00 PM?…we will have entertainment/food/ and there will something for everyone. Scaleybark Library will be selling used books. We will close down Fairbanks starting at 2 PM for set up. All Madison Park Officers and anyone that can help with set up please show up the day of the event as early as you can. Target said they will send volunteers to help staff the event as well. Decorations such as the helium balloons cannot be inflated until the day of the event. We can still use a few gazebo type awnings that don?’t require ground stakes. If you have one that we can use let us know. Please contact President Doss at 7045190677 or Martydoss@aol.com to volunteer and help run the event.



Submitted by April Mays
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