McDaniel Civic Assn.

Minutes 5/21/07

Minutes 5/21/2007

McDaniel Civic Association
P.O. Box 7075 Wilmington, Delaware 19803
web site: http://www.neighborhoodlink.com

The McDaniel/Concord Manor Civic Association meeting opened at 7:00 PM on Monday, May 21, 2007 at Aldersgate Church by RJ Miles, President. Debby Waxman, Secretary; Mike Lauser, Treasurer; and soon-to-be-elected Vice President, Taber Smith were present. There were approximately 30 people for the meeting.

RJ started the meeting with a motion to elect Taber Smith as Vice President which was seconded and unanimously voted for approval.

Mike then gave a succinct treasurer’s report showing that we are in good fiscal shape. We have a current balance of $6,600 in the Wilmington Trust checking account with 2007/08 dues ready to be deposited. The CD is currently $19,177 and soon up for renewal, which Mike is working on.

The summer party was noted for Saturday, July 21 from 1:00-5:00 PM. Taber mentioned that he was thinking of adding more activities for adults so that those without children would feel free to come and meet their neighbors. He asked that anyone with ideas or suggestions to please let him know.

RJ then advised that we had to fire our long-time snow removal contractor because of the poor work that was done over this winter, as well as an excessive fee for the second storm. The first small snow cost the Civic Association about $400. The second small snow that was accompanied by the ice storm was charged at $2,060 with no explanation. A letter from RJ to the contractor was never answered. The same contractor also does another neighborhood nearby, who had the same problem this year and subsequently also fired them. RJ is looking into a replacement and expects to have a decision made by the fall meeting. One neighbor offered his help in locating the replacement.

At this point, RJ turned the meeting over to State Senator Charlie Copeland who explained to us that government is now the state’s largest employer and cost cutting should be looked at before revenue enhancement. He thinks 5-10% of personnel costs can be cut. A question was raisedof whether aggressively going after corporate “abandoned property” would lead to short term gain, but then long term losses as companies look elsewhere for a more favorable business climate.

The yard waste ban was touched upon – it is postponed until January 2008. There was some question of whether a decision would be made any time soon as the session typically ends in June. There was some talk of having trash districts as 60% of the cost of trash is transportation. If you could have one company servicing a community rather than half a dozen, it would also cut down on the amount of trucks going through our neighborhoods. However, this might cause two large companies to squeeze out the smaller operators.

State Representative Greg Lavelle spoke about the local roads. Each representative district gets about $250,000 each year for street paving. Unfortunately, costs keep going up. This year, Windley alone cost over $60,000.

The good news is that the Astra Zeneca work looks to be on schedule to be finished by November. The bad news is that the construction will then be moved to I-95. However, the good news is that the same team that worked to finish the 202 stretch on time will be doing the I-95 work.

Someone asked about the excessive rate increase we were all subjected to from Delmarva. Charlie Copeland gave an excellent and lucid tutorial on the state of our energy. He also explained to us that no matter which proposal ends up being agreed upon, we can count on the fact that our rates will NOT be going down.

The meeting was then returned to RJ where he updated us on the Goodley Park renovation and the new 25’ gazebo being installed there. Also, Shellpot Park is still on track to have the old ice rink removed and returned to a natural state, as well as having the basketball court repaved.

The yard sale was agreed upon for Saturday, June 2 from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. An ad will be placed in the Wilmington News Journal for the prior Wednesday to Saturday.

Code enforcement was talked about. RJ will be representing the Civic Association for a violation that will be going to court for the first time. Although it has taken years to get the action this far, we are actually quite lucky – for a neighborhood of 750 homes we have only about 20 current problems. RJ asked if those present had a problem with the Civic Association officers changing how violations are dealt with. Currently, RJ notifies and tries working with those neighbors in non-compliance, but is not getting much in the way of cooperation. He now would like to go straight to calling/writing our code officer. This seemed acceptable to those present.

He did ask that we continue to be vigilant about calling in when we hear/see kids on the streets late at night. We’ve had less problems than before, especially with graffiti, because they actually caught three of the kids recently. In conjunction with RJ’s work with CrimeStoppers, there will be a poster campaign for schools launching with the CCOBH meeting on this subject. We also need to call in when we know whose homes the kid’s ATV, scooters and mini-bikes are coming from. With many motorists using our neighborhood as “cut-through” to and from Concord Pike, Shipley and Silverside Roads, it’s just not a safe environment.

The next meeting is scheduled for September.

The meeting was opened to questions and comments from the neighbors present. We were notified that a stop sign is down, and RJ directed her to call DelDot and ask for the North District.

As there was no other new business, the meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted, Debby Waxman