Toonerville Trolley Neighborhood Association

20 March 2008 - Meeting Minutes

Apr 14, 2008

Minutes Toonerville Trolley Neighborhood Association
7:00 pm - 20 March 2008
Chapel of St. Philip Neri

Opening remarks and welcome (opened at 7:00 pm ?– meeting chaired by DiBlasi)
Officers present: DiBlasi, Jent and Hazard
Members & visitors present: Kristin Furnish, JM Hemberger, Gail Tucker, Nancy Woodcock, Kim & Taylor Inge, Don Driskell, Jeff Noble, Dennis Lisack, Hugh Williams, Jason Noble, Rick Barcenas, Jen Frost and William Kessler & a few others who did not sign in.

Treasurer?’s report (Ethel Hazard) ?– current balance $2051.83

Toonerville?’s Efforts in City-wide Brightside Clean-up - 29 March (presentation ?– Nancy Woodcock)
?• Time: 9:00 to noon Location: 1200 Block Brook Street
?• This is an Old Louisville effort, we should see members of other associations
?• Free coffee, donuts & water (at 1244-1246 Brook)
?• Brightside will provide bags / gloves and some tee-shirts
?• You will need to bring tools (shovels / rakes / brooms / other instruments of destruction)
?• We will be mulching tree-well on Brook & in Toonerville Park (if you have a truck and want to haul mulch call Jodi Bessinger ?– 636-2065) Toonerville will pay for the mulch
?• Street cleaners will be coming and the street will be closed (blocked off) for the morning

Dog Park in Toonerville Park Proposal
?• Nancy Woodcock, Ethel Hazard & Jodi Bessinger are working on this
?• Bessinger is in contact with the Louisville Dog Run Association
?• They still need to get with MetroParks and find out the specifics of what needs to be done
?• This discussion brought up the small cemetery located at 1254-1266 Floyd Street. This is cemetery is known to contain at least two burials (but more are suspected): Mildred Rootes Gray, Wife of Cap't George Gray, who died February 12, 1828 and George Gray, Captain 3 VA. INF Rev. War, who died December 3, 1823. There is a D.A.R. plaque that states:
Ft. George
To Commemorate the Burial ground of George Gray 1735-1822 "A Pioneer of our own KY"
?• This property is being used as an unofficial dog park and people are not picking up after their critters. Don Driskell suggested we ought to do research and see about getting a state historic marker indicating it is a cemetery ?– to keep people from desecrating the graves. Also, if there is a dog park in Toonerville Park ?– people may use it instead of the cemetery.

Status Report on Plantings in Toonerville Park
We have completed a great deal of plantings. These need to be mulched during the 29 March clean up. There are some questions as to whether additional plants will be available from the city due to the budget cuts. It we want bulbs; the old Habitat for Humanity (across from UofL stadium) seasonally carries bulbs at great prices.

Status Report on Trees in Tree-wells now that city arborist is gone ?– general discussion about the city?’s budget issues and the fact that the mayor is ?“becoming green?” and may support additional tree plantings.

Status Report on Two-Way Street Effort
?• Toonerville was well on the way to getting two-way streets working constructively with Councilman Unseld, until the small group NO WAY TWO WAY (NWTW) formed and began to demand to be heard. None of the NWTW members appear to have been or are active in the neighborhood association One of the central issues to their complaints is that they were unaware of our nearly five year efforts to move this forward. DiBlasi noted that NWTW got information (description of the process, exact percentages of required signatures and a complete digital list of property owners) from the city traffic department in about 72 hours, where our requests for similar information have languished for two months. Because of the adversarial & vocal position taken by NWTW, Unseld now wants to go through the formal process. As a result, we will have to:
o re-do all of our efforts and begin the petition process anew; and
o get the precise wording from the city traffic engineer (still awaiting that information).
?• The formal process involves a public meeting then we have a 90 day window to gather the necessary signatures. To that end, DiBlasi proposed a mailer that includes a summary of our position statement, John Gilderbloom?’s & Matt Hanka's (UofL Urban Planners) article supporting Toonerville?’s position and a prepaid postcard with the correct petition wording. In addition, the postcard will have the owner?’s name and the property address(es) owned along the corridors preprinted on it. All they need do is sign, if they support the measure, and drop it in the mail. This package will be sent to every property owner. Those who do not reply will be contacted directly by telephone and efforts made to get them to respond.
?• Once the wording is provided and if the city will accept the proposed postcard format as evidence of a property owner signature, we will have to act quickly (see 90 day window) to prepare the documents and mail them.
?• DiBlasi reported that he unilaterally decided to turn down CM Unseld?’s generous offer to pay postage because NWTW heard about it and demanded their position paper be included in the mailing. DiBlasi feels that if they are willing to fight this issue, they should be willing to pay for getting their information into the hands of the property owners.
?• As an aside, Don Driskell reported that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet states that 2ND Street is NOT a state highway. This misunderstanding has been prevalent in discussions related to two-way streets for years since 3RD Street is state, it has been assumed that 2ND was also.

Rescheduling William Schreck's talk to Toonerville ?– Gail Tucker is going to talk to Bill Schreck about getting him to come to a Toonerville meeting (more later, when we get a date) and give a brief presentation of IPL and our responsibilities when there are ?“abandoned?” structures in the neighborhood. How do we most effectively report them and deal with them??

Fund Raising Efforts ?– Aaron Jent (fund raising chair) had to leave. Ethel Hazard brought up the idea of having movies shown in Toonerville Park ?– not for admission, but we could get concessions (barbeque, snacks, drinks and popcorn). Don Driskell suggested Ethel write a proposal to MetroParks and find out if we can show movies and sell snacks, etc.

New Business
?• Because of repeat criminal activity and the fact that many feel as though it is the judicial system that is at least partially at fault, there is going to be an effort to ?“monitor?” judges. There will soon be a request for volunteers to sit in on court sessions and keep track of the cases, outcomes and record these data.
?• The discussion of criminals being released in hours prompted Bill Kessler to point out that there is a great deal of prostitution starting to appear at the corner of Brook & Ormsby. He is constantly reporting it and the ?“girls?” are stopped by police, but never seem to be arrested. But, it does not seem to have any affect on the activity. DiBlasi suggested we get someone from LMPD to speak to us about their efforts to curb prostitution.

Close Meeting circa 8:15 pm.