Washington Park Neighborhood Preservation and Enhancement Dist.

August 14 th Council Minutes

Sep 07, 2003

WASHINGTON PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ENHANCEMENT AND PRESERVATION COUNCIL MEETING


August 14, 2003

We opened at 7:32 with silent prayer.

Deputy Murphy said an arrest was made on NW 6th Court crack and marijuana was taken. They will be doing a Code Sweep in Washington Park, West Ken Lark, Roosevelt Garden and Franklin Park. He asked that we still call and refer any problems we see to him. Lt. Fleming said there was a problem at Marathon Gas Station a stolen car, purse and keys left on the roof of a car was taken. There was a car theft at Roshelle Hotel on NW 27th Avenue. A car stolen from Tamarac was recovered on 27th Avenue. Strong-arm robbery. Eugene asked if they had caught the person that burglarized the home on NW 6th Court. Lt Fleming said they had caught someone who did several of the burglaries. Eugene questioned residents being harassed on NW 9th Court about parking. Lt Fleming said checked logs and there was nothing. Sallie she said didn?’t have details; Mrs. Wright was supposed to get back to her with the information. Lt Fleming and Deputy Joseph said tickets could be given for many reasons, such as too close to an intersection or a fire hydrant. Sallie said she could only give the information the resident gave and it was here say. The ticket was for illegal parking in front of the resident home. Lt Fleming said there is a code on the ticket that will give the section and it will tell them why the ticket was issued. He said he needs more information to answer why the ticket was issued. Eugene questioned guys hanging around homes under construction. Deputy Joseph said a lady stopped him and said she is building the house and gave the men permission to be on the property. If the people are loitering and drinking in the road or on public property he can address them. If they are on private property he can?’t do anything unless the property owner complains. Eugene gave the property owner Lt. Fleming number to call him.

Ivette Spence Brown questioned the speed tracker car that was supposed to be put in our neighborhood. She also said that Deputies are speeding through the neighborhood and there are children in the streets that could be hurt. He said the Deputies could be on their way to a call regarding the speeding. Lt Fleming will have the speed tracker car put on NW 7th Court. I asked about the Ice Cream Vending trucks in the neighborhood. He said he will cover the Deputies about our Neighborhood Enhancement and Preservation Plan that restricts them.

Joy from Code and Zoning said she has spoke with the people loitering on NW 9th Place. She has also spoke to the storeowner about loitering. Sallie asked why the residents are being forced to cleanup their property and the County doesn?’t. Joy said she treats the County property the same as residents she has written violations for the property. One resident said that the property next to her is being cleaned up. Joy is still working on the junk cars. It is not ok to put vehicles in the back of your house with no tag on it. Eugene said they should contact him or the Council members about this because no one is going to pay the violation for them. If there is a tag on the vehicle it is ok. It was questioned how long can a vehicle be parked without a tag. Joy said after a couple of weeks you can call and they can ticket the vehicle. She now works from 7:30AM to 5:30PM four days a week and one Saturday a month.

Ivette questioned cleaning of the gutters and drains. Eugene said that Streets and Highways would clean them next month. Ivette questioned the Church on NW 8th Court that was expanding and is boarded up. Eugene said that a permit was issued to do the construction but it had expired. Ivette questioned why did they issue a permit when it is more than 50% change? Eugene said they applied for a new permit but has not been able to get it through Zoning because of the variance for parking. They have gone before the County Commissioners because they want to know why the County let them spend all that money and now will not let them have the permit. There are a lot of problems with the building. Ivette said that if it were a resident the County would make them tear it down, why is it different for the Church. She questioned why they were given a permit with the Neighborhood Enhancement and Preservation Plan in effect.

Sharon asked who?’s responsible for replacing the tree that was hit by a car on NW 8th Street. Eugene said that the trees are being replaced by a donation.

Annexation there is no new information available at this time. We asked for updated information from Dr. Rosenbaum at Nova. He had to go to Tallahassee and returned late. The study he is working on will not be completed until late in September. Fort Lauderdale and Lauderdale Lakes are still working on their budget. Lauderhill wants to be a part of the Annexation and Dr Rosenbaum needs all the cities information interested to complete the study. Don Stone from Planning with Broward County said that the study was extended for 60 days. They are looking at each cities budget. They have to wait on each city to approve their budgets for the following year. He said that all cities adjacent to Central County are included in the study. He also announced that the Neighborhood Conference for the State is in Sarasota. The cost is $75.00 and the hotel rooms are around $100.00. The bus will leave around 11AM on Thursday September 11, and leave Sarasota at 3PM on Saturday September 13. The bus tickets are $10.00. Eugene said that he and Don would be doing a presentation on the Neighborhood Enhancement and Preservation Plan at the Neighborhood Conference in Sarasota.
They are trying to work on an annexation bill for local acceptance and not go thru Tallahassee. Ken Gottlieb will be meeting with the Associations to talk about Annexation. Mae Smith said he has spoke to the City Associations so far. There will be a Delegation meeting at 2:30 on September 12, 2003 at the Governmental Center for a workshop on filing a bill. Sallie questioned if Ken Gottlieb would be at Commissioner Rodstrom?’s meeting on September 16th for Annexation. She said she thinks the meeting needs to be extended because we don?’t have the information needed to go to Commissioner Rodstrom?’s meeting. She said that Cynthia Chambers might change the date. Don said they would have the information available at the meeting. Sallie said the meeting wouldn?’t be effective because we don?’t have the information from the study so the meeting needs to be extended. We don?’t feel we should have the Annexation meeting with Commissioner Rodstrom since we don?’t have the completed study information to make a decision on. Don said they should have the study completed by October 16. Sallie said she requested the Annexation meeting so she will call the office to reschedule it. She wanted a date to reschedule it to. Eugene said that he thought it was the annual meeting, not a meeting initiated by her. The Council will call him to reschedule. We would like to change the date to October 14th if we have the information from the study soon enough to have a meeting and advertise it in the Media. The Council meetings must be advertised under the Sunshine Law.

A resident said he is having problems with the SHIP loan in trying to refinance his home. You can?’t get cash out unless you pay the SHIP loan off. You can refinance for a lower rate and take no cash out if you don?’t want to payoff the loan. Yvonne said she questioned the Commissioners on why homeowners are not told this before they take the loan and was told they don?’t have to tell us.

Eugene gave Sallie the information on the cost of getting an irrigation meter installed by the City of Fort Lauderdale. He got the information because of the article in the paper about the City increasing the water bill by 5%, which would be around a $6.00 increase. He went over the present cost and the proposed increase. Sallie said she is still working on an installment or payment plan. The permit is $50.00 and you must have a licensed plumber connect the sprinkler to the meter in addition to the cost paid to the City.

Julia motioned to adjourn at 9:07PM Yvonne seconded, meeting adjourned.