2012 Annual Mitman Neighborhood meeting minutes

MITMAN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL MEETING

Thursday, October 11, 2012, 6:00pm – 7:30pm

Van Buren Apartments, 625 N. Van Buren

Officers present: Sandy Paris, President; Mary Martin, Vice-President and Treasurer; and Lou Bright, Secretary. Including officers, neighbors, and guests we had seventeen people attending.

Opening

The annual meeting of the Mitman Neighborhood Association was called to order at 6:10 PM by Sandy Paris, President.

Bonnie Medler, Ward 6 Aide invited everyone to the Town hall meeting on Monday, October 15 at 6pm at Ward 6 office. Mayor Rothschild will also be there. It is an open forum. Topics include:

  • Proposition 409 is to approve street bond for road fixes: 85% major streets and 15% neighborhood streets. This will cost about $18 per year per $100,000 assessed value on properties.
  • Also to be discussed at the meeting is Infill Development and the issues affecting the City especially areas around the University. Everyone’s input is welcomed. There will be redistricting of Ward boundaries [Mitman is not affected].
  • There has been somewhat of shopping cart blight in the city. Some stores can be serviced by Arizona Food and Marketing Alliance to pick up shopping carts that are left in our streets and easements. Call 1-800-the-cart. Someone mentioned that Trader Joe’s is not in the alliance but if you call, they will pick up their carts.

[Second on the agenda was Hope Cramer, Special Staff Assistant to Supervisor Richard Elias, but she did not show so we proceeded to election of officers.]

Nominations were made for officers for the 2012-2013 year. Elected were: Sandy Paris, President; Mary Martin, Vice-President and Treasurer; and Lou Bright, Secretary.

Someone asked for the City phone number for:

  • Pot Holes & Street Repair – 791-3191 or 791-3154 or 791-4144
  • Graffiti, Weeds, Dumping – 792-2489
  • Code Enforcement – 791-5843

Financial report from the Treasurer and Vice-President:

  • Bank account total – $1096.32
  • Annual Dues are $5.00 and please make check out to: Mitman Neighborhood Association and mail to: Mary Martin, 625 N. Van Buren Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719.

Circle K

  • Carlos Estrada, Loss Prevention Manager Arizona Region and Heather Needles, eastside Marketing, from Circle K were invited to our annual meeting. Carlos said the monument sign will have ‘Mitman Neighborhood’ which is what was requested by Mitman neighbors at one of the meetings early on in the discussions. There is also a bus pull out on Speedway which was requested by Mitman neighbors. Expected opening date will be October 30. The Speedway and Rosemont store will close when the Craycroft store opens. Some concerns about the liquor sales were mentioned and Carlos said the liquor cases have been designed especially for theft abatement and they will be locked at 2am-6am daily. Most deliveries will be during the day and contained on site. Trash pickup is on the same schedule. Dumpsters will be locked. He did mention his concern about graffiti on the wall facing First Street and said we might at some point want to have a mural painted on it. He has lots of paint and will cover graffiti within 24 hours. He said that was why he had suggested a wrought iron fence [to eliminate the graffiti] and it was acknowledged as such that a neighbor on First Street wanted the wall rather than the iron fencing. There are in compliance with the night sky lighting ordinance but will have sufficient lighting. The store is a 4-million dollar investment. They want to work with neighborhoods and want to be on our email list. Any problems, call Carlos Estrada. Also, if we have an event and would like to request ice, sodas, contact Carlos: 520-977-8886 or email Cestrada@CircleK.com.

Gabe Wigtil / List serve / clean up

  • Neighbor Wigtil has set up a list serve for Mitman. It will be automatic loading through our email distribution list. All emails will be identified as ‘Mitman’. You will need a Google account to participate and must be a resident of Mitman neighborhood. For those who do not want to participate, emails will be sent by Sandy Paris as they have been but won’t necessarily come out the same day as the list serve emails. You will need to give your name and address to verify you are in the neighborhood. Here are the instructions:

Mitman Google Group [email list/online discussion forum]

1. Navigate to https://groups.google.com/group/mitman

2. Login to your Google account/create new Google account if needed [using your own email address]

3. Once logged in, click ‘Apply for membership’ on the group page.

Notes: You can select how often you receive emails [none – view messages online, daily digest, or as emails are posted to the group]. If you post to the group, your name and email address will be displayed.

  • Gabe is also working on setting up a clean up effort which would be involving a roll-off from the City and was initially thought to be for one block on Hawthorne but we could also look at doing it for the neighborhood. It might mean the roll-off would be in the street in front of someone’s house so logistics need to be worked out. It was suggested we wait until after the holidays. He was looking mainly at the easements that need to be cleaned up since most folks use the Brush and Bulky for items. The same rules for Brush and Bulky apply to the roll-offs [i.e. no hazardous waste materials, concrete, etc].

Open discussion

  • The star at the old Star Drug on the corner of Craycroft and Fifth St. was discussed and some neighbors wondering if we could purchase it / get it back from Grenier Engineering Firm [most recent past owner]. The question was where we would put it since there is a physician office/facility going in and chances are they wouldn’t want to display it.
  • Imperial Garden Apartments is still a concern as to the condition of the building and grounds although the grass and weeds were recently cleaned up out front.

Meeting adjourned at 7:30pm

Submitted to City of Tucson, Neighborhood Services Division, October 16, 2012.

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