East CAC Meeting Minutes
February 2010
Submitted by Secretary Sue Sturgis
Chairman Mark Turner called the meeting of the East CAC to order shortly after 7 p.m. on Monday, February 15 at Lions Park Community Center. There were about 35 people in attendance, with about a half-dozen attending for the first time. The meeting was recorded, and the audio will be available at www.eastraleigh.org. The January minutes were approved.
[Chair’s note: The audio has been misplaced and will be posted should it be located.]
[Update 14 March: Audio has since been posted.]
OPENING ANNOUNCEMENTS: In good news from around the CAC, Raleigh Community Services Liaison Charlene Willard reported that the Lions Park South Community Watch has been formed, and she presented members with a plaque for their organization. Charlene would like the entire CAC to be represented by community watches.
She also reported on the Pepsi Refresh Project, a website sponsored by the soda company that allows people, businesses and non-profits to submit “ideas that will have a positive impact.” Site visitors get to vote on their favorites, which are eligible for grants of between $5,000 and $250,000. For more information, visit www.pepsirefresh.org.
East CAC member Deborah Ford spoke on behalf of the Wake Boys and Girls Clubs’ facilities on Raleigh Boulevard, pointing to the good work they do and encouraging people to get involved. Also attending was Hugh McLean, the vice president of the operations, who said that the organization would begin sending a representative to the CAC meetings. He also offered to speak at a future CAC meeting about their programs. For more information about Wake Boys and Girls Clubs, visit their website at http://wakebgc.org/.
The new commander of Raleigh’s Southeast Police District, Capt. Stacy Deans, introduced himself. He will celebrate his 20th anniversary with the Raleigh Police Department this year and has spent the majority of that time in Southeast Raleigh, where he served as a beat officer and drug detective. He complimented Officer Kryskowiak for his community policing efforts in the area.
Following up on Charlene’s remarks about the need to form community watches, Capt. Deans noted that part of Chief Dolan’s five-year strategic plan is to invest in community watches. A good resource person to help with that effort is Raleigh Police Officer Lisa Weber, who specializes in working with residents on crime prevention efforts.
Capt. Deans encouraged people to contact him with concerns. His office number is 996-1355, and his e-mail is stacy.deans [at] ci.raleigh.nc.us.
POLICE REPORT: Officer Kryskowiak didn’t have time to print out copies of this month’s crime report, but he will make them available in PDF format. He was pleased to announce that the report was only a page long.
While the data show four aggravated assaults, none of those were random, and two took place at the Longview Grocery on Poole Road. In talking to the principal of Poe Elementary School across the street from the store, Officer Kryskowiak noted her concern about the cigarette and alcohol advertising visible to the children from the playground. He suggested that it might help if citizens contacted the store about it.
There were a couple of robberies on Calumet Drive near WakeMed, and Officer Kryskowiak advised people to be careful about walking there at night. He is also concerned about the number of residential burglaries in the ECAC and said they seem to be happening during the day.
In some good news from the police front, Officer Kryskowiak met with Charlene to discuss grant opportunities for a cleanup of the neglected wooded area behind the tennis courts at Lions Park, which has been the scene of foot chases. He’d like to trim the brush and install picnic tables, a walkway or small amphitheater to encourage natural surveillance. Charlene would like to involve people from the new Lions Park South community watch and Raleigh North Apartments in the project.
Capt. Deans and Officer Kryskowiak are attending a meeting regarding the plans to install surveillance cameras in the area along Raleigh Boulevard north of Glascock Street. York Properties has volunteered to have cameras at the Food Lion shopping center. Plans to open a satellite police station at the shopping center continue to work their way through the city bureaucracy.
Officer Kryskowiak spoke with the owner of the un-maintained wooded land behind the shopping center by the old DMV, where police have found numerous guns. The owner seems willing to talk to people interested in doing something about the area.
Meanwhile, the shopping center’s landlord reportedly intends to evict Messiah Fashions, where there has been trouble with drug sales, gang activity and counterfeit merchandise. In other positive developments, three people suspected of robbing Lam’s Garden, the Chinese restaurant near the grocery store, have been caught and are now in jail.
PARKS AND RECREATION REPORT: Christie Jones, director of the Lions Park Community Center, introduced Jason Clemons, the new assistant director. With Parks and Rec for a year and a half now, Jason is a graduate of Winston-Salem State and High Point University. He will be sharing ECAC attendance duties with Christie.
Registration is coming up for summer camp, baseball, softball, Tae Kwon Do and the Run for the Oaks. For more details about available programs, visit the Parks and Rec Leisure page online at http://bit.ly/9siKQP or pick up a copy of Leisure Ledger at the Lions Park Community Center.
Renovations of the Lions Park playground begin this month, and there will be a community build day, probably in May. Renovations of the Community Center will also get underway soon, and that means next month’s CAC meeting will be held in the gym.
COMMITTEE DISCUSSION: To date there’s been one catchall committee for the East CAC — the OPED Committee, which stands for Outreach, Planning and Economic Development. Plans are underway to split this up into three separate committees. Keith Emrick has volunteered to head the Economic Development Committee; the CAC will also be forming an Outreach Committee, and interested people are encouraged to get involved.
WAKE SCHOOLS CONCERNS: Amy Madison, president-elect of the Parent-Teacher-Student Association at Enloe High School in the East CAC, reported that her group is concerned about the recent county school board elections, which saw the election of a majority that wants to overturn the current policy encouraging economic diversity through busing and magnet schools like Enloe in favor of neighborhood-based schools.
Amy reported that the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, which supports the diversity policy, is holding a series of public meetings about the issue, including one at St. Matthew AME on Bennett Street in the East CAC. She also reported that Enloe students have started a Facebook group called Keep the Diversity Policy in Wake County, which now has more than 2,600 members.
PRESENTATION ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY INCENTIVES: Brian Lips and Joseph O’Neill with the N.C. Solar Center at N.C. State University came to discuss available incentives for sustainable energy. Also taking part in the discussion was Julia Johnson, ECAC member and employee of Southern Energy Management, a for-profit energy efficiency and solar power company based in Morrisville, N.C.
Brian works on a project called DSIRE—the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, online at www.dsireusa.org. He said that North Carolina has a better renewable-energy incentives program than many other states. For example, North Carolina offers one of the most generous tax credits in the nation for the purchase of renewable energy systems, and has had it in place since Jimmy Carter was president. Since it’s a credit rather than a deduction, it comes off the bottom line.
Among the other opportunities available:
* The state’s sales tax holiday for energy-efficient appliances is the first weekend in November.
* The State Energy Office is scheduled to begin offering rebates for efficient appliances this spring, a program funded by the federal stimulus.
* Progress Energy offers its SunSense program to support the use of solar energy in its service area; for details, visit www.progress-energy.com/environment/ras/sunsense/sunsense.asp.
* The N.C. Cooperative Extension offers a free class on weatherizing your home that includes a home energy audit that costs only $100.
* PSNC also offers $25 in-home energy audits for residential customers with natural gas heat or gas water heat with homes built before April 15, 1993.
* Southern Energy Management offers home energy surveys for $295.
People are encouraged to visit the N.C. Solar Center’s Solar House, located next to the McKimmon Center at Western Boulevard and Gorman Street. For more information about the facility, visit www.ncsc.ncsu.edu/solar_house.php.
NEXT MONTH’S MEETING: At its March meeting, the ECAC is scheduled to hear from Raleigh Planning Director Mitch Silver about the city’s gateway projects planned for New Bern Avenue and Capital Boulevard.
The meeting adjourned shortly before 9 p.m.