Centennial Council of Neighborhoods ***** Official Minutes ***** Meeting called to order 25 January, 2010 - 6:45pm A Quorum was present ================== Introductions made around the room for the new year. Arapahoe County Sheriff Chief Bruce Williamson, Public Safety Bureau www.arapahoesheriff.org Captain Mark Fisher retired after 30+ years Captain Fisher's retirement prompted some reorganization in the department. Captain Parea is the new Centennial Patrol Captain and will be attending ACCORD and Crimestoppers. Chief Williamson will be doing the meeting here at CenCON as well as Centennial City Council. Larry Ethridge, formerly acting Commander of the South Metro Drug Task Force, fills the Investigations Captain position left open by Captain Parea. Castle Rock PD is contributing a LT, Doug Ernst, to take over command of the South Metro Drug Task Force from Larry Ethridge. Expecting a smooth easy transition. Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office is committed to the accreditation process and they currently hold 4 national accreditations. 2009 saw the Sheriff's Office complete their accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office is working towards 2 accreditations in 2010: 1) Public Safety Communications Accreditation Program (PSCAP) - For the dispatch center. 2) American Correctional Association - For the jail. Middle of last week (17th-23rd Jan 2010) - An onslaught of emails came in to the Sheriff about a suspicious guy hanging around Walnut Hills, Willow Creek, and Cherry Park. Some of the initial emails warned of the man targeting small children, and that turned out not to be true. The Sheriff's Office has identified the man as a 22 y.o. male college student who lives in Walnut Hills. It was determined that he was proselytizing for a church in Knoxville, Ohio. He had no criminal history. He has not broken the law. He was approaching people in the neighborhood and wanting to talk to them about the gospel. He doesn't like to take no for an answer. Some have gotten stern with him and threatened to call the police for loitering. Authorities talked with him on the 24th of January. Authorities talked with his father last week. The father said his son does not have very good communication skills, which seems evident from the number of calls received by the police about him. He has no criminal history. Was not seemingly mental health related. Nobody has pressed charges yet. Nothing to indicate that he was targeting children. CJ Whealen asked about a bank robbery at Smoky Hill and Buckley. Chief Williamson stated that authorities have the bank robber identified with a 99% surety based on pictures from the bank video. Good pictures in the bank and excellent work by lab tech with photo id techniques. Info forwarded to FBI. No information on whether or not the suspect has been apprehended yet. Another bank at Peoria and Arapahoe has been robbed twice since it opened at the beginning of December. ================== Arapahoe Library District Eloise May, Arapahoe Library District www.arapahoelibraries.org 4 libraries in Centennial - Southglenn, Castelwood, Koelbel, Smoky Hill. Arapahoe Library District representative will not be at CenCON meeting in February due to scheduled meeting with Deer Trail School Board. Lead story in February Dewey is that the library received a grant from Centennial Rotary and that grant was matched by the District Rotary for literacy play structures which will go into the Southglenn branch. The structures allow children to play in (and through) them while learning language development (with words and numbers and games played within the structures). Tax season - Paper tax forms are still carried by the library. Tax forms can also be found online at the library web-site. Sheridan and Southglenn partner with AARP to do taxes for low income taxpayers and senior citizens. Andrea Suhaka asked about proposition 60, 61, and 101. Eloise stated that these propositions will have implications to entities which are tax funded such as schools, fire departments, libraries etc. Eloise did not have information about who is behind the propositions but she feels that they look to be draconian in their measures. Eloise will update CenCON as new information comes forth. Andrea Suhaka asked about whether the library has been de-Bruced in any way. Eloise stated that they did in terms of the new revenue in the last two votes. The Library asked for new revenue outside the limits of Tabor. Short discussion followed regarding the effect of that to the library district. Ron Weidmann asked about any effect on the library district from the 4 closures in Aurora. Eloise stated there was nothing that can be measured yet, measurements are being taken over a period of the first quarter 2010. Smoky Hill has seen an increase in traffic but not measured. ================== Arapahoe Park & Rec District Delos Searle, Asst. Dist Manager www.aprd.org Offering 10% off pottery, art, music, dance, spanish cooking, or family programs. Red Cross babysitting training from 11-15 Sat Feb 13 1:00pm-6:30pm College financial aid seminar Wed Feb 24 7-8pm The new year brings an opening to field and pavilion reservations. A question was asked about which part of the county is served by Arapahoe Park & Rec District and was answered with: The eastern part from Smoky Hill to E470 and Quincy down to Arapahoe and is open to district and non district alike. Gerry Cummins asked for phone numbers Delos responded: District 303-269-8400. Direct 303-269-8413 ================== Fire Districts Chief Dan Qualman, South Metro Fire Rescue [www.cfpd.org][www.littletongov.org][www.parkerfire.org][www.southmetro.org] Elections for special districts coming up in May. If you want to run for district board, announcements will be out soon and you can pick up petition to run at that time. Cunningham Fire Protection District has 2 open seats, 1 incumbant. Parker Fire Rescue District has 2 open seats, 2 incumbants. South Metro Fire Rescue District has 2 open seats - term limited, 1 incumbant. Chief Qualman explained the Fire Authority basic makeup for those who are new to the meeting and how it's made up of South Metro and Parker under the South Metro Authority name.
Cunningham celebrating 60th anniversary this year. Received an ambulance and SUBA through Federal Grants. South Metro had 4 large ladder trucks taken out of service for safety reasons (throwing driveshafts). Trucks are under repair and are due back in service shortly. New web-site is operational. Transparency information is available as well as other important information. Strategic planning is continuing for the authority as well as for the accreditation process that the authority will undergo during the year. Citizens academy starting in April through June. Not advertised far and wide but through word of mouth. Feeling that there will be high demand. Applications available tomorrow (26 Jan 2010). Students will go through much of the same academy as the firefighters do. Hands on in burn building, jaws of life etc. Andrea Suhaka asked about the timing of the academy. Chief Qualman responded with: 28th of April (Wed) then weekly on Wed through into June. If you are interested then you should be prepared to attend all the classes. Classes will be in the early evenings. Gerry Cummins asked if this will be for South Metro residents only. Chief Qualman responded yes. Chris Raab asked if the application could be found on the website. Chief Qualman responded no, but would make an effort to get it up on the southmetro.org web-site Colorado Urban Search and Rescue Task Force was put on standby for Haiti, but has now stood down. Ron Podboy asked if while ladder trucks are offline, what are you using as a stopgap? Chief Qualman responded that South metro has 2 reserve aerial apparatus that were put into service. Will also use neighboring departments who have aerial apparatus. Neighboring departments will be put into the response que so that the closest ladder to an emergency will respond. Short discussion ensued about some of the details of the truck failures, the things which were being done to correct it, and the costs to the department for the repairs. ================== South Suburban Park & Rec District Jean Ray, Community Liason www.sspr.org South Suburban serves from West of I25 to Sheridan and South of Hampden to Douglas County including Lonetree. Free hockey lessons this week for kids at Family Sports Center. Elections in May for vacancies. Potentially 3 positions open. Mail in ballot. Information forthcoming Matching gifts applications. Due 12th of March. Determined April 14th. Valentines date night Saturday Feb 13th at 7pm. Peace, Earth and Guitars live family concert by Skanson and Hansen. They play folk tunes and favorites from Beatles, Dylon, U2, Bob Marley. $8/ for district - $10/nondistrict - Buck Recreation Center in Littleton. Goodson Recreation Center Movie night Feb 12 5-8pm. Potty trained children, ages 3-12, invited for pizza dinner, popcorn, animal crackers and juice while watching movies. Supervised by trained child care staff. President's Day Colorado wildlife camp at South Platte park. Unique program for kids, ages 6-12, who don't have school on Monday the 15th of Feb from 8:30am to 4:30pm. Nature encounters seeking clues of winter animals and then coming back indoors for crafts and games. ================== City of Centennial Sherry Patten, Intergovernmental Relations and Community Relations www.centennialcolorado.com Strategic Planning sessions Friday 29 Jan, 4:30pm and Saturday 30 Jan 8:00am. Friday speaker, Cathy Novak (former President of National League of Cities) will come and talk about working between staff and elected officials to get things done. Saturday devoted to Strategic Planning with the council setting it's objectives for 2010. Public is welcome to come. Council set new meeting schedule for 2010. 1st and 3rd Monday's of the month will include study session at 6:00pm followed by a regular session at 7:00pm. 2nd Monday of the month is study session only. Allows discussion of specific issues or to hear from staff on complicated issues that take a bit of time to work through. Centennial is involved in a court case for a medical marijuana dispensary. Attorneys meeting to decide when trial will occur may be a few months still. Judge found on behalf of plaintiff regarding injunction to keep the City from keeping Cannamart closed. Cannamart has since moved to Littleton. Carol Chambers, along with Law Enforcement personnel from the metro area, met with legislators to talk about a solution that will work for everyone. A Bill was brought forward supported by Attorney General's office which represents the folks in Law Enforcement with a harder look at how to manage these dispensaries. Ron Podboy asked: With all the dispensaries opening up and the problems that might come from this, is there anyone taking the lead on dealing with the problem, or is it more like every man for himself with regard to the different entities. Denver, Centennial, the State etc?. Sherry answered "We'd like to say that there is some, I think that this bill that the Attorney General has put together with all the law enforcement types throughout the metro area is probably the closest we've come to actually coordinating that. Each city, because we are home rule, has their own way of dealing with these things. Right now we are in a moratorium. We are not allowing anyone to open a dispensary in Centennial. We hope to have this settled by the legislature which is where it belongs. The legislature and the state health department should be the agencies that come up with the guidelines that help us work with this. I would like to say that there is coordination, and I think everyone is looking to the legislature to do something." Sherry reports that she is no longer the communications director for the City of Centennial, she is now the Intergovernmental Relations and Community Relations for the city and she also watches legislation on behalf of the city and thus works with Colorado Municipal League and other entities that work on legislation that affects communities. Sherry offered to come and get together with a committee from CenCON and talk about the kind of legislation that comes up on a regular basis that might affect us as neighborhoods as well as special districts, the city, or things that impact on local government. She continued to say that those of us who serve the City will be getting together to talk about how we represent you or how we convey the information to you of what impacts these amendments and propositions will have. Centennial is still working on identity and way-finding signs. Committee working on where to put them. March is the next time the committee is expected to report to City Council. Don Doerr asked about Land Use Code rewrite and the enforcement date of that new code. Sherry responded that the code update is still a work in progress that will come to fruition in April or May, and then some zoning discussions after that. Mayor Noon commented that the next public hearing will be at Planning and Zoning meeting in Feb. 2nd and 4th Wednesdays' (2nd wed is the one with the presentation). Sherry responded that it might be a good idea to invite Rita McConnell to come talk to your group about the next piece of the process as it relates to your group. It's important for you to know how the code update will affect your community. On the Census, the City is designing ads to put into your newsletters in the next few months. Middle of March is when the questionnaires go out. Census is important and benefits Centennial. Ads on bus benches. Centennial Counts. Census is hiring (look at their website). $16-$18 per hour to walk around and verify information. Census opened an office in Centennial which serves Arapahoe County and Centennial. Census due on April 1st. Rhonda Livingston talked about the Civic Center Park. Meeting this Thursday 28 January from 5pm-7:30pm Mayor Noon talked about District 1 meeting on Tuesday the 26th of January at South Metro Chamber and a District 2 meeting on Thursday 28 January, at Koelbel. She has 2 weeks on the job and the City is still standing. Mayor Noon talked about Arapahoe Council On Aging (ACOA). Survey to seniors (about 1500 went out) with about 25-30% return. Survey asked about what seniors find important about the city to them. DRCOG will use this type of survey to determine overall strength and needs assessment. ACOA is starting workshops 'World of Family Caregiving'. Aurora Center for Active Adults at 6th and Delmar. Hoping to get a few more workshops later and closer to our city. Workshops will be given on 5 Tuesdays in a row. 1) Topics include: Arapahoe County resources for seniors. 2) Medicare: What You Need to Know Before and After Enrollment. 3) Geriatric medical team discussing health issues and interaction with medications. 4) Making medical decisions, legal guardianship etc. 5) Next Steps, to stay at home or not. These workshops are geared to adult children who have to make these decisions for their parents. Open to anyone of any age. $25 fee (refunded if you come all 5 nights starting Feb 2nd) CJ Whelan asked if there were any 'aha' moments in the survey. Mayor Noon stated that she had just gotten the survey return this afternoon and hadn't had a chance to go through it yet. She stated that she feels that the returns were by our more able-bodied seniors based on a quick look at some of the returns. Was county wide survey. Most returns seem to have come from the western side of the city. Ron Weidmann requested a straw poll for medical marijuana dispensaries. Under the premise that Centennial has a choice of having dispensaries and the income, and not having dispensaries and the expense. How many people here would want dispensaries in Centennial? Nobody raised their hands to have dispensaries in Centennial. There was a comment from the body about getting their marijuana some other way and Ron was quick to point out that his question revolved not around marijuana, but rather the dispensaries themselves. Discussion ensued around a multitude of angles regarding dispensaries and medical marijuana. Mayor Noon commented that we have to be careful when we say we want the State to fix this issue for us. One of the bills to fix it takes away our home rule power by saying that the dispensaries could be anywhere, whereas what we really want is to be able to determine, as a city, where they can go, how many there can be etc. After a 7 minute discussion, Ron Weidmann stated that what he was hearing was that there was no consensus yet on the issue. Wayne Reed would like to come next month and discuss this issue with us. Discussion continued regarding some of the Bills currently being introduced at the State level. First hearing on one of the bills is this Wednesday morning (27 Jan) at the capital. Streaming audio will be available for City Council meetings starting in Feb through the city website. Community resource guide from 18th Judicial District is available for those affected by domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking etc. ================== CenCON Activities CAI Workshops - Marsha Osborne - Neighborhood Liaison - City of Aurora HOA council is a subgroup of CAI. Facilitates round tables. Would like to do a roundtable in March. Needs ideas for topics to present. More successful workshops have included: Financial topics. Basic workshops (now i'm on the board, what do i do?). Discussion regarding various aspects of different types of workshops to be had. ================== CenCON Business Minutes Christopher Raab, Secretary Don Doer moved to approve the November 2009 minutes. Lynn Leader seconded the motion. Motion Carried Treasurer Report Don Strickland, Treasurer -------------------------------- November 23, 2009 CHECKING Previous Balance: $1015.94 Income: $0.00 Expenses: $779.92 Closing Balance: $236.02 SAVINGS Previous Balance: $2488.76 Closing Balance: $2489.26 -------------------------------- December 26, 2009 CHECKING Previous Balance: $236.02 Income: $15.00 Expenses: $150.00 Closing Balance: $101.02 SAVINGS Previous Balance: $2489.26 Closing Balance: $2489.26 -------------------------------- January 25, 2010 CHECKING Previous Balance: $101.02 Income: $0.00 Expenses: $0.00 Closing Balance: $101.02 SAVINGS Previous Balance: $2489.26 Interest: $.50 Closing Balance: $2489.76 Rhonda Livingston, President Pro-Tem Roundtable on Centennial airport noise issue 3 feb 7:30pm at hotel at the airport. Neighborhoodlink.com - free websites for HOA's Andrea Suhaka, VP Membership no new members Frank Green, Webmaster SNAFU with communications tool - ISP has decided not to support the email software we were using without telling our webmaster. Sending group emails has become problematic for the sender, although transparent for the receiver. Discussion ensued about the various aspects of the current offering from the ISP as well as some 3rd party software. Plans C.J. Whelan, 2nd Vice President 1 referral from Douglas County about changes to their regulations and noise overlay etc. no other specific plans Gerry Cummins, President Bylaw Committee Appointment. Need to look at bylaws again, what needs to be changed etc. A call for volunteers was made by Gerry Cummins. Volunteers who stepped forward: Gerry Cummins, Andrea Suhaka, Michael Hall. 3 possible topics for workshops CAI Workshops. Learning how to deal with foreclosures in the neighborhood. Board responsibilities. Reserves for an HOA or civic association CJ Whelan proposed having something regarding collections and liens. Letters of support for grant applications to the city. Civic Center Park. University to Holly Centennial link trail Ron Podboy asked about workshops with Centennial. Reschedule the Code Enforcement one from October? Election commission meets tomorrow Ron Weidmann District 4 meeting in Smoky Hill on the 18th of Feb 7pm - topic: medical marijuana Cathy Noon, Mayor - City of Centennial Feb 22 joint meeting. City Council and County Commissioners. about open space Reaffirmed that the electronic vote for election of President and Secretary were unanimous for Gerry Cummins as President and Chris Raab as Secretary. 1. Rhonda Livingston moved to nominate Gerry Cummins as president of CenCON. Don Doerr seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously 2. Ron Podboy moved to nominate Chris Raab as secretary to replace Gerry Cummins. C.J. Whelan seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously ================== Meeting adjourned 8:42pm