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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-04-18 CCACCommunity/Campus Advisory Coalition (CCAC) b / J 0 I o INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTH BEND o 0 The December 0, 2018 Community/Campus Advisory Coalition (CCAC) meeting was called to order by Committee Chair Gavin Ferlic at 3:35 p.m. in the Council Informal Meeting Room in the County City Building at 227 W. Jefferson Blvd, South Bend IN. Persons in attendance included the following individuals representing the following entities: Gavin Ferlic John Voorde Jo M. Broden Tracy Skibins Graham Sparks Bianca Tirado Marguerite Taylor LuElla Webster Tim Lancaster City of South Bend City of South Bend City of South Bend Department of Code Enforcement South Bend City Clerk's Office South Bend City Clerk's Office Robinson Community Center North East Neighborhood Connection South Bend Police Department Tim Sexton University of Notre Dame Tony Oleck University of Notre Dame Pam Claeys River Park West Neighbors Myron Larimer Realtors Anna Mullek St. Mary's College Corey Gayheart University of Notre Dame NOTRE DAME UPDATES/CONCERNS: gferlic@southbendin.gov jvoorde@southbendin.gov jbroden@southbendin.gov tskibins@southbendin.gov gsparks@southbendin.gov btirado@southbendin.gov mataylor43 @yahoo.corn lwebstel@nd.edu tlancast@southbendin.gov timothy.d.sexton@nd.edu aoleck@nd.edu pamclaeys52@sbcglobal.net mlarimer@sbmaor.com amullek0l@sme.edu cgayhear@nd.edu The Garth Brooks concert went very well. It was great coordination between the community and the University. There are approximately 5,000 hotel rooms in St. Joseph County. The night of October 20th, 2018, the night of the concert, they were at ninety-eight percent (98%) occupancy. Notre Dame is looking to do two (2) to three (3) major events in the stadium, annually. The Chicago Blackhawks play the Boston Bruins on January 1St, 2019 and then on January 5th, 2019, Notre Dame hockey will play Michigan. Winter break is coming up soon. Notre Dame is playing in a Bowl Game. The Student Government will be having an off -campus engagement fair sometime in the spring semester. The Student Government is seeking different organizations, groups and activities that occur in South Bend. Also, they are seeking companies that have internships for the students at Notre Dame. Student Government also held a Campus Safety Summit with local law enforcement and safety officials in October and over one hundred and fifty (150) students attended. There will be another one (1) in the spring. Additionally, Student Government has been in touch with counterparts at IU -Bloomington about potential Hate Crime legislation moving its way through the State Legislature. That is very much still in the planning stage but Student Government feels they can use their platform to advocate for that development in the Hate Crime legislation. There are thirty (30) independent schools in Indiana, they would be ones that would want to be engaged with that as well. Student Government also is shifting focus to maintenance of dormitories. Back the Bend will be happening in April. The Off -Campus fair will be happening in late February or early March. The Community Engagement and Outreach Department partnered with ND Votes and the local League of Women Voters and we registered over 2,000 students to vote this past election. We also worked with them to be at the First (1S) Friday event downtown. TurboVote is funded through the Center for Social Concerns and it has been helpful as it is basically a one (1) -stop shop for college students. A college student is able to register and it sends you emails, text messages and it will take care of all the absentee balloting. It makes voting access primed and ready to go. The Off -Campus Council will be sending out the email for updates to students that head home for Christmas. They are also planning a Christmas decorating contest for students staying here and living off campus. The Off -Campus Housing Fair happened about a month or two (2) ago and it was great. There was great representation from the City. Code Enforcement and Venues, Parks & Arts were there. It was a great opportunity educate students about the decision to move off campus. ST. MARY'S UPDATES/CONCERNS St. Mary's past President, Janice Cervelli, resigned. She did not have a personal statement as to why but there was an all -student assembly where Interim President Nekvasil came and answered any questions students had. Cervelli is in good health but she has not made a public statement since her resignation. In January, St. Mary's starts its 175th Anniversary Kick -Off. It starts January 2e, it begins at 12:45, and we do one hundred and seventy-five (175) minutes of service, followed by a mass at Church or Loretto, and then a dinner. Also, St. Mary's raised enough money to purchase a bus for the Sister's at the Holy Cross in Ghana. That was a big initiative we had. Now, the kids in Ghana have a bus and they don't have to walk and it is much less dangerous. Student Government is working on creating a list -serve for all of the on campus and off campus events within the community. That would be one (1) email once a week rather than forty (40) emails a week. That is very exciting. I mentioned last meeting that we were working on getting Blinky to run back and forth between St. Mary's and Notre Dame on Sundays and that is officially going. It started after fall break and it runs starting at 12:00 p.m. and goes every thirty (30) minutes. We have recycling and composting bins throughout campus now, and we are potentially looking into terracycling to recycle personal care products. Those are our main updates. One (1) of our students gave an advocacy presentation in their chemistry class and student government reached out to them. That is a really student -driven thing. RESIDENTS/NEIGHBORS UPDATES/CONCERNS: The Riverpark Neighborhood Association is having their annual party December nth, 2018 at The Well from 1:00 p.m. to 3:0�m. It is free to Riverpark neighbors and nearby friends and relatives. Also, the Riverpark Neighborhood has had a Peeping Tom. He was most recently sighted at the end of September and, prior to that, it had been about a year. Except there was one (1) time this summer and he returned to that house on Saturday night in full regalia. He jumped the fence and cops couldn't find him. He comes sometimes in the morning, 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. when it is still dark. The most recent sightings have been in the evenings. The neighborhood residents are on edge about that and hope the Police find him quickly. 2 The Northeast Neighborhood Association consists of three (3) major organizations: The Robinson Center, the Northeast Neighborhood Center and the NNRO. They are working collaboratively. The First (1St) AME Zion Church, on the corner of Notre Dame and Eddy Street, they are celebrating one hundred and eleven (I 11) years in that same spot. We have the oldest black church in the City at one hundred and thirty (13 0) some years old, that is on Notre Dame Avenue. That is Olivet AME. The NNRO is in a renovation project and are trying to raise $250,000. Their hope is to increase accessibility and expand the food pantry. The building has been there since 1904 and it went through renovation when it stopped being a fire station and started being a neighborhood center in 1968 but it hasn't had any real renovation since then. They are trying to raise dollars to make it more appealing and recognizable. The NNN is having a Christmas party on December IQ h and that will be at the Robinson Center. Everyone is invited to come. There was also a Community Roundtable with fifteen (15) different organizations that attended and there was great information there. There was also a roundtable for the NRC and they talked about how to get people involved in neighborhood organizations. The Neighborhood Association also works with Cultivate Culinary. They put together a well-balanced meal for individuals and they utilize the connections from the food pantry. They take food from restaurants or businesses and they package it and on the side of the packaging there are instructions on how to cook it. They rescue the food and from Notre Dame football games, alone, there were 12,000 pounds of food rescued. It started with the Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s and the Northeast Neighborhood is the only remaining neighborhood center in operation, of the five (5) that came into St. Joseph County. It is operated solely by volunteers. The Robinson Center had its annual Christmas Auction. That raises money for the children so that they can go on different trips throughout the year. Last year they went to Washington D.C. They've gone to Philadelphia. Through the auction, we get a lot of donations. We raise good money and it's really a good project. They take the older and younger children down to the State House to get them that experience as well. It was really a success. There are also a number of programs and classes that help individuals of all ages. Kelly Park had its dedication after five (5) years of work. The park was run down and with twelve (12) kids from the Robinson Center, they wrote a proposal to Mayor Pete. We raised over $255,000 in donations to build and renovate the park. A lot of students and residents utilize the park. The Realtors Association is working with Jamie Morgan in the Mayor's Office on some issues relative to improving landlord/tenant relationships. Considering the high level of rental properties in the City, that is very important to the Association. The National Realtors Association has money for place -making grants, so regionally, the Realtors Association is happy to hear of ways they can help with park renovations. As sale prices go up, rental prices go up. Especially for students, money is tight, but the Association is happy to share any information with all nearby colleges and universities. CITY OF SOUTH BEND UPDATES/CONCERNS: Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, A couple things. There was a lot of activity with the Harter Heights neighborhood. We are in our third (3rd) meeting in about a three (3) and four (4) month timeframe. In talking to the neighbors, there are safety, traffic issues, parking and cruising issues. I think they've been really good in engagement and have had a lot of support from Code Enforcement, South Bend Police and our Engineering Department. We are at the process where what we are going to be looking at is an overall neighborhood plan for traffic coming in and out on significant events days. Related to that, I think it's perked up that we need to have a change in 3 the signage so that as additional non -football Notre Dame events, they are also covered in terms of street -side parking. So, there will be something that goes through our Board of Public Works that will kind of do a blanket -change on all those signs. That should happen before the end of the year. She went on, I'll use this as an opportunity to also invite you all to the very active list -serves. I think the invitation is there for students to get connected to those list -serves. As long as you are residing in a home, in the neighborhood, they want you to be a part of the neighborhood. One (1) of the best ways to be informed about what is going on around you, block by block, neighbor by neighbor, I think, are these list -serves. I can shoot that information out. One (1) of the other things that has perked up and, similarly we had someone volunteer, she's on staff at Notre Dame and I was looking for somebody to help me keep minutes of a meeting and she constructed these amazing minutes that are just embedded with all kinds of links. From Code Enforcement to the RecordIt. There is a link where South Bend Police are encouraging you where if you have a video camera that covers your property or maybe it covers your driveway, or maybe even catches some of the streetway, where if the Police have that registered, they can poke that list and see if anything might be recorded. It has been helpful and that was communicated to the neighbors. She continued, In addition to that, the City of South Bend, and the link is embedded in these same minutes from these meetings, but we operate a side walk program and a lamp post program. Certainly, sidewalks in terms of helping people get around whether they're in wheelchairs, there are a couple in the neighborhood. And then lamp posts are the whole idea where the more lights you have on a given block, the greater sense of security people have. The City of South Bend, certainly a lot of residents are familiar with those, but some of the non- residents are the ones we want to circulate that information to. In my opinion, and it was shared by people in the neighborhoods, why not share that information? It is investment in the property, investment in the neighborhood and it helps protect assets. We are going to try and get out that information. By way of these minutes, there is a nice, easy link to get your sidewalk partially paid for or how to get reimbursement and the same with lamp post installations. We want to get as many houses with good sidewalks and lamp posts, especially if you're not a resident. She went on, Other pieces that are up and coming for me, I have announced that I will not be seeking reelection but one (1) really important thing I hope to get done between February and April is a carbon reduction ordinance. I've been doing some work on that. Last year, Randy Kelly from the Third (3rd) District sort of kicked it off and then he sort of kicked it my why when we left the Council. I've been working with the Department of Engineering, the Robinson Community Learning Center and the Office of Sustainability at Notre Dame. We would like to take that to IUSB, Bethel and St. Mary's to try and expand support for something like that. That would both be looking internally at the City of South Bend. Also, what can we do to lead as an example for the rest of South Bend. We would be the first (1St) municipality in Indiana if we pull that off and there has been a lot of momentum and people gathering around it. We will have two (2) back-to-back meetings in February which will be more educational, all the way from the basics, the science side of it, the rationale and debunking some of the things that come at it. We want students to lead the way and invite us as a local government, but also as a broader community. Students from the University of Notre Dame, within that major, are using this as a capstone project. I think it is a really cool thing that is happening. An informal conversation was had that detailed personal anecdotes about Notre Dame Event parking amongst individuals present. M Councilmember Broden stated, There is also a lot of food insecurity. Even with students as it is difficult to admit. I think it is important to spread the word on food share programs. Code Enforcement Inspectors have been going to the Notre Dame off -campus housing fairs and that is something that if St. Mary's, IUSB or Holy Cross would like to invite Code Enforcement to, they would be happy to attend. ndsp.nd.edu, under `Our Services' and `Property Registration,' instead of taking property with you over Christmas Break, students can actually take it over to the Police Department and they will hold it for you until you get back. That is everything with the exception of bicycles. The South Bend Police Department encourages individuals to not be easy targets. Leaving purses or other valuables in plain sight will attract individuals who want to steal. Property crimes have been down, overall, around the University of Notre Dame. There has been a continued trend by IUSB and the Riverpark Area where there have been breaking ins and garage burglaries. Property crime in the Harter Heights area has been down there. City-wide, robberies are down this year. As of right now, it is a pretty big reduction from last year. Last year, there was one (1) person who committed twenty (20) armed robberies. So, getting those people caught and held accountable, that is a big thing. We were able to make some apprehensions and that helped. OneCallNow is where we can push out emergency notifications, or just important notifications from the Police Department. I think right now we are limited to around five hundred (500) people that can get the messages. I think there are thirty (30) more slots to be on it. Please email jmaxey@southbendin.gov if anyone is interested in that call list. Committee Chair Ferlic left the meeting at 4:08 p.m. Deputy City Clerk Bianca Tirado presided over the remainder of the meeting. The next meeting will be tentatively scheduled for February 6"', -2019 at 3:30 p.m. With no further business to discuss, Bianca Tirado adjourned the meeting at 4:48 p.m.