Meeting Notes: General Membership – March 25, 2024
Attendees: See sign in sheet
Minutes:
Call to order: 7:02 PM
Andrew Epps welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order.
Officer Updates:
- NPO:
- Officer Rockwell filling in for Officer Bell.
- 26 incidents (warrants and arrests, accidents, etc.) Mosly minor. 4 incidents north of Jessamine.
- Vape shop on Magnolia was robbed on the 6th
- Bodily injury behind 7/11 – random guy throwing rocks
- Someone hanging out at a dr office and threatened to shoot once asked to leave. Was arrested.
- 2100 block of 5th ave – 2 residents woke up to broken car windows. No further info on how or why. 3/17 incident
- Chipotle – someone broke in at 2am. Employee was there and called 911.
- Suzanne Mable & Mary. Incident at the garden today 3PM. Woman (Tammy) who vandalized in the past. Called the police. Mentally ill/ unmedicated/ off and on brought back to the neighborhood. Asked to not hang out in the library. Freaked out and became violent – throwing stuff at people and cars.
- Jail Diversion Center:
- Seems like more police activity at the night
- Client transfers happening in the streets, it seems
- People choosing to leave been escorted into the neighborhood
- Potentially due to someone leaving voluntarily and becoming violet – would have more patrol people
- Been a big discussion recently with FWPD.
- Voluntary to leave, but the other option is to go to prison. But once they leave, they need to be caught again and put in jail.
- There was a meeting in the past with Councilwoman Beck and someone from the FNA. Not sure who – maybe a few presidents ago. Neighbor to send Andrew an Email and he will get this to Beck’s office
- Hurley SWAT team incident – busted drug house (2500 Ryan) 3/12. 3 charges of mfg. and delivery of controlled substance, etc.
- Fairmount/ Richmond, a few nights ago, large party disturbance of about 100 teens. Police were called. If a report was made, it can be looked up, but if PD just busted a party then not necessarily. No shooting or fight. Party was around Fairmount/ Park Place.
- Henderson/ West Arlington ongoing issue. Neighbors have cameras and every situation becomes an offense – disorderly conduct citation so far. Warrant will be issued if not taken care of in 11 days. NPO sits and waits to catch him. CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) is involved. Suggest to call 911 immediately when it happens – not hours later, as it becomes a downgraded situation. Misdemeanor needs to happen in presence of an officer. Need to get him in front of a judge somehow so that his history is looked at and determined with mental health professional.
- FNA is meant to be a voice for the neighborhood. Will try to get Beck to come talk at a FNA meeting again.
Community Garden:
- Policeman today suggested a camera facing the street. Contact the city to ask for a camera facing the garden. FNA to look into this.
- Brandon (president) – Saturday, April 13 volunteer day – need help with weeding. Lots of plans for upkeep coming up.
- Egg hunt with the library was a success recently.
- Chicken coop was taken down and will build 2 additional plots – will send emails to people from the waitlist.
Community Library Update:
- Fundraiser launched earlier this month (Jess – fundraising chair)
- $1200 to keep the library open
- Goal is 5k, but at 4k now
- Open Streets involvement, garage sale, memberships with discounts on space rentals (Kat Valentine)
- Gem store to close at the end of this month. Looking for a new subletter. Will send a form out for this.
Board Updates:
- Home Tour: Kelci Cox
- 5 homes on home tour, 2 businesses
- Volunteer and support positions available and ready to sign up – one off commitment to get involved with the neighborhood and meet people.
- Meeting tomorrow at 6PM at Lockwood Distilling
- St Patrick’s Day Porch Crawl Update: Barbara Crotty
- 10 houses signed up despite poor weather there was a decent turn out
- Nothing signed up for April yet for FNA social, so anyone wanting to open their house
- Currently 75 members.
- Ends in Dec and start up again in January. If you have not updated already this year, you need to.
- Historicfairmount.com/join – paypal or credit card. 20 individual – 25 for a household
- Jim can tell you if you are a current member or not (send an email to membership)
- Greenspace Sign:
- Putting money back into the community
- Budget meeting happens in October if you have an opinion
- Tear down to begin, sign supposed to be up before home tour
- Michael Mcdermott to send a landscaper to pull weeds in the bed by the historic plaque for free.
- Butterfly garden – city property, needs to go through getting multiple bids, etc. Sprinklers in there. Michael wants to get grass removed and plant leftover perennials. Fairmount Community Garden happy to do a monthly work day there. Suzanne: there was a plan, maybe someone could not afford it. Best way to do this is by getting more volunteers and groups set up to look into these items. McDerm to come to a board meeting and work on developing a plan.
- Public Safety Update: Ray Feyn
- Looking for volunteers to help patrol the neighborhood.
- Potentially volunteers help the NPO set up stakeouts, etc to help
- 8 hour training session. Issued a radio and shirt
Neighborhood Garage Sale:
- April 20th
- If you want to be on the list/ map, email communications – pay attention to email newsletter and social media
- Barbara asking for volunteers to help her garage sale. Proceeds to go to FNA. Sign up with Barbara in person or email membership
Looking Forward:
- Board Member Nominating Committee
- Communication
- Finance
- Preservation
- Public Safety
- Promotions (1 year)
- 2 year positions
- Nominating committee is a short term commitment to help the neighborhood out.
- Can join a committee before coming onto the board officially. 8-9 board members, but we need committees behind us to support
Historic Preservation:
- Working on imaging the neighborhood now. Need volunteers. Every 5-10 years. To update the website records. This becomes a way for FNA to own images and keep accountability with any updates to houses.
Traffic Calming:
- Will happen at the April meeting due to miscommunication with the city.
Adjourn: 7:58 PM
- Share