LCPHCA General Membership Meeting April 25, 2006 Minutes

Rodger Burgess, LCPHCA President, called the meeting to order at 7:35PM

Rodger welcomed everyone to the meeting, and recognized current and former officers and board members of the LCPHCA.

Rodger mentioned that several neighborhoods are looking at hosting a ‘candidate’s fair’ for the upcoming elections, and requested a volunteer who would be willing to work with the other associations that hope to put this together.

He then introduced Don Broussard who is a candidate for the DeKalb County District 2 seat being vacated by the retirement of Gale Walldorff. Don spoke for several minutes about his background both as a resident and professional planner with a master’s degree from in urban planning from Ga. Tech, and his experiences on the Planning Commission for the last few years. He discussed how he thought DeKalb’s Board of Commissioners needs more staff and legal support, and that the county’s current governmental structure with an overly powerful CEO needs to be reformed. Don said he would work on behalf of the established neighborhoods in District 2, but also would reach out to the other commissioners because all of DeKalb’s citizens have ‘common ground’ issues facing them for the future. He advocates ‘smart growth’, and promises to exercise personal honesty and integrity in his dealings with the other commissioners and county officials.

Bo Kersey, the Safety Committee chair then passed out sheets with the instructions for neighbors to sign up with the new Yahoo Crime news group that he set up a few days ago at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LCPHCA . He did warn that some of the reports that get posted may not be true, but an effort to keep the neighborhood informed of area criminal activity was more important that the occasional wrong report. Then he introduced Jeannine Hightower who works for the DeKalb Dept of Public Safety and helps setup and coordinate the Neighborhood Watch programs around the county. She passed out the information on the steps needed to implement such a watch; the key is to get enough ‘block captains’, each of whom covers 8-12 houses, and reports to the Watch Coordinator (Bo Kersey), who then communicates with Ms. Hightower’s office. With 720 homes, we will need at least 70 block captain volunteers, and this will be a tough challenge. Ms. Hightower did mention that if a LCPH wide effort is not possible, then individual streets could organize themselves and essentially set up their own Watch for their street. She also handed out a summary of ‘incidents’ in our area since Jan 1^st of this year. The most incidents were false alarms, followed by requests for patrols and house checks, and a few reports of ‘suspicious persons’. She did point out that in neighborhoods where Watch programs are established, that records show a 30% decrease in reported ‘incidents’.

A police officer was also there, and he reiterated Ms. Hightower’s comments that the best crime prevention is to KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS! If you know what types of cars they drive and when they are at work (or out of town) then if a strange van is parked in the driveway, it is time to call the cops! He recommended that if you see such strange activity; try to get a description of the persons, the clothes they are wearing, the type of vehicle and a tag number (even a partial number can help). If they leave, note the direction they go. He pointed out that little clues add up to arrests and convictions. The public safety reps were warmly applauded for their participation.

Next up was a discussion of improving the entrances into our neighborhood. Whether we wanted pillars like we see leading into other area neighborhoods, or signs that hang over the street as you enter the neighborhood, or some other type of entrance sign. These are expensive. We will probably have to start with one entrance and go from there. Towards that end of raising money for whatever markers we decide upon, there has been some discussion of a ‘Leafmore Tour of Homes’ that Karen Young-Mackenzie has studied. Such a tour will require many volunteers for everything from House Selection, Tour Coordinators, Public Relations, Graphic Designer for posters and program, Ad Sales for the program, a volunteer to set up a break for those touring homes (this could include box lunches and art show at the clubhouse), treasurer/accountant type to handle the ticket money and ad revenues and organize insurance for the tour, ticket sales coordinator, and 2-3 volunteers at each house to check off the tickets and keep an eye on the house, and lastly a Volunteer Coordinator to coordinate all these volunteers. The proposed name for the tour would be ‘Celebrate the Ranch’, and would be sometime in the fall. For those interested in being a part of this big effort, please contact Karen at 404-636-4331 or via email at: Karen.L.Young@comcast.net.

Treasurer Rick Hollahan gave a brief summary of the financial picture: we have $12,746 in the bank, and a monthly cash burn average of $426, the biggest expense is for the lawn service for the common grounds/entrance areas. He also reported that we have 325 members, although 3 new homeowners signed up during the meeting. Rick is due our deepest appreciation for such a thankless task!

Reid Mallard, head of the Distribution Committee for the newsletters and directories, needed one person for a 30 home route. A new member volunteered for that task. Thanks to Reid and his committee for all their good work over the years!

Finally, Rodger Burgess announced that Jim and Harriett Segars were stepping down as co-chairs of the Grounds Committee. They have done a marvelous job for the last couple of years, and have volunteered to stay on the committee, but not as the chairs. Many neighbors have commented that the entrances are as nice as anyone can remember, and the Segars and the other grounds volunteers have our sincere thanks for their efforts! We need a volunteer for this critical job that goes a long way towards making our neighborhood a visually nice place to drive into, and that helps maintain property values and civic pride. The lawn service helps with mowing and pruning, but someone needs to be in a position to oversee their efforts. One issue to be resolved is getting access to water at the Spring Creek entrance. (The Segars were hand carrying water to keep the flowers blooming in the summer heat!). The LCPH board of directors has approved the expense to get a water faucet at that entrance, but the county Water Dept. seems to have problems acting on our request. This will be one of the first tasks of the new Grounds chair. (Jim and Harriett will help with this transition, so the learning curve will be minimal for the new chairpersons).

There was some final Q&A. One question dealt with widening Oak Grove road. Clint Stamps reported that Oak Grove road (from the hair salon to Wood Leaf) is about 4 feet too narrow for current road width standards. With the new sidewalk on the west side of Oak Grove, the only way to expand the street surface will be on the east side. Clint reported that widening Oak Grove is ‘in the works’, but such a widening will be no more than 18 inches. He added that this could happen this week, or in 2 years, we just don’t know. Rodger Burgess agreed to send a letter to the county roads department requesting more information on what/when the plans are for implementing this road improvement.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Ted Daniel

Vice President

Acting Recording Secretary