01-30-2001
Rolling Ridge Neighborhood Association
Meeting Minutes January 30, 2001
Meeting called to order 7:05 PM
Vicki Barber, Secretary, was unable to attend and we did not have a copy of
the minutes to review and approve. The minutes from the previous meeting
had been posted on the web site and were currently available for review. No
action was taken with regard to the minutes.
The financial page was discussed. This contained a report with an ending
balance on 07/31/00 through 01/30/01. There was 1 returned check which
caused the assoc. to be billed a $15 fee + a $4 fee by the bank.
Highlights were the electric bill had increased almost double of past bills.
Two thoughts were 1) Maybe we had higher wattage bulbs since the repairs
were made and, 2) it was getting dark sooner and the lights were staying on
longer. The group made a unanimous decision to keep the lights on the
monuments as it is important for the overall appearance of the neighborhood.
Since there was no further comments or need for changes to the financial
report it was approved.
Next we reviewed the suggestions that had been received via E-mail.
Cars are speeding and we will have increased traffic and a change in traffic
flows when the schools open in August.
Several suggestions were made: install speed humps, get a turn lane on
Gattis into Rolling Ridge. It was decided to wait until Rusk road is
finished and reopened before we take any action. When and if we take action
it would be to contact the city, i.e. Tom Word, and express our needs and
let the city take its normal course. Some are not in favor of speed humps,
but no other solution was offered. It was decided to let the city know now
about our perception of the future problem of access off of Gattis to and
from the new schools opening just to the east of the neighborhood.
Bids for the maintenance of the monument area. 2 ideas: 1) get some scouts
to do volunteer work and maintain them as a community service project, or 2)
secure bids for professional services. Rodney will send out E-mail to
everyone asking for bids.
Crepe Myrtles – Rodney passed around the history sheet that had been
prepared on the Crepes. Everyone still agreed that we needed to do
something. The biggest issue was labor. It was decided that we would look
for the shortest plants and see about removing them first. Hopefully this
would restore the symmetry with all plants being tall. We will explore
changing color at a later date. Mr. Stephen agreed to go look over the
plants and report back how many “short ones” we had. He would report his
findings back to Rodney and Jennifer Killebrew. Jennifer volunteered to
serve as coordinator for this effort. Jennifer is new to the neighborhood
and is eager to help out in any way she can. A planting date of Saturday
March 10th was selected. A rain date was picked and it was march 17th, also
a Saturday. Rodney would start the ball rolling by contacting landmark
nursery once he got a figure from Mr. Stephen.
Fund Raiser – Garage sale, bake sale and Link sale. Rodney distributed a
history sheet of our past three years worth of activities on this topic. The
group agreed to do these activities again this spring. A date was picked
for the sale and it is Saturday March 31st. A rain date of April 7th was
also selected. Generally the time will be 7 to 12. Although participants
are responsible for there own sales and could start earlier or run later as
individual households would prefer. Shawn Barker has tentatively agreed to
handle the link sale with assistance from Michele Messina, Assoc. VP. Tom
Conner, information officer will handle the signs and make postings to
various web sites. Rodney agreed to serve as bake sale coordinator.
Block captains – a discussion was held concerning the most effective and
cost effective method of handling the membership drive duties. Mailing was
eliminated as being too expensive. General postings and expecting people to
take ownership and turn in payments was also identified as ineffective. The
only method that seemed to deliver the necessary results was going door to
door. So to divide this task up into a manageable state, it was recommended
that a block captain system be developed. So at this time we will ask for
volunteers to assume responsibility for themselves and 10 houses in their
immediate area. Rodney will prepare a packet that will provide all
necessary tools, forms, maps, instructions and sign up sheets to facilitate
the process. People should contact Rodney either by phone or going by his
house to pick up a packet.
Easter Egg Hunt – it was decided by the group to hold this event as we did
last year. Susan Cooper of Ellis Cove agreed to lead this event. A date
was selected and it is April 7th, a Saturday. Susan is looking for
volunteers to help her with this event. Please call her to let her know you
care and are willing to help. Her home # is 244-2138.
Candidate Forum - The group agreed to hold this event again. We are very
proud of our position in the community and the amount of importance and
respect that we have earned by holding this event for the past 3 years.
This year we picked Friday April 6th as a date for this event. We want to
try holding this in a cul-de-sac within the neighborhood. Details are to be
worked out in the near future. Michele Messina Assoc. VP will lead this
activity.
Frontier Days – having a booth. It was decided that this was a good idea
but we would bring it back to the table in May to discuss when we were
closer to the actual date of the event, which is now in the fall. This
could become another fundraising activity for the assoc.
The topic of unsightly lawns was brought up. Since the assoc. has no direct
authority, it was proposed that the assoc. could develop a letter to be used
by block captains in the event that education of one of our neighbors became
necessary. It is also always recourse to notify the city code officer and
report the offending party.
The idea of having some sort of summer activity seemed interesting to the
group..We will explore the possibility of having a summer ice cream social.
Rodney promised to complete the IRS forms to initiate the 501c3 non-profit
process this spring.
The group decided to explore having a group ticket night purchase to go to a
Dell diamond baseball game. It would be expected that those attending would
pay for their own tickets.
While on the topic of Dell Diamond, Councilwoman Isabel Gallahan brought to
the attention of the group that Dell diamond was being considered as a
polling place. She expressed serious concerns about this. The concerns deal
with access to parking and paying to park on game nights, alcohol being
served at polling place, Mixing a business with voting, groups paying to use
the convention facilities as a tactic to draw people near a poll and
influencing voting patterns. controlling political signage distances from
the polling place and various other 1st amendment issues. She was
advocating use of a school if it were determined that an extra early polling
place was even necessary. There is some discussion as to whether one is
really necessary since early turnout is usually no more than 500 people.
With the 2 sites currently available and the times they are available, it
means that on average a polling place has about 3 voters an hour “at this
time”, during the entire early voting window.
Next meeting date was selected to be Tuesday, May 15th. Time will be set
later but 7 appeared to be good. The group decided that they wanted to have
Pizza at the next meeting.
Meeting adjourned 8:40 PM
Meeting length = 95 minutes
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