Thursday, January 18, 2018

1/16/18 Minutes



Residents: Valorie Freeman, Alice Morton
Organizations: Raleigh Kirschman, UGM; Chris Blackburn, NW Remarketing and Downtown Storage Salem; Rick Yurk, BAM Agency; Steve Evans, Cherriots Transit Board;
City and County Representatives: Kevin Hottman and Patricia Farrell, Public Works Department; Officers Darron Mumey and Kevin Hill, and Mark Bucholtz, Salem Police Department
Guests: Ken Hetsel

The regular meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 16, 2018, at the First Christian Church at 685 Marion Street NE, Salem.

The minutes of the December meeting were approved by unanimous consent.

Officer Hill reported that demolition at the site of the new police facility is set to begin in late February or early March.  Deputy Chief Bellshaw is the project contact.  A couple of officers have rotated off the Downtown Enforcement Team, and will be replaced by Corporal Mumey and Officer Pat McDermott, for a total of six officers, plus Sergeant Hill.

In public comment, Valorie Freeman shared program guides for the Salem Public Library Foundation’s Salem Reads project and invited everyone to participate.  Business owners Chris Blackburn and Rick Yurk expressed concerns about the size (300 beds, 54,000 SF) and potential negative impact of the shelter that UGM is proposing to build at Division and Commercial on community liveability and underutilized Riverfront property values.  They said that with four shelters [UGM (men’s), HOST (transitional age youth), HOME (day, minors) HOAP (day, adult) and ARCHES (day, adult, currently not open)], CANDO has “more than its share” of homeless residents already, and suggested the board should take a position.  The matter was deferred to the February meeting to allow notice and time to gather more information.  (Note:  The current site of the UGM Men’s Mission at Center and Commercial formerly had overflow capacity to about 300, but in 2016, the Fire Marshal cut capacity to about 185, where it has been since.)

Also in public comment, City Traffic Engineer Kevin Hottman said he had been asked to convert the 12 or so on-street parking spaces on the west side of Cottage in front of the Willamette Valley Communication Center (595 Cottage St) into employee-only parking spaces, and wanted to know if CANDO had any objection.  SPD Communications Director Mark Bucholtz explained that the Center has sufficient employee parking, that generally the spaces under discussion were empty (except Sunday mornings), and that it was for security reasons only that SPD was making the request.  The matter was deferred to the February agenda to allow notice.  

Also in public comment, Michael Livingston referred to his email report to the board (to the effect that he had met with City of Salem Community Development Department staff member Aaron Panko to discuss how the Department plans to deal with the problem of temporary signs placed illegally in City rights-of-way, that he’d been encouraged by what he had heard, that the Department plans to get the word out to downtown businesses like Penny’s and nonprofits like the YMCA, who might not know that it’s unlawful to put signs in sidewalk tree-wells, and to warn frequent offenders like Kelley’s Home Furnishings and College Pro Painters, that the Department also plans to continue periodic Saturday excursions to collect signs in City rights-of-way, that Aaron said he would welcome CANDO’s help with these efforts, particularly contacting downtown businesses and organizations, and that he, Livingston, would be talking with Aaron about how that might be done), and said he gathered the board approved his suggestion that he hold off presenting the City with the recommendation adopted in November, to see if the City’s current efforts will be sufficient to address the problem.  Livingston also reported progress in developing a means for affixing the CANDO name and/or logo to the front of the 75 life jackets that CANDO will be purchasing through the Salem Fire Department, for a total cost of $1,140.75 (within the authorized $1,200 limitation).  (See here and here.)

The board heard a presentation from Natural Resource Specialist, Patricia Farrell, with the Public Works Department on the Riverfront Park Master Plan Update.

The meeting adjourned at 7:03 P.M.

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