Campbell-Grant
NE Neighborhood Association Meeting
November
25th, 2019, Ward III office
Attendance: Brian Silverstein, Cindy Sorrensen, Chris Janton, Vicki Mills, Ana Maria Lopez Medrano, Cathy Rex, Jim Croxen, David Owen, Elana Summers, Georgia O’Neill, Connie Trecartin, Jeff Bennan, Thomas Williams, Bill Tylutki, Kris and Humberto Teran, Jenny Bell, C. Bahnsak, Mathew Brown and S. Meade
Guests: None
Minutes
of the October meeting were approved.
Treasurer’s
report – Vicki
Mills – We have $1661.27 in bank. Expenses for the picnic were: Kathy Nichols
(face painter) $50.00 (check 1140). Vicki Mills 92.16 for food and drinks
(checks 1141 and 1142). During the picnic there was a total of $255.00 in dues
paid and donation. Thirty-nine households have paid dues this year.
Report
about the picnic in November –
The picnic
was very successful. It is impossible to get an accurate head count as people come and go during the hours of the picnic, but we estimate 50-60 people came.
It was the biggest turnout for the picnic ever.
Changes to Conner Park
–
At the October meeting, U of A Architecture students
presented a plan to redesign the park and to improve flooding issues. Their
design was emailed to the neighbors and it included removing the backstop,
moving the children’s playground and transforming the space into an open field for
games with more trees planted in other areas.
The plan was interesting, but the chances of getting the money to implement it are slim.
At the same time as the students were working on a
plan for the park, neighbors with houses adjoining the park asked the City to
have the backstop removed. One of the neighbors had her window broken four
times. This issue has been brought to the City of Tucson in the past and one of
the solutions given before was to place a sign by the backstop that states:
“For 12 and under”. However, this sign had not deterred older kids and grown
ups from using the backstop to hit hard balls. When people play with hard
baseballs, the rest of the park feels pretty unsafe because you cannot predict
where a hard ball may land, so people tend to leave the park when some grown
kids play baseball.
Occasionally there are little kids that play t-ball
with their parents at the backstop, but there is not a great need to have the
backstop to continue using the park in this manner.
Another complaint is that baseballs have hit cars
passing on Glenn. A neighbor commented that there is no other park in the city
with a backstop that is located so near a street. It was pointed out that our park is really too small for baseball.
Most neighbors at the meeting supported removing the
backstop but were concerned about the idea of planting more than a few trees
where the backstops are located now. We wanted to keep the open space open for playing games.
Neighbors would like to ask the City of Tucson for a
list of the types of trees that are allow to be planted in public parks to
consider the options. In addition, neighbors proposed to have a dog drinking
fountain placed on the west side of the park to avoid dogs going into the kids
playing area to get water.
Current
Problematic Issues at Conner Park –
There is an outgoing problem with homeless people
staying in the park all day and sometimes overnight. Also some neighbors complained about college age people gathering at the park past 10 pm closing time making lots of noise and disturbing neighbors.
There is at least one couple that stays in the park all
day. There are other people acting belligerent at night. The bathrooms are
dirty and kids have found used syringes in them. Adults have also found used
condoms and other drug related things.
It is felt that the bathrooms attract the homeless
people and that with their locking doors, they provide a place to sleep and to
do drugs. There are other parks that have more open designs of bathrooms that are not so private and inviting. It was suggested that we could lock the bathrooms temporarily to see what impact this has on drug and homeless activity at the park. There was a concern about the family use of the bathrooms, if they were locked during the day. But with the condition of the bathrooms some families are not using them anyway. The Ward III will be contacted to see what kind of solutions they may offer for these current issues and to see if we can try locking the bathrooms and seeing if that makes a difference on the homeless problem.
One neighbor proposed to take pictures of the evidence
found at the bathrooms and send it to the City of Tucson. Neighbors call the
police, but they don’t come promptly or at all. It was felt that sending lots
of pictures might spur the city to action.
A neighbor has installed lights in her property that
helps deter homeless from camping near her property. Another neighbor suggested
redesigning the layout of the bathrooms to prevent people from locking
themselves to do illegal activities.
It was suggested that we invite Ward III and Tucson
Parks and Rec personnel to our January meeting to hear our neighborhood
concerns about Conner Park.
Parking around Prep and Pastry –
The cars from Prep and Pastry are still causing
problems parking in the neighborhood.
There is a neighbor interested in starting a committee to explore the feasibility of one or more round-abouts in that part of the neighborhood. The round abouts would cost money, but the owner of Prep and Pastry did say at our meeting that he would help with expenses to help alleviate the parking problem.
We should also look into a 4 way stop at the corner of Mitchell and Norris, if we can’t get a round-about. We think that the painting of the curbs to discourage parking too close to the corner is underway.
Caroling in the Park
There will be caroling in the park on Saturday Dec 21
in the late afternoon. We decided to have the caroling before it gets too dark, as we don’t need lights for the event. There will be hot chocolate, hot cider and cookies provided. Cindy Sorrensen will organize the event and put out an email with details.
Minutes
submitted by Ana Maria Lopez Medrano, secretary