SFNA January minutes
Deidre Bryan
DRAFT
Stephen Foster Neighborhood Association
Meeting Minutes
January 10, 2013
Parkview Baptist Church Meeting Room
President Robert Pearce called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. A quorum and all officers were present. The agenda for the meeting, as well as the minutes of the September and November 2012 meetings, were approved by consensus.
Crime watch report
Officer Nicole Tierney summarized neighborhood criminal activity of the past two months. There was one vehicle burglary of a locked car in which a purse was visible on the floorboard and the thief smashed the window. There were three house burglaries, two by forced entry into houses when the residents were absent. In the third, the residents were asleep upstairs, were awakened by their barking dogs, and called the police; the burglar fled and was later apprehended.
New business
Robert told us that Dave Silberman is interested in organizing neighborhood participation in the annual Air Potato Roundup (scheduled for January 26), and that he will put Dave in touch with the proper authorities.
Public comments
Bob McPeek asked if others had been hearing the excessive 6:00 a.m. dumpster-truck noise in his neighborhood, and Robert advised that anyone with this problem should call the City’s Solid Waste Dept.
Koppers report
Next week Robert will be representing SFNA at a meeting with Scott Miller (EPA), Mitch Brourman (Beazer), Mayor Craig Lowe, and representatives from Protect Gainesville’s Citizens, the City LIT team, and the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection, among others, to discuss the status of the Koppers clean-up and the long-delayed consent decree. Garrett Garner reported that the mayor is trying to help speed up the process by enlisting the help of Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Corinne Brown. Also, the City has hired Amy Schaeffer to facilitate community relations during the cleanup.
[Update: The meeting was held January 15. The attendees learned that Beazer and EPA have both signed the consent decree, and it is now in federal district court to be filed and placed in the public record, which is expected to happen within the next two weeks. A comment period will follow (30 to 60 days, yet to be determined), and there will be a public meeting during this period. If any objections are raised during this period, a judge will decide if they are valid.
Election of officers
All officers were reelected for the coming year by consensus.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Deidre Bryan
Recording Secretary