Hello Neighbors, Spring is finally here! Many thanks to everyone who braved the storms last Tuesday and made it to our meeting. A summary, written up by our awesome neighbor, Lyndon Henry, is below. Theres some good information - so read on! Here are a few upcoming dates: May 14th - 6:00 pm Neighborhood Cook-out and Going Away Party for Pastor Justin Joplin of Westover Baptist Church. After living and working in the community for the past 10 years, Justin has been called to serve in Toronto, Canada. He surely will be missed! 2nd Precinct MPACT Meeting scheduled for Monday, May 5, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Southside Community Services Center (4100Hull Street Rd) ---------------- APRIL 15TH MEETING SUMMARY ---------------- RPD - Third Precinct Sergeant Anthony Papaleo - anthony.papaleo@richmondgov -Third Precinct’s Community Officer is Ward Kuper, Ward.Kuper@richmondgov -Crime was down 28% in the Forest View Community, and thanks to all the residents for all the community assistance. -Please continue to call the police when you see something suspicious! -If you don’t call and if the police don’t see it then they can’t act on it. -Don’t make yourselves a victim of crime, remember to remove all valuables from your vehicles, such as purses, backpacks, wallets, and remove electronic equipment from sight, such as GPS equipment, electronic cables, cell phones, CD players, car radios, and laptop computers. ---------------- Kristen Larson - Richmond School Board Member -Richmond Public Schools has a new Superintendent, Dr. Dana Bedden. -Dr. Bedden brings a positive influence, new energy, improvements and hes also looking to make many positive things happen within the school system. -Budget season is upon us. The board, in collaboration with the new superintendent Dr Dana Bedden, approved a budget asking the city to close a gap of $4.7 million. During the creation of the budget, we worked to find efficiencies and cuts within our system to make the gap as small as possible. The additional requested money is to give teachers a 3% and staff a 2% raise, ensure full-time music and art teachers at all of our elementary schools, purchase new student textbooks, allocations for band uniforms and equipment, and support for special education programming. The mayor is proposing funding $1 million of that $4.7 million gap. The budget is now under consideration of city council. -Fourth district resident Bert Berlin has been working with other community members to petition city council to fully fund our budget request. To check this petition out, visit change.org. -RPS is HIRING all types of positions. Go online to learn more. -This is a great time to attend one of the Richmond School Board meetings. -On the Federal level school funding was cut back, so school board members will be asking city council for additional school funding. -Many of the Richmond 40 Public Schools are old and have been neglected for many years. -A task force will be looking at all options including Upgrading older schools and building new public schools. -Six new public school have been built over the past 5 years. ---------------- Bobby Vincent (Richmond Public Works) Topic: Alleyways, Sidewalks, Gutters, and City Streets -Forest view residents reported 44 separate request for street and or alleyway drainage repairs, about 40 of the 44 requests will be taken care of before the end of April. This will be alleyway projects only not sidewalks projects. -Sidewalks, are very extensive work for the city, so sidewalks can’t be promised to the Forest view neighborhood right now. There are infrastructure, and street surveys that have to be considered first. -Please continue to contact the cities Engineering Dept for all future sidewalk and gutter request. The cities Engineering Dept can come out and do a street survey to determine where the cities property begins and the resident’s property ends. A survey needs to be done first to determine the resident’s property and the cities responsibility, and then the resident has to be informed of the results of the survey. -The city will be paving the streets from Forest Hill Ave to the Nickel Bridge will be the next scheduled project in our area. -The city tries to repair and remove any kind of sidewalk liabilities, if a resident notices any sidewalk tripping hazard, or any kind of sidewalk dangers, please call the city, there are a couple of quick fix asphalt solutions for some sidewalk repairs. -Many of Richmonds sidewalks and alleyways are of old infrastructure and funding isn’t always available for all the necessary repairs. -Neighborhood Vegetation, if your neighbor is not maintaining their property please call the city. This includes vegetation in the alleys. If a neighbors grass is too high, call the city, the city will issue a citation. -If mattresses or furniture or brush piles are left outside for long periods of time they could become home to all kinds of animals like snakes or raccoon, so please remember to call 311 - Bulk service pick-up number. ---------------- BOB STEIDEL (VIRGINIA DEPT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES) -The Dept of Public Works motto is when there’s an opportunity to serve our neighbors they will take care of it. -Bob is the cities big infrastructure guy, and the Dept of Public Utilities works very closely with the Dept of Public Works. -Forest view is on the list for sidewalk and street improvements but so are 79 other place around Richmond and it’s a long list. Installing new sidewalks, drainage, curbs and gutters in the Forest view area has to be a onetime big project, it cannot be a partial project, again Forest view is on the list but it will take many many years unless the City Council puts us in their budget. -Mosquito Problems? Call 646-4000 the city will come out and treat some standing water around the area, and its always a good idea for all residences to please empty any unnecessary dishes or standing water around their own property. -Sewer line Problems? If you happen to have a sewer line backup, the city will come out and take a look at the problem to determine the proper course of action.Some city water lines will be renewed very soon, and the water quality is good. -Gravel Sidewalks, are replace only by request. -Bob did recognize how great the Forest view neighborhood looks and how we have been ignored for quite some time in terms of street improvements. ---------------- 6th SPEAKER Councilwoman Kathy Graziano -April 24th Presidents meeting (Gathering of Dept Presidents) -April 29th Quarterly Budget Meeting at St.Lukes Church -City council will be looking to possibly bump up the cities $1.20 tax rate. No one likes a rate increase but the city needs to generate more funding for the Richmond economy. There are a lot of dedicated workers that haven’t has a raises, because there’s no funding for raises in the city budget. -The City is constantly losing good workers. -The water rate increase will be .06. -Unlike some of our past Mayor’s, our current mayor has worked well with city council and also the member of the school board to get things accomplished. ---------------- 7th Speaker Councilwoman Michelle Mosby Chesterfield and some of the other surrounding counties have places to spend money and get tax revenue. Richmond does not, as a community we need to think outside the box. City council is looking at all possible ways to make a positive financial difference to the Richmond economy. ---------------- As Always - Please keep an eye out for suspicious people/vehicles/etc. Call 911 if the incident is in progress or 646-5100 if its non-emergency. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 13:52:03 +0000
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