Riverdale Heights/Riverdale Hills/Crestwood Community Assoc.

August Meeting Minutes

August 11, 2007

Meeting Minutes July 11, 2007

Attendance: approximately 75 members. Next meeting will be Wednesday September 12th at 7:30 PM. Our guest speaker will be Kim Lugo of the Neighborhood Watch; she will instruct us on how to create and maintain a Neighborhood Watch program. Hakim Muhammad of the Kingswood Civic Association will join us as our guest. Their association has a long standing Neighborhood Watch program; Hakim will augment Kim Lugo citing his association’s personal experience.

Incorporation required for association - we must become incorporated as a non-profit company with tax-exempt status. Once incorporated, we can accept Federal Grant monies to fund special projects, request donations from local businesses, and our dues and donations will be tax exempt. The cost to file for incorporation is $620. Between voluntary donations and the 50/50 we were able to collect enough for the application fees, with $30 left over.

Dues – the membership agreed on dues of $10 per membership household. Only dues paying members can vote on matters of the association. Dues will be collected at the September meeting, prior to our voting in officers.

Nomination of Officers: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer for one-year terms. Nominations for each office were received. The nomination committee will develop ballots for next meeting so we can vote for officers.

Committee Updates:
• Livable Community Committee
 The Livable Community Committee met with county landscape designers to improve the Kenilworth Ave/Rittenhouse Street entrance. The County is to clean the area up soon which consists of the entire 10,000 sq. ft. area (on your left as you enter Rittenhouse from Kenilworth) from Kenilworth to 57th.
• By Laws Committee draft distributed and voted to accept with the following highlights:
o Name of the Association: The Riverdale Heights/Riverdale Hills/Crestwood Community Association (RRC Community Association)
o Boundaries: North: Brier Ditch
South: East West Highway
East: 64th Avenue
West: Kenilworth Avenue
o Voting: Each membership dues-paying household shall have up to two votes by adult residents (must be over 18 years of age)
o Dues: Dues shall be $10 per year per household
o Membership Year: Begins on the first day of October and ends on the 30th day of September
o Officers and Terms: A President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer, with the Secretary and Treasurer each having one alternate The officers shall be elected to serve for one (1) membership year
• Community Improvement Committee (formerly Graffiti removal)
o Recently more areas needing clean up have been identified and we're planning action. Graffiti was again cleaned up or covered over on Thursday, August 9th. Please take part; if you don’t want to join the committee, at least make sure your street is clean of debris and graffiti.
• Community Clean Up Committee - Vietnam Veterans will have trucks in the parking lot of the Multi Cultural Youth Center on August 31, 2007 to accept donations of clothes, furniture, etc. Receipts will be provided, as your donations are tax deductible.
• Communications Committee – We can always use more volunteers to distribute flyers announcing upcoming meetings and other important community communications. Several members joined the committee at the meeting.

Other News and Updates:
• Principal of William Wirt rescinded the soccer permit; the weekend of July 28th and 29th was their last game at William Wirt.
• Beginning the evening of August 13th, the gates at the entrances to the William Wirt parking lots will be locked. This should deter unwanted activity.
• On July 31st the association sent a letter to the Superintendent of PG Public Schools requesting increased lighting all around the school to support Principal Coleman’s request, and in addition to a similar letter from Council Member Eric Olson.
• This year William Wirt will have a uniform code. Tan pants will be required for each grade, with white shirts for 6th grade students, gold shirts for 7th grade students, and black shirts for 8th grade students. The school needs help with uniforms for 120 students; contact the school if you wish to help. Several members made donations at the meeting.
• Deputy Director of the Multi Cultural Youth Center, announced open AmeriCorps positions. Please contact the Deputy Director if you know of someone who is interested in one of the positions, or if you want more information about them.
• The Metro folks are drafting a plan for a new Purple Line that may come through our neighborhood. We will request someone from Metro to speak at our October meeting (date of the meeting will be announced at our September meeting) so we are aware of their plans, and can ask questions and respectfully voice any concerns.
• A plea was made for members to support our volunteer fire department – donations are cheerfully accepted, and volunteers to help with Bingo Night and other events are always needed and welcome.


Guest Speaker:
Mr. Tony Avendorph of the Police Gang Task Unit spoke about the type of gang activity in and around RRC and what his Unit does to respond to it. There are four members of the unit that patrol all of PG County. Along with many other duties the Unit assists in crime investigations, patrolling the community, and performing anti-gang education at the schools. Mr. Avendorph asked that his Unit be notified of “tags” (graffiti) and that pictures of the “tags” are shared with the Unit to assist them in investigations. Special note: our association will write a letter with an accompanying petition to send to everyone in the State and County government to applaud the Gang Unit and to insist on their receiving more resources. A representative from our association will be visiting each residence to request signatures on the petition.

Members voiced special concerns:
• Dangerous tree on 62nd Place. A member of Council Member Olson’s office will report the tree to DER.
• Rittenhouse Street needs repaving, and large commercial trucks are parking on the left side of the street as you enter our community. We will request Public Works to repave the street as well as post “no parking” signs.
• A request was made to change the name of Briar Ditch to Briar Creek. We will research how to make that change.

Meeting adjourned