March 2023 Meeting Minutes

Historic South Park, Inc. Member Meeting

Call to Order by President Mark Manovich on March 28, 2023 at 7:02pm at Hope Lutheran Church.

Introductions

Neighbors and guests introduced themselves. Stacy Benson-Taylor of Montgomery County Recorders office to talk about property fraud alert and a Veterans ID program.

Community Reports:

City of Dayton Police. Not in attendance for a report.

General Meeting Minutes of February 28 Membership Meeting accepted as written.

Presidents Report

Wayne Ave. Traffic Issues (March 14 Meeting with Wayne Ave business owners and City Engineers). The City will begin widening Wayne Avenue from Esther Price to Kroger, work will start now through 2024. Plans are to put a middle turning lane, with two lanes going north and two lanes going south. No traffic light at Kroger can be installed.

HSPI and Wayne Avenue business owners asked for slower traffic coming through the South Park business district, from Wyoming to Keowee as accidents, building hits and a fatality in December 2022 make Wayne Avenue traffic control an urgent concern.  Our safety is at risk.

We presented the City with a list of desired fixes.

Cheap fixes: Slow the speed limit to 25 mph. Designate our stretch of Wayne as a business district.  Paint a pedestrian crosswalk at Clover/Wayne. A red-light camera at Clover.

Expensive fixes: Reduce lanes to 3. Add on-street parking during certain hours with bump outs like those on Wayne in the Oregon business district. Add trees, which are proven to slow traffic. Build a median down the middle of our strip of Wayne with trees planted.

Although the City said many of our requests were not possible due to funding restriction, HSPI received a list of funding sources from a neighbor, which we will dive in to deeper.

There is currently a mobile traffic camera on Wayne by Park Drive, it will be there 6 months, giving tickets, as traffic learns to slow down.

Emerson Academy and Hickory Street:

Hickory Street is impassible for neighbors when parents drop off/pick up students, which they are doing more because of poor public school bus service. There is now a second pick up at 430 pm and parents are parking illegally on both sides of the street.

Mark reached out to the owners of Emerson Academy for a remedy. They recommend moving parents drop off to the Buckeye loop north of Emerson, and have the buses stand along Hickory (a reverse of the current procedure)

The retaining wall on the north side of Emersons west parking lot will be removed and landscaped as a hill. HSPI will work with a City traffic engineer to make traffic on Hickory safer through speed bumps, stop signs, painted crosswalks, etc.

Membership Report:

We’re sending an email to 2022 members who have not renewed. We’ve got a flyer to take door-to-door.

Events/Social Report:

The March 15 Chili Cook-off was a success! Guests had a great time, thanks to all who volunteered. Riley Dugan was the victor! Still tallying what funds were raised.

Easter Egg Hunt to be held April 8, 3:30pm at Blommel Park.

Annual Perennial Exchange will take place Saturday, April 15^th at 1pm in South Park Green.

Sign up for our Annual Earth Day Clean-up on 8am-11am April 22^nd in conjunction with The Living City Project. If you have a truck and are able and willing to volunteer to help drive through the neighborhood for pick up, please let Mark know.

Parks Report:

We’ve applied for a grant from Keep Montgomery County Beautiful, should know in April. Park cleaning will be coming up soon as the weather turns warm. Working on plants, mulch and water.

Housing and Development Report:

The City has declared 250 Park Drive (the former nursing home) a public nuisance. It has been deemed unsafe by the fire department. The City asked its owners to tear it down.  We’re not currently receiving much support for code enforcement.

We plan to submit neighborhood developer Burgess Gow to receive honors from Preservation Dayton, Inc.

Announcements:

Hispanic Community Event – Saturday, April 15^th 11am-1pm at the downtown library.

Cycling Builds Community Event with Bike Miami Valley on May 19^th all day, a conference style event after the pancake breakfast at the downtown library. Lunch provided!

Neighbors are encouraged to take park in the City’s Neighborhood Leadership Institute, sign ups are underway.

Stacy Benson-Taylor of Montgomery County Recorders office warned us that there has been an uptick in properties being taken without knowledge of the owner. She explained the County’s new Fraud Alert System prevents the submission of fraudulent documents that make it look as though you don’t own  your home or property. To combat this crime, register your property with the County’s new FAN System. www.mcrecorder.org

The Lohrey Community Center in Belmont is a great public resource.

Branch & Bone Artisan Ales would like to partner with us for potential community events.

Water damage continues to keep the South Park Pizza Tavern from re-opening.

Meeting adjourned at 7:52pm.  Mini-social/informal discussion followed.

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