February 2nd Minutes

We started off our February 2nd meeting talking about our plans for block beautification, including the most effective way to put planters on the block. We'd like to have planters similar to the ones on Madison Block #2.

There appears to be work going on to the building on the Northwest corner of Bedford and Gates. We'd like to find out what's being planned. We might be able to find out through the community board meeting. There appears to be a demolition order filed for 1124 Bedford Avenue, but I'm not sure if it's the same building.

We've heard that Officer Lyons has been promoted from the 79th Precinct, but I was unable to find information about any promotion on the web. He's still listed as the department's head on the 79'th website.

There was also talk of a bad car accident that happened on the corner of Madison and Bedford the previous night.

Treasurer Andrew Robinson reported that some money had had been stolen out of his bank account had been mixed up the the block association's account, as they both have his name associated with them. He's currently trying to iron out the problems.

We discussed whether a mass mailing of the newsletter might get more attention than dropping them in mailboxes. The general consensus was that it would be best to avoid the additional confusion and cost that the mailing would create. We'd also like to start passing out meeting reminders on Thursday rather than Saturday morning to give people more advance notice of our meetings.

We still have 264.88 from last year's grant that needs to be spent on block beautification. We're going to be getting some planters to place on the block. Madison Block #2 has 10 or 11 planters, so we'll probably need some galvanized planters and bricks to place them on. Tires won't work, as they slowly deflate. We plan on buying the planters in bulk, and think the most expensive part of the process will be getting all the dirt to fill the planters.

We then had a unanimous vote to spend some of our grant money on paper, mailing labels, and other office supplies.

There was no Public Safety meeting in January.

In March we'd like to have a tour of the neighborhood's community gardens with Green Guerrillas. It would be helpful to see how the other community gardens work.

Our calls to 311 seem to have helped the situation with our missing streetlights.

For information on dealing with and avoiding predatory loans in our neighborhood, check out www.nedap.org and www.changernyc.org .

Our next meeting will be held at 6:30 on Saturday, March 1st.

Water Department Offering Amnesty on Late Fees

I don't know about the rest of the residents on our block, but I've been living here three years and have never recieved a single water bill or had anyone check my meter. The Water Department is going to start shutting off water on unpaid accounts next month, but if you go to them before February 21st, all your late fees will be waived and you'll only pay $2 a day on your unpaid bill. Please read this article in the Post.

January 5th Minutes

Don't Forget to Apply for your STAR Rebate!

The January 5th meeting started out with an update from our garden committee. There was question about how to keep developers away from our garden. The answer is keeping it registered and active. We'd like to look into a possible grant for a new fence for the garden. There's also been two new trees planted on the block recently - hopefully with more on the way.

The minutes for our previous meeting were then read.

There was a question as to how many grants we've received so far. Two were received, one from Citizens for $600 and another for $500 from the Green Guerrillas for use with the garden.

There was then an update from the public safety committee. We'd like to invite officer Lyons out to another one of our meetings, perhaps the fourth Wednesday of the month would be good. Several of the members of the block association have had problems with rude treatment at the 79th precinct, being treated like criminals when they were trying to report crimes. We'd like to sort that out and get answers from the officer in charge. We're not sure if Officer Lyons is still in charge, but according to the NYPD website he's still the commanding officer.

We then received a report from Andrew about our finances. We current;y have 1118.58 in the bank, 264.00 of that is part of the grant from Citizens NYC.

In February we'd like to re-apply for the Citizen's Grant for the purpose of block beautification.

There was also a call for someone to organize the block part this summer. Keisha did a great job last year, but she's too swamped with work this year, and Toya has a baby on the way. It's a big responsibility. We'd like to find someone to take the reins.

There's been some problems with 186 Madison. HPD has been helpful but we're still having some problems with it. There have been at least two recent burglaries of copper pipes from the building. The police caught the thief the first time, but the second thief got away. One problem is the location in our area of a metal recycling business that takes the stolen pipes. Please call 311 if you see anyone breaking into the building. The last pipe theft caused water leakage that could damage neighboring houses.

207 Madison is being renovated by the Bridge Street Development Corporation. The organization fixes up houses in our neighborhood and sells them as a community-building endeavor. June says that over 200 people are signed up to try to get the house.

We'd like to figure out some way to get the owner of the vacant lot next to the apartment building to fix their sidewalk, and might have to work through the city to do so.

Right before our meeting, the streetlights all vanished from our block. We think it was very poor planning to take all our lights at once. These are the longest nights of the year! After the meeting many of us called 311 to file complaints.

Next we covered New Business.

We'd like to organize meetings with block associations from neighboring blocks. We've heard that Monroe Blocks 2 & 3 meet at the YMCA.

There were some complaints about the number of cats recently on the block, with some disagreement about whether it's better to have cats than rats. Andrew recommended a product called "Critter Away" for gardens to keep away cats, but the closest thing I could find on the internet is a product called "Critter Out" If the cat situation gets out of control we should contact the ASPCA, but for now we'll observe the situation. The ASPCA is available to lend safe traps.

There was also mention that the HPD website shows houses available as part of the affordable housing lottery.

With that the meeting closed. Our next meeting will be February 2nd at 6pm.