4 pacman and others:

 

Downtown Vandalism

Bad news: We had some vandalism downtown that affected Port Middletown Park, the Castell, Sebald and TV Middletown buildings and some of our street lights.  This vandalism resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in damages. Good news: the Police Division caught the suspected vandals.  They are from Middletown, in their early 20s, and had apparently gained access to the roof of one of the buildings downtown. They have been charged with criminal trespassing; the investigation is ongoing and additional charges may result.  

 

Task Force on Pawn Shops/24 hour businesses

I have established a multi-disciplinary staff task force on the above to focus on regulating businesses that might feed into our crime system. We have had a number of shops that buy second hand items, gold, etc. pop up in town and we want to ensure that these are reputable businesses. As such we will be examining all sorts of policies and ordinances regarding hours of operation, registration of goods purchased, signs in windows, signs on vehicles and the like. Staff will do our research and bring this item to the 1^{st Council meeting in July so that we can also include your thoughts and ideas on this topic.}

Business Retention Committee

I am really proud of the efforts of the Business Retention Committee. Denise Hamet from our ED Department has done a great job of working with Community Leaders who gather to call on our businesses in Middletown. These visits provide valuable information on things the city can do to assist our current businesses in remaining successful and growing. We will have a presentation at Tuesday’s Council meeting by the group.

Section 8 HUD Audit- Technical Assistance visit

Staff, CONSOC and I met with HUD to discuss their review of the CONSOC records regarding our Section 8 program. HUD was pleased with the records kept by CONSOC and with their/our performance as a Housing Agency. HUD specifically examined the records associated with the # units leased and the payments for the units. HUD mentioned that we are in the top 300 Housing Agencies in the country in terms of size. HUD measures program success by high lease rate and low vacancy rate; by HUD standards we have a successful program. The 15 month average number of units leased was 24,061, which equals 1,604 unit average per month. The cap of units that Council established is 1662.

We also asked HUD for advice on improvements that we can make to the Housing Agency reporting to Council and Council action on Agency matters. We continue to do research in this area.

Bike path

We will do some work on the Energy Efficiency grant to see if the bike path is a feasible project. I’ve heard from a few council members on this topic and it looks as though there is interest in pursuing the bike path. Again, before we do any significant work on either the bike path or the energy efficient building improvements, we want to gauge interest. If the bike path project does not pan out, we will pursue building and facility improvements. The time frame is tight and we will need the latitude to make decisions quickly if we are to receive any funding.

Observations from Gilleland's notes in Spider's post-Vandalism- make the families pay for the damage. Make the vandals work it off for a year or two taking their entire wages to pay for the damage. Task Force on reputable businesses. She says businesses "pop up" in town. What?? You mean you don't have a handle on who's coming to town, what they sell, what their intentions are BEFORE settling in to do business? Why wouldn't the city want to know this to monitor it? There wasn't an indication that some of these pawn shops or flea market type operations may present a problem? Isn't it ironic that we have a "Business Retention Committee" to call on businesses to assist in remaining successful and grow, while simultaneously doing the prevention of banners, size of advertising signs, raids on small time petty gambling and other roadblocks that hinder businesses from prospering?? Section 8- Gilleland breaks her arm patting herself and others on the back for passing some bogus, glossed over HUD audit while stating that Middletown is one of the top 300 housing agencies in the country in terms of size- (nothing to be proud of Judith if you haven't figured that out by now), having the audacity to state that we have a successful program with having 1604 out of the 1662 maximum allowable. (As if that's a prideful thing- to have a large welfare state here in town). What a pathetic thing to feel good about Gilleland. Your focus for this town is all screwed up lady!!! Lastly, we have the old bike path- an obvious waste of money if for no other reason than a lack of use, no matter what money is spent for improvements. It makes more sense to do money saving efforts in the city buildings for more long term savings and to benefit the MAJORITY of taxpayers, unlike the bike path.

interesting thinking, general!

Spider, yes the stats do mean something as I have a son in Junior High and that is more important than this word game you are playing with everyone.

Thank you Pacman!  We need more people like you!  Hold their feet to the fire!

I have not spoken on here for a long time. I have a few things to say........

The building windows across from TVM was vandalized. The vandals were caught. 20 year olds who live in the east end. One of the parents of the kid is a doctor of some kind.

Lot of flowers being planted? By who? Tobacco Connection as done that since they moved in. So has Beau Verre & Digital Visuals. The City manages the big pots on the sidewalks. I've noticed nothing different about the Pioneer Cemetery. Clean & tidy as always. No new flowers from Armbruster that I have noticed.

Not the first time TVM's antennae has been broken in the past couple of years. Or the Ifiber connection broken.
Never heard of the mural being cut by vandals, heard it's only separating because paint doesn't agree with the glass.

Being downtown I deal with crap every day. Whether a neighboring business, vandals, trash or just panhandlers. Yes, we have panhandlers down town asking for money, not sex. What's the difference? If there's a problem I take care of it the best I can. I try to take care of my business area, but I have to deal with another business that is also located in my building. Am working on that as I write. Hope to be relocated in a couple of months. Still will be downtown, but in our own building and away from a "certain" business.

My husband is the VP of the Art Central Foundation. Yes, we all worked out butts off for the Main Street Arts & Music Festival. Who do you think cleaned up around the down town? Thanks to the City also.

How many of you returned the favor? The music was free. All you had to do was bring a lawn chair. Maybe buy a beer or a sandwich from a vendor. Kids' Area was a huge hit this year.,,non stop.

 

Subj: RE: Supplementary HUD Community Development Block Grant Fund Priorities??  Date: 6/2/2009 4:41:10 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: paul@paulrenwick.com To: Nelsonself@aol.com, judyg@cityofmiddletown.org, amarconi@cinci.rr.com, bymyflwrs@fuse.net, davids@cityofmiddletown.org, becker_william@sbcglobal.net CC: Robyn.L.Mcnally@pncmortgage.com, wleap@cinci.rr.com, drbronston2001@yahoo.com, jerryglover@att.net, ascherrer@siscom.net, diggerviv@juno.com, dongardner@fuse.net, gmaples@pmgloans.us, mprest@erinet.com, pastor_foster@yahoo.com, pnagy@att.net, rowens11@cinci.rr.com, billhobbs@cinci.rr.com, Trdar72349@aol.com, kwills1116@cinci.rr.com, kaldridge@coxohio.com Sent from the Internet (Details)

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LESSONS IN HYPOCRISY

Vet are you saying the Residents of Middletown have a "MORALE" issue and that it is declining....that the residents have no more "esprit de corps".......... hmmmmmm you may be on to something here. 

LESSONS FOR THE REVITALIZATION OF DOWNTOWN MIDDLETOWN - THE OKLAHOMA CITY (BRICKTOWN)  SUCCESS STORY

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