Present: Trish Cunningham, Patrick Maguire, Jim Norris, Lisa Grove, Randy T. Grove, Michael Blank, Anis Tannir, Officer Joseph Simmons, Stephanie Davis, Sara McGill, Paul Dienes, Katherine Jones

We reviewed the 12/6/04 minutes and approved them for publication with some changes. The minutes for the last 6 months were handed out, and will be considered for amendment and approval at the next meeting.

Katherine presented a letter of apology to the people who came from Hood College for the meeting many of us did not appear for. We approved it with some changes. Sara will arrange for a return of Hood to our meeting, perhaps for the February meeting.

Paul prepared a response to the 11/04 letter from the engineering department. We had the added benefit of Mr. Tannir being present to help us revise the letter in order to communicate more exactly what we wanted to communicate by it. Mr. Tannir suggested that despite the fact that he was present for the discussion, we should go ahead and send the letter, for official purposes. In response to the concerns addressed ion our letter, Mr. Tannir suggests he needs to figure out what the problems with traffic in our neighborhoods is before trying to fix the problem. He has requested traffic counts for both speed and volume information. The rubber hoses that we often see on the roads track both speed and vvolume of traffic. When he has that information, he will compare it to the federal government Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). This Manual has the collected research and information about what solutions work for what problems. It has been approved by the State Highway Administration., and has a supplement, as well as amendments customized to Maryland law, of devices which are all proven to be useful and effective. Other possible solutions include speed humps. Technicians will soon take a 48 hour speed and volume count. If the study finds that 85% of the traffic is going less than 10 miles over the speed limit, then the MUTCD would indicate no need for a solution, and the city would probably take no action to make any changes in our neighborhoods. The study will be set up midway up the street in the neighborhoods. Probably would schedule for a Tuesday through Thursday period. MUTCD is updated every two years, and represents the current state of traffic device research. Mr. Tannir is also attending a meeting this coming weekend with other traffic engineers on the subject of traffic calming at the University of Texas.

The double yellow line put into place on Wilson was specifically to reduce passing on Wilson, not so much to calm speed.

Mr. Tannir thinks there will be a 20% reduction in traffic problems in our neighborhoods by the widening of Rosemont.

Thus traffic study in our neighborhood will be done within the next month, perhaps even within the next 2 weeks.

The Mayor is also developing a traffic calming policy to get devices in place. Last Thursday the policy had been 45% completed/developed. They will need 3 more weeks to complete the policy. Then the workshop process with the Board will begin.

There is also a plan to put crosswalks near Baker Park.

Lisa Grove asked Officer Simmons about police response to an incident outside her house on 11/26/04. 2 cars of teenagers were fighting in front of her house. She called the police and it took 20-30 minutes for them to respond. Officer Simmons said he would look into the incident. Apparently he found that the call came in at 23:06 and an officer responded in 9 minutes.

Officer Simmons then reported on an incident in our NAC. There was a shooting at Country Hills on 12/31/04. Apparently it was in retaliation for a shooting on Patrick Street.

On 1/20/05 there will be a meeting of the Board of Aldermen on the Residency requirements for candidates for city offices.

Staphanie Davis is the Executive Meeting Assistant to the Mayor. She introduced herself and advised us about upcoming events.

There was then some discussion about the Rosemont Construction. Mike Blank, the Permits and Inspections officer was present for the discussion. We discussed the ongoing problems with Sheetz failing to meet the site plan requirements, especially the issues about the hedge and the use of the speaker system. He will contact the corporate headquarters about these issues. He has had some trouble in the past with managers of Sheetz ignoring them, or they get fired, or resign, so he has been dealing directly with the corporate office instead.