NEARTOWN ASSOCIATION (NTA) MEETING Cherryhurst Community Center, Tuesday October 28, 2003 Minutes

NTA President Raju Adwaney opened the meeting at 7 p.m. Robert Graham moved to approve the minutes from the September meeting; John Galeener seconded. The motion carried.

Raju asked for any projects to add to the SNAP (Super Neighborhood Action Plan) list.

Raju announced the following slate of 2004 NTA officers selected by the nominating committee: President - Jack Rose Vice Pres. - Mike Mark Secretary - Laura Mullen Treasurer - Ed Gonzales John Galeener moved to approve the slate; Robert O'Neal seconded.

Treasurer Ed Gonzales reported that Neartown currently has $10,645 in the general account. $8554 of this belongs to the Peden/Elmen tree fund, leaving NTA $2091.

Our guest speaker was Jim Moeller with the City of Houston, Neighborhood Protection office. Mr. Moeller discussed the activities and jurisdiction of Neighborhood Protection including nuisance violations, overgrown lots, dangerous buildings and junk motor vehicles (vehicles on a public street are handled by HPD; Neighborhood Protection handles vehicles on private property). He explained that residents should report a problem using the 311 telephone assistance number. At that point the call/complaint is assigned an eight-digit project number and you may follow up on the case using this number. Allow a couple of weeks for the problem to be resolved before calling Neighborhood Protection directly at (713) 218-5500. Neighborhood Protection uses a multi-step process to address problems including: Inspection of property, notice to property owners (according to Harris Co. Appraisal Dist. records), citations, and finally, unresolved cases are referred to the city attorney's office for legal action.

HPD officer James Sobota reported that the 802 Westheimer storefront had been involved in making vice/prostitution arrests on lower Westheimer during the last couple of weeks. Mark Johnson asked about getting HPD patrol to enforce the permit (decal) parking in Cherryhurst around Hugo's.

Raju announced that the November Neartown meeting would be moved up to the third Tuesday (November 18^th) to avoid the Thanksgiving holiday week.

Dana Padgett asked about the current activities of the Spur Task force. Raju stated that they were waiting for the phase two design.

The meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m. NTA Secretary, Dana Padgett