MEETING MINUTES— 1.8.2015
Location: The Pizza Ranch – 84th & Lexington
Present: Members: Nga Vu, Sonya Avitia, Capt Anthony Butler, Patty Gerlach, Dr. Michael Patestas, Tim Kirkpatrick, Karla Dean, Jon Borton, Amy Fish, Doug Larkins, Kelly Jensen, Peggy Green, Kevin Harrington, Matt Fox, Mindy Lubeck, Sherri Recker, Larry Gudeken, Julie Robinson, Fred Knight
Guests: Tom Casady, Katie Bossung, Janelle Folkerts
Introductions/ Member Announcements:
- Joanne called the meeting to order and thanked everyone for attending the meeting at the new venue. She encouraged members to suggest locations for future meetings that are closer to the north 27th corridor and suggested they email any board member with venue ideas.
- The 11/13/14 meeting minutes were approved by Nga and Kevin and the master business card directory was passed around for members to restock cards and to take any member cards they were missing.
- The 2015 slate was presented and approved by the membership. Amy Fish will serve as the new President, RJ Lipert will be Vice President and new members voted in were Jon Borton and Diana Schilf.
Police/Fire Update:.
- Capt Butler said the department had been busy wrapping up projects from 2014. He said there were 31 total accidents at the 14th & Superior roundabout. A burglary took place at a pet care center on January 4th and they sustained a loss of around $800. Also on the night of January 4th – early morning of January 5th there was a robbery at the Kwik Shop located at 14th and Adams. The clerk was bound up and the thieves made off with cash and merchandise. The police department has a good lead on the crime from tire tracks left at the scene. Capt Butler said they are in planning stages for the State Games of America being held in Lincoln later this year. They anticipate around 18,000 participants and 47,000 spectators.
Peggy asked about an accident she witnessed around 1st & Superior the day before. The accident was a result of a drunk driver going the wrong direction.
Social Chair Update:
- Matt Fox said that the F-cubed event at Big Shots went well and we would like to continue that event in the future. We will be planning more social events in 2015 and an email will be sent out soon asking for your input so be on the lookout.
Treasurer’s Report:
- Tim presented a year-end accounting of income and expenses. The club brought in $4267 through memberships and a few social events where we asked the members to help offset the costs and/or pay for guests. Expenses for 2014 were over $6000. A budget is presented by the President at the beginning of the year and this report shows that the club adhered closely to the budget presented by Joanne with the exception of an expense we voted in during the year for the donation we made to the Park and Recreation Department for the park bench located on the Antelope Creek Project Park. The difference of the income – loss is almost exactly the amount of the park bench cost.
- Tim presented the top five expenses for 2014. In order of expense they are:
Salt Dogs Outing – $875
NLBA Holiday Party – $715
Board Meeting Lunches (77 lunches @ $6 each) – $462
Hockey Game – $390
Website Maintenance/Hosting – $300
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Featured Speaker:
TOM CASADY – Director of Public Safety
Tom advised our membership to subscribe to crimemapping.com where you can map it to a particular address … your home or business. The site provides you with email alerts with all activity in a specific location.
- Peggy asked if the recent terrorist attacks in France would have any effect on Lincoln. Tom said that it most definitely does have an effect, but that the city has a very good team in charge of anti-terrorist activity.
- Janelle asked about the incident in Ferguson, MO and Tom answered that too has an effect on us locally. He also commented that he felt like the Ferguson police were very out of touch with their community by their aggressive approach with citizens and reporters.
- Kevin asked Tom’s opinion on how the situation should have been handled. Tom suggested they over-reacted at the onset and then under-reacted during the aftermath. He didn’t think that having SWAT and snipers in public view was a good idea.
Tom said there is a proposal to put an item on the next ballot that would increase city sales tax by .25% for three years. Tom referred to the police radio system, which will soon be obsolete, and needs to be replaced soon. The vendor support of this system is coming to an end and the big problem with that lies in the fact that the department will no longer have control over who can access the system.
Tom also talked about the need for new and updated fire stations. The last one was built in 1996. The city has grown by 21 square miles and 47,000 people since then. There are three primary areas of concern; deep south Lincoln – around the St Michaels parish area, north 27th – north of Superior, and northeast Lincoln. Total costs to build new fire stations will average $2.5 million for land and construction.
- Tim asked if the city could sell off the properties they would abandon and Tom said yes, that money would be allocated for new construction.
- Larry asked if there was any possibility that the City Fire Department could consolidate or share expenses with Rural Fire Departments. Tom said the city has presented many different scenarios whereby that might work, but the RFD has always refused.
- Amy asked about the idea of police officers wearing body cameras. Tom said they would like that, but it would run around $750,000 in start up costs and the maintenance runs about $350,000 per year.
- Tim made the comment that citizens sometimes wonder if the money that is allocated for certain endeavors is being spent wisely – such as the fire truck debacle. Tom consented that in that particular case the person in charge did not have the proper qualifications to make educated decisions.
- Kelly asked if anyone has looked in to the idea of moving to smaller fire trucks and if they have considered a collaborative effort with the RFD’s – maybe the RFD provides the fire support and the city provides the EMT support? Tom said that was a good idea.
- Sherri commented that the last sales tax increase (arena tax) has had a huge impact on her business and she also asked if the city had pursued any RFP’s for the new radio systems yet. Tom: not yet.
NLBA Meetings:
- The next Association meeting is Thursday, February 12th
- THE PIZZA RANCH – 84th & Lexington | 11:30am – 1:00pm
- Speaker: Randy Fischer – Emergency Response Coordinator, LLCHD | F5 Tornado Simulation
- The next Board meeting is Thursday, February 26th |
- Nebraska Hospital Association , 3255 Salt Creek Circle, Suite | Noon
Meeting Adjourned.
Respectfully submitted by Fred Knight
NLBA Secretary
www.NorthviewLincolnBusiness.com
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