NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME STATISTICS. Wes Funderburg, our City Web Administrator, in cooperation with Public Safety staff, has completed a link for neighborhood crime statistics: http://www.cityofaikensc.gov/crimeanalyzer/statistics.aspx. This link is part of our city website http://www.aiken.net/. It is available to anyone using our city website. The compiled statistics are by neighborhood areas and not individual addresses, in order to respect the privacy of crime victims. If you have any questions about this new website link, please let us know.
YOUTH IN ACTION REPORT. Our Neighborhood Services Division, at Council’s request, has completed its first annual summer neighborhood improvement projects, Youth in Action, on June 26, 2009. About 35 local young people, working under the guidance of Christ Central Missions, Cumberland AME Church, Full Gospel Praise and Deliverance Church, New Covenant Presbyterian Church, and the Police Athletic League worked on five different houses in Aiken. Work included painting, pressure washing, yard cleanup, some rotten wood replacement, trash removal, and other exterior improvements. NDS provided supplies, water, and lunches each day. A character-based program was conducted prior to lunch. Local restaurants supporting this pilot project included Chick-Fil-A, Church’s Chicken, other businesses, including Baynham’s Restaurant, Domino’s Pizza, Reids Food Stores, and Bi-Lo assisted with reduced cost food. Bill McGhee was of particular valuable assistance at the Sumter Street house.
Houses at 1346 President Drive, 504 Washington Circle, 603 Sumter Street, 648 Jefferson Terrace, and on Locke Lane are now more a part of their neighborhoods as a result of all the hard work done by our volunteer youth and their supervisors. Special thanks are due to Angela McGhee, Varney Hodge, Andrew McCaskill, Lalita Ashley, Herbert Schofield, Ricky Brown, Leasa Segura, Phil Noah, Cynthia Mitchell, Sabina Craig, Alan Willing, Jamie Bledsoe, and Bill Hamilton who worked very hard to make this initial, local project successful
DOWNTOWN TRAFFIC SIGNAL UPGRADES. Carol Jones with the South Carolina Department of Transportation has confirmed that phasing specifications for our downtown traffic signals have been completed. The next step in hopefully improving our downtown traffic patterns is the state’s selection of contractor to install the necessary equipment to re-phase our downtown traffic signals. That work is anticipated to commence sometime this month.
Hitchcock Woods Sand River Stormwater Green Infrastructure. The City of Aiken recently received a $3.34 million grant from the Department of Health and Environmental Control to capture a portion of stormwater through strategically placed rain gardens, bioswales, porous pavement and other means. The City's Sand River Restoration Project is currently being designed jointly by the city's consulting firm in cooperation and under the general direction of Dr. Gene Eidson, Director, Center for Watershed Excellence, Clemson University. Dr. Eidson and his staff were present at the last Council Meeting to describe the work currently underway and what they hope to accomplish through this project. Once we have completed this work they will continue to monitor the results both for the city and the Hitchcock Woods Board as a research component. Plans should be completed by September and construction started by late fall/winter. Dr. Gene Eidson stated he wanted to introduce Council to the Green Infrastructure Concepts being proposed. He said the Green Infrastructure Concepts come out of the work they have been doing with the Sand River Ecological Restoration Master Plan. He said this was a masterplan to address all the impacts they have seen in Hitchcock Woods. They provided a Preferred Alternative Analysis for Sand River which incorporated Green Infrastructure. He pointed out that in the 2009-2010 budget; two of Council’s goals were to find a strategy for solving the Sand River storm drainage problems in Hitchcock Woods and to obtain sustainability measures to enhance the city. He said the project presented is an example of how we can make Aiken a model city for sustainability and new ideas and innovation. Dr. Eidson then presented a slide show. Dr. Eidson stated there are 8 watersheds that surround Hitchcock Woods. He said when you look at the topography and realize Hitchcock Woods is the low lying area, you can understand why there are potential impacts. Everything drains into Hitchcock Woods. The land use around Hitchcock Woods in the 8 watersheds is highly built out with a lot of hard surface and infrastructure, resulting in stormwater that flows into Hitchcock Woods. The impact is continual erosion in Sand River from the downtown watershed. There is about a 60 foot deep canyon and the sand from the canyon has migrated causing damage further down. He said they have gone through a master plan process which has involved the City, Hitchcock Woods Foundation, the County and other stakeholders. They talked about the project background and how to develop a process to handle the impact of the stormwater issue. They talked about existing conditions, and they utilized all the reports that have been generated over the last decade in coming to an understanding of the existing condition. They talked about remediation and stabilization of the canyon. The importance of the restoration plan, making sure we restore it so it has ecological fidelity with the structure and function is similar to what was there. Very important to the city is that it represents an economic and durable prescription, and that it be cost effective and long lasting. Then all the issues of the stakeholders in the city be considered by bringing all the people together and talk about historical, cultural, and social issues related to the plan. Dr. Eidson stated there had been many meetings, with a kickoff meeting in January, 2008, followed by three visioning workshops. He said they were asked to provide a Preferred Alternative for the project. He said they looked at all the reports that had been done in the past and came up with a priority format which included stabilizing the energy coming from the stormwater, dissipating the energy, stabilizing the canyon and providing for storage.
The first phase of the project is pervious parking along Park Avenue as well as Newberry Street. There would be a series of rain gardens and bioswales and wetlands. There are two sub watersheds in the downtown, and Park Avenue is great for capturing a lot of the flow. She said some graduate students will explore expanding upon the Green Infrastructure concept. Dr. Cal Sawyer reviewed the stormwater best manager practices that are being proposed to promote the infiltration being discussed and to address some of the issues related to polluted runoff. He pointed out that the discussion would involve not only water quantity, but also water quality. There are a number of pollutants that are related to the impervious surfaces being discussed with respect to some of the parkways and greenways. He said the pollutants in general can be divided into four parts—nutrients, organics, pathogens, and heavy metals. All these things accumulate on parking areas and are what we are talking about addressing with the practices being promoted. He pointed out that in the last couple of weeks some coring has been done in some of the parkways and some of the side streets to look at the potential infiltration rates. This will help a lot in terms of designing and analyzing the infrastructure for the areas. He said a lot of water could be moved through the area very fast. Some of the different types of practices are bioretention and bioswales. He explained how these practices work in the flow of water. Some other items to be considered are types of permeable parking. Three types of permeable parking proposed to be used are asphalt, concrete and interlocking block pavers. All these must meet the structural design to be able to park cars and move emergency vehicles across them. They also have to make sure that water will infiltrate instead of running off. They will be looking at sub grade, structural integrity, and short and long term maintenance requirements. He pointed out when installing some of these practices there will be construction which will take place over a period of weeks and months as opposed to months and years. He said they will be looking at permeable parking, bioretention and bioswales, and also cisterns. The concept of cisterns has been around since the Roman times. He said the use of cisterns is proposed to be used to capture some rooftop runoff and route that underground into a cistern and recycle that water for irrigation of the landscape in the area. Dr. Eidson stated from the preliminary results it appears to be an ideal location for this project. He said he was excited about the grant from EPA for this project so Aiken can be a model community. He said he would like to see the projects implemented and push us forward in terms of sustainable development and design. He said there had been some concerns about the parkways, but there are many designs that can be utilized. Trees do not have to be removed. We are fortunate that Aiken has many parkways with many different configurations. He said they can showcase numerous designs in the City of Aiken and make this city open to other researchers and other communities that want to learn how to implement Green Infrastructure.
SECOND READING OF AN ORDINANCE APPROVING THE SALE AND CONVEYANCE OF LOTS AND HOMES IN CROSLAND PARK - Over the last several years the City of Aiken has acquired property and sold lots and homes to various citizens in the Edgewood and Toole Hill areas. We are now ready to start selling lots and homes in the Crosland Park area. The price of these homes will vary depending on their purchase price and the improvements made to each home. Based on the work involved these homes should be sold at or above the appraised value. In some cases the appraised value may be higher than the amount of the home and the work that was involved in its rehabilitation. In other cases the appraised value may actually be lower than the price of work that went into each of the homes. Our overall goal is to meet the costs involved in the acquisition and rehabilitation for all the homes in the Crosland Park neighborhood. Instead of bringing back each sale, we recommend that staff be given the ability to sell all homes at a price that exceeds or equals the cost of the home and improvements. At this time we are ready to sell two homes and three lots that we have purchased to the Aiken Housing Authority. Since no improvements have been made on the homes the sales price consists of our cost to acquire the property and any soft costs that we have incurred. We have already purchased 25 homes, and we have an option on approximately 80 others. Therefore, many additional home sales would be negotiated under these circumstances in the near future. This flexibility will allow us to move forward with the sale and to keep the entire Crosland Park project moving forward.
FIRST READING OF AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND OUR UTILITY SERVICE POLICY AND ANNEXATION REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING BILLBOARDS. At our June 22, 2009 meeting, City Council discussed our current utility services and annexation policy for properties with pre-existing, nonconforming billboards. In the 1990s Council developed a policy that stated nonconforming signs, such as billboards, needed to be removed prior to the city providing utility services. There is also a similar policy for signs involved in annexations. Since the enactment of our utility and annexation policies concerning billboards, the legislature in 2006 passed the South Carolina Landowner and Advertisement Protection and Property Evaluation Act. These statutes clearly protect the interest of the billboard company and limit the ability of the property owner to remove them without just compensation. There are over twenty-five billboards located just outside our city limits and they have currently stymied the type of development that can occur on these properties. At the last meeting, Council agreed that we should consider amending our policies by allowing the billboards to remain until the end of the lease period. The attached ordinance would allow us to enter into an agreement with the landowner and billboard owner that sets forth when the billboard would be removed. Unless the landowner and billboard owners agree in writing to remove it, the city would not supply utilities or approve an annexation. We feel that by changing our utility service and annexation policy this would allow us to provide utilities and annex properties yet help ensure the billboard is removed at the end of the lease period.
Our City Attorney believes that we can enter into an agreement with the landowner and the billboard owner that sets forth when the billboard would be removed. At tonight's meeting we would like to determine whether or not City Council would like to move forward with changes to the utility policy that would hopefully alleviate this problem in the future.
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CDIC TO APPLY FOR FUNDS TO ASSIST THE CROSLAND PARK NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION PROJECT UNDER THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009. The City of Aiken is working with 15 non-profit organizations to improve the Crosland Park neighborhood. These organizations and churches have joined together to help individuals in Crosland Park and our community to find better housing, to help nurture families, develop opportunities for individuals to earn higher wages and to build their capacity to provide even more services within our community. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has grant opportunities to provide training for these types of organizations that we have developed for Crosland Park. This training will help faith based and non-faith based organizations work together to better serve those in need within the community. Some of the initial training that we would like to have for the various boards would include fair housing, tenant screening, developing a common lease agreement, summer and after school programs, home preventative and annual maintenance, and building housing capacity for each of the organizations. We would like to apply for a grant which would provide assistance up to $250,000 for this training.
APPROVAL OF EDWARD BYRNE MEMORIAL JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT (JAG) FOR PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT. The Aiken Public Safety Department has been notified that they are eligible for a $15,571 Justice Assistance Grant (JAG). This grant is 100% funding requiring no city matching funds. This grant would be used to fund the Police Athletic League (PAL). Funding for this program has decreased significantly for Aiken's program due to the economy. Funds from this grant would be used to pay for recreational and athletic equipment, event registration fees, officials, cost and travel expenses for leadership events and field trips. The program provides opportunities for youth who may be at risk for gang and other criminal activities and helps develop constructive skills through recreation and other organized activities. Aiken's chapter of PAL has over 200 youth involved in football, cheerleading, baseball, chess, field and track as well as leadership activities. This program was the winner of the 2009 Municipal Achievement Award and the award will be presented at the MASC conference in August.
REQUEST TO USE PARKWAYS ON PARK AVENUE BETWEEN LAURENS STREET AND UNION STREET BY THE SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS. Wayne Jones, Planning Coordinator, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Brigadier Barnard E. Bee Camp #1575 has sent in his July 2, 2009, letter requesting use of the Park Avenue parkways between Laurens Street and Union Street. Their group, in conjunction with the Southern Guard Brigade, wants to use these parkways for a Living History Presentation. A copy of his letter is attached. Mr. Jones expects this event to take the public back in time to the 1860's. Events on Saturday, January 16 and Sunday, January 17, 2010, are expected to include 200 to 250 reenactors, 20 cavalry horsemen, a living history outdoor drama, a static display that includes two authentic artillery pieces, staged skirmishes, a formal ball, character actors, and an of-the-period worship service. All events will be free to the public except for the formal ball on Saturday evening, which will be a ticketed event. His group is in the process of determining how this proposed event could fit in with Celebrate Aiken! activities. Their request to use these parkways includes events from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. Director Frommer has met with Mr. Jones to discuss traffic control issues. It is our understanding that participants would arrive Friday evening, January 15, 2010 and set up their encampments and displays. For City Council consideration is this request by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to use the Park
FINAL COMMENT. This has been an unusually long Council Update, but there are several important issues that City Council is addressing. The work on Hitchcock Woods is particularly important since the Woods means so much to so many Aiken residents. The minutes of our Work Session were much longer than what I have included above and if you are interested in this issue, I recommend reading them on the City’s Web Site at http://www.aiken.net/ .
Likewise, we are considering a major change in our utility policy which will allow annexation or providing of utilities to parcels with billboards installed. These are issues that Council should receive public input and I urge residents to attend our Council meeting to voice their concerns.
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