Committee Minutes

MINUTES/PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
Tuesday, June 20, 1998 - 7:00 p.m.

Members present: Bakken, Bouley, Martinson.

1. Applications for block parties:
a) request to block 1st Avenue North at 21st and 23rd Streets
from 5:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. on July 11.
Earl and Kim Greendahl were present. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve request. Motion carried. (comm. only)

b) request to block 700 block of 22nd Ave.S. between Cherry
St. and Oak Street from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on July 26.
Lee Anderson, 707 22nd Ave.S. was present. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve request. Motion carried. (comm.only)

2. Request from reps. of veterans groups for permission to pro- ceed with flag raising ceremony, skydiver to deliver flag to be raised on July 4 as part of activities.
Paul Lester, Sertoma Club, stated he was in charge of 4th of July activities and reported that the American Legion is going to do flag raising ceremony in conjunction with Grand Forks Fire Department, Dana Bowman, professional skydiver, will be flying flag down, presenting to the veterans group who will present to the Fire Dept. to raise, and were asking for permission to do that. Mr. Lester reported that skydiver has licenses and clearances from FAA to clear air space and everything appears to be in order, have signed hold harmless agreement. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve request. Motion carried.

3. Request from YMCA Family Center to hold Firecracker Half Marathon and 8K on Saturday, July 4, starting at 8:00 a.m. (Route: Courthouse to Belmont to 42nd and return).
Mark Minette, YMCA, submitted hold harmless and indemnity agreement, and that course is same as used in 1995, starts at Courthouse, down Lincoln Drive area and down Belmont (deviation from 1995 course is at bottom of Belmont where under construc-tion, go to Chestnut and back around. He stated they will have lot of volunteers to direct runners and advise participants on any safety issues before the race. He stated runners would be on the roadway and on the left hand side of the road so face traffic. (25-50 runners). Chief Packett stated they would recom-mend tentative approval and suggested that he meet with Capt. Kjelstrom. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve request. Motion carried. (comm. only)

4. Request from ND Alzheimer's Assn. to hold Memory Walk on
Saturday, September 19.
Diane Helgeson and Nancy McEnroe reported that letter had been sent requesting approval for Memory Walk that they are proposing to hold September 19, starting at Sr. Citizens Center and enclosed map, not sure how many participants (perhaps 100), and is State walk, will be held in Dickinson, Minot and Grand Forks at the same time. They reported they had sent letter to the police department and letter to Steve Mulally at the Park District. She stated they will use sidewalks for their walk and volunteers at intersections. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to

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approve request. Motion carried. (comm. only)

5. Request from Grand Forks Chapter of Harley Owners Group to hold procession of members on August 30.
There was no rep. of organization present. Chief Packett reported they have reviewed correspondence, it appears to be in order and no problem with this. Moved by Martinson and Bouley to grant permission. Motion carried. (comm. only).

6. Request from Central Business Dist. Assn. to hold Forx Fest on riverbank area behind Chamber of Commerce on July 25.
Laura Hammack from CBD Assn. reported they would like to start in afternoon at 1:00 with food vendors, crafters, bike demonstration, crazy course for mountain bikes, strolling magicians, musicians, water balloon volleyball for kids, SPA, Red River Valley Gymnastics, face painting on riverbank area behind Chamber of Commerce; and Empire Arts is planning on holding their Community Arts Festival that day which would be on DeMers Avenue. She stated they would have a band starting at 6:00 p.m. and start serving beer (Bonzer's), and this is fund-raiser for CBD, charge $3.00 after 6:00 p.m., no charge for daytime activities.

There was some discussion re. complaints on noise issue. Ms. Hammack stated this would be first time held behind Chamber as opposed to DeMers Avenue, and way positioning stage and band playing towards the river to cut down on noise. Beer garden would be in area where no kids allowed. She asked that if complaints are received to notify them and they would have volume turned down if too loud. Don Shields, Health Department, suggested to committee that they might want to give waiver of the noise ordinance after 10:00 o'clock at night when noise ordinance goes to 50 decibels, they don't have objection as long as they work out noise arrangements with the police.

Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve permit and grant variance to the noise ordinance until 12:30 a.m. Motion carried.
7. Request for traffic control at intersection of 14th Ave.S. and South 11th Street.
Chief Packett reported this request out of ordinary for other types of control in that general location, most intersections are open and appears that traffic flows both N/S and E/W in an expe-ditious manner; that a cursory check of records indicates there isn't an exorbitant amount of accidents that have occurred at that location and would be interested in hearing from the neighborhood what concern is and recommendation is. Kim Greendahl, traffic safety, reported that lot of complaints came to her office about traffic problem there, lot is perceived problem, they are very residential and because of construction, people are going around construction and using their street as a thoroughfare, and are very upset about having this traffic come through and want gauge to stop the high speeds that come through there at night. It was felt that problem created after Washing-
ton construction started, and it was noted this isn't very long
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street, deadend at one end and stop sign at the other end, and other direction, deadend or to Washington, and suggested use of temporary signs there until construction finished. Chief Packett stated they could give some attention and monitor area.

Moved by Martinson and Bouley to take some temporary measure to control that possible hazard existing. Motion carried.

8. Matter of intersection control on 24th Ave.S. and S. 29th St.
Chief Packett reported he checked this location today, that this is by the Mall on 24th and appears to be no need for any-thing other than stop sign that protects 24th Ave.S. as coming off 29th St. Chairman Bakken stated that this is exit coming out of Mall and is not actually an exit but a way to get into back way of Best for deliveries (driveway into the dock area), and perhaps closing that off.

Ann Sande, 1110 Belmont Road, reported they were looking at this since December, January and John Thompson has been working with the owners of Best and small Mall, and on June 15 Committee authorized four-way stop but Mr. Thompson got some new communica-tion from one of the building owners and there seems to be some movement on their part, but not sure what it is; that item was pulled from council because of the new information. Committee asked that staff look into this for solution.

Moved by Bouley and Martinson to hold until their next meeting.
Motion carried. (comm. only)

9. Matter of substandard buildings, blighted structures and public health hazard.
Don Shields and Wally Helland, Health Dept., were present. Mr. Shields reported that last month public safety asked fire, health and building inspections to come up with a checklist to evaluate and assess the blighted structures (flood buildings), building damaged in the flood and appear to have been abandoned. He stated they were asking committee to approve checklist for both external and internal assessment and also approve the process for the follow up with enforcement.

Mr. Helland reported they have been working with fire and inspections depts. and are asking committee to review checklists for departments to use in evaluating buildings, both checklists are similar, one for external assessment and one for internal assessment if obtain entry into building. He stated they would use external checklist if don't receive response from the pro-perty owner and make evaluation from outside and based on that to determine whether or not need to get into to do some mitigation, whether building structure problem or some situation that needs to be mitigated that could create potential health hazard or safety problem. These checklists not used for intent of demolishing homes but to mitigate any circumstances that could be dangerous to the neighborhood or to the city. He stated that
building inspections and health department have received numerous MINUTES/PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
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calls in the last several months re. these issues and this is first step in addressing these structures. He stated that once evaluate and if it's necessary to use legal enforcement to get into the house, would use the substandard building ordinance. He stated they were asking for approval of the documents. He reported that they sent 81 letters out to homeowners requesting voluntary access to these structures; that he received about 12 calls today and ones he talked to are in the process of being bought out in one stage or another. He stated that when individuals call he asked what has been done in the house, ones that call have done something. He stated that by mid-July they should start outside assessment on those that they haven't heard from, and inside of ones that have called and will make appoint-ments for the three departments to make an assessment of building on the inside. He reported that there is a program similar to this that's going to be implemented on the vacant businesses, not only downtown, and they will be receiving letters similar to this and building inspections is compiling list for them and they will be mailing letters and coordinating inspections.

Martinson complimented departments for developing a very detailed inspection list and that this is long overdue that they start doing something about some of these buildings.

Mr. Helland reported they gave property owners ten days to respond, and by middle of July if haven't had response, would start doing exterior assessment on those houses; other depart-ments have assigned people who will be available to do this. Bakken stated that it would be wishes of committee to do this as soon as possible. Mr. Shields reported that the external assess-ments will be used to do assessment to determine probable cause which will have to go through city ordinances and probably involve city attorney and one of the courts.

Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve the checklist and approve the process as written. (checklists attached). Motion carried. (Committee only)

Mr. Shields reported they will report back on monthly basis to update committee on status of what teams have found.

10. Matter of grant agreements for health department:
a) Maternal Child Health Grant Agreement - $75,000, to provide nursing services in office/schools, home visits.
b) Tobacco Prevention and Control - $20,000, to promote cessation of tobacco among teens.
c) Children's Services Coordinating Comm. - $7,930, old Families First to work with teen abstinence of tobacco
d) Children's Services Coordinating Comm. - $13,967, to work on absenteeism programs that will target parents on an educational effort.

Mr. Shields reported they have four grants and a little over
$110,000, two of the grants are renewals and grant cycle unusual, MINUTES/PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
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and are for periods that start July 1 through June 30, 1999.

Moved by Martinson and Bouley to approve grant agreements con-tingent upon review and approval by the city attorney. Motion carried.

11. Budget amendments.
a) Tobacco Grant - $7,936
b) Communicable Disease - $13,967
Mr. Shields reviewed amendments which allow expending of funds to accomplish items associated with the grant agreements and reported that 60% of their budget are from grants, and com-mittee will see lot of grants coming through in June, July and August. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve the budget amendments. Motion carried.

12. Applications for gaming permits:
a) DAV Auxiliary - raffle 02/10/99
b) Ducks Unlimited - raffle 09/15/98
It was noted that both applications had been reviewed and approved by the city attorney. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve the applications. Motion carried. (comm. only)

13. Application for gaming permits:
c) Greater Grand Forks Senior Citizens Center - 7/01/98- 6/30/99
The application had not been reviewed by the city attorney. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve applications, contingent upon review and approval by the city attorney. Motion carried. (comm. only)

14. matter of grant agreement for health department:
a) Occupational Health Nurse for 1998/99
b) Local Health Services for 1998/99
Mr. Shields reported these are two additional grants totaling about $97,000, both are renewals and run from July 1 through June 30 of next year; a) is a program they run in northeastern ND from Devils Lake to Hillsboro and north to the Canadian border, focuses on farm safety, accidents, migrant health and migrant workers on the farm, $56,000; and b) is a State-funded grant and provides dollars to do presentations in schools.

Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve grant agreements, contingent upon final approval of the city attorney and the mayor's signature. Motion carried.

15. Request to hold Grand Pasta Party on the Prairie and variance to the noise ordinance on August 22, 1998. Ann Sande, chairman of the security arrangements for Pasta Party they need variance to the noise ordinance, will be having music and several bands and requesting variance until 12:30 a.m. on August 22, 1998. She stated she was aware that they had com-plaints about noise, and that 1) do best to direct speakers to
river area, and 2) part of the problem is with loss of a number
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of buildings noise migrates farther. She stated they haven't settled on alcoholic beverage purveyor but will be back for that. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve variance to the noise ordinance until 12:30 a.m. Motion carried.

16. Lease with North Dakota Highway Patrol for year ending 6/30/99.
Chief Packett recommended approval of the lease, that Highway Patrol has been good tenant and also participated recently in cost of phone system. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve the lease agreement. Motion carried.

17. Matter of request from Sertoma Club to move duck race to 3rd Street and University.
Paul Lester, 6200 Lake Drive, reported they had meeting this morning, that they had planned to do duck race in the river on July 4 but doesn't appear that will be a safe event, river high and moving fast, and would not commit their volunteer pickup boats into the water. He stated they would like to move duck race off the river and hold "duck blast" on 3rd Street and Uni-versity so that truck can dump the ducks on the street and fire department would blast those ducks up the street with fire hoses into waiting container. He asked for permission to block off North 3rd Street and move their event. Deputy Fire Chief O'Neill reported that the fire department is not in the entertainment business, that their primary concern is public safety, and will continue to be so; that they will work with the Sertoma Club which is a civic-minded organization and want to help out and don't want them on the river. He stated that if they have an emergency would have to pull out.

Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve request, subject to signing hold harmless agreement. Motion carried.

18. Budget amendments.
a) Police Dept. - $8,000, grant that pays for officer in metro task force
b) Police Dept. - $1,150, contribution from Borrowed Bucks who did fund-raiser recently for the bicycle program. Moved by Martinson and Bouley to approve budget amendments. Motion carried.

19. New business:
a) Chairman Bakken asked if the police department was still patrolling the flooded areas of the city. Chief Packett reported they will be patrolling the flooded areas through about mid-August and he has asked for weekly reports from Capt. Kjelstrom and get recommendation from him whether continue past that time.
He reported they are not seeing a lot of activity, are asking people to leave if no reason to be there, have made half dozen arrests in last 30 days on traffic stops and generated warrants, doesn't seem to be a lot of trespassing occurring but have had instances where have gone down and removed people from homes.
Chairman Bakken asked if they would be doing anything more there
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over the holidays, re. fireworks, etc. Chief Packett stated they will have in addition to the two officers in the flooded areas, 4 additional officers out doing surveillance, about 8 cars plus 2 sergeants until about 10:00 p.m., and then bring in another 8 after that so should have sufficient units out there.

20. Committee meeting time.
Committee changed their meeting time to Monday at 4:30 p.m., can review at later date if not working out.

Moved by Martinson and Boule to adjourn; meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m.

Alice Fontaine
City Clerk

Dated: 7/01/98