BCNA President Needed

The BCNA is currently without a president as its past president has given up this role in order to focus more on duties as a City Parks employee. We are in need of a new person to help keep the association organized, call meetings, and communicate with City Hall and the newly forming city-wide Alliance of Neighborhood Associations. If you have a ~5 hours a month to dedicate to this task, and are interested in taking on this role, please contact Chris Gensic at 409-1809, and he can explain the duties and set up the special election in order to officially pass the power. We need a new president before our September meeting if possible.

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May 2008 BCNA Minutes

Belmont Carlton Neighborhood News
May, 2008

Development
• New construction. Architects Bruce Wardell and Kurt Kesecker made a presentation at our March meeting regarding plans for a 15-unit apartment building in three stories planned for the intersection of Monticello Avenue and Druid Avenue . Parking would be partly underground. The designer’s previous work includes the Belmont Lofts. The small building on this property once housed Green Earth Realty, and before that was a drive-in video store. The developers are making their way through City permits and approvals, and estimate that it will be a year before any visible changes are made.

Traffic
• Monticello Rd, between La Taza and Spudnut. No traffic-calming changes are implicated.
• Belmont Park. Improvements are planned for pedestrian safety, including a crosswalk. Stop signs have been installed at Stonehenge and Rialto. Neighbors at the meeting asked that the stop sign on the westbound side of Stonehenge be added back to that intersection, making it a three-way stop; some request that the intersection be a full four-way stop. Interested neighbors should send a short letter to Jeanne Alexander and Maurice Jones, traffic engineers, at City Hall.
• Monticello Road @ Carlton Road. Markers are in place; concrete will be poured when weather improves.

Parks
• Trail, Quarry Park to Rives Park. Approved for construction along Moore’s Creek; City will build.
• Belmont Park. ArtInPlace will host a design workshop for the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation’s summer camp participants, and will fund covering the new wall at Belmont Park with a mosaic mural. For more information, call ArtInPlace at 979-5338.

Other
• Clark School Fun Fair. Field Day Friday, May 30th, 1-3pm; Fun Fair Saturday, May 31, noon-4pm. Volunteers are needed each day to run booths. Call Hannah Munro at 806-2553 (hcmunro@vhsl.org)
• Citywide Neighborhood Association Meeting. Sunday May 18, 1:30pm at the Central Library.
• New BCNA president is needed. Jeff Snyder is seeking two other people to help him coordinate these meetings as Chris Gensic (Thanks, Chris!) steps down.
• Newsletter updates. If you know of neighbors who do not have email and who would like to receive these updates by USPO mail, please have them call Mare Hunter at 296-7198 during the evening.

BCNA President Needed

The BCNA is currently without a president as its past president has given up this role in order to focus more on duties as a City Parks employee. We are in need of a new person to help keep the association organized, call meetings, and communicate with City Hall and the newly forming city-wide Alliance of Neighborhood Associations. If you have a ~5 hours a month to dedicate to this task, and are interested in taking on this role, please contact Chris Gensic at 409-1809, and he can explain the duties and set up the special election in order to officially pass the power. We need a new president before our September meeting if possible.

December 2007 Meeting Notes

BCNA Meeting Agenda
Monday, December 10th, 2007
7:00-8:00 pm

Project/task force updates:

Traffic –Traffic study results from the engineer were reviewed and approved

Parks – Rives planning – see below – — the Belmont Park fence proposal was voted down by attendees.

Development – $10,000 proffer for trees in Belmont might come from Rialto Beach

Treasury – balance – ~$500+

Police task force—Officers Otis Collier, W. A. Bettinger and C. P. Sorokti of the Charlottesville P.D. spoke with us, noting that the CPD is understaffed by 12 officers. At present, there is only one officer on duty in each district. There have been more assaults lately; citizens are urged to watch their neighborhoods and report suspicious activity. Two email addresses were provided for additional information and to answer questions: bettinge@charlottesville.org, and sorokti@charlottesville.org.

Rives Park planning update—the review of proposed plans by Mark Lieberth and Ann McInnis from LPDA sparked a lively and enthusiastic discussion of paths, plantings and playing fields. The proposal as submitted has reflected the input from earlier neighborhood meetings. The plans are available for review in the City Parks and Recreation office in the downtown annex to City Hall.

Home Improvement help from Darden school—for needy families/homes – Eamon Perrill

Mailboxes and bus stop benches and trash cans—Avon Street, La Taza, Linden, Lazy Daisy.

Meeting with Federation of Neighborhood Associations- Jeff and Chris were not sure that this organization would be any more effective in making our wishes known to City Council and others. Consensus was that turning out in numbers for City Council meetings, and writing personal opinions to individual councilors and the local newspapers would be preferable.

New neighborhood website at NDS—www.charlottesville.org/Index.aspx?page=2035

City SPCA blanket drive—The city of Charlottesville is sponsoring a blanket collection for the SPCA. Please leave your non-electric blanket donations at City Hall between 8am and 5pm any weekday.

New president needed for BCNA—Chris would like to retire.

Sidewalks - BCNA

According to the City Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for 2007-2012 at Neighborhood Development Services, new sidewalks to be built in the BCNA area include:

There is a longer City-wide list with more segments in our area. Availability of funding dictates the pace of sidewalk construction, so these segments might be completed sooner, allowing NDS to move on to segments on the longer list sooner than 2012.

The overall City plan is to complete sidewalk on at least one side of every street, and both sides of major corridors. NDS maintains the list of priority projects.

To report major sidewalk damage, uplifts, or cracks, contact Public Works.

Rives Park Review

This Wednesday Nov 28th at 5:30-7 in the Clark School library.

Meeting to review plans for Rives Park presented by LPDA.
Chance for residents to review and comment on proposed plans
that will guide the park’s redevelopment in the coming years.