HPCC - April 2003 Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes by Amy Poettinger

President Lisa Williams called the meeting to order at 7:37 pm in the auditorium of Dilworth Traditional Academy for the Arts and Humanities.

The first order of business was an update on the farmhouse. The meeting with Citiparks went well. They want to work with the Club, they just need to know what the Club wants to do ahead of time. The storage problem has been taken care of. In a related note, Lisa introduced the new Children's Committee Chair, Stacey Gray. Stacey announced an easter egg hunt to take place at the farmhouse on Saturday, April 19th at 10:00 am. Citiparks will help out and there will be an arts and crafts table. Candy and toys will be put in the eggs for the hunt on Thursday, April 17th at 7:30 pm at the farmhouse.

Lisa also announced that the chair position of the Public Safety Committee has also been filled. John Ciroli was not able to attend the meeting, but he is taking over those duties.

Dana Thomas spoke about the House Tour. Angie Walker volunteered to be her co-chair for the event and they had a very productive first meeting. They are thinking about Saturday, October 18. The theme of the tour will be kitchens and cookbooks. The tour will not be limited to great kitchens, but they hope to have cookbooks for sale in all homes that are on the tour. They also want to get the "food-oriented" businesses in Highland Park involved, specifically Food Glorious Food, La Foret, Sitar and Enrico's, with possible open houses or food tastings. Because of all of the extra activities this year, they are planning to raise prices from $12 & $15 to $15 & $20 ($15 pre-sale and $20 on the day). Dana is looking for volunteers to be greeters in the houses and to sell tickets. Volunteers will work for half of the tour (approximately 3 hours) so that they will have time to see the houses, too. Dana will have a sign-up sheet at every meeting until October.

Sergeant Ellinger gave a report on neighborhood safety in place of Officer Gay, who was unable to attend the meeting. The problem tenants at 5620 Jackson Street and 811 Mellon Street have been evicted. The owner of 811 Mellon Street is currently on crutches so progress on that property may be slow, but he intends to improve it. The loud music problem at 916 Mellon Street was responded to by Officer Gay and resolved. He is also doing his best to keep up with any tow truck issues. If you have any problems, feel free to call Officer Gay at 412-665-3770. Sergeant Ellinger also noted that there is a new block watch on Highview, there will be a "Pick-up Pittsburgh" on April 26th and there were some thefts of residences and from vehicles but no violent crimes reported in the neighborhood since the last meeting. If you have any questions about crime rates in the neighborhood, the Zone 5 station has the statistics available.

Next, the program for the meeting was introduced by Tania and Jeff Grubbs. They are both involved in the programs at Dilworth and they began the program with a few musical selections, stressing the great benefits that music has to offer in all of our lives. They then introduced the Principal of Dilworth, Mr. Bob O'Keefe.

Mr. O'Keefe welcomed the group and spoke about the changes that have occurred at the school during the past few years. He feels that it is important to strengthen the connections between the school and the neighborhood. Any members of the community are welcome at Dilworth anytime and he hopes that members of the Highland Park community will be as excited as he is about Dilworth's future and join the Dilworth parent and student community. With the help of Diane DeNardo, a number of Arts and Humanities programs have been developed over the past five years and he is happy to report that he has thus far had full backing of his boss, Mr. Briscoe, as well as Dr. Thompson, Mrs. Harris and the entire board of education.

He introduced two of his staff members who have been integral to some of the programs. Mr. Marshall Medrano spoke about the faculty/staff choir that he leads. He has been pleased with how quickly they have developed and they are hoping to perform in the community in the future. Mr. David Rigo is a Masters of Arts and Teaching intern currently working at Dilworth. He spoke more specifically about the goals of Dilworth as a school of Arts and Humanities. They will maintain all of the standard curriculum for the district, but anchor academic topics with art projects, discussions and special events. Dilworth has already partnered with the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Pittsburgh Opera, the Civic Light Opera and the Center for the Arts. Overall, they have been pleased with the strong support that the faculty has for the focus of the school.

Mr. O'Keefe spoke about two additional, related programs. There is an in-school gifted program called "ACE" for second to fifth graders. They have begun to integrate the teaching of American Sign Language into the program and hope that it will grow into an anchor for the school as a whole. There is no other language taught at Dilworth, but he hopes that this can become something the school is known for. He wrapped up by reminding the Club that their curriculum is still grounded in the standards required by the district, but within that there is a focus on the cultural, the intellectual and the spiritual. If anyone would like to meet with Mr. O'Keefe one-on-one or have a tour of the school, call 412-665-5000.

Lisa Williams opened the floor for new business. Mike Fiore, the owner of Mike's Auto Body, was present to address any concerns of the Club. He apologized for any problems his drivers might have caused residents and said that he is doing his best to address the concerns with his drivers. You can call him directly if you have any problems. He stated that drivers have not been paid by commission since January, in an attempt to keep drivers from racing to the scenes of accidents. There is also a city-organized group working to get drivers to stay in their own neighborhoods in an additional attempt to head off the speeding problem. Finally, he mentioned that the "messy" property next to his building does not belong to him. It is city property and they are supposed to be working to clean it up.

Patrick Dowd had a message from Kate Zober. The next Super Playground maintenance day will be May 17th. She will need about 50 volunteers for two shifts of "Mulch Madness". There will be a morning shift and an afternoon one as well.

Michael Johnson gave the Club an update on the Community Plan. He presented a list of things that have already been learned and gained from the process, even though the final product is not yet complete. His team has learned that there are almost 40 youths in Highland Park that like the neighborhood and want to give back to the community, but they have no outlet with which to do so. The team also learned that many of the business owners on Bryant Street don't even know each other and haven't previously considered ways that they could work together to reach common goals. The team has learned of the successes at Dilworth and can consider ways to share these successes with Peabody and Fulton. Michael let the Club know that all of the focus groups will be reconvened once more in the next few months to give input on their sections of the draft master plan. The third and final Town Meeting will be held in mid-June. At this meeting, a draft of the final plan will be presented for comment and input. A Community Celebration is being planned for August to celebrate the neighborhood and the completion of the Community Plan, but most of all as a Celebration of Diversity. Muzz Meyers is planning the event which will be focused on Bryant Street, but will hopefully also have a connection to the Union project. Finally, the Community Plan is looking for one or two volunteers to work for the plan doing data analysis and community outreach. Please contact Michael Johnson if you are interested.

Dell Ziegler asked whether a quorum of board members was present. A show of hands indicated that a quorum was not present.

Sal Wilcox introduced himself as one of the owners of one of the newest Highland Park businesses. Education Innovations is the parent company of The Learning Club, which is located at 5808 Bryant Street. The Learning Club offers educational services for grades K through 12, including tutoring and summer programs which will be both fun and educational. The tutoring service includes interactions with the child's school, teachers and test scores to ensure the best possible results for each child.

Lisa Williams adjourned the meeting at 8:33 pm and invited everyone to explore Dilworth.