Lakewood Neighborhood Group

4-10-2007

Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance

Minutes of last meeting read by Liz L.

Liz L. spoke regarding blog site for group http://lakewoodng.blogspot.com/

Barry
Hyde
State Representative: Spoke regarding 3 of 5 legislative bills passed. One of which would allow cities to take abandoned houses in blighted areas and use money in a land bank pool to repair and sell to lower income citizens. There continues to be a problem with imminent domain. He will report again at the next meeting.

The legislative session is over. Nothing was done about payday lending. There are tax cuts but now all fees are increased.

Lakewood resident asked how long we need to keep tax records. IRS says 3 years, the back of the AR tax forms say 8 years.

Barry stated he would find out what is required regarding AR code.

Debi Ross
Alderman: According to the FOI if 2 or more aldermen show up they have to notify the press. May the 5th will be the City Beautiful Clean Up day. LPOA will have a clean up day the next weekend. The baseball contract was signed, 20 years with 2 5 year options.

Mary P.
Resident of Lakewood: It is a problem for the gates of the Old Mill to be open until 10 pm. There is noise, vandalism, and Mary was threatened when she tried to close the gates after 10 pm. The problem is worse in the summer when school is out.

Sergeant Bona: New Sergeant at the Lakewood Substation. The substation is not staffed 24 hrs a day. Officers meet there for roll call. North Little Rock has 4 districts Downtown, Levy, Hill area and Rose City. Locking of park is low priority, Sergeant Bona supports locking park earlier. He will pull service calls for the Old Mill. He requests that people leave their name if they call in. If there is an increase in calls they have to go out and check on the problem. If someone comes to your door and you do not know them, do not open the door.
Door to door sales-no more permits for magazine sales. Peddling without a permit is a class A misdemeanor.
Abandoned houses-there has to be 3 or more criminal arrests on the property before legal action can be taken. Sgt. Bona will have his officers compile a list of every vacant and abandoned house in each district every month.
In the month of March there were 5 residential burglaries, and no commercial burglaries. Breaking and Entering of autos increased lately. Do not leave cell phone in plain view in auto. Lock belongings in trunk or take them in with you. You can email Sgt Bona at Jim.Bona@NLRpolice.org. He is in the office Tues, Wed, and Thurs.

Debi Ross: Will call Parks and Recreation about time of gate closing at the Old Mill since they are the ones that changed the time.
Conway has agreed to accept prisoners for $30 a day.

Tom W: We want to have one mailing regarding our meeting to cover all of Lakewood. There are 2500 addressed in Ward I. Neighborhood Services will assist with a mailer one time a year.

Beth W: When it is time to address envelops, we will need volunteers. She encourages everyone to attend the city counsel meeting. Someone needs to mention our meeting during the Public Comments section. We would welcome any suggestions.

Next meeting Tuesday May 8th 2007.