FEBRUARY 1997

President's Message:
Many thanks to Ann for guiding us for the past 2 years and to all those who have served on committees. I hope all our members will stay involved and that everyone will tell me/us what we can do to address concerns of all our neighbors. I am expecially interested in finding our what neighboring community associations are doing and how we might interact with them. If you have a problem, or an idea, please come to the meeting or give me a call, 563-1442.
Clint Roby

Assessments: To Protest or Not to Protest !!!
What is the PROCESS?? A representative from the State Department of Taxation and Assessment will be at the February 5th Butchers Hill Association Meeting. Their purpose will be to acquaint everyone with the process an average owner can follow to protest an increase in property taxes. There are several steps that can be taken without a lawyer that can result in a decrease in the tax bill. There are also several strategies that are useless, and that can not be taken into consideration a hearing.

If you have ever protested your taxes, either successfully, or if you have feelings about whether taxes should or should not be protested, please come and share your ideas. Time will be allotted at the end for discussion groups and sharing of personal experiences.

Education Committee Report
The Education Committee has raised $610.00 this year for our scholarship fund - thanks to all who have contributed. We are still accepting donations. The Museum of Industry offered two family annual memberships as incentives to contributing to the fund. They were awarded at a drawing at the January meeting to George Larson and new residents, the Hoggards, who just moved here from Texas. The new chairperson for 1997 is Nancy Newman and the next meeting will be at her home: 2107 E. Baltimore St. on Monday, Feb. 10th at 8:00 pm. Call 732-3701.

Dining Out
The next dining out will be Thursday, February 20th at 7:00pm at the El Salvador Restaurant, 207 South Broadway. Call 563-1442 so we can make reservations.

Funds for Pagoda Fund Raising
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has recently awarded the Butchers Hill Association a grant of $1,200 to prepare a fund raising plan for the Pagoda renovation. The funds must be matched in cash or in-kind and will be used to hire a fund raising consultant who will assist in preparing brochures, creating a video to be shown to potential funders and in organizing a major fund raising event.

John McGaw, the consultant, has requested that we collect archival materials and memorabilia of the Pagoda and Patterson Park for use in the brochures and video. If you have such items, please let Mary Roby know what you have (563-1442)

A meeting of the fund raising committee will be held on Saturday, February 22 at 10:30 am at 8 N.Collington Avenue when we meet the consultant for the first time. Please come and bring your ideas and expertise for getting the money we need to get the work done and the Pagoda reopened!

Alley gates are up in several areas now and letters to landlords have been successful in most cases. Over the past two months a number of indicents involving guns have occurred. Two were hold-ups of corners stores in our neighborhood and several incidents of illegally discharging guns into the air on New Years Eve (the bullets must come down somewhere). It is important that we all work together to get guns off our streets. Call 685-GUNS if you have information that will help police identify illegal gun possession. You do not have to leave your name. Also, use 911 (for immediate response) or 311 if you want police response concerning gun informaiton.

Many children are not able to achieve full recovery within the 60 days and are shuffled from facility to facility. Woodbourne has begun talking with local and state authorities to change some services to provide longer treatment programs that would lessen the number of disruptions in the child's life and greatly improve chances for a better outcome.

At Butchers Hill's January meeting Woodbourne representatives presented their plan which would require a change in the current zoning ordinance. The Land Use Committee will evaluate the zoning proposal at a future meeting. Woodbourne also requested that some Butchers Hill residents join the Community Advisory Committee which works with the Board of Trusteess and serior staff to provide a community/consumer point of view. Anyone interested may call Woodbourne: Howard Olshansky, 563-6400 or Butchers Hill President: Clint Roby, 563-1442.

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