Weekly Update to City Council
from the City Manager
November 8, 2009
Posted By: Randy Lewis
Middie Football!
We are involved in various activities to support the Middies for Saturday’s game. Purple flags will be going up on Breiel Blvd. There is a group of volunteers who will be tying purple ribbons on poles along Breiel. We are in contact with the school officials to see how we can further assist in the efforts to cheer on the team! Go Middies!
H1N1 Update
The Health Department held another H1N1 vaccination clinic this past Saturday at MUM. This one was for all school children whose parents had sent in the consent form to their school by Wednesday Nov. 4th. We were ready for over 2400 kids but the turnout was light and we gave less than a thousand shots. We will be holding another clinic this Thursday, Nov. 12th 4p.m. to 7p.m, again at MUM, for those who missed the one on Saturday. It is a closed clinic only for school children for whom we have received the consent form.
Another question some parents are asking is who needs a second or booster shot and when can they get it. Only children under the age of 10 need to get the second vaccination and we will be having clinics in December for those who have had the first shot. The first one will be held Saturday December 5th.
For any other questions or comments please contact the Middletown Health Department at 425-1818.
Drug Market Intervention
The Drug Market Intervention (DMI) was pioneered in High Point, N.C., in 2004. The strategy brings together drug dealers, their families, law enforcement, social service providers and community leaders to eliminate open air street corner drug markets. Violent drug dealers are arrested and removed from the target neighborhood. Non-violent, first offenders are offered job placement and other needed social services to get out of the drug trade with immediate arrest and prosecution for those who return to drug dealing.
The Drug Market Initiative is not primarily focused on changing individuals. It is about transforming neighborhoods, shutting down open air drug markets, and building new relationships between the residents and City officials including the Police Department.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance provided funding for the City of Middletown to implement this program. A team was formed in early 2009 which included Robin Piper, Butler County Prosecutor, the Middletown Police Department, the Middletown Prosecutor’s Office, Freedom Community Development Corporation, Malachi, and the Middletown Chapter of the NAACP. During 2009, the team traveled (paid for through the grant) to High Point, N.C., Milwaukee, W.I., and Nashville, T.N. for training and technical assistance to implement the program locally.
The steps in the program include selecting an open air drug market for implementation, conducting undercover operations to build criminal cases against open air dealers, mobilizing community resources for implementation, and then shutting down the street corner open air market with law enforcement/neighborhood follow up and cooperation to keep the open air drug market shut down.
The undercover operations are now complete and the community resources have been gathered for implementation. The final stages of the DMI program will be implemented locally during the month of November with ongoing follow up and evaluation of results of the program. We will be briefing Council at next Tuesday’s meeting on the operations. For more information on the DMI program, follow the links below.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/topics/DMII.pdf
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/225760.pdf
Middletown Community Foundation Grants
I am pleased to announce that the City of Middletown was the recipient of three generous grants from the Middletown Community Foundation. We were awarded a $2000 grant for flagpoles at Governor’s Square, a $20,000 grant to fix the Carillon Bells (this grant was applied for by the Casper Law firm on our behalf) and a $20,000 grant for playground equipment at Goldman Park. We are so fortunate to have the Community Foundation as a partner on our community projects!
Middletown Regional Airport
Royal Air, an Air Cargo operation has donated a Falcon-20 Business Jet to the Safety Department of Middletown Regional Airport. It will be used for Fire and K-9 training. It is the second aircraft to be donated in the last year. Also, the Middletown Aviation Club has donated a semi-trailer to the K-9 Division of the Police Department for storage of equipment and supplies. Over the past year, over $100,000 worth of equipment and training has been donated to the Safety Department of Middletown Regional Airport.
80 City Planners Converge on Middletown to create passenger rail plan
The Middletown Planning Department hosted the World Town Planning Day Charrette event on November 6. Each year the Ohio Planning Conference sponsors the event that highlights a local planning issue of interest. This year’s event focused on the 3C Passenger Rail project and associated local planning design issues. The group of about 80 city planning professionals and students prepared plans that identified potential land uses surrounding the train station, connecting the station with the core of downtown and surrounding communities, and the actual design of the proposed transit station. The full day event produced many innovative ideas that will be integrated into a final plan which will be prepared by Miami University Urban Design Students.
Bike Path Open
The newest 2 mile extension of our bike path is now open! We will be having a ribbon cutting ceremony in the next couple of weeks and will so advise city council.
Upcoming Events
November 10 Board of Health meeting, 7:30 a.m., City Building, Conference Room 2C
November 11 Veterans Day Memorial Service 11:00am
Lunch @ American Legion Post 218, Noon, 116 S. Main Street
November 14 Middletown Middie Football- playing Anderson 2:30 p.m. @ Nippert Stadium(Cincinnati)
November 17 City Council Meeting 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers
November 18 Chamber of Commerce Economic Forecast luncheon, Noon –1:30, Chamber of Commerce, $25 Chamber members (Council Members, please advise Betsy if you plan to attend)
November 18 Tree Commission meeting is at Noon, Levy Hall Room 105 Miami University Middletown 4200 E. University Blvd.
November 26 Thanksgiving Holiday- City Building Closed
November 27 Light Up Middletown Opening at Smith Park
Links for additional information:
City Manager’s Weekly Update: www.cityofmiddletown.org
Middletown Community Calendar: http://www.calendarwiz.com/middletowncalendar (copy and paste in your web browser)
Pothole Patrol: www.cityofmiddletown.org or call 727-3691 (Option 2)
Have a great week! Judy
