(06/20/24) Area 7 Meeting Report

June 20th Meeting Report
Indian Hills Urban Service District

As always, my personal thoughts, insights, or notes are stated as such and in no way reflect anyone else's thoughts or opinions other than my own. (sorry for any typos)

The area this meeting was set for was titled "Area 7" for IHCC mapping purposes, but anyone was welcome to attend.

I counted ~274 homes in this mapped area. The larges "group". Mostly homes across JFK.

There were 6 IHCC board members attending.

I counted ~15 others in attendance.
(not including 5 of us who have attended multiple meetings)

Also in attendance:
City Councilman for Ward 4, Vince Insalaco (that's our ward)

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Things I noted in the PowerPoint that were different than last time.
A Step 1 thru Step 5 plan titled “What can we do to save it”
The info was basically the same but it was nice to see it broken into different slides with different emphasis.

POLICE PRESENCE

Last night the police offer in attendance got into the face of one of the attendees, called him an “a$$hole”, and threatened to arrest him.

The attendee in question is 76 years old and maybe 5 feet tall.
He has Parkinson’s disease.
He is hard of hearing.
He also has A-Fib.

Yes, he had interrupted others.
Yes, he made a couple of (what many considered) rude statements.

BUT AT NO POINT was this 76-year-old man a threat of any kind. He had remained seated the entire time.

The police officer (a large, intimidating man) went up behind the man’s chair, loomed over him, and got directly into his face during the question and answer portion of the meeting.

It became a highly uncomfortable situation because while the officer was doing this, the Q&A session was still going on. However, it was impossible to ignore the situation happening in front of us.

Unless the police were asked to be there to moderate the event, there was NO REASON for the officer to behave this way towards a member of our community.

As the attendee in question later stated to me, “I’m just very passionate about this subject and I may be talking too loud because I can’t hear.”

***FYI – my husband and I checked on the resident this morning and he was a little shook, but is doing fine.

Board member statements I had never heard before until last night:

· The second USD for lake owners could possibly be a source of income to pay for those in Indian Hills who find the $8.50 a hardship to pay.

STATEMENTS & COMMENTS

• There were at least two at the meeting who were in support of the USD. (that were vocal)
  There major concerns being the home value going down if the USD fails to pass and the property becomes “public”. It was also said that while the community is older now, younger people would be moving in.
  

• There was discussion about how many children lived in Indian Hills and what the average age of residents was. I cannot be sure where the board got its data from but it seemed to align with the information Brandon Musick posted (ex-board member) on May 25th.

• There has never been a public easement around the lakes for residents to walk. Only an easement for maintenance purposes.

• Easement to the upper dam was cut off by a homeowner placing a fence. Once the fence had been in place long enough, “adverse possession” kicks in meaning the owner now owns the property. The home where this happened is now up for sale and the board hopes to renegotiate this access.

• Had the city been approached about taking over the land, not just the pool?
  The city had helped with major purchases for the pool in the st, which is why memberships outside of Indian Hills were sold.

• Had anyone reached out to Winrock, the developer? As my husband will attest, it has been impossible to find anyone associated with Winrock (the developer). Winrock Foundation is not associated.

• What about municipal bonds? Bonds come with interest and other costs. It was part of the Feb. 2023 proposal and was not well received by the neighborhood
  

• A neat idea was proposed --- the board should do a "walking tour" for residents to see what they would be getting from the USD passing.