Past Events

Neighborhood Meeting: October 19, 2014

About 15 neighbors attended the meeting at North Regional Library --- thanks to everyone who attended and shared their ideas.

BARKING DOGS

    • We talked about dogs in the neighborhood, especially barking dogs that can become a nuisance. We discussed talking with your neighbors first in hopes of resolving problems before calling the police. One neighbor shared his experiences with trying to work with his neighbor and having to call the police because of continuously barking dogs. The city noise ordinance is somewhat vague, but after consulting with the police, they advised us that the District Attorney would consider prosecuting a case involving a dog outside continuously barking for multiple hours, a dog outside barking over night, or a dog barking for a long time very late at night.
  • One suggestion is to create a one page flyer with advice on caring for your dog and a reminder of the city noise ordinance. This could be a useful guide when talking with your neighbors.

WALKING, JOGGING, RUNNING

    • A few of the attendees like to walk, jog and run in the neighborhood. If you are interested in finding neighbors to walk/run with, send an email to the neighborhood listserv.

HALLOWEEN TRICK-OR-TREATING

    • In past years we have made a neighborhood map marking the houses participating in Halloween Trick-or-Treating. This makes it easier for kids to find houses. If you would like to be on a map this year, reply to the email listserv or email Tom Buhrman (buhrman@gmail.com)

WEBSITE CHANGES

    • The neighborhood website is www.lochavenhills.org
    • We could add a web page to list all the houses for sale in the neighborhood. Would people like to do this?
    • The website currently lists neighborhood businesses.
    • The website currently links to some city resources, but we may add crime data into the website to make it easier for neighbors to find this information.
    • If you want to list your business or a house for sale, or if you want to help with editing the website, please email Tom Buhrman (buhrman@gmail.com)

MEETINGS & EVENTS

    • The attendees like having a neighborhood meeting, and we would like to have meetings more often as a way to increase participation -- possibly 4 meetings/events per year (2 Library meetings, 1 Yard Sale, and 1 Block Party). Meeting and knowing your neighbors will lead to more understanding and hopefully fewer conflicts. Meetings should be scheduled on different times and days to accommodate the different schedules that neighbors have. The next meeting will be in February, most likely at the North Regional Library. Future meetings could be in the neighborhood (example: bringing chairs to a neighbor's driveway).

NEWSLETTER

    • We will make a neighborhood newsletter to distribute this December. The newsletter will share information, contain a few feature articles, and announce the next neighborhood meeting in hopes of increasing meeting participation. Carol Murphy and Tom Buhrman volunteered to make the newsletter, and there is room for more volunteers. Contact Tom Buhrman (buhrman@gmail) if you would like to help.

Yard Sale: May 19, 2012

    • 12 homes and 1 cookie/drink stand participated in the yard sale.
    • There was a good crowd of buyers, and the sellers were pleased with the turnout.

Dessert Potluck: May 14, 2012

  • Therese and Britt Hayes hosted the dessert potluck, and we had a good crowd of neighbors bringing food and socializing.
  • Click the photos below to view larger sizes.

Neighborhood Meeting: April 1, 2012

    • Selected dates for Yard Sale. Decided to create online poll to pick final date. Two people volunteered to help.
    • Talked about having a social gathering before the yard sale.
    • Talked about recent fire in the West Point park and fire in neighborhood sparked from transformer.
    • Reminded neighbors to call 911 if you see/hear anything that looks wrong.
    • Met new neighbor (Nate Brown) with many technical skills. He is willing to help neighbors and can be contacted via the listserv.
    • 12 people attended meeting.

Neighborhood Meeting: December 4, 2011

On December 4, 2011, 17 neighbors met at the North Branch Library. Topics discussed:

    • NATURAL GAS: most neighbors do not have access to natural gas via PSNC, but some neighbors next to Latta Road do. More neighbors would use natural gas if it was available. In January 2012 PSNC may send out a letter to all residents to gauge interest. Some neighbors are willing to go door-to-door to talk about the advantages of using natural gas and hope their efforts will spur enough interest that PSNC will decide to make the service available to the whole neighborhood. If you are interested in using natural gas or going door to door to spread the word, email the listserv to contact others to organize.
    • ENTRANCE: the lower neighborhood entrance is darker than normal at night and difficult to see. A street light is out, and Duke Energy has been contacted. In addition to fixing the street light, other ideas were mentioned: (a) add reflectors and/or (b) install flood lights to illuminate the stone walls. No decision was made on what to do beyond fixing the street light.
    • SPEEDING: speeding is a problem on Lochaven Drive. A repeat speeder has been observed. Speed bumps were mentioned as an idea, but no consensus was reached on how to reduce speeding.
    • PAVING STREETS: some but not all neighborhood streets have been paved in the past few years. Neighbors would like to know when remaining streets will be paved. According to the Durham paving website, 3 streets will be paved in the 2012 summer: parts of Kinlock, all of Wanda Ridge, and parts of Wildwood. Website: http://www.durhamnc.gov/bond2010/
    • TRAIL: as part of the effort to cut away trees near power lines, several trees were cut down along the hiking trail starting at the Wildwood/Stillview intersection. The trail is difficult to use now with several downed trees along the way. There is some interest in organizing a work day to clear the trail. Email the listserv if you are interested in helping.
    • YARD SALE: we would like to have a neighborhood-wide yard sale this spring. Merritt Gammage and Cheryl Klein volunteered to help organize. They welcome other volunteers to contact them via the listserv.
    • DOGS: one neighbor talked about the problem he had with a pack of dogs repeatedly coming into his yard and acting aggressively. His son was injured by a dog and required medical care. The dogs have not been coming into his yard recently, but we reminded neighbors that we need to be responsible for our pets. Durham County Leash Law: "It shall be unlawful for any person owning, keeping, possessing or maintaining a dog in this county to intentionally or negligently allow the dog to run at large." website: http://library.municode.com/HTML/12650/level2/COOR_CH4AN.html
    • RETROFIT: multiple houses had their insulation and energy efficiency improved with the city sponsored program. Most work was completed, but some houses still need finishing. The work should be completed next year when a new contractor is hired by the city.
    • NEXT MEETING: the next meeting will be in February or March of 2012. People liked meeting at the North Branch Library, and attendees also liked the time (Sunday from 2:00-4:00pm).

National Night Out: August 3, 2010

National Night Out: August 4, 2009

Neighborhood Yard Sale: April 19, 2009

Neighborhood Meeting: February 17, 2009

Plan spring yard sale and web site

  • Three neighbors volunteered to organize yard sale, Tara Edwards, Katherine Walker and Ann Baker.
  • We discussed setting the yard sale date as April 18 and collecting a $5 fee per participant. This is to be used for advertising, materials for “yard sale map” and plantings for each entrance to the neighborhood.
  • Each neighbor may set up their yard sale in their driveway or set up in open field adjacent to the first home on the right as you come into Lochaven Drive. This would give our yard sale visibility from Latta Rd. This is also pending discussion and approval from the property owner.
  • We discussed printing maps of the neighborhood to indicate locations of yard sales.
  • Action item: Discuss use of open field with property owner.

Web site ideas

  • Listing of police and city services
  • Non-emergency number
  • Baby sitters within neighborhood
  • Businesses within neighborhhod
  • PDF file for COP (Citizens Observation Patrol) form – I checked with the COP at the training workshop and they do not want their form on anyone’s website

Neighborhood work Days and Keep Durham Beautiful

  • The last Saturday of each month will be designated as neighborhood clean up days. Saturday, 2/28 meet at the Kinloch entrance at 2 pm.
  • Josie mentioned in an email that KDB offers grants of up to $500 for neighborhood beautification. I was wondering if we might qualify so we could do plantings at each entrance to the neighborhood. Josie will check.
  • It was also discussed having a plant exchange for plantings at the entrances. In addition to having plantings, a suggestion was made to investigate planting flowering trees along Latta Rd, possibly checking with the Arbor Foundation on this.
  • We also discussed having a Latta Rd cleanup.

Discuss ideas for neighborhood group

  • Attendance at this meeting was low so not a lot of discussion on this. We need to continue to bring up at subsequent meetings.
  • We did discuss having someone from COP do a presentation at a future meeting.
  • PAC2 meetings – there needs to be more representation from our neighborhood as this is how we keep our “watch” signs.
  • Discussed sending out listserve info to entire group or just block captains. Action item: get neighborhood members approval before sending anything out.