February 2025 Community Meeting

1. Matt Rescott, Chief of Forestry
   Overview of what division does – 40 people, recreation & parks, Camp Smallwood, natural areas management, park forests, street trees.
   —Camp Smallwood re-opening and getting things cleaned up from fire.
   —Tree Baltimore program.
   —Tree planting initiative.

   Overview of 311 System for Tree Issues
   4 service request types – 1) tree inspection for non-urgent work – urban foresters assigned to zip code, 2) Fallen Limb, 3) Hanging Limb, 4) Downed Tree.  Urgent work has SLA to be addressed within 24 hour

   SLA for Tree Inspection request is 30 days to do the inspection.  Backlog for routine maintenance work is 8-months. Working on providing more effective communication to 311 requests.  An immediate close of service request is usually because the request is a duplicate – you can call 311 to find out the reason a request is closed.

   Tree planting program – department can do individual or multiple street tree planting.

   Tree Keepers – free class and certification, registration open now for spring.  All things tree related, planting, maintenance, pruning, etc.

   Open tree pits – set up walkthrough to talk through specific situations. Coordinate thru Matt.

   2,500 open stump work orders.  Coordinate with Matt afterwards to do a neighborhood mass cleanup.

   Tree damaging sidewalk is a DOT request – DOT will coordinate with Forestry, as necessary.  Sidewalk backlog is currently about 8-10 years.

   Forestry is currently operating in reactive mode and department is not doing proactive maintenance.  Would like to start a 5-7 year cycle to maintain neighborhoods, but able to do this yet with current resources.

   President to contact Matt for a walkthrough – email president at president@ridgelysdelight.org  to be part of walk through.
    

2. RDA Committees – to formalize: Define & purpose, and propose for an official vote of support from the community.
   1. Membership (Bill R) – couldn’t find definition in by-laws; Nicole & Bill defined subcommittee, comments to redefine. In bylaws definition was deleted, but committee still exists.  Comment by Farzana to meet on bylaws
      Motion by to table discussion surrounding membership committee only to be discussed by the bylaws committee, and not by the community. Motion was seconded and community voted in favor. President abstained from voting.

      Parking (Gerri Salley) – to deal with issues regarding parking and initiatives from the city that would impact the neighborhood. To deal with parking issues that members may have.   Motion to accept committee, was seconded, and community voted in favor.  President abstained from voting.

      Maintenance/Beautification (Julia Dumont). – committee to work on projects to improve visual appearance of neighborhood. Motion to accept committee, was seconded, and community voted in favor.  President abstained from voting

      Safety Committee (Linda Smith) – liaison to Baltimore City Police – looking to safety in neighborhood.  Cop walk.  Also go to Southern district meeting. Motion to accept committee, was seconded, and community voted in favor.  President abstained from voting.

      2025 Budget (Finance committee will propose for community vote)
      Finance committee formed.  Big items – National Night Out.  Publishing budget online going forward.  Can’t vote on until budget is passed out.  Motion to delay discussion on budget, was seconded, and approved by community.

      Motion to make sure that online and printed copies are in line with each other.  Before the meeting. Motion was seconded, and community voted to approve.  President abstained from voting.

      Budget will be posted on community website.
       

3. Update/Reminder on Submitting Proposal for $10,000 community award
   Representative from  Phylicia Porters office was in attendance.  Nicole probably announced too quickly and got started too quickly

   Preliminary review committee was proposed but it was a barrier causing confusion.  Decision was made to not have a committee and to present proposals directly to the community.  Proposal form is on website, in newsletter, and copies are available at this meeting. We want to hear your ideas.  Deadline is currently March 5th.

   Representative from Phylicia Porter’s office confirmed that the grant is for community to decide how to ue – no stipulations.  Approved by mayor & council for neighborhood to decide how to spend.

   President passed out hard copies of the proposal form.

   Motion that the grant be distributed via the community voting for proposals submitted by community members.  Motion was seconded, and community voted to approve.  President abstained from voting.

   Discussion about due date and that no information has been distributed in paper community newsletters to date.  Motion that the paper proposal form goes out in March newsletter, and to approve the spending of funds to distribute the form as well as the newsletter. Deadline will be moved to April community meeting. Motion was seconded, and community approved.

4.   Public Comment
   Discussion about form for the community award.  Form should be completed as thoroughly as possible, and community can potentially help with collecting additional information, if needed.

   Question about how proposals will be voted on – would rank choice voting be used?  More discussion is needed about this point – president to organize further discussion.

   Discussion to reinstate the bylaws committee to review the bylaws and proposed amendments to the bylaws to make them consistent.

   Parliamentarian stated that committee including the previous President made updates bylaws.  But there are discrepancies.  Parliamentarian has revisited the bylaws, and its his responsibility to review the documentation from last vote, and to see where we are.  At that point, he will want help to fix what is found.  A group would be formed to do this

   It was stated that we need to start the annual review of bylaws as required by the bylaws.

   Motion was made to have Parliamentarian present a work plan or timeline to get back on track with the annual review of bylaws at the next community meeting, and to delay the formation of the bylaws committee for a month.  Motion was seconded, and community voted to approve.  President abstained from voting.

   Parliamentarian read section from bylaws about role of Parliamentarian.

   Sharon Reuter presented opportunity for a rat eradication project.  Project would need to be presented to community association for review and potential approval

Attendees: 

Farzana Muhib
Julia Dumont
Nicole Dungee
Si Saulynas
Linda Smith
Whitney Adell
Nikki Fowlken
Celine Brundridge
Dana Coyne
Chuck Dohrman
Michael Dumont
Cara Felter
Jason Falvey
Adam Weingast
James Wright
Tania Robalino
Sharon Reuter
Paul Rubenson
Adebowale “Shola” Ajayi
Gerri Salley
Kate Leitkowski
Syrus Ravazi
Deb Oneill
Sandy Anderson
Billy Hufnell