MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 16th NOVEMBER 2011

MINUTES

NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION

HELD AT THE MALL MANAGEMENT OFFICES (1^ST FLOOR OFFICE TOWER)

ON WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2011 AT 18H00

PRESENT: Wayne Ford (Chairman); Charles Whyte; Captain Moonsamy (SAPS); Kayte Denham; Clr Marcelle Ravid; Henry Rudzinske; Debbie de Beer; Mathilde Margolis; Steve Mendelsohn; Yogan Naidoo; Margie Naidoo; Mike Kalk; Mary Caganoff; Lorna Cooper; Celeste Williams; George Kymdell; JP Hansen; Margaret Constantapas; Deleen Levy; Barry Milner; Sue Prior.

1. WELCOME

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2.  APOLOGIES

• David Spencer; Jo Marais; Helene Bell; Adele Asher; Marion Brower; David Kramer.

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

• The Minutes of the previous meeting were taken as read, and were approved.

4.  SECURITY FEEDBACK / SECTOR CRIME FORUM

• Captain Moonsamy presented the crime report. The following statistics were reported: one assault with grievous bodily harm; one house robbery (with an arrest soon after); six car thefts and four thefts out of vehicles.
• Most house robberies are inside jobs, where the burglars are let into the building by the gardeners, guards, repairmen, servants or even tenants. You therefor can’t rely on the building security alone, and you need to have security measures on your unit as well. Please also be cautious in your dealings with your various employees, as they often “get even” with their employers by facilitating a burglary.
• Almost all security guards carry personal cell-phones. It is recommended to load those numbers into your speed-dial, so that if you come home late and see a suspicious person loitering nearby, you can phone your guard and ask them to be present before you open the gate or exit your car. You can also call the police patrol van, on 071 675 6001.
• Because few buildings have safe visitors’ parking, when people have parties their visitors have to park in the street. Car thieves watch out for this, especially at this time of year, and target those cars because they know the owner is probably not going to come out anytime soon. Captain Moonsamy asked people who are having parties to notify the police van, so that the patrol van can spend a bit more time around those streets during the danger time.
• We again asked Captain Moonsamy to try to move the large police vehicle that is parked on the pavement of Mentone Court in Killarney Road – it has not moved in weeks, and it sends the wrong message to the criminals who see it in the same place every day.
• It was reported that the police patrols “chase away” the beggars at the intersections, but they quickly return. Please don’t support them, as this encourages them to keep returning.
• The Hillbrow Police Station CPF AGM will take place on 22 November, at 6pm, at the Hall at the police station. All are urged to attend and participate.
• The taxi issue outside the Mentone Court garages was discussed yet again. It was noted that the owners of the Mall are currently reluctant to let the taxis create a taxi rank on Mall property, as the taxis have a bad record for sticking to agreements and for showing consideration to other motorists or pedestrians. Next time the Mall expands their buildings they will be required by law to provide facilities for public transport as well, but we don’t know how long it will be until the next phase of expansion. The BRT feeder system we were relying on to initiate improved public transport facilities will now be delayed for a few more years (largely due to our own objections). This taxi problem is a by-law enforcement issue – only JMPD can resolve this for us. Unhappy residents are thus urged to call the JMPD every time they are affected by this, as the JMPD seems to respond to nagging. (Superintendent Mangaliso – 011 490 1684). If you are happy to suffer in silence, the government assumes you don’t really have a problem.
• Other useful JMPD numbers are:
  • Urban Management (vagrants) – 011 490 1538. Supt Adendorf.
  • Signage (illegal advertising) – 011 490 1547. Supt Raj.
  • Waste Management (illegal dumping) – 011 490 1684. Supt Jona.
  • Street trading (illegal trading) – 011 490 1744. Supt Mangaliso.
  • Land Invasion (parks) – 011 490 472 6529. Sgt Meintjies.
  • Nuisance and environmental health (loud music, barking dogs) – 082 467 9434,
  • Other By-law related – 011 490 1684. Supt Mangaliso.

5.  TRAFFIC ISSUES

• The project to improve traffic safety in 4^th Street and Main Road, is well underway. The drawings have been approved, and construction of the new speed-humps will probably be finished before the holiday shutdown (weather permitting).
• A petition has been circulated asking for a Metrobus Service in Killarney – especially now that the BRT is longer coming our way. Please pass it around to all your neighbours, and collect as many signatures as you can manage. Please note that we are now informed that an ID number is not actually required, but the name and signature are a must-have.
• Street-signs in West Street, approaching Riviera Road from the south, are obscured.

6.  ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

• City Parks have planted new trees in the 4^th Street Park. The new trees are struggling with the heat-wave – please could you assist them by carrying a bucket or similar when you visit the park, and giving the trees a bit of water?
• Hopefully they will still get around to planting new pavement trees as requested.
• Pruning of pavement and park trees has also been requested, and is “on the list”. We have emphasised to City Parks the urgency of this project, after two huge branches were snapped off recently in high winds.
• The contract has now been signed for the street-sweeping service in 1^st Street and Killarney Road. Buildings are again asked to promptly take inside the bags of litter gathered up by the PikiTup street sweepers, as these will otherwise soon be emptied out again by the scavengers.
• Lights project – Daventry Court and Beverley Heights will shortly be installing additional flood-lights in 1^st Street.
• Clr Ravid provided an SMS number to use for reporting defective street-lights. It is 32694. Please include the physical address of the pole in question.
• The project to repair all the dangerously uneven sections of pavement has been completed, on budget. They repaired 408sqm of tarred surface, and 161sqm of paved areas. This is a very valuable project, and we will do this again in the next few months when we have more money.
• It was suggested that, in future when a project such as this is underway, we should put up temporary signs saying “YOUR NKRA SUBSCRIPTIONS AT WORK”. Clr Ravid will contact the Killarney Gazette to arrange a story on this project.

7.  FINANCE AND MEMBERSHIP

• Daventry Court is re-instating their membership.
• The treasurer will be sending out invoices to all member buildings in the new year.

8.  NEW PROJECTS

Suggestions included the following:

• More pavement repairs, on areas not yet addressed;
• Planting lots of hibiscus shrubs on pavements – they are cheap but need lots of water;
• Door-to-door marketing of the NKRA.

9.  GENERAL

• Clr Ravid reported that the new development at 58 Oxford Road (next to the Gautrain emergency exit) is going through proper channels, and that the neighbours are satisfied with plans to manage the impact.
• The meeting thanked the NKRA committee, Councillor Ravid and Captain Moonsamy for their sterling efforts during the year.

The meeting was closed at 20H03, with thanks to all who attended, and with thanks to the Killarney Mall for the use of their boardroom.

Our next meeting will be held on

WEDNESDAY 18 JANUARY 2012

COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON TO ALL RESIDENTS!   HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

PLEASE PASS ON THESE MINUTES TO OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS