Thompson Creek Homeowner’s Association Annual Meeting
April 16, 2019
Trinity United Methodist Church
President Kevin Abel brought the meeting to a start at 7:03 pm
Thirty residents were present including the board members.
Speakers were present from City of Lincoln Transportation and Utilities
Mark-Construction Engineer
Randy-Project Manager for Pine Lake project
Thomas Shafer-Engineering Service Manager/Project Delivery
A list of city-wide construction projects was available as handouts for the residents. Linda Becker had told them when she called to schedule that the group wants to know about the Pine Lake Road project and the plans for construction on 56th between Pine Lake and Yankee Hill, and the Yankee Hill and 56th intersection. The roundabout at 70th and Yankee hill is done. On Pine Lake Road, 70th will be open between 70th and 66th, at least one lane. From the fire station to the east is done. It was planned to be a two-stage project. There is a great deal of drainage that had to be handled. They are upgrading culverts that go under the new road and roundabout at Blanchard. Trails are planned, but there is a great deal of grading and railroad crossing areas near Pine Lake Road to deal with. Completion is planned for the fall provided there is no more snow or a great deal of rain.
The intersection of 56th and Yankee Hill has planned improvements. This area has had continued capacity and safety issues. A roundabout has been proposed. The environmental document got improved by the federal government, so now it moves on to the design phase. Construction is scheduled for 2022.
A question came up about widening 56th Street between Thompson Creek Blvd. and Yankee Hill. It is proposed for 2020 but has not been approved for widening. Instead it will get new asphalt. Every five years they rank important road projects in the city. There are over 70 miles of road to be ranked. They have to be fiscally responsible. This area on South 56th does not rank high enough to be funded. The sales tax increase may not help this area either because it will be used to improve existing streets. These improvements to 56th Street will be the same time Yankee Hill is closed to eliminate the inconvenience for residents.
Residents had the opportunity to look at the giant map and ask questions.
Lincoln Fire and Rescue—Pat/Assistant Chief
Lincoln Police Department–Mike Woolman
This new station on Pine Lake is a major collaboration of the two departments. It has been planned from the start for the station to be completed before the road improvements were done. The station is almost complete. LPD and LFR worked closely with the City of Lincoln Transportation and Utilities team to complete the road so that the new site could move in on time. They started with the roundabout at 70th Street first just for this reason so that 66th to 70th would be open when the station opened.
This is a full Lincoln Police Department substation and the first of its kind to collaborate with a local fire department. The next closest joint station is located in Kansas City. It will save time and money to the two departments.
Mike Woolman is the Southeast Lincoln team captain for LPD. The Southeast region runs south of O Street and east of 27th up to 14th and Pine Lake. He lives out east of here and knows the response time out here is really long. There is himself and 7 sergeants who will be stationed here with fifty officers total. This new location is a full-service station just like the ones on 48th and Leighton and 27th and Holdrege. It includes all offices, joint training room, evidence lockers, and a crime scene. Both agencies will share spaces such as the main lobby, training area, and fitness room. They think response times in this area will improve. Officers are excited to open the new place. There are not a lot of shared places in the country. They visited some others and stole their ideas for design. The move in date for LPD is May 16th. LPD now uses Voyager cards to gas up their cruisers at regular gas stations instead of having to get gas at the cruiser station on 7th Street. The furniture will arrive soon. There are two interview rooms. The IT techs will spend two weeks there setting up all the new technology. The front desk will be open 8 am to 4:30 pm daily. There will be an emergency phone in the lobby if someone walks in and needs help. It will call 911.
Pat from LFR said they will move in after LPD. A fire engine will be staffed with four firefighters. One of them will be a paramedic. There will be a battalion chief who will work out of that building. He will be responsible for half the city. There will be two per shift in the city, each responsible for half the city. The rest depends on when they get fire engines. Up until last year there was no line for adding fire engines. They have seventeen total, with two in reserve. They last for fifteen years and then they are sold. There was $3.5 million built into the budget for fire engines. They are being built now. The first one will arrive in November. They plan to move in the later part of the summer. The battalion chief will move in before the crew. The station is designed for the city to grow. It can house ten firefighters and even an ambulance. None of their other stations in the city allow for this. They are crowded. Pat said they are excited and grateful to the community for their vote to allow LFR to do this. There will be a ribbon cutting and open house planned with coffee and cookies for the community to see the new location after both agencies are settled.
LFR officers work 24-hour shifts starting at 7 am and get off at 7 am the next day. This facility was designed with bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms, lockers, showers, and a gym. Most staff members work one day and have two off. Lincoln has a strange schedule called a working set. They work Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and then eight days off. This schedule means they work one third of the days of the year. They work 1,000 more hours than a person working 8 am -5 pm Monday-Friday.
Question: Besides LPD, is this fire station the same as the 84th and Pioneer station?
Answer: The old station designs have a dormitory style bedroom and dormitory showers. They have been retrofitted for both sexes. These new ones have private bedrooms and private showers. There are five bathrooms intended for both sexes to use. They are made for two at a time to share.
Question: Have you been able to add new staff?
Answer: There is a nationwide shortage of paramedics. The schools are full. Lincoln has the best cardiac save rate in the country. LFR asks a lot from their people and they only take the best out of the graduating classes. There is not enough staff yet. There is a new station also being built off of 98th and O Street. It takes a full staff to open.
Question: How many total staff members will be at the new site?
Answer: There will be fifty working out of this site. There will be twenty-one marked units there. LFR will be on the front of the building. Cruisers will be on the back side of the building and their personal vehicles. LPD officers run an eight- or ten-hour shift. If they get overtime, they work fourteen hours. The team captains can pick the hours of their shifts. The next closest station is at Union College, which is a substation. The Petlock Pet Center substation will close.
The city is growing south and this station will then be more like the center as the city grows. Then the northeast team will move closer to A street.
Kevin Abel: President, took over the rest of the meeting.
Accomplishments for 2018:
- Pond landscaping-moved boulders and added steps on the north pond
- New signage on doggy stations complete-spread the word to pick up after your animals
- Pond aerators on the north pond. Electricity from the Beckers that we reimburse. More productive on the duck weed.
- More mulching at park and circles
- Extended the swing set at park
- Stumps climbing area at the park. There have been many good comments.
- The board hosted our 2nd annual community event. It was not well attended. LFR and LPD attended. There was a clown present who made balloon animals for the kids. It was a big hit. There were also prizes for guessing how many items were in a jar. This year, the board plans to change things up and schedule something new for 4th of July.
- Repaired a culvert at the north pond. Property owners will not have so much damage the to their property.
Plans for 2019: See budget handout.
- Same as last year in general. All the extra funds are gone. We had to dip into the emergency fund to take care of the culvert on the north pond. Bring up your questions to any board member.
- Get electricity installed on the south pond to run the aerator equipment
- Pond treatments for the weeds at the south pond. We plan to be more responsive this year.
- New lighting for our park sign.
- More sustainable plants in our circles and getting bids for landscapers. The south pond gets overrun with large weeds. We want to have a plan.
- 4th of July event for the community
Questions: Can we install speed bumps on Thompson Creek Blvd? A child excited to get to the park may be hit soon. Some drivers go 45 mph or more.
Answer: We understand and have reached out to the city. If there are reports, they will be more likely to do something. The incline of the street will not allow us to add speed bumps there. We encourage you to make your reports to LPD so the speeding complaints are documented. There are other speed deterrents that we can investigate. These are numbers that make a difference for other options to deter speed.
Linda Becker said to write letters to Lincoln Parks and Rec requesting to have the bike path extended across highway two and into Pine Lake Blvd. This area is their responsibility to continue the path from 56th where the trail leaves off.
We are still working on contacting city officials about the silt project that moved into the pond. Nick is working on this project. We are still trying to determine what is the cost to remove the silt from the pond? What is the damage? The report that was provided last year gave a bunch of data, but it has not been analyzed.
New Board Member Nominations:
Three members will be leaving the board this year. They are Amy Dusenbery, Linda Becker, and Tara Johnson. It is sometimes a thankless job. Thanks for your three years of service.
We would now like to request volunteers for the board to fill these positions. There are two-hour meetings every other month and special projects as they come up.
The first nomination was Brandi Chandler. The nomination was seconded.
Richard Becker volunteered. It was seconded.
Linda said her husband, Tom Becker, will volunteer. He had to stay home and babysit the grandkids so she could come.
It was seconded.
There are eight people on the board total. All members agreed and there were none opposed.
Reminder to Residents:
Garage sales are scheduled the last weekend in May. It will be the weekend after Memorial Day on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We plan on getting new signs for the entrances to the neighborhood.
Other comments about the neighborhood:
New commercial businesses are growing in our area. All residential lots are sold.
Prizes: Door prizes were given that were donated by local businesses
Zipline beer hall—glass from zipline and 3 pints of beer went to Lynn Koepke
Local beer hall—gift card went to Dick Ripley
Meeting was adjourned at 8:14 pm.
Thompson Creek 