Another Letter to the Chief, and a Response

Another letter to the Frederick Police Chief (italics as in original):

Dear Chief Dine -

My name is Kim Madden, residing for the last twenty-two years at 405 Magnolia Avenue. Like Mr. Muldowney and many of my neighbors, I attended the recent Presidential Breakfast at Hood College. It was reminiscent of other meetings I have attended over these many years. I attended a NAC meeting some time ago regarding most of these same associated issues with traffic, parking, and Hood College. Several of my neighbors also attended that meeting, as did some representatives from Hood College. Many thoughts and ideas for improving the troubled situation were brought out that evening. Absolutely nothing changed or improved as a result of that meeting. The public position of the College then, and now, is that our issues with parking, traffic flow, speeding, littering, and so forth are areas to take up with the City of Frederick. The problems of two years ago, were the problems of two years before that, and are the exact same problems we face today with one notable difference - they are much, much worse.

You mentioned that you meet regularly with citizens during monthly meetings. When is the next meeting for our area? Does it require special planning or notification? What can we do to set up a date for the Hood Neighbors to address the appropriate entities with their concerns? Who can we direct our questions to? Who can guide us through the options of traffic calming, stop signs or other traffic signals, curb painting, residential parking designation and permits etc.?

I will look forward to your response.

Sincerely

Kim Madden for Hood Neighbors

hood-neighbors@comcast.net

405 Magnolia Avenue

Frederick, MD 21701

And here's the Police Chief's response:

Dear Kim:

Thanks for your response and thanks for taking the time to express your (continued) concerns. I am now more sorry than ever that I was unable to attend the breakfast. In any case, I do recall the meeting of last year as well. What I think potentially occurred since then is that the City Traffic Engineer who attended that meeting left employment with the City and I fear much of what was discussed perhaps was not fully passed on. In any case, that is the past and we (the City, all of its agencies and all stakeholders) certainly look forward to working with all parties to try and improve the situation.

As you noted, we (the City not just the PD) meet monthly with each Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC). All the information regarding the NAC process is on the City Website, including time,location, etc. The area we are talking about I believe is included in Neighborhood Advisory Council 6 and Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) 9, which now meet together at the Talley Recreation Center at Baker Park. The next meeting is October 15th at 7 pm. By way of this email, I am copying Ms. Stephanie Ambush, who is in charge of Citizen Outreach for the City. Ms. Ambush can request that someone from the Planning and Traffic Department be there to hear and discuss your concerns. Ms. Kelly Russell is the citizen volunteer who oversees this meeting from the citizen end of things. She is the coordinator for NAC 9. I am also copying Ms. Russell. This is the type of meeting where you can pose the quest ions you raised in your email and begin to get answers. Obviously this is a problem solving process and depending on the issue can take time, but over and over again we have found it to be productive on many fronts. Due to the intensity and complexity of this issue, it may well be that a separate meeting with residents and officials from the College may help, similar to the meetings held in the past.

Thanks again for contacting me. I hope this information is helpful.

KCD

Kim C. Dine
Chief of Police
Frederick Police Department
Frederick, Maryland
100 West Patrick Street
Frederick, Maryland, 21701

www.cityoffrederick.com/police
telephone:301-600-2106
email:kdine@fredco-md.net
facsimile: 301-600-2720