In response to recent accidents at the intersection of Lafayette and Clifton, this week, Vice Mayor Mann introduced the attached motion in Council asking the City to conduct a review and report on the safety of Clifton & Lafayette. The motion passed and the City will provide the report shortly.
CTM Trustee Nominations for 2017
We are seeking candidates to run for Trustee positions during the 12/5/2016 meeting of the Clifton Town Meeting (CTM) Board. If you think you might enjoy serving as a Trustee, please email contactctm@cliftoncommunity.org by October 21st.
UPDATE on Nov 11 — Click here to see the bios of all the candidates for Trustee.
CTM is Clifton’s neighborhood community council. As such, CTM seeks to understand the interests of Clifton residents and to represent those interests with the City of Cincinnati. In addition, CTM supports a wide range of events and projects that help make Clifton a great place to live, work and play. Examples include: Holidays on Ludlow, the Memorial Day Parade, CliftonFest, the Clifton House Tour, and the restoration of the Probasco Fountain.
As a Trustee, you will share your voice and skills regarding community events, beautification projects, and issues related to education, safety, transportation, business development, and housing and zoning. You will also have the opportunity to collaborate with other organizations such as Uptown Consortium, CCAC, TriHealth, CPBA, Ludlow 21, and Clifton Community Fund.
Trustee Expectations:
- Serve a 3 year term
- Attend and participate in monthly CTM meetings
- Serve on at least one CTM committee
- Be informed about issues that affect Clifton
If you are interested in becoming a CTM Trustee, please email contactctm@cliftoncommunity.org no later than October 21st.
- Provide a telephone number if possible. We will email you more information, but would also like to call you to answer any questions you may have.
- You must have a current CTM Membership at the time of the election. Memberships are available to Clifton residents, Clifton property owners, and operators of businesses in Clifton. For more information about CTM Membership, see http://www.cliftoncommunity.org/products-page/membership/
- Before the election, you must submit a biographical summary of 200 words or less so that voters can learn about you. We will email you examples from past elections.
- Please submit your bio by 10/28/2016 so that we can include it in the next Clifton Chronicle newsletter. If that is too soon for you, we will accept bio’s as late as 11/04/2016.
If you’d like to join our energetic, committed committed group of CTM Trustees, please contact us soon.
Clifton Deer Round Two Coming Soon!
Clifton Deer Round Two Coming Soon!
It’s Fall, a time of crisp cool air, leaves turning colors, bringing in the porch furniture, and fencing off the small trees to protect them from rambunctious rutting bucks! To folks working on the Clifton deer project, it means gearing up for the second round of deer sterilizations.
Soon volunteers will be leafleting property owners inside the study area (bordered by Clifton Ave, Ludlow, and I-75), setting up and tending bait stations, readying the field surgical facility, and, of course, asking for donations!
This Fall (2016), we hope to treat last year’s female fawns, the does missed last year, and any new immigrants, with a goal of reaching at least 95% of all does in the study area. Teams of wildlife biologists, veterinarians, and volunteers will again work long nights, hoping this year to finish in just three days. Once again, The Humane Society of the United States will be participating in our field operations.
Field operations will be followed by a two week field camera population survey. Close examination of literally thousands of pictures from strategically located cameras will enable our consulting wildlife biologist to estimate with high reliability how many deer are in the study area and, most importantly, how many have immigrated into it over the past year. Thus, the project will have its first empirical data to begin to answer the all-important question of how effective fertility control can be in managing deer populations in open settings like ours. Fingers and toes are crossed!
Again, the capture process will occur at night when deer are active and humans are less so. Like last year, all operations will be coordinated closely with the Cincinnati police. Flyers will be left at houses within the study area providing the dates of the operations and names and phone numbers, including CPD’s, for residents with questions or concerns that might arise before or during the sterilization operations.
Last year went very smoothly and we anticipate this year will also. As previously reported, last year’s field observations, confirmed by the camera survey, showed almost twice as many deer as estimated based on the Parks aerial infrared surveys, making this second year more expensive than originally planned – although our costs are still about 25% lower than last year’s. Right now, the project needs about $15,000 more to meet its Year 2 budget. Grant applications are pending with three foundations, but individual donations remain an important source of our funding.
Thanks to a generous $5,000 challenge grant from The Animal Welfare Institute, now is the perfect time to make your donation! Best for the project (since with no credit card processing fees, 100% goes to the budget) are checks made out to CliftonDeer.org and sent c/o Laurie Briggs, Treasurer at 724 Lafayette Ave.,
Cincinnati, OH 45220. Perhaps an easier way is to donate through our website at
http://cliftondeer.org/donations/. Every dollar you contribute is tax deductible and
goes directly to pay for our out of town wildlife biologist and veterinarian team and
for direct expenses, like corn for bait stations. There are also other “painless” ways to contribute described on that donations page, such as designating CliftonDeer.org as your charity of choice with Kroger.
The support of our friends and neighbors has been and continues to be much appreciated.
If you aren’t following us on Facebook, we invite you to do so at https://www.facebook.com/CliftonDeer.org/
The Team at CliftonDeer.org
New CTM Education Social Media Groups
The CTM Education Committee has launched a new place on Facebook. & NextDoor Clifton regarding guaranteed access to quality public education with a focus on a new neighborhood area school.
Do you live in or near the neighborhoods of Clifton, CUF, Spring Grove Village, or the zip codes 45220 / 45219? Are you are interested or supportive of access to quality education for all children potentially including a new neighborhood school? Is the current school situation confusing, or do you want more information ?
Join this group today! This group is maintained by the Clifton Town Meeting Education Committee as a way to educate and engage with the community. This group welcomes civil discussion and constructive input.
Click here for Facebook group.
Click here for NextDoor group.
The Community Councils of Clifton, CUF and Spring Grove Village agree that the Clifton Cultural Arts Center must remain in its current building. Plans and designs for a new neighborhood school will be considered only for other locations.
Joint Statement on Education & CCAC to CPS
Working Group
Clifton Town Meeting – CUF Neighborhood Association – Spring Grove Community Council – Clifton Cultural Arts Center – Fairview-Clifton German Language School Parent and Community Representatives
Joint Statement
Over the last several months, representatives from Clifton Town Meeting, CUF Neighborhood Association and the Spring Grove Village Community Council have been meeting with community partners from the Clifton Cultural Arts Center (CCAC) and parent and community representatives of the Fairview-Clifton German Language School LSDMC in an effort to develop a comprehensive, unified plan that guarantees quality school access for all residents of the three communities, ensures that Fairview-Clifton German Language School remains a highly rated school and securely maintains CCAC in their current building under the terms of the 2005 lease agreement.
Throughout the past six months our joint goal has been to identify a solution that addresses both the needs of the District and communities and creates a win for all parties. After many weeks and hours of discussion, we have agreed upon a collaborative, inclusive approach that we believe meets that goal:
- Expand classroom space on Fairview’s current location to cover a 3-year increase in kindergarten magnet enrollment with a build-out of the current building and the temporary use of modular classrooms during the build-out;
- Commit and allocate necessary physical, financial and staff resources to ensure that all students at Fairview continue to receive a quality education;
- Scale back enrollment to the pre-expansion level of 100-125 kindergarten magnet students after three years;
- Keep CCAC in the 1906 building under the current lease agreement without possibility of termination until the completion of the lease period, and/or CPS to offer CCAC the option to purchase the property;
- State on all print and electronic documents produced by CTM, CUF or Spring Grove Community Councils that, “The Community Councils of Clifton, CUF and Spring Grove Village agree that the Clifton Cultural Arts Center must remain in its current building. Plans and designs for a new neighborhood school will be considered only for other locations”;
- Begin a neighborhood school based on an informed community engagement process, for the 2018-19 school year at a temporary location with one grade level, adding another grade level each subsequent year;
- Create a neighborhood school to a suitable size that accommodates the demand of the neighborhoods. Possible sites include: Fairview expansion build-out, Hughes High School Annex or the former Fairview School Annex.
Click here to see the signed version of the Joint Statement of Spring Grove Village, CUF and Clifton
=== PRESS RELEASE ===
Cincinnati – Representatives from Clifton Town Meeting (CTM), CUF (Clifton Heights-University Heights-Fairview) Neighborhood Association and the Spring Grove Village Community Council (SGV), along with community partners from the Clifton Cultural Arts Center (CCAC) and parent and community representatives of the Fairview-Clifton German Language School Local School Decision Making Committee (LSDMC) will hold a press conference on Monday, August 22, at 5:30 pm at the Cincinnati Public Schools Education Center at 2651 Burnet Avenue in Corryville to release a Joint Statement.
The Joint Statement is the result of months of weekly meetings between these community stakeholder groups who are all deeply engaged and invested in the education, diversity, vibrancy, inclusion, and cohesiveness of our neighborhoods and community institutions.
The solutions presented in the Joint Statement convey the priorities of the communities:
• access to quality education for all children potentially including a new neighborhood school;
• preservation of the high level of educational quality at Fairview-Clifton German Language School in the face of pressure to expand;
• safeguarding of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, an essential community asset, in its current location.
The collective group, commonly known as the “Working Group,” reflects the interests of thousands of our city’s children, parents, and residents. In early 2016, the Working Group began meeting to address urgent community issues: the challenge of overcrowding at Fairview Clifton German Language School, the threat of losing CCAC, our cultural center and a valued educational partner for CPS schools, including Fairview, and improved access to quality public education for residents of Clifton, CUF and Spring Grove Village.
Members of the Working Group, joined by dozens of community members, are asking to work collaboratively with the CPS Board of Education and Administration to determine the details and specifics of a practical, long-term strategy, which addresses all of the concerns listed in the Joint Statement. “Stakeholders from many different groups and three distinct neighborhoods have come together and worked hard to develop the comprehensive solution embodied in this Joint Statement,” said Clifton Town Meeting Vice President Malcolm Montgomery. “We believe that together with CPS we can give these children a great education and preserve the cultural center of our neighborhoods and beyond.”
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