SNA General Meeting Minutes -Approved
March 10th 2011 7pm
Board members in Attendance: Gina Binole, Bill Stites, Paul Loney, Heather Wilson, Jane Pullman, Tim Brooks
Excused Absence: Reuben Deumling, Michele Gila
Unexcused Absence: Chuck Lawrence
Guests & Neighbors: Heidi McNamee, Mary Ann Schwab, Karen Hery, Meg Hartley, Chad Kula, Valerie Strickland, Kevin Scaldeferi, Lee Hartley, Jeff Cole, Rachel Voorhies, Maryann Hollman
Gina Binole filling in as secretary.
Approve agenda, circulate Feb. minutes, Agenda & Feb. minutes approved as submitted. Mary Ann and Tim abstain.
1— (went ahead due to scheduling) Officer Gilbert reports on crime stats for the last month: Sunnyside neighborhood had 18 car prowls. 18 is a lot for 30 days. Just a reminder that cars don’t get broken into if nothing is seen. Keep them clean, visible. The break ins are telling him people are leaving stuff in the car, i.e. gym bag, crooks are hoping for a laptop. You can’t leave anything in there. Lots of burglaries in the Laurelhurst area but not Sunnyside.
2 — SES Rainwater Catchment project – Heidi McNamee—Umpqua Bank has moved into the neighborhood recently and are offering up a Build Your Block grant possibility. Umpqua selects their favorite top 3 and then community members get to go into the bank and vote for your favorite. You can check out the Umpqua Hawthorne FB page and see their other projects. Heidi says this is an opportunity to raise $10,000 for a really cool thing, a rainwater harvesting project at our school, so it consists of a cistern, 2500 gallons,, located on the school garden property on the West side of the school, near Taylor and 34th to use the water to irrigate our gardens in the dry season. This is in process. Parent at the school who does rainwater catchment projects, most recently at a Gresham school. Lead on someone who does drip irrigation as a profession who will look over our project. Another parent who is a PSU student who will be point person for the neighborhood piece. In addition to catching water for the school, there would be a big community party, teaching neighborhoods how to build a rain barrel party, cost of the barrels would be subsidized by this grant. Heidi wants the SNA to know about this project because the neighborhood does great sustainability work. If it’s something the board could be excited about, we could work together on the community catchment project, or we would take individual support as well, depending on the level of support.
Mary Ann Schwab asked about the deadline for the grant applications.
Jane was curious about the timeline for implementation, when we find out about the money. Heidi says the school would love to build it in spring. The benefit to the school is that it would use less water to irrigate the gardens. Would love to work with the neighborhood on signage, educational outreach. School is trying to find ways to reach out.
Jane thinks the sustainability community would be interested in promoting water conservation and collection. Heidi invites the SNA to join SES. Says it’s not a very big, hairy commitment. Voting in April on which project gets the final funding. Paul suggested we let folks know about the project, when voting begins at the bank via our Web site, social media.
3—Friends of Trees & Planter strip width limitations – Jeff Cole provides his opinion, not an official Friends of Trees presentation – His main point is that there are areas throughout the Sunnyside neighborhood that have strips that are less than 2.5 feet or no planting strips at all.
As a result, most of the 2011 plantings took place on the Western side of Sunnyside. Homeowners sometimes choose to plant their own trees. The problem is that they may choose inappropriate varieties to the strip, causing sidewalk damage, or the tree might fail to grow.
You can get a sidewalk up to 5 feet by cutting a well, you can increase your planting dimension. Code allows for this, but applies only to existing trees. In terms of ADA requirements, the minimum width is 5 feet.
Bill motions that the SNA draft a letter in support of the ideas Jeff brought before us to allow new trees where there are narrow easements. Jane seconds. Motion approved.
Board agreed to try and plug this support/action via social media. Jane says there was an article about this issue in the most recent of the SE examiner. Jeff also will write for the April newsletter.
4—Should the SNA continue its support the Mt. Tabor Concert sponsorship? Will report that the board and general meeting consensus that we still support this family-friendly event that appeals to a variety of musical tastes.
5—Committee Reports:
Sustainability — Emergency Preparedness kit updates. Jane says that the committee received an invitation from the Red Cross to do some Emergency Preparedness education, and we’ve just begun to communicate amongst ourselves about that. At this point, we are making every effort to prepare ourselves and prepare for an earthquake.
Land Use and Transportation – Last month, didn’t have a meeting bc it was on Valentine’s Day. Not a whole lot of land use applications. Not a whole lot of activity, no progress to report on the Good Neighbor Agreement. Mary Ann discusses her hope for passage of state bills that pertain to saturation of liquor establishments, how many are too many. Karen Hery inquired about news of PGE substation.
Crime Prevention – No report
SE Uplift – No report
6—Announcements—Karen Hery spoke about the Sunnyside Exchange and Spring Clean Up, wondering about the newsletter deadline. Neighborhood clean up going per usual, but also will be materials we haven’t picked up in the past, like Styrofoam.
Rachel Voorhees on Dosha Hawthorne – the employees are trying to unionize. We have a FB page called Dosha Workers Unite. Just want to let you know we are trying to do this, trying to make the company strive and make it better. Dosha currently employs 250 people and have been locally owned and sustained for 5 years.
Blair Community Garden Opening Day is Saturday march 26. It has taken 5 years since we won the decision to get a formal garden and dedicated space for it. Actual celebration will be from 11 to noon. Work party between 9-11. Just south of Stark on 33rd.
7. Meeting adjourned.