Category: General and Board Meeting Minutes

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 34^th 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 33^rd.

7. Meeting adjourned.

SNA BoardMeeting Minutes – Approved

Feb. 10th 2011 7pm

Board Members: Michele Gila, Chuck Lawrence, Heather Wilson, Gina Binole, Reuben Deumling, Bill Stites, Jane Pullman, Paul Loney

Excused Absence: Tim Brooks

Guests: John Barker & Kari Briggs

1. Approve agenda/Minutes. Paul moves. MG 2nd. Approved.

Jan. board meeting Minutes: Gina moves to approve. Chuck 2nd. Approved.

2. BSF – Future Focus

Bill summarizes.  Joint venture. What are the responsibilities. A reorganization. Draft of Joint Agreement submitted/ on file.

3. By laws discussion continued.

No one is prepared to really pick it up. Would like to continue the discussion. Reuben mentions co-chair desire. Reuben won’t be Chair this year. Too much work travel. Might seek the position at another date.  Jane outlines a summary of last month’s minutes on this subject.

1. Do nothing?

2. Subcomittee study?

3. X or Y in May?

4. Table to next month?

4. Future of Neighborhood Clean up, proceeds distribution.

5. SNA Proposed 2011 Budget. Tim made a budget. Reflects the recent year’s numbers. We would like to have a budget. Move to next month agenda so we have more time to review the budget.

6. Follow up to SES Park Work Group.

7. Adjourn 9:02 pm.

SNA General Meeting Minutes – Approved

Feb. 10th 2011 7pm

Board Members In Attendance: Michele Gila, Chuck Lawrence, Heather Wilson, Gina Binole, Reuben Deumling, Bill Stites, Jane Pullman, Paul Loney,

Excused Absence: Tim Brooks

Guests & Neighbors: Greg Dolinajec, Mildred White, Brian White, Sandy Miller, Serena Appel, Karen Hery, Scott McEwen, Jeff Cole, Kari Briggs, John Barker, Valerie Strickland, Jacob Mayhill, Amy Kleiner, Jeanne Longley

1. Introductions.

2. Approve agenda, circulate minutes. Approved as submitted.

3. Update from SES VP. Amy Kleiner.

Bond measure from PPS pitch. Hoping for Middle School students involvement. Sarah Taylor is retiring. Amy might be new Principal, but it’s not been determined. Under budget constraints. Plus another bond measure in November.  8 or 9 school cohorts and she wants to send one to the neighborhood for service outreach. To help people in need. Help folks in the yards to remove invasive species. Could start in September. Reuben mentions the emergency preparedness component, but seemed the ball was dropped. Would have to pitch it to the teens to get them to do it. Heather asks about the structural changes. Amy again hoping for the bond measure to pass to get a covered play structure. She doesn’t know where. Upgrade science lab. Convert boiler to natural gas. Stage area rigging and lights. Increase ADA & managed access (key card). Perhaps a crosswalk on SE Taylor. Jane presents an invitation to the school from EM soil & water conservation to get involved.

4. Senior co-housing project in Sunnyside

Greg is a RE developer. Retro fits of NW apartments to condos. H45 project was his. 38/Belmont site has his interest. Thinks what is missing is an Independent living, self governing community with a theme. Camerata Community 55 is the theme/idea. Focus on learning/teaching/engagement. Has talked to Umpqua about financing. Getting ready to publicize the concept. Needs members of the community to commit to living in it. ROUGHLY using co-housing as the model. 18 units. Ground floor community space/not commercial utilized by the community members. Leaving elevations and floor plans for our interest. Has a year option on the property. Assemble the group then choose form of ownership. Jane asks how this will be different than a building like a condo. Community would be themed/missioned. Lifelong learning and teaching is the mission/vision. Karen Hery asks the WHY question. He affiliates with a group who has a large profit market in Portland. Other senior housing facilities seems owned by public traded corporate entity. Wants to have an independent living community to define their own goals and policies. Variance was once made on height. He hopes that their project fits within that framework. They’ll be in compliance with those conditions.

5. Committee Reports

Sustainability – Jeanne reports the connection to Transition Sunnyside. Evolving into action. Adopted emergency preparedness as a means of resilience. “Walk our talk”. Committee is building an emergency kit. Hosting block parties with EP theme. Folks showed up and talked about crime prevention. Take on your blocks!

LUTC – Next week (v-day) is the meeting. On-going issues seem to be liquor licenses/establishments and neighbors. Review permits etc…Trying to come up with Universal GNA for Belmont. Ongoing discussions around illegal parking.

CP – Improve your lighting, keep shrubs pruned. Break ins on 48th. Graffitti has increased. Chuck’s going to ask our neighborhood police to come to next meeting.

SEUL – April 13th Powell Lanes bowling for neighborhood volunteer appreciation. ONI had no significant cuts in budget. 2 new board members seated. One from RNA, the other from Eastmoreland. SEUL is looking for a new treasurer. Looking for Land Use members. Do we want to use City archivist? EMSW offers free workshops for creating wildlife habitat. Naturescaping for Clean Rivers workshop for Sunnyside. 12/60th & Burnside trying efforts to attempt traffic calming.

6. Announcements

Karen Hery announces hopeful success of the carnival last Saturday in Feb. Useful goods & neighborhood clean up training. Going to charge for useful good exchange this year.ie $1 admission fee. Reminder no fall clean up. 3 day event. St. Stephens has it on their calendar.

Sandy Miller. 2924 SE Alder. Wants to open B&B on 2nd level. Applying for conditional use permit. Inviting neighbors over March 6th to learn more about it.

Jeff Cole from Friends of Trees coordinator. Planted Jan 22. THANKS!

Bill reports from BABA annual dinner meeting is next week.

Jane announces that she has found her replacement for newsletter delivery!

Jacob from Umpqua Bank. Dec 22nd opened Hawthorne & 36th location. Build Your Block challenge. Present an idea for community enhancement project. Would need to be sustainable. Heather asks about playground equipment. $10,000 max. Deadline is Feb 25th for input of idea. Then it gets voted. Anyone in this community. Business owners & residents. 20-40/Division-Belmont.

Thanks for the announcement for their March opening. Going to be on SE art walk. Secret Hideout.

7. Approve minutes from January. Reuben. Gina 2nd. Approved.

8. Next meeting March 10th/Newsletter articles due Feb. 15. Bill will write article on Bike corrals. Horse Brass tribute for Don Younger. Jeanne will write that. Heather suggests an update from Parks about Laurelhurst Pond.

9. Adjourn. Paul moves, Jane 2nd. 8:04pm

SNA Board Meeting – Approved

January 13, 2011, 8:00 – 9:00 PM

Board Members Present: Michele Gila, Jane Pullman, Tim Brooks, Paul Loney, Heather Wilson, Bill Stites.

Unexcused absence: Chuck Lawrence

Neighbors and Guests Present: Mary Ann Schwab, Karen Hery

1. Approve agenda/minutes (2 min) Gina moves/ Bill 2nd. Approved.

2. By Laws discussion (Paul/Michele 20 min) Overview of bylaws. 9 members. 4/5 split. MAS brought up 3/3/3 but terms are 3 years. We have no guidelines for elections that address frequency of meeting attendance. Jane voices in favor of changing bylaws regarding the 4/5 split. For the sake of continuity it would be nice to have less than half the board turn over at once. Could increase board positions to 10. Jane asks if bylaws must be 2 years? Bill says some element of qualification is good. Attendance requirement is good solution. For example 2 meetings. Also supports even # of board members. Last year’s election could have been an anomaly. Gina isn’t opposed necessarily but would like to see the meeting agenda posted well in advance. That could cause people to come and show up. Jane motions to make this Old Business for March, Heather 2nd.

3. Sunnyside position on Clearwire moratorium (Michele 8 min) Bill 2nd. Heather friendly amendment to include 29th/Yamhill location and Jane amends a to any. Approved!

SNA “opposes Clearwire’s plans for a wireless tower on SE 32nd or SE 29th near Yamhill or any Priority 4 residential street within Sunnyside, and recommends that the City of Portland Reject the company’s request for any tower and adjacent equipment cabinet.

4. Treasurer’s report (Jane 3 min) Jane handed out treasurer’s report for 2010. On file. Jane comments that the newsletter just about paid for itself. Loss of $163.71. All ad slots are full and paid in full. Could improve on the book keeping for clean ups. Great donations from SNA. BSF made $21.25 from selling buttons. Tim will take treasurer’s report and create a budget. Michele mentions putting some money into cd or interest account. Suggested $5000 go there. We will continue this discussion.

5. Other Items Useful Goods Exchange/clean up, Street Fair, Etc…

Karen Hery: opportunity to combine Useful goods & clean up. Followed Gary through fall clean-up. Participation is down. 2 cleanups a year might not make much sense. Only 30 families participated in fall clean up. Spring clean is fine with Karen but she cannot do a fall clean up. Test one per year. Can always go back to 2 if that fails. Wants a committee for the event and Gina will chair it. Basement at church building has only a few doors. Works better that way. Suggested donation of $1 for entry fee. $10 to do the clean up. What should be done with the funds? How should they be decided. School role? They used to get a donation. School involvement is only through volunteers. St. Stephens just wants to have a bake sale at the event. One Huge Event at St. Stephens. Event not until April. Paul suggests we get Reuben in on the discussion. Have it on agenda next month. Got $200 from SEUL grant to cover costs of Posters. Tim suggests leveraging grant money and get reimbursed for outreach from metro. SEUL helps with that.

6. Newsletter articles due Jan. 17th

7. Other Business.

MAS reports on OLCC staff changes per Kitzhaber. MAS doesn’t want to lose Steve Pharo from OLCC as he works to keep licenses to 1 year instead of 2. She asked him what the community could do to support him. He’d like to stay. Asks the board to write a letter of support to Commissioner Phil Lange so when he meets with Kitzhaber, we can keep Pharo.

Michele makes Motion to write letter of support to Phil Lange for the 1 year renewal, to include a “Thank You” Steve Pharo for his work. Tim 2nd. MAS will give us the contact info. Paul will write the letter.

Tim mentions that the meeting on Jan 31st for SES check in with Parks etc… didn’t make the newsletter. Get requests into our communication for comment from neighbors on how it has been going on the park agreement. Deadline for response is Jan. 30th. So we have feedback. Specific to Park. Tim & Reuben will put something together for me to post to solicit feedback.

Bill will email us about BSF. Wants to meet next week.

8. Adjourn. 9:29pm.

 

SNA General Meeting Minutes – Approved

January 13, 2011, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

 

Board Members Present: Michele Gila, Jane Pullman, Paul Loney, Bill Stites, Tim Brooks, Gina Binole, Heather Wilson

Excused Absence: Reuben Deumling

Unexcused Absence: Chuck Lawrence

Neighbors and Guests Present: Tim O’Neal, Abby Dacey, Katherine Anderson, Karen Hery, Emily Hery, Adam Green, Valerie Stricklund, Josh Palmer, Edward Morris, Adam Green, Valerie Strickland, Mary Ann Schwab (MAS)

1. Introductions (3 min)

2. Approve Agenda. Circulate Nov. minutes (2 min) Approved.

3. SEUL update (Tim O’Neal 5 min). Until Feb 25th collecting to donate to transition projects for homeless. Linens, blankets, adult clothing, toiletries. Want to recognize & appreciate the n’hood volunteers. Appreciation meeting in April. Bowling competition included. Each n’hood 4-6 people on each bowling team. 2 games bowling + shoes + food. Powell Lanes. Mon 4/25 6-9pm. Kicking around the idea of Soapbox Derby participation 1/31 7-8pm meeting.  Co-sponsor with Center of Earth Leadership “Economics of Happiness” film. Worldwide movement. 1/21 7-10pm will be screened + discussion. First Unitarian Church downtown. $15 donation.

4. Central Catholic High School Master Plan (Abby Dacey 15 min) She works for BOORA. Hired a year ago to vision master plan. School has been at this site for 75 years. Not trying to change classroom count but gain sf for the classes + specialized spaces for special needs/language labs/student commons. Have been working with Buckman and immediate school neighbors. Conditional Use Master Plan is what BOORA is doing. 2 stories above + 1 underground to complete the 4th link. Plus interior remodel. 3rd phase would add 2nd story over original school. Target LEED platinum for first phase. Widen street 4 feet on 24th. Adding pedestrian crossing. Transportation safety is a big issue. Empty lots on west side of 24th at Oak, owned by CCHS and parking added to those lots. Currently have 17 spots on campus. Reducing that to 4. Adding that new parking lot to make up the difference. Curb extensions at 26th crossing. Front angle parking in front of Lone Fir. Neighbors voiced PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION/TRIMET as a parking solution. She responded that is ‘difficult’. Tim asks about solar panels and would they power the school. Phase 1 would have ecoroof. Maybe. Any other traffic flows through PDOT? One way? Portland “doesn’t want to see the grid interrupted”. Tim asks about curb extensions on Stark. Cannot make Stark more narrow without removing parking to create more pedestrian access. Tim suggests moving parking east further at curb extension and remove 3 parking spots. TIMELINE? Conditional Use Master Plan is right now. No plan to submit by certain date? Probably a few more weeks. Mid Feb. Design in June. Construction about a year later. School schedule. PLEASE STAY IN TOUCH.

5. Committee Reports (15 min)

Sustainability – Focused on Emergency/Community Preparedness. Attended City and County formal training “Know Your Neighbor”. To learn how to present that tool to other groups. Some committee members are hosting events at their homes to introduce the idea of being prepared. A way to get together and get to know each other better. As a group, going to design emergency preparedness kits. Anyone is welcome to join. They aren’t ‘advertising’. Email Jane or Reuben if you are interested. MAS attended neighborhood emergency teams network and the communications between neighborhood watch etc…Many streets already have block captains. Meet 2nd Monday of the Month 6-7:30 at SEUL. Please come!

LUTC – Meeting was cancelled this month. Meet right after Sustainability 7:30-8:30. Transportation/Crosswalks/Land Use/ Liquor Licenses. All welcome and bring any concerns you may have.

Crime Prevention – Chuck not here. Our neighborhood is divided into 2 precincts. Frank Silva is Katherine Anderson’s counterpart. She’s east of 39th. Was working with a group of neighbors about the cluster of liquor establishments on Belmont. Katherine brought info on residential burglary. Up 10% on east precinct. East precinct had to drop burglaries by 50% in 4 months and they did it. So successful that police bureau has established a city wide task force. It’s usually 1-2 people that hit a general area. There is no absolute to get rid of it…but many opportunities to reduce/mitigate. SNA/Tabor/Richmond got together to talk about Upper Hawthorne in Oct. Not much attendance. She suspects it’s because there aren’t big problems. Next meeting in April. MAS brings up the hope of changing OLCC to 1 year from 2 year license. Asks board to write a letter of support for current director Steve Pharo to Commissioner Phil Lange commenting on the good work that’s been done and we’d like to keep him there. Portlandmaps.com enter your address and you can see multi level crimes near your home. Portland Police Bureau www.portlandonline.com/police will also give you crime stats, reports, every block. All the 911 calls. Pretty live and updated.

SEUL – Bowling & Soap Box Derby. See Tim O’Neal’s report.

6. Announcements (5 min) Valerie is here from condos at 24/Belmont. 37/Main will be open for first Fridays. It’s a studio where he and his wife live. Karen Hery has the Sunnyside report card. Winter Carnival last Sat. of Feb. Family Entertainment. She’ll submit an article for the newsletter. Can drop by prizes of small toys or stuffed animals. Useful Goods Exchange and Clean up. Ideas for fundraising. Wants to thoughtfully plan the event. Best date is right around Earth Day. 15-17 April would be good all around. Suggest a committee from all aspects of the event. Bill from BABA meeting update: Umpqua Bank at Haw/36th having grand opening. Has feedback on Street Fair for SNA. Interested in meeting with SNA on this subject. Gina for HABA that despite the weather etc..holiday stroll was a success. Hope to recreate it next year. Annual silent auction is 2/17 at Masonic Temple. Looking for business donations. Katherine Anderson mentions heavy towing area where Umpqua Bank is now. Property owner said they would aggressively tow. Homeless man who resides in Sunnyside died at that parking lot. Hypothermia. During the extreme cold.

7. Approve Minutes (2 min) Jane moves to approve. Bill 2nd. Approved.

8. Next meeting Feb. 11, 2011. Newsletter articles due January 17th.

Karen Hery. Gina Binole. Tim O’Neal.

9. Adjourn. 7:57pm