Helping connect neighbors through events and information in Portland's Sunnyside Neighborhood.
March 26th marks the opening of the long-awaited return of the Blair Community Garden. Below is a link to the pdf announcing the Celebration from 11-noon and the Work Party from 9-11am.
The event is sponsored by Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, Laurelhurst Village, and Portland Community Gardens. Go to www.portlandparks.org to sign up on the wait list.
Blair Garden Opening Day: March 26, By Tim Brooks
Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 26, Opening Day for the new Blair Community Garden!
Portland Community Gardens and SNA have hosted four garden work parties since October and we are just about ready to open the gates at the Blair Community Garden. By mid-March, we will build the remaining accessible raised beds, improve the path system and the shed, and then be ready to open.
The SNA would like to thank all the volunteers that joined us for the work parties. We would like to extend a special thank you to Holly Wilkalis from Hands On Portland and Lamar Hurd from the All in One Basketball Academy who helped coordinate the volunteer youth groups. SNA also wants to thank our partner in this effort, Portland Community Gardens, and their key staff Dan Franek, John Iott, and Leslie Pohl-Kosbau.
Come join us for a tour of the garden on March 26. The garden entrance is located on the west side of SE 33rd Avenue, half block south of Stark Street. For more on the garden’s rebirth, visit http://sunnysideportland.com/. For more information on the opening day event, check the SNA website and listserve, or call the SNA Hotline at 503 295-1699.
TriMet riders who depend on the bus and MAX are facing greater hardships. Many transit riders, especially working-class families and people of color, rely on single-trip fares to meet basic needs and can’t afford to invest in transit passes. TriMet has cut bus service by over 170,000 hours leading to longer wait times between buses, overcrowded buses that pass us by, and missed transfers. Service cuts have decimated evening and weekend service. TriMet’s transfer policy is unequal and insufficient to give bus riders the time required to take care of our daily needs.
OPAL Bus Riders Unite! has a Solution:
1. EXTEND ALL TRIMET TRANSFERS TO 3 HOURS FOR BUS AND MAX
2. SUPPORT EVENING RIDERS WITH UNLIMITED TRANSFER TIME AFTER 7PM
Join us on Monday, February 21st for our Community Kick-off to have your voice heard and to get involved!
Kickoff Campaign for a Fair Transfer
Monday, February 21st
6:00 PM
St Francis Parish 11th and SE Oak (Bus #70)
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.