February 2011 General Meeting Minutes

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

The Big Day at Blair Garden!

Great news! The Blair Garden is opening on Saturday March 26th at SE
33rd and Stark. The garden has 19 (200 sq. foot) plots and will have 2-3
raised beds. On March 26th we will have a work party and opening of the
garden. The work party starts at 9am and goes to 11am. The celebration
will be from 11-12. You are encouraged to participate in both the work
party and the celebration.

Registration materials will be available for people previously in the
garden and those from the current Parks and Recreation waiting list.

More gardeners in the neighborhood may sign up on the list at
www.portlandparks.org go to Nature and to Community Gardens.

Thanks go to many people for renovating this space and getting the
garden up and going!

Laurelhurst Village Care Center-property owner and cash
supporter
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Portland Parks and Recreation Community Gardens
Portland Fire and Rescue
Friends of Portland Community Gardens
Hands on Portland
Riverdale HS Honor Society
Grant High School Environmental Club

Blair Community Garden
SE 33rd and Stark
Work Party and Celebration
Saturday, March 26th 9am-12noon

See you there!

Leslie Pohl-Kosbau
Dan Franek
Portland Community Gardens
Portland Parks and Recreation
503 823-1612

Help SEUL create a Pocket Park!

SEUL is hoping you’ll vote for their project in the upcoming Umpqua Bank’s Build Your Block Challenge to win money to create a pocket park on SE Uplift’s grounds. So check it out!

Pocket Park and Garden on Main Street (between 35th and 36th)

Description: A lush 3,000 square foot pocket park/garden full of native, medicinal, and edible plants – where multi-generational community members and visitors relax or meet friends, take lunch breaks, garden, gather for educational workshops, read, or play a friendly game of chess/checkers. The benefits will be far reaching: re-generation of a run down area, business and residential community members working together cohesively toward a safer and more sociable community space, a haven for native pollinators that will increase the pollination of plants nearby, and access to educational workshops from local experts specializing in naturopathic and botanical medicine, creating pollinator habitat, gardening for food and medicine, aromatherapy, and essential oil distillation! Creating an inspiring natural area will strengthen our neighborhood’s vibrant identity and sense of place, while increasing the vitality of our urban ecosystem and providing a respite from the stresses of daily life.

Remember to visit the Hawthorne Umpqua Bank to vote by April 15th.

Please Vote; Help Sunnyside Environmental School Win $10,000

Sunnyside Environmental School is one of three finalists in the Umpqua Bank Build Your Block Grant Challenge, a program the bank runs to help improve neighborhoods where its branches are located.

SES has proposed the creation of a rainwater capture system in the fall and winter to help sustainably irrigate its gardens in the summer. The school hopes to create a demonstration project with educational components to water its vegetable garden area and teach neighbors how to do the same.

A 2500 gallon cistern will be located in the SES garden at 34th and Taylor. Rain barrels and other rainwater projects will be developed and installed by the community. Educational signage will be developed by the community and placed near the cistern.

To celebrate the unveiling of the completed project, SES will host a neighborhood gathering and invite people to build rain barrels for their own homes. Money from the challenge will offset the cost of these rain barrels so that more neighbors can afford to install them. Together, we will learn about the importance of storm water reduction and rainwater harvesting!

Starting March 21, anyone may go into Umpqua, 3557 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214, and vote for this project. There will be postcards available listing all three projects, so stop by and learn about the good ideas. Voting closes April 15th, and the winner will be announced April 18th.

If you would like to be involved in installing this project or planning community outreach and education, please contact [email protected].

Lone Fir Cemetery Needs Your Help

Lone Fir Cemetery needs your help…

As spring approaches, bulbs are emerging from many of the muddy areas within Lone Fir. Metro needs the help from the community, leaves and branches have been sitting too long on the ground beneath the wonderful trees making it difficult for this season’s grass to emerge.  With your help, we can fix this! Our Site Stewardship Committee has gathered $150 for grass seed and supplies. That will be leveraged with a discount from Portland Nursery to increase the amount we can get. Metro will help to supply rakes and pick up the debris left alongside the road.  Once the weather improves, seeding can begin. Until then we can rake, rake and rake a little more. This should help keep the cemetery looking better than ever for Memorial Day, (when the cemetery is filled with visitors).  So come join us…let’s help Lone Fir put its best foot forward by coming to Friend’s first clean up of the year!

Ø     Time: March 27th from 12:00-4:00

Ø     Meeting Place: Lone Fir Cemetery 2115 S.E. Morrison St. Check in/Sign in will take place at the Soldiers Monument.

Ø     Activities: Remove as many leaves, branches and needles to allow the grass to grow and in some areas be reseeded.

Ø   Attire/Tools: This event will take place rain or shine. Dress accordingly. Layers are always good if the weather looks unpredictable. Close toed shoes or boots are best. Please bring your own rake and gloves. We will have some on site but the supplies are limited.

Ø     Other: Bring a lunch if you would like. Friends will have bottled water and a few light snacks.