Meeting Minutes, June 2, 2010

Preservation Station, Joaquin Garofalo, presiding  6:35 PM

Attendance:

Term ending August 2010		Term ending August 2011
Adams, Kay		Austin, Lauren
Anderson, Bonnie	X	Bromberg, Ryan
Doty, Karen	X	Carson, Ann	X
Garofalo, Joaquin	X	Grassel, Kathy	X
Grant, Steve	X	Hoch, Liam	X
Pyles, Amberley	X	Thornton, Karla
Spittler, Lee	X

Minutes from May 5, 2010—At the May meeting it was agreed that Karen should write a letter to the City expressing the Board’s opposition to the proposed downtown event center.  In addition, the roster of Board members showing remaining terms was backwards. Minutes were approved, as amended

Next Meeting—July 7, 2010, at 6:30 at Preservation Station

Design Guidelines—Landmarks Commission lead, Mary Ellen Hennessey, reviewed the next steps for implementing the proposed design guidelines for our neighborhood and other area historic neighborhoods.  She needs to schedule a public hearing now that our Board has approved the guidelines and suggested that August would be the best time to do that. Mary Ellen will post the proposed guidelines on the City website and Salley Trefethen, the HHHDA webmaster, will create a link on our site to the guidelines.

Parking Problems—The parking committee met recently with Councilor Benton and representatives from EDo.  Within six months, parking meters will be going up on Central.  In addition a few parking meters will go up on adjoining streets that are wider than 32 feet, only on that portion of the street adjoining Central up to the first residence.  The City is currently reviewing whether meters would also be installed on streets narrower than 32 feet and, if so, whether they would just be on one side of the street, again, only up to the first residence in the first block off Central.  Some Board members expressed concern that these parking meters would encourage employees of businesses on Central to park in our neighborhood rather than pay for metered parking.  Others pointed out that employees are already parking in the neighborhood.

The parking committee will follow up with the City on the decision about narrower streets and post that information on the HHHDA website.  After that decision has been made, the committee will get input from neighbors about how we might use a parking permit ordinance to our advantage.

Increasing Website Effectiveness—Salley thanked Board members who had contributed articles to the website recently.  She asked for volunteers to form a brainstorming group to address the next steps for our neighborhood with respect to the use of the website.  Liam, Kathy, Joni and Greg Nuetra, and David Chamberlain agreed to meet with Salley.

Adopt a Park—Amberley wrote an article for the website.  Steve and his family will lead the park clean up for June on Saturday, June 5 at 9:00.  Joni and Amberley will lead a hula hoop making activity at 10:00, following the clean up.  The July clean up will be the second Saturday and Liam will be in charge.  Following the 9:00 clean up on the first Saturday in August, Amberley has arranged for the local yoga center (Bhava Yoga) to provide a free half hour lesson at 10:00.  Everyone is invited to participate in the monthly clean up of the park as well as the free activity following.  The Board approved $30 for supplies for the hula hoop activity.

Newsletter and Election—Deadline for articles to be sent to Greg Nuetra (nuetra@mac.com) is June 25.  Distribution will be July 2-3 which provides 30 days notice of the election of Board members as required by our bylaws.  The election will be at the August 4^th meeting, and everyone is reminded to bring $10 for their annual dues so that they can vote.  Anne and Karen will collect the dues at the August meeting.  Joaquin clarified which members had terms that were up in August.  It appears that we are looking for two new members to fill the slots of Lauren and Kay.  Anybody who comes to the meeting and pays their dues can be a write-in candidate.

Old Creamland Dairy Building—David Donaldson reviewed the action to date regarding the noise pollution problem caused by the rooftop compressors.  He has paid a local engineering firm (Office Acoustics Alliance) to inspect the compressors on June 3, with the permission of the owner of the building.  Peter Grahame noted that a local realtor had advised him that the noise pollution problem would have to be disclosed at any home sale in the area affected, and that the value of that home would be decreased because of it. David said he would inform the Board as to the result of the rooftop inspection. Future action will depend on the results of the upcoming inspection.

Summer Activity—It makes sense to use the TACA station and garden area for this activity so that restrooms will be available and we won’t have to get a permit from the City to close down a street. Volunteers for this activity are Amberley, Ann, Joaquin, and Joni.  It will be held Saturday, August 28.

Proposed Downtown Event Center—Amberley requested that Board members review the report on the proposed downtown event center before the July meeting.  She pointed out that there might be some position the Board could take that would be more nuanced. 

On a 3 to 5 vote, the Board decided to table the writing of a letter in opposition to the event center until the July meeting.  Members are asked to specify their concerns at that time so that our letter can more accurately reflect the range of opinions that Board members may have about this project.

Block Captains—Joni asked the Board to think about creating a Block Captain core of volunteers who would be able to canvas opinions and communicate information effectively on their block.

Message Board—We could put a message board on the west side of TACA, in the space of the large window, to display news about the neighborhood. The Board approved $150 for the expense of this message board.

Adjourned:            7:55 PM