ENA Board Meeting

June 9, 2026 7:00 PM

Northwest Beerwerks

Minutes

Board members present:

Sherry Chilcutt (President), Karen Sweeney (Vice president & CNA representative), Jim Sweeney (Secretary), Jim Rioux (Treasurer), Abigail Twombly, Josh Elliott

1) Approval of April minutes

The May 12^th minutes were unanimously approved as submitted.

2) Treasurer’s report

Jim R. reported the following account balances:

Checking  $1,716.54

Savings    $1,951.37

Total       $3,667.91

3) CNA report

Karen reported on the following from the June 8^th CNA meeting:

• Neighborhood Matching Grants – After Brittany Gillia’s email granting permission to spend 2026 grant funds there has been no word on grant contracts. Councilperson Gillman said he was not aware of this but he will make it a priority. Karen intends to  push for a meeting in the fall to discuss the NMG program.
• Councilman Gillman reported the Jungle closeout is expected to be phased over a period of years. The City is partnering with Providence. The City is looking into whether churches can allow RVs to park on site. The Hands-on Children’s Museum addition is moving along. The City has hired a 4-person team to fix sidewalks. The Council will hold a study session in July.
• SWONA is building garden boxes, sponsoring an outdoor movie night and art in the alley.
• Nottingham is doing an ice cream social.
• South Capital reported that St John | San Juan Episcopal church is up for sale for $1.9 million; the building is reportedly not salvageable.
• Ken Lake is doing a neighborhood garage sale.
• Matt McGuinness is working on a mesh wifi network which would work well for emergency communications.

4) Block Parties – June 27, 5 to 7PM

We are planning to hold three block parties:

1. Sherry – Lybarger between 10^th & Union
2. Jim & Karen – McCormick between Legion and 7^th
3. Jim R. & Josh – Frederick Street between 9^th and Union

5) Newsletter topics

• Neighborhood Matching Grants
• Tool library
• Porch fest
• Emergency preparedness event

6) Neighborhood grant status

Grant funds are adequate to cover block party food and incidentals.

7) Emergency Planning Day – August 1^st 

Josh is working on the event plan and the time.

8) Website contact information

Sherry wants to plan a website improvement coffee event. She will ask Nathan about a meeting time and invite Mikaela. We also need to continue work on our email list.

It was suggested we apply for grant funds next year to hire a consultant to upgrade our social medial presence.

9) Porch Fest – August 29^th

Ours will be small and each porch will plan their own event. We will know which porches will be participating by August 1^st.

10) National Night Out August 4^th 

We will do block parties instead.

The next meeting will be July 14

The meeting ended at 8:20 PM

ENA Board Meeting

May 12, 2026 7:00 PM

Northwest Beerwerks

Minutes

Board members present:

Karen Sweeney (Vice president & CNA representative), Jim Sweeney (Secretary), Jim Rioux (Treasurer), Abigail Twombly, Therese Vogel, Josh Elliott, Cheryl Bayle

1) Approval of April Minutes

The April 14^th minutes were approved as submitted.

2) Treasurer’s report

Jim R. reported the following account balances:

Checking  $1,662.39

Savings    $1,951.18

Total       $3,613.57

3) CNA report

Karen reported on the following topics from the May 11^th CNA meeting:

• The CNA voted to confirm Justin Stang as the new CNA Chair
• Councilman Gilman talked about hiring the new fire chief
• The City is looking into contracting out garbage and recycling services

This led to a discussion about the wisdom of contracting with a private company for garbage and recycling services. Board members expressed concern about costs and accountability.

• Joyce Philips is retiring from the Planning Department
• Nicole Floyd will be representing the Planning Department at CNA meetings
• The City will be hiring a new Housing Director
• Jasmine Vasavada said the Port of Olympia will hold a work session on the Evergreen College pool closure.

This led to a discussion about opposition to the pool closure. Karen will contact Larry Dzieza about drafting a template letter for RNAs.

4) Neighborhood Matching Grant status

Board members expressed frustration with the grant process. The ENA and the other RNAs all met the City’s March 10 application deadline. The Council approved the grant review team’s recommendation on April 14. We have heard nothing since then. This was the second annual grant cycle for Brittany Gillia who has made some much needed program upgrades, many of which were suggested by the CNA and RNAs, but the process appears to be bogged down in bureaucracy. When contracts are not approved in a timely manner the ENA has to dip into our accounts, or members credit, for project expenses.

Jim R. suggested we communicate our concerns to staff, and Karen volunteered to draft a letter and send it to Jim to review.

The Board discussed the upcoming event schedule and whether or not we need to update any times or dates. Karen volunteered to check with someone in Northeast about Porch Fest.

5) Eastside walking map project update

Jim S. and Josh talked about an Eastside walking map. This is as yet an unfunded project but they are researching other walking maps including “Olympia’s Hidden Histories” and Tom Boucher’s Psyhcogeographic walking maps (available on Etsy).

6) Gateway Art replacement

Jim S. asked Stephanie Johnson about the damaged art project on Pacific and Martin Way. Stephanie said both the large sculpture and the fruit bowl are in the process of replacement, most likely in the next few months or so.

7) Membership recruitment and email list

The Board discussed efforts to update and expand our mailing lists. We agreed to continue this work, focusing on asking people attending events to sign up.

8) Technical stuff

We need to update the ENA Google group email list to delete Abigails old “mindspring” address and add ag******@***il.com.

Please bring up any technical problems you encounter at future meetings.

9) Next meeting will be June 9^th

The meeting ended at 8:20 PM