2021 Eastside Neighborhood Winter Walkabout


Hello Neighbors!

The Eastside Neighborhood Association invites you to walk around the neighborhood to view holiday-decorated windows, light displays, and decorated yards/porches.  The event is the Eastside Neighborhood Winter Walkabout and the theme is Hope.”

You can find the Google Map here. If you have suggests or want to nominate a display not on the map, contact us (details at end of this post).

Everyone can participate!

There are three different categories in which prizes will be awarded;

  1. Painted Windows (which have been done in our neighborhood sporadically over the past 20 years)
  2. Holiday Lights (someone needs to pick up the void left by OlyLights skipping a year!)
  3. Decorated Yards and Porches (with or without lights, but more than just lights)

If you are not going to enter one of these categories, you can still vote for your favorites!

Painted Windows

Please consider decorating one or more of your windows prior to the December 16th.  You can use tempera paint (washes off easily), paper, or any other means to reflect the “Hope.” theme. Think about reflecting the positive aspects of our neighborhood and this year’s holidays. Decorating your window may be a fun thing to do prior to the December holidays. And it will help improve the quality and togetherness of our neighborhood.

You can check out photos of windows decorated by neighbors in past years here: https://eastside-olympia.org/projects/winter-window-walkabout/

And there’s a Pinterest page that has lots of information on window painting: Window Painting Information

You may also like to use paper to decorate your window.

And here’s a link to photos of holiday decorated windows on Pinterest: Holiday Window Painting

If you are a window decorating expert, you can share advice on Nextdoor our ENA Facebook page or volunteer to help decorate somebody’s window.

Holiday Lights

We can pretty much all agree we love a good holiday light display. There are a quite a few regulars in our neighborhood that have large displays, inflatables and in between. They literally bring some dazzle in to our bleak winter evenings!

Decorated Yards and Porches

This is a category that is not only lights, but something a little extra. Whether it be a nice display of a publicly viewable Christmas tree, but remember there are many reasons for the season! There are multiple religious holidays this time of year, bring them all out and show the diversity of our great neighborhood.

Prizes

We are pleased to announce that we will be awarding prizes to participants. We will also award a prize to a random voter! Your neighbors will be the jury and vote for the winners in each category.

If you wish to officially submit for prize consideration and to be put on the map we will need the following from you;

  • Your name (Family name will do)
  • Email address
  • Location/Address of display (any special instructions, e.g. Window top left corner of house)
  • Category you are submitting for
  • Optional: name of display

The information will be used on the map. This year this will also double as a voting slip. Details for submitting will be on the form. Voting will start from December 16th continue through the end of December.

If you choose to decorate your location, please provide your address through Nextdoor or send it to Nathan Allan ([email protected]) or Roger Horn ([email protected]) by December 15th.  We will use addresses (not names) to create a map of decorated locations. You may also contact Roger or Nathan if you have questions or suggestions about the event. 

Hope you will participate in this event and have a fun time walking around our neighborhood this winter!

Armory Open House

We wanted to let you know of two opportunities to check out the Armory and envision its future as a Creative Campus and neighborhood asset.

The dates are coming up this weekend:


Friday, October 1, 5-7pm. This is an opportunity for the neighborhood and stakeholders to walk through the building and talk with staff and the consultant – sort of a soft opening.

Saturday, October 2, 12-6pm. This open house is in conjunction with Arts Walk, and culminates with the lighting of the building at dusk.


More information on that event and community survey

Neighborhood Meeting Minutes – April 2021

ENA Board Meeting Minutes

April 14, 2021

Virtual Meeting

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Cheryl Bayle, Chris Knight, Roger Horn, Jim Rioux, Jim Sweeney, John Leavitt (OPD)

Neighborhood Officer

Officer John Leavitt shared some information about himself and his new position. in the neighborhood liaison position. John is relatively new to the position and he is looking forward to being a resource for the neighborhood.

He is available Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. John shared his email with the group.  [email protected]

John asked if there were and issues he could help with.

Sherry mentioned the rash of catalytic converter thefts and that there was a recent fire at a home that she thought had some drug activity.

John mentioned that there was a lot of bicycle theft and asked if we could get the word out to register your bicycle and take pictures.

Jim Sweeney mentioned the lack of signs and crosswalks around Lions Park. John said he would talk to the City Transportation Department,

Cheryl said that traffic on 11th was becoming a problem.

Treasurer’s Report

Checking                                              $663.36

Savings                                             $1,062.19

Signs                                                  $1,305.48

Trees                                                     $153.06

Neighborhood Beautification           $409.37

Removal of Infected Tees

Roger provided an update on efforts to remove the diseased trees in the neighborhood.  To get the required permit, no power tools can be used. Removal will need to be accomplished entirely with hand tools.

Tim Smyth will be back in May. We will schedule work when he gets back.

Roger sent a map of the tree locations to Michelle Bently. He will fill out the permit application when we are ready to go.

Approval of March Minutes

The board approve the March minutes.

CNA Report

Jim Rioux provided a summary of the topics covered at the April 12 meeting of the CNA

Short Term Rentals

  • City staff provided an update of the staff recommendation for Short Term Rental regulations.
  • This will go to the Planning Commission on April 19.
  • Some concerns were expressed about parking, and the allowance of up to 10 people per unit. There is still a lot of anxiety in the CNA about potential party houses that become nuisances for neighbors.  Jim noted that there was nothing in the recommendation to address density of STR’s in one neighborhood.

            Presentation from Tye Menser

  • Tye shared that interested in meeting with the CNA when he heard about it from Council Member Yến Huỳnh.
  • Tye has a strong focus on criminal justice and programs to keep people out of the court system.
  • He recognizes the need for the County to step up to homeless problem. He discussed how Carpenter Rd. site was killed by citizen objections.

            CNA MOU Update

  • The current MOU is expiring.
  • Larry is scheduling discussions to see how to be more effective with Council and City staff.

RNA Grants

  • Lydia reported that $23,0000 is available and she has applications for up to $29,000.
  • Lydia will contact recipients soon
  • Her plan is to go to Council early May and sign contracts before the end of May.

Mural Update

            Sherry provided an update of the mural project.

  • If we accept the NMG we will not be able to use volunteers under 18 years old.
  • Sherry would prefer to reject the grant. A key piece of this project was youth involvement.  
  • The activities are very low risk.

Missing Sidewalks Update

Roger reported that we are still working with ONNA. The coordination with property owners and the City will makes this a relatively long process.

Coffee Shop at Swantown Inn

Nathan has opened the coffee window. He is advertising on facebook.

Armory

Jim Sweeney spoke with Marygrace. State funding looks good. The City is also pursuing a grant through Maryland Strickland’s office. Marygrace indicated that Paul Simmons had the lead for that effort.

Jim Rioux will contact Paul to see if he has more information on that grant.

The online petition had received over 2600 signatures to date.

The City has a survey on the Engage Olympia site. There is also a lot of good information available on that site.

Eastside Art Crossing

Jim Sweeney reported that things are moving forward nicely. He has pictures of the totems that he will share with the board.

For the Good of the Order

Sherry mentioned that there were some comments from people that wanted more input on mural on artist. Lesson learned for next time.

Jim Sweeny asked that we start thinking about how to hold an in-person meetings now that vaccines are rolling out.

Jim Rioux suggested we reach out Yến Huỳnh to set up an informal meet and greet. The board agreed with this idea.

Neighborhood Meeting Minutes – March 2021

ENA Board Meeting Minutes

March 10, 2021

Virtual Meeting

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Cheryl Bayle, Chris Knight, Roger Horn, Jim Rioux, Jim Sweeney.

Neighborhood Office Invitation

Sherry contacted the new neighborhood officer, but he did not respond yet. We will try to arrange for him to attend a future meeting.

Treasurer’s Report

Checking $516.86

Savings 1062.11

Signs 1305.38

Trees 153.04

Beauty 409.33

Approval of February Minutes

Approved with Edits

Blood Bank at FUMCO

Chris reported that the Blood Bank will be accepting blood donations at FUMCO on Tuesday and Wednesday, 3/15 and 3/16.

CNA Report

There were three presentations from staff at the last CNA meeting.

Amy Buckler provided an update of the housing plan. It seemed that her key message was that we will experience significant growth and we have only started to build the housing units that will be needed.

There was significant follow-up discussion about large developments being proposed for West Bay Drive and that lack adequate public process.

Stephanie Johnson shared the City’s plans for this year’s Arts Walk. Parks is planning a virtual approach that maps art throughout the City and encourages people to visit the site over the Month of April She is interested in hearing from Neighborhood Associations that wish to participate.

Teal Russell provided a homeless update. Seems like the City has reached a status quo with the Plum St. Village working well, the mitigation camp managing and looking forward to wood shelters, and unmanaged camps continuing without any good answers. There is also coming discussion of a formal RV site, but progress is slow.

RNA Grants

Jim R. has submitted a draft application for larger signboards. Lydia indicated that it is good to go.

Sherry is working with the artist Laurel Henn to finalize the application for a mural. There is a lot of interest and excitement about the project.

Missing Sidewalks on 7th Avenue

Roger said that according to Paul Horton who lives on 7th and attended a Core Team meeting, three of four property owners are okay with adding a sidewalk along the street. The Core Team will continue to work on this issue.

South Sound Children’s Reading Book Drive

Sherry reported on the ongoing Book Drive. It has been a great success in the past.

They will take books in any condition and if necessary, send them to others to handle them.

Removal of Infected Tees

Roger has contacted Tim Smythe and Michelle (Shelly) Bentley. All are waiting to hear from Michelle who indicated that she may have access to a waiver that the City has used for the insurance requirements.

Tim will also try to connect with Michelle.

Coffee Shop at Swantown Inn

The board discuss additional steps that could be taken to help efforts to get a coffee stand at the Inn.

The Board was generally in favor, but without better information about what others in the neighborhood feel, did not feel ready to provide a written endorsement.

Jim R recommended that Nathan reach out to the immediate neighbors to see if there is any strong objection.