Category: Minutes

Attendance

• Board Members:  Sherry Chilcutt, Mitch Dennis, Brad Archbold, Nathan Allan, Sandia Slaby, Pat Bayle, Katy & Andrew Beattie, Whitney Bowerman
• Others Present: Teresa Goen-Burgman & Mike Carny

Community Concerns

Teresa Goen-Burgman and Mike Carny attended the board meeting to express a number of concerns they had.

Teresa Goen-Burgman, who manages property adjacent to the Eastside, stated that at a recent Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) meeting decisions were being made that will affect our neighborhood in ways that we might want to better understand.

Mike Carny, who does not currently live in the Eastside neighborhood but has in the past, added that he opposed the planned annexation of the Medela property into the City of Olympia. City Council recently voted (5-2) to recommend this annexation to the County Commissioners, who have that final say. He encouraged us to advocate for our neighborhood with the City & County. Another example of changes he sees coming to the Eastside is the City’s plan for a cell tower on the 7th Ave water tower.

In discussion of the above presentations, the Board agreed that it would be in the ENA’s interest to be represented regularly at the monthly CNA meetings.

Legion Way Trees

Katy Beattie read a letter she wrote to the Olympia City Council thanking them for their recognition in 2010 of the value of the Legion Way oak trees, and their having set a policy & funded a program to protect, maintain & re-plant (as needed) these heritage trees. Her letter asked that the re-planted specimens be somewhat larger than they have been. Katy and Nathan Allan will collaborate on a presentation of the letter at a City Council meeting in the near future.

Community Garden Update

Sandia reported that the New Bridge Community Church’s management team has voted in support of hosting a community garden site on their property, and to work collaboratively with ENA residents on the project if there is enough interest from ENA residents to gardening there. They have designated $5,000 toward the start-up of the project (for such things as fencing, framing for garden beds, tools & a storage location for them, etc.)  A church member has volunteered to be New Bridge’s liaison for this project. Anyone interested in participating should contact Sandia ([email protected]).

Board Members & Officer Elections

Election of board members and officers occur at the February 19 Annual Meeting and the March Board Meeting, respectively. We clarified which current Board members want to stay on the Board & which officers we need replacements for. Three new board members are needed, for a total of at least 10 and no more than 20 board members, per the ENA by-laws. The President and Vice President officer positions will also be vacant, and will need to be elected at the March board meeting. Board member terms are 2 years, officer terms are 1 year.

February 19 Annual Meeting Agenda

• The importance and role of neighborhood associations in City planning (Stephen Buxbaum, Julie Hankins and a representative from the CNA will be present)
• Legion Way trees
• Update on New Bridge Community Garden project
• Update on Madison Elementary construction
• Board elections

Neighborhood Education Forum

An ENA resident is organizing a forum to discuss the issue of heroin use and drug needles being found in the Eastside. More information will be provided in the coming week.

ENA Member Dues Changes

The ENA will implement online payment for dues in the near future. Nathan suggested Gravity Forms. Whitney will check with Luke regarding finding a less costly or free option. If none is available, the Board approves spending $199 to obtain Gravity Forms.

The Board also approved changing ENA annual dues to come due on January 1 of each year, and to change the amount from $10 annually to a self-determined sliding scale of $10 – $30 (each household can determine what they feel they can afford to contribute). The purpose of a due date is to alleviate the confusion many dues paying residents have of when their payments are due.

Treasurer’s Report

• Checking $180.50
• Savings $528.48
• Neighborhood signs $1295.90
• Legion Way Trees $151.03
• Community Beautification $504.63
• CD unspecified use $1028.13

Newsletter Distribution

Sandia presented the historical newsletter distribution list to this current Board.  This is the list of volunteers, and the routes that they have been distributing. Ruth Middlebrook had established and coordinated the distribution effort for years, through January 2013 (THANK YOU, Ruth!). Sandia recently contacted the listed distributors, updated their interest and availability, and confirmed their routes.  Approximately 2/3 of the households in the ENA are currently covered for newsletter distribution  – there still remain 6 routes for which we need volunteers to distribute newsletters.

Anyone interested in helping with newsletter distribution should contact Sandia at [email protected] or 866-4561.

Meeting Dates for 2014

Meeting dates for 2014 were set and are available on the Calendar.

• Board meetings (3rd Wednesday, 6:30 pm): January 15, March 19, April 16, May 21, June 18, September 17, October 15, November 19, December 17
• Quarterly General Membership meetings: February 19, May 14, October 8
• General Neighborhood Summer Picnic:  Saturday, August 17th  (11 am – 2 pm)

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.
Minutes submitted by Sandia Slaby, Secretary

Attendance

• Board Members:  Sherry Chilcutt, Mitch Dennis, Brad Archbold, Nathan Allan, Sandia Slaby, Pat Bayle, Katy & Andrew Beattie, Whitney Bowerman

Community Garden at New Bridge Church

Sandia reported on the meeting that took place on September 29th at New Bridge Community Church with two members of the church, Doug Danville & Rhonda Davis (grounds care coordinator) to explore the possibilities of a community garden being established on the church property. The aim of this meeting was to tour potential sites on their property for a community garden. The gist of that meeting is a follows:

• Two places two places were identified by Rhonda & Doug where some garden boxes could be placed where there is or could be water accessibility for irrigation, the one with easier access & seemingly more favored by the reps the church is on the ‘bench’ on top of the west facing slope along Central out front of the building.
• We discussed things like the number of beds that would fit in that area (over 15), the need to fence it in (and that the church may be willing to put up $$ for such fencing), chemicals that the grounds maintenance company has used on the grass there in the last few years, access for bringing in the supplies to build such beds, and that the church thinks there are probably some members that would participate in work parties to create such beds. I stated that we know little yet about the actual numbers of people in the neighborhood who are interested enough to actually fully participating in a community garden project on any level.
• We ended the meeting with Doug & Rhonda agreeing to find out more info from the church about the commitments they as an institution can make to this project,and about the specific herbicides that have been used since New Bridge has been on the property. Meta & I agreed to evaluate if there is energy from ENA members to spearhead this project. Sandia said she’d been awaiting further info from New Bridge before beginning that evaluation. (But after the meeting she has said that since that info from the church is being slow to manifest, she will put a question out on the ENA website and Nextdoor to inquire generally about interest from ENA residents in participating in a community garden project there.)

Trails Update

Brad gave an update on the trail proposals that the ENA had submitted to the City of Olympia’s neighborhood trail program..  The proposal we submitted involving a trail between 13th & Eastside St. is now on hold, and the proposal for the McCormick to Central trail is to be withdrawn due to wetland issues (Indian Creek).  This could possibly be made if  a bridge were built over the wetland, but the building of such a structure is beyond the scope of the city trail program to begin with.

Membership & Dues

Our treasurer, Sherry Chilcutt, reported that there are 30 paying member households in our ENA, which is out of over one thousand (1000) households in our entire ENA region.

We discussed the value of there being this existing (ENA) organization, with one person stating how “we don’t know how valuable it is until we need it”, until we really need one another, and then being connected already can really be helpful; that if we weren’t already organized, it could be much more difficult to communicate or work together, especially promptly or efficiently. It was pointed out that it was the city of Olympia that identified & organized these existing neighborhoods as they are, & then associations were formed to represent the residents therein. It is through these associations & their members/ boards that the city communicates with it’s residents. If we as residents want to be informed of specifically of city business, events, or decisions that effect the southeast neighborhood without each one of us calling or going to City Hall frequently & inquiring, an ENA needs to exist, since the City relays such information to elected neighborhood association Boards, when there is one.

We then discussed 1) the need to explore both what we want this organization to be & do for us beyond being the conduit for the dissemination of information from the City, and 2) how we might involve our residents in exploring that last idea, and how to inform & educate the average resident also about the above mentioned value/need for a neighborhood association.

We discussed writing up some of these ideas about the value of neighborhood association, and including it in an ENA newsletter to reach more people with these points. But in discussing that idea, the treasurer confirmed that we would use about all we currently have in our general fund (which comes from the paying household memberships) plus the credit we have with our printer to print one newsletter. So, it was unanimous that we should increase our paying membership before we can afford to publish an actual newsletter size publication.

We discussed the online payment capability, and the need to get that established on the ENA website (we approved that & it was close to happening last year, but didn’t get accomplished). There was unanimous support for that to happen.

Our supporting membership dues has been $10/year for over a decade.

Treasurer’s Report

Checking balance $150.56
Savings account $528.40
Neighborhood Signs $1295.73
Legion Way Trees $150.99
Community Beautification $504.53
Long term Savings CD $1027.76

Newsletter Distribution

Sandia reported that she’d gotten the list of our past newsletter distributors & their routes from Ruth Middlebrook, and this info is available, as needed.  Sandia agreed to call (or email) the people on the list to assess their interest & availability to continue with the task of hand distributing written ENA correspondence to EN residents, which was in the form of newsletters until early in 2012.

It was unanimously agreed  that we would print up a postcard size notice following our January Board meeting, which will be distributed by hand to EN residents to notify & invite folks to the Annual General Membership meeting in February. At that meeting we have Board elections & we already know that we will at least have an opening position for a new President (as Luke Bowerman stepped down last Aug. & Brad Archbold, who is serving as Interim President, will not be a candidate for the next term as Board President).

Neighborhood Boundaries

The question of the region between Plum Street & Eastside,  and 4th Ave &  the freeway was discussed,  as it was raised months back that we consider asking the city to annex that region into the ENA’s.  This is being considered, because that region, though officially within the Downtown Neighborhood Association, isn’t accurately represented many residents & business owners there say (they do not associate themselves as being part of  downtown). What occurs in that region affects our neighborhood more than it does downtown. Brad will contact a city rep to inquire about what the  process would be to request annexation into the ENA.

Neighborhood Boundaries

A new homeless shelter for young adults 18-24 years of age is being built near our neighborhood by Community Youth Services, who purchased a building at Legion & Pear. CYS has requested a change in zoning, and there is not a conditional use permit process in the plan, thus it was discussed that it would be good if we had a rep. attending those planning meetings. No one volunteered, though the importance of us having someone there for the city to see there is ENA interest in this project & proposals related.

Is there anyone in the neighborhood interested & available to attend planning meetings for this Community Youth Services shelter project, to keep the ENA apprised of issues that clearly are of interest or/and will effect us, & to represent the ENA?

Problem Properties

We had a discussion on problem properties that code and law enforcement have been requested to evaluate.

Next Meeting

Pat Bayle will host our January Board meeting on January 15, 2014 from 6:30-7:30. He lives at 1402 13th Ave SE, west of Central, across from the community gardens on 13th. His phone number is (360) 561-3143.

Meeting adjourned at 7:33 pm.

The Public Forum regarding The People’s House low-barrier shelter, held on Monday, August 19, at St. Michael’s Church, generated a list of questions that Interfaith Works has now responded to – The People’s House – Forum Responses. Unofficial “minutes” for the forum are available as well.

Attendance

• Board Members:  Andrew & Katy Beattie, Brad Archibold, Roberta Golden, Whitney Bowerman, Bev Kooi, Pat Bayle Nathan Allan, Sandia Slaby
• ENA Residents: Stan Butler

ENA President

Luke Bowerman resigned the ENA Presidency effective Friday August 15. The Board met to discuss this issue and clarify current expectations of the ENA President.

There were no nominations for the replacement President. The ENA Vice President, Brad Archbold, expressed willingness to serve as Interim President, and his offer was accepted unanimously. He will serve as Interim President until the next Board elections in February 2014. Brad can be reached at [email protected].

Since the issue of the “People’s House” low-barrier shelter arose, Luke was spending vastly more time on ENA President duties, including actively reaching out to Interfaith Works, the City and other project stakeholders. The Board agreed that it would be difficult for any one person (in light of other responsibilities – work, family, etc) to continue to spend this much time on this volunteer role. It was unanimously agreed upon that an acting/interim ENA president, at this juncture, would fulfill the following minimum responsibilities (these responsibilities were already being fulfilled, in addition to many more):

• Act as the communications liaison between the City & the ENA, keeping the Board apprised promptly of all correspondence to the ENA from the City and from other parties, and forwarding information necessary for residents to Whitney for posting on the ENA website. Residents can sign up for digest emails on the ENA website – eastside-olympia.org.

• Attend Olympia Coalition of Neighborhoods Association meetings monthly, or ensure our Board is represented at them by another ENA Board member.

Low-Barrier Shelter

The Board takes no position on the “People’s House” (Interfaith Works) proposed “low-barrier” shelter. Information received by the ENA regarding the shelter will be posted on the ENA website.

ENA Annual Picnic

The ENA annual picnic that was held on Saturday August 17 was reportedly successful, with about 45 people attending, although it ended with an altercation. This occurred between a few attendees (~6) that had never been seen at any ENA activities before, who arrived toward the end, and who were speaking quite aggressively, loudly & verbally assaultively, about the “low-barrier” shelter & some opposition to the proposed shelter that this group had heard from ENA residents. The group made many verbally assaultive accusations towards ENA residents as a whole, and specific attacks towards a certain household.

Thank You

The Board of Directors expresses much appreciation of & thanks to Luke Bowerman for the extensive service he contributed as our Board President over the last 6+ months & accepts, with regret & understanding, his resignation as President due to the reasons he explained in his August 15th resignation letter.

Other Topics

It was noted that the delivery systems we’ve used this year for disseminating information to residents (postcards or new letters) both have plusses & minuses, as does the portion of the neighborhood who is on the the social network, Nextdoor.com. Bev noted that the success in reaching residents & getting residents to engage with one another & in ENA activities is currently the greatest she has seen over the 27 years she has lived here. Sandia advocated that we continue outreach via either news letters or postcards to continue reaching out to include/invite those without computer/internet access; to not assume that even most of our residents have internet access. Sandia agreed to get together with Ruth Middlebrook to get info about the system that the ENA has used to distribute our newsletters over the years, so the Board understands it, including the list of distributors & areas/mapped. Whitney advocated that the newsletter routes be looked at and revised if needed, and that the route and volunteer information be more widely understood so delivery can occur even if Ruth is out of town.

Bev showed us examples of ENA Business cards for Board members that she is willing to make for us on the computer, telling us that if we want some, each of us needs to get her our contact info to put on them.

Bev also mentioned a topic for a later meeting: outreach, generally, and specifically to seniors.

Sandia requested that our meetings be managed according to Robert’s rules of order, as they have been in the past, to ensure all voting members have a chance to discuss understand & decide on each decision made.

Meeting adjourned at ~ 1:10 pm