Category: Minutes

Eastside Neighborhood Association

Board of Directors Meeting Notes

November 18, 2020

Virtual Meeting

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Rioux, Cheryl Bayle, Chris Knight, Roger Horn, Cindy Fulton, Jim Sweeny, Lisa Robinson

Low Income Housing

Nathan discussed the need for more discussions with neighboring jurisdictions (Lacey, Tumwater, Thurston County, etc.) about doing more to provide alternative housing like we are seeing tried in Olympia.

Cheryl expressed concern about the camp developing around the Capitol Lake. Seems tile is growing.

Sherry mentioned that the City has engaged other jurisdictions.

• Upzoning/Housing Options

Nathan expressed concern about the lack of discussion about infrastructure. Our neighborhood currently lacks adequate infrastructure in many areas and the new ordinances will bring more people into the neighborhood without doing anything to address these needs.

Further discussion about more housing focused on concerns about the character of neighborhood.

Sherry asked if the Board wanted to comment at the upcoming Council meeting where the Housing Options will be brought forward for a final decision. Most members said yes.

Roger noted that the LUEC will take this up on Thursday. He recommended that we wait to see wat happens at that meeting. Roger and Sherry will participate in the LUEC zoom meeting.

Roger will report out to the Subarea Plan core team on the following Thursday and that group will draft a letter if they feel that is appropriate.

• Sidewalk Updates

Roger provide an update on the letter he sent to Mark Russell at the City. That letter acknowledged the lack of funding and asks for assistance in finding funding to take on small projects on local access streets in need of attention.

• Choke Cherry Tree Removal

Sherry provided update. Essentially the City’s permit requirements have put the idea on indefinite hold. The insurance requirements are too expensive to take on.

Tim Smyth plans to put more focus on conducting an inventory and history of the trees in out neighborhood.

•  Staff Report on Housing Options

Joyce Phillips, Planning Commission staff, reviewed staff recommendations and changes that came from the Planning Commission.

The most significant change was the addition of fourplexes and sixplexes to the staff recommendation.

She outlined the lot size and parking requirements associated with any such proposal.

She also pointed out that staff will be required to conduct an annual review to assess how these changes are affecting the community.

She outlined the process going forward, LUEC tomorrow then Council on December 8.

She closed by letting us know that the Planning Commission letter can be found on the City’s Housing Code web site

• FUMCO Shelter Briefing

Meg Martin, Exec Director of the FUMCO shelter provided an update of the shelter at the FUMCO is joining us around 8PM.

Meg explained that her organization had purchased the old Foam and Fabric property.  They will demo the existing building and build a modular building.

They are also working with LiHi to build permanent supportive housing.at the Martin Way sire. It is the work at the Martin Way site that is causing a temporary need to find additional shelter. That need will be met by using available space T FUMC.

FUMCO offered their building to provide a 38-bed shelter. Safety requirement and in place and they include robust COVID protocols. The people at this location receive targeted case management. Most over 60 or high risk for poor COVID 19 outcomes.

More information can be found at their website <https://www.iwshelter.org/temporary-shelter.html>

Staff are trained and have a very aggressive cleaning regimen. The living spaces and the grounds are monitored continuously, and staff are all trained in de-escalation techniques.

They expect to only need the FUMC space until March 31, 2021. FUMCO

Chris – This has been a benefit to the church. They have never had this kind of monitoring of the church property.  

Roger – What are you hearing from neighbors?  Meg – Some questions but no objections

Sherry – How can others help? Meals, donations, clothes twin sheets and blanket, pillowcases, towels. socks, clothing etc.  Drop off any items at United Churches admin offices.

• Winter Walk About

Notices are up, event posted on web site.  Nathan asked about prizes and recommended

3-$50 gift certificates from Left Bank.

The board unanimously approved that recommendation.

• Member Communication

Roger mentioned getting something on next door every Friday. He discussed asking for help to paint new signs and discussed the value of handing out notices and newsletters.

• New meeting time

Nathan reminded everyone to fill out doodle pol if they have not.

After discussion about what we saw at this point from the poll, the board decided to leave our meeting on Wednesday, but switch the meeting to the second Wednesday of the month. Some board members had conflicts on the third Wednesday of the month.

The board unanimously agreed to move our meetings to the second Wednesday of the month starting in December 2020.  

Lions Park Spray Park Letter

Jim Rioux had incorporated Roger’s edits. Sherry mentioned that Jim Sweeny provided some comments that should be included. Jim R. agreed to finalize the letter and get it to Sherry for signature.

Armory Updates

Jim Sweeney provided an update and expressed concern about the City ability to purchase the property.  He felt a letter to our letter to legislators was needed to request state funding or direction to give the property to the city for a very low dollar amount.

After indicating support, The Military Department has now declined to support or oppose the listing of the property for historic designation. The City is still going forward with process for designation.

The city team is making presentation to Council on December 8.

Joint letter for neighborhood map.

ONNA is sending the North East Neighborhood map to Council Members.

We have a similar map. The board decided to ask ONNA if it would be possible to include copies of that map.

Roger mentioned that the ONNA letter may be too far along to change and that we can do something separately.

Bylaw Revisions from Annual Meeting

Jim will revise and send final copy to the Board.

Approval of minutes

The Board approved the October meeting minutes

Treasurer’s Report

Sherry sent the following report via e-mail.

Checking $570.66

Trees $152.96

Savings $1061.81

Signs $1305.00

Community Beauty $409.17

Total $3499.60

Next Meeting

December 09, 2020

7:00 pm

Virtual Meeting

Eastside Neighborhood Association

Board of Directors Meeting Notes

September 16, 2020

Virtual Meeting

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Rioux, Jim Sweeney, Roger Horn, Nathan Allan, Tim Smythe, Marygrace Goodue (Olympia CP&D), Jon Cardona (Newbridge), Stephanie Johnson (Olympia Parks), Jon Cardona

• Art Crossing

Stephanie Johnson gave a presentation on the status of the Art Crossing project.  The artist has been selected, Andrea Wilbur-Sigo.  Ms. Wilbur-Sigo is an active member of the Squaxin Island Tribe, and her work reflects her heritage and a robust artistic community. Stephanie showed slides of her work.

Jim Sweeny shared how excited the jury was with the selection.

The next step is a community neighborhood meeting.  Stephanie would like to hold that meeting in early October.

The board discussed combining that with a Special Meeting of the member to share that, due to the pandemic, a February meeting is not likely. The board also wants to propose moving our Annual Meeting to October which requires an amendment to our bylaws. This will; allow us more time to submit required information to the City and meet their deadlines.

We decided to hold a combined meeting on October 14, 2020. Jim will work with Stephanie to the word out about the meeting.

• Historic Neighborhood Designation

Marygrace gave a brief presentation on the Armory.

The city is very excited about the project. The facility is ideal for all sorts of gatherings.  City staff toured several facilities managed by public entities. They came away excited about the impact of these facilities have on their communities.

The building is in very good shape. It is a stone structure that is well maintained and clean. The City will get a report that outlines facility condition. City staff is interested, but council has not approved the purchase.

The Department of the Military will put the building up for sale in about a year through the State surplus center. It must be offered first to other state agencies and governmental entities. The City does not believe any other agencies are interested.

There is an Internal group staring to put together a public communication plan, and there is a November study session planned for City Council.

Roger asked if they had an idea of the cost.  Stephanie said they did not.

Roger asked if historic designation helps. Marygrace clarified that it is not yet designated as a historic property. Jim Sweeney is working with the City on that.  The local designation is what caries the most weight and they hope to have the application submitted before the building is put on the market.

Sherry asked about Historic District designation

Marygrace explained the general process. She indicated that we would need good documentation outlining why the district should receive historic designation.   There is a process that begins with a reconnaissance level survey. It begins with inventory of historical features of the district.

The next step is more formal inventory of historic features. This is a significant amount of work.

The most important first step is understanding why you would do this.

The designation comes with some regulation. Olympia only has jurisdiction over exterior alterations visible to the street.  Historic preservation review would become part of the building permit review.

Roger asked if the Olympia Historical Society supports historic designation of the Armory. Marygrace indicated that she was in contact with them and they do support it.

• After School Homework help

Jon Cardona with the New Bridge Community Church discussed the challenges of COVID-19 and the needs of children and parents trying to manage school needs. The church asked what they could do to help. They came up with the idea of a Free Homework Help Club. Starting with Madison Elementary Scholl and they are looking for ENA support.

They will hold homework help sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:00 pm. Kids can sign up for 45-minute time slots. Volunteers will get training and receive background checks.

Benefits are not only homework help, but also provides safe social interaction.

They plan to start Tuesday September 29^th.

They are looking for feedback.

Nathan thought the program was great.

Sherry asked how they are advertising? Jon said that they are banners at the church and mailers.

Sherry asked what their capacity is. Jon explained that they have 30 to 40 volunteers that have teaching experience.

sherry suggested that we post something on NeXT door. Nathan mentioned that we can put something on our web site,

• Trees-Black Knot Fungus

Tim Smyth talked about the history of trees that are now being impacted by the fungus.  He shared that he has organized a volunteer effort for conducting tree removal.  He is looking for support and help with notification of adjacent landowners.

There was a general discussion about the history of tree planting in the neighborhood. Tim offered to give a Tree Tour of the areas where he has planted trees over the years.  

Since the City is not providing any support for the effort to remove and replant the trees, the Board discussed providing a donation. The board held a vote and it was a unanimous decision to donate $300 for trees.

• Approval of minutes

July and August minutes were approved.

• Treasurer Report

Checking $438.30

Savings $1061.66

Neighborhood Signs $1304.81

Legion Way Trees $152.92

Community Beautification $409.09

Next Meeting  

October 21, 2020

7:00 PM

Virtual Meeting.

Eastside Neighborhood Association

Board of Directors Meeting Notes

August 19, 2020

Virtual Meeting

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

Andy Mort, Sarah Giannobile (City Parks, Arts and Recreation)

• Lion’s Park Spray-park

Sarah Giannobile showed a concept plan. City Parks is proposing taking out the back wall of shelter and installing concrete pad to transition from shelter to spray pad located just west of the tennis courts.

Equipment will be located near the northwest corner of the tennis court. Location was chosen to minimize noise for adjacent property owners. There will be a 10 ft. asphalt access road for maintenance crews that will run along the north end of the tennis court.

A pathway will run along the west side of the park connecting the spray pad with the shelter.

Parallel parking along Wilson will be paved and 10 perpendicular parking spaces will be paved near the rest rooms.

They hope to start getting public feedback next month. Design and permitting through 2022 and construction 2023. COVID-10 impacts may push that out.

Cheryl: How does 1,000 sq ft compare to the Garfield?

Sarah: This one is slightly bigger.

Cheryl: Will there be additional parking on east side of park.

Sarah: No.

Jim S: SW Corner new pathway goes through old spray. I’d like to see that stay.

Sarah:  City Transportation has asked for that connection which results in removal of the small spray pad.

Jim R:  The path along the west side of the park should have an ADA accessible option that does not go through the spray pad.

Please do not remove the sink in the shelter. that is used by most people that use the shelter.

If this spray pad is like the one at Garfield, it is way too large and out of scale for this park.

It seems that parking and resultant pedestrian safety issues have not been considered. This area does not have the capacity to absorb the increased traffic and parking like the area around Garfield.

Jim S: I agree, Parks needs to address parking and traffic.

Amy: I live immediately adjacent to the  new spray-park so I am very concerned about parking and traffic.  Can we increase head in parking.

Sarah: We are limited to 10 delineated spaces

Discussion continued around parking and traffic impacts and affect the new facility will have on the character of the park and this section of the neighborhood. Lots of discussion about parking and lack of parking.

• Andy Mort

Andy described a situation on 9^th Street between Boundary and Eastside Streets that was impact mail delivery.

There was a physical disturbance involving a mail carrier. A tenant assaulted the carrier. This resulted temp termination of service and USPS has informed him that home delivery will be replaced with a cluster box that will be installed near Boundary Street. Installation is scheduled for October. Until them most residents must go to the Downtown Post Office pick up their mail. One of his neighbors is elderly and he has two children. In the pandemic this is a major concern.

He is being told that this is an efficiency measure, but he believes the real reason is the disturbance.

Mail not being delivered to most of the street. Some homes do get mail but it is not clear why some do and others do not.

He has spoken with several USPS officials understand rationale.  Feels like he is getting the runaround,

Reached out to City, Denny Heck and virtually everyone he thought might be able to help.

Looking for support to prevent cluster box.

Jim S: This is a Historic Neighborhood. Not designated as a historic district, but cluster boxes seem inconsistent.  City has raised issue of getting historic district designation.

Chris:  Schedule of making changes is probably impacted by uncertainty at USPS. The Church has been losing mail recently.

Andy: The resident that had the disturbance is moving, so it seems like USPSs should consider that.  

Roger: Were police involved?

Andy: USPS said the delivery stop was at the discretion of the Police.  Police said that it is not their jurisdiction.  Andy has been told that internally USPS considers the matter closed and they will not respond to him any longer.

Jim: Recommend you contact council and City Manager. USPS will not be influenced by City staff. Maybe Council can at least request an explanation.

• Armory Update

Jim S:  Meeting was held yesterday. Dept. of Military is moving to sell the property. A letter has gone out for comment. The City wants to buy it but will likely simply ask for more time.

The City is making good progress getting property listed on the City’s heritage resister.

There is a new folder under subarea plan on google drive. It contains the supporting information.

Roger: Has this gone to Council at all?

Jim S.:  Not since LUEC touch.

• Subarea Planning Group Report

Jim S. and Jim R. took part in a zoom meeting with ONNA. Sidewalks were the major topic. Lots of good information from Peter about how to make the case for City funding.  Our focus is on funding ad collaboration for small gap projects.

• Annual Meeting

The annual meeting and other events are is off until we get to a better place with COVID-19.

• Tom Boucher Map

Not much to update. Cheryl pointed out that it was unfortunate that Tom did ours already. We did not have the opportunity to participate.

• Hiring Puppet Show in Fall

Sherry checked in with the group to get a sense of our interest. Jim R. mentioned that he was interested.  Sherry explained that the group Nathan has contacted, Shadow and String” does pop up puppet performances.

Sherry will talk with Nathan

• Housing Committee Report

Sherry went to a cake gathering and had the opportunity to talk with Trudy, the director of Homes First. When she started, they had 25 houses. She thought they could do more. The board was not interested in expanding. She replaced the board and started fundraising. They now have 47 homes. They collaborate with LIHI to deal with the needs of people in the homes.

Rent covers expenses. 

They compete on open market for homes. They plan to continue to grow.

Roger:  Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity has established 75 houses since their start 1979. They plan 11 more, to add120 apartments.Their new project in Tumwater will add 47 units.

• Google Access

Sherry: It is a debacle. Need two-step verification. She Need to talk with Sheena and Nathan.  Nathan’s e-mail seems to suggest starting over with google suite.

Chris: The Church uses it and it is a good bargain for non-profit organizations

• Trees on Legion Way

Sherry received and e-mail from the City. Black not fungus spreading in our neighborhood.  They don’t have resources to assist and suggested getting 3 bid for contracts. 

• Treasurer Report

Same as July.

• Eastside Art Project

City agreed with artist recommendation, so they are working on a contract

• Use of Force Advisory Committee

Sherry mentioned this committee and asked if anyone had served in this kind of committee.  No one responded.

• For the Good of the Order

Jim S: Suggest we invite Marygrace to our next meeting to discuss implications of Historic District.

Amy and Sherry are working on the fundraiser for Madison.

Chris: We are finishing up the Church’s fundraiser. They raised $3,000 for school supplies. Looking into a grant for an additional $875 ish.  Giving spirit seems stronger right now.

Chris: The Church not meeting again soon.  Sidewalk is still working. Chris explained that they work to get housing for adults without children.  They also help with other needs. They recently helped people with stable addresses get their stimulus checks through sidewalk.

• Meeting Adjourned

Next Meeting

September 16, 2020

7:00 PM

Virtual Meeting.

Eastside Neighborhood Association

Board of Directors Meeting Notes

July 15, 2020

Virtual Meeting

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Rioux, Jim Sweeney, Cheryle Bayle, Nathan Allan, Roger Horn, Amy Hill

• Approval of June Minutes

June 15, draft minutes approved.

• Annual Dinner at the Park

Jim R. has reserved the Lions Park Shelter for August 15. Give the rise in cases of COVID 19. We will re-schedule for some time late in September.

• Fundraiser for Madison

Sherry spoke with the principal of Madison Elementary school. He runs a fundraiser every year to buy supplies for students. He felt the need would be great this year and normal outreach methods may not be effective. The board discuss how we could help get the word out to help with the School’s fundraising efforts.

• Spray Park Update

Sherry contacted Sara with the City Parks Department. Design is moving forward. The City hopes to have more information available next

• Housing Committee update

Sherry has been in contact Paul Horton with cottage house future plan. They are interested in working together to get a project in the Eastside Neighborhood. Sherry will continue working with them to see how we can help.

• CNA Report

Jim R. reported that most neighborhood associations are struggling with event and communication with members given the constraints imposed by the pandemic.

There was a great deal of discussion around short-term rentals. Judy Bardin shared that a rental near her home has turned into a “party House” has become a nuisance due to noise and excessive cars,

City has approved funding for a web site, survey monkey and zoom account. Survey monkey may be useful if we want to get feedback on issues like sidewalk conditions.

Jim S and Roger provided CNA with a brief presentation on our plan. We decided to set up a meeting with ONNA to see how we can work together on implementation.

• Subarea Planning Group Report

Jim Sweeney discuss our efforts to focus on sidewalks due to input received at the last annual meeting. We met with the City, but the conclusions were not encouraging. There really is no funding for local access streets.

We look forward to discussion with ONNA

Historical designation for the Armory is moving forward. Jim S and Cheryl with keep working with that group

• Letter to Madison

Sherry mailed the letter to Domenico Spatola-Knoll.

• Treasurer Report

Checking 419.47

Savings 1061.50

Signs 1304.61

Trees 152.88

Beautification 409.01

Total 3347.47

• Meeting Adjourned

Next Meeting

August 19, 2020

7:00 PM

Virtual Meeting.