Category: Minutes

Eastside Neighborhood Association

Board of Directors Meeting Notes

June 17, 2020

Virtual Meeting

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Rioux, Cindy Fulton, Jim Sweeney, Cheryle Bayle, Chris Knight, Nathan Allan, Roger Horn

• Annual Picnic/ Block Parties/Variety Show

The Board discussed the proposed dates for block [parties. There was general concern that the level of control of the virus is not what we had hoped for.  The Board decided to wait until Labor Day and only if we are in phase 4.

• Council of Neighborhood Associations

Jim R. provided a debrief from last CNA meeting.

Significant amount of discussion about the City moving to Phase 2. People sticking to the rules around masks and social distancing seem hit and miss. There is a great deal of caution, but the City is opening up some operations.

Larry led a review of the CNA charter documents.  There was some discussion about whether or not the CNA is meeting the intent of those that formed it,

Funding for a Zoom account, Survey Monkey and a website has been approved. More to come on how ENA can access these tools.

• Lions Park Spray-ground

Jim reached out to Jake Lund with City Parks, Arts and Recreation Department (PAR).  Jake confirmed that the design process was delayed by the virus, but they were picking it up again. Sara Greenburg will take over public outreach and they are looking at using Engage Olympia for public comment.

Jim R. will send Sara’s contact information to Sherry so that Sherry can request a briefing from Sara.

• First United Methodist Church

Some members of the congregation want to back to normal services. Church leadership does not think that it is time to do that yet.  They cannot guarantee that holding services would do no harm.  A church in Oregon opened and the result was 200 new cases.

The church is still not making home visit, but they are calling people to check in, see if assistance is needed or simply listening to people dealing with the virus and isolation.

Chris contacted Homes First and talked with Phil with Sidewalk. Sidewalk is operating, but with significantly scaled back operations.   There are a lot of people coming through and they are trying to help those with stimulus checks find housing.

Blood Works approached the church for a blood drive.   It ran for six weeks. Seemed like a success.

• Food Bank

Sherry took part in the recent food drive. Donations were much lower than in previous years.

• Armory

Jim S. provide an update of work to gain historical designation of the Armory. According to Marygrace with the City, it looks like stars are starting to line up. The City is sub-contracting with the military complete a doing study of the history of armories.

The City is looking at community center

Roger spoke with Stephanie Johnson. She is excited about potential arts center.

• Sub-area Plan Implementation

The Core Team is meeting every other week. Work is focused on reviewing input from the neighborhood and determining areas to prioritize.

Walkability and sidewalks were the highest priority. The Core teem is considering a survey to find the highest priority small project. They are also reaching out to City transportation for assistance.

• May 20 Meeting Notes

The Board approved the draft notes from the April 15 Board Meeting. 

• Treasurer’s Report

Checking $419.47

Savings $1061.43

Signs $1304.52

Trees $152.86

Neighborhood Beautification $408.97

Grand Total $3347.25

• Housing

Sherry is doing outreach. Whitney did not think an ENA committee would help. Sherry contacted Gail Sullivan with Fertile Ground.

Jim S. thought that Gail wanted to do a presentation about what they are doing with the Thurston County Land Trust.

Roger will help with housing.

• Neighborhood Events

Roger does not think a virtual variety show will work. He is looking at a live show in September

The Candidate Forum is still under consideration.

• Good of the Order

Chris – The church is planning another supply drive for school. Madison school. In the past they have been able to sponsor a class. This year we are doing a fund drive to purchase supplies for schools.  People can connect with the drive via Facebook.

Nathan – Madison is only school that every class has had a sponsor.

Nathan – Madison has lost its pre-school program This is a huge loss. The program has moved to Roosevelt. This will not serve our neighborhood effectively.  They haven’t given any reason for the changes. This was in process before the virus hit.

ENA should take a position.  Nathan agreed to send bullet points to the board. Jim will draft a letter for Sherry to sign. Recommendation is that it be sent to the Principal and copied to the School Board and City Council.

Cheryl – Do we a place for comments on the website?  No one at the meeting was sure

Cheryl – There was an article on Thurston Talk about the map that was recently created for the North East neighborhood.

• Meeting Adjourned

Next Meeting

July 15, 2020

7:00 PM

Virtual Meeting.

Eastside Neighborhood Association

Board of Directors Meeting Notes

May 20, 2020

Virtual Meeting

Attendees:

Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Rioux, Cindy Fulton, Jim Sweeney, Cheryle Bayle, Nathan Allan, Roger Horn

• April 15 Meeting Notes

The Board approved the draft notes from the April 15 Board Meeting. 

• Treasurer’s Report

Sherry will send out this month’s Treasurer’ report via e-mail.

• Annual Picnic

Jim R. reserved the Lions Park Shelter for August 15, 2020 from 3:00pm – 8:00 pm. We will advertise the Annual Picnic run from 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm.

• Block Parties

There is good interest in holding block parties. We will need to confirm who will be hosts.

Currently scheduled for Friday 17^th. Roger is hoping to do a merged block party. Can we do Friday or Saturday? Last years’ time frame was 4-8 pm.

Not sure how this will work with social distancing

• ENA Contact List

Jim asked about how to update ENA contact list. We had people sign up to be added at the Subarea plan meeting. Jim has that list pulled together but does not know how to update the contact list.

Nathan explained that the list is linked to our website.  We think Brian and Sheena have passwords and know how to make changes.

Jim R. will contact Brian and Sheena to find out how to access ENA contact list.

• Variety Show

Roger contacted the Eastside Neighborhood Association. They discussed the idea of a virtual show but concluded that it would be better to postpone until a live show can be held.

• Neighborhood Mapping

Sherry provide an update of her work on neighborhood mapping. She has gone through all of the videos and is excited about starting with her immediate neighbors.

Cindy contacted Patrick Knoff with OFD. He has put a old on all neighborhood mapping activities to stay focuses on the City’s COVID-19 response.

• Eastside Crossing

Jim S. Provide an update on the process to select the artist for the Eastside Crossing Gateway Project. The jury has narrowed the list from 10 to 3. They will interview with same jury next week. Next step is connection with two neighborhood associations. A joint meeting is a possibility in August or September.  CRANA meets at the NOVA School.

• Armory

Jim S. established a contact with Parks. There is a lot of enthusiasm about the idea with City staff. Not much to report but interest is high. The City agreed to designate the site on the on historic register. The City is taking the lead. Marygrace and Stephanie Johnson were on the call. Jim S. will continue to is gather information.

• Fir Street Reservoir

The City’s proposal to complete seismic upgrades on the reservoir has receive a SEPA determination of no significance. This was not challenged. We had hoped the City would address landscaping and remove the ivy, however, the is no work outside of reservoir.

• Sub-area Plan Implementation

The subarea plan core team is meeting every other week. Work is focused on establishing the framework for engaging volunteers and pursuing issues that are already in progress such as getting historic designation of the Armory.

One action was to set up a sub-committee to investigate housing issues. Jim S. found a contact fond for Thurston Housing Land Trust. They want to talk with us about us about acquiring property for low- and moderate-income housing.

Sherry expressed an interest. 

Nathan suggested contacting others not on the board and Homes First.

Cindy mentioned that 1524 5^TH Ave, which has been vacant for decades is being worked on. The contactor renovating the home got a deal with the City to live in a camper while working on the house.

• Lions Park Spray-ground

No update. Jim R. Is still on point to contact the City.

• Affordable Housing

Sherry asked if anyone had any thoughts about the affordable housing issues that are currently swirling or information about the Planning Commission meetings.

Jim R. mentioned that this is a significant topic at the CNA meetings. Many are frustrated that this seems to be done deal and any objections about the substance or process are falling on deaf ears. Clark Gilman essentially confirmed that that is true.

There was some discussion about the choice of Renata Rollins to call for a rent strike.

Nathan met with Teal new homeless community coordinator. Teal is overwhelmed.

Plum St. Is still up and running.  Nathan has noticed more people casing houses in the area since the measures to address COVID-19 were put into place. Cheryl indicated that she was seeing similar activity.

Union Gospel Mission is planning a few new houses.

The mitigation site seems to be running better.

The groups had a general discussion about challenges of homeless problems and solutions not being taken advantage of.

• Meeting Adjourned

Next Meeting

June 17, 2020

7:00 PM

Virtual Meeting.

Eastside Neighborhood Association
Board of Directors Meeting Notes
04/15/2020
Virtual Meeting
Attendees:
Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Rioux, Chris Knight, Jim Sweeney, Roger Horn, Cheryle Bayles

1. City Council Virtual Town Hall
   Sherry mentioned that Olympia’s Finance Committee will convene another Virtual Town Hall on
   Wednesday April 15 at 5:30 p.m. on “Financial Resources for Local Businesses.”
   Sherry listened to one of the virtual town hall meetings. Jill Barns from Washington Center
   discussed fiscal impacts of the virus outbreak.
2. Board Member Issues
   Sherry asked if anyone had any burning issues.
    Roger mentioned the need to think about ways that we help people in the
   neighborhood. He suggested putting up our signs with contact information might help.
    Chris shared that FUMCO is doing a lot of personal reach outs to people. He added that
   he thought Roger’s idea sounded good.
    Jim S mentioned that he would like to see the Next Door map used more. Is there some
   way that we could connect more directly?
    Cheryl shared her brother-in-law needs to pick up meals on wheels. Maybe there is an
   opportunity to help in those cases?
    Sherry asked about the foodbank. Do people need help getting to the food bank. Roger
   stated that it is not very busy and that you just get a pre-packed bag now. The board
   discussed giving a about donation and need to for financial help?
    The board approved donating $200 to the foodbank.
3. Eastside Arts Walk
   The Eastside Arts Walk is a happening on April 25th 2pm-11:30PM. A map is being developed
   and there is information about the event on Next Door.
   The Board discussed putting up signs to promote the event.
4. Variety Show
    Roger asked what people thought about trying to organize a virtual show. Virtual?
   Scheduled for May 2 nd .
    Chris thought there may be some challenges to getting it organized and we need to be
   careful about zoom bombers.
    Sherry mentioned that Facebook is good platform and may be a better choice than
   Zoom.
    The group agreed that the date should be moved to late May or early June.
    In general, the group thought we should try a virtual show.
    Roger will check in with Bigelow Highlands Neighborhood.
5. Neighborhood picnic and block parties discussion
   Are these events possible with social distancing? Generally, people thought we should explore
   the idea.
   Jim R. will contact Parks to see what they are doing about reservations in July and August.
6. Neighborhood Mapping
   Jim Sweeney asked what could we do now to get more neighborhood mapping accomplished?
   He pointed out that the renewed awareness created by the coronavirus may generate some
   enthusiasm in the neighborhood around this initiative.
   Roger agreed to touch base with Sandia to see how her efforts went and see is she know how
   to get in touch with the person that spoke at the Sub-are plan meeting.
7. Thurston County Courthouse
   Sherry asked if Jim R. had gotten in touch with the county to get a presentation on the Regional
   Courthouse. Jim R said he did not because he heard the courthouse project was indefinitely
   placed on hold.
   Roger spoke with John Turnhiem – John willing to come to a meeting or brief the ENA. The
   group felt that we may want to find a way to include the Northeast and Downtown
   Neighborhoods.
8. Bob Jacobs Letter.
   Jim R. explained that Bob Jacobs had created the document to share with all neighborhood
   associations. Bob ran the information through the CAN. Bob thought it was critical to inform
   people about the SEPA process and their opportunities to comment.
   All felt the information was somewhat one sided and that opinions in the neighborhood were
   mixed. The group decide to not take any action on the letter. Jim Described the process. ENA
   will not
9. Treasurers Report
   Sherry had e-mailed the Treasurer’s Report prior to the meeting.
10. Eastside Art Crossing
    Jim S. provide an update on the process for artist selection. A workshop was helped on April
    2 nd to explain the process to artists. There were seven solid responses. The jury will meet on
    May 5 th . Probably on-line, but City Hall may be open on May 4 th .
11. March 18 Meeting Minutes
    The Board approved the draft minutes from the March 18 Board Meeting.
    Next Meeting
    May 20, 2020
    7:00 PM
    Virtual Meeting

Eastside Neighborhood Association
Board of Directors Meeting Notes
March 18, 2020
Virtual Meeting

Attendees:
Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Rioux, Cindy Fulton, Chris Knight, Chilcutt, Jim Sweeney, Brian Brannies, Cheryle Bayles

1. Debrief of Annual Meeting
   In general, all felt that there was a good turnout and that the level of engagement with discussions was very good.
   At least one table discussed the lack of clarity about the proposed legislation under consideration at the state legislature. Some thought the sub-area plan would specifically address that and have action items to provide more input to the City on implementation.
   People thought the sub-area plan was a vehicle for telling the city that we didn’t want missing middle.
   Brian and Jim R noted that the final bill was significantly watered-down.
   They were generally confused about the sub-area plan at the table that Brian worked with.
   Jim Sweeny and others commented that it is hard to see what more we could have done to better educate our members.
   Cheryl commented that it is unfortunate the people still don’t understand after all we did to
   reach out.
   Jim S pointed out that we did a lot of electronic outreach and it is always best to do more one
   on one communication. The kind that that we had at our public meetings.
   Cindy indicated that her table jumped right in and picked out areas they wanted to emphasize
   Sherry let every know that If ENA owes anyone money send her receipts.
   We made $300 at the meeting
2. Art Project
   Jim Sweeny reviewed process that the City Parks department is conducting to select the artist.
   People interested in competing were invited to City Hall for the next step, but that has been
   delayed until April. If people are interested, the City web site is a good source of information.
   Jim S. described the basic project for those that may not be familiar and noted that the City has
   $50,000 budgeted for the installation.
3. New Yard Signs
   What are next steps? We talked about larger signs in the past.
   Brian offered to assist, but now unknown if that makes sense.
   Gathering a work party might be difficult. FUMCO is completely closed for now.
4. Talent Show
   Sherry suggested that we table this issue for now.
5. Current State of COVID-19
   Brian: Is everybody on the call OK? things look bad. Things will get bad for the City of Olympia
   Sherry: Did a few things on Saturday.
   Cheryl: Still walking around the Lake. People doing a good job of keeping six feet apart.
   Jim R described what’s open and what’s closed. No idea of funding impacts or solutions.
   Chris: All reservations at FUMCO are cancelled.
   Brian: State patrol not stopping for discretionary items.
   Sherry: Saturday distance picnic at Madison Park was a nice break and seemed to work well.
   There was a brief discussion about what ENA should do to get the word out. The group felt that
   more notices didn’t seem necessary.
   Future discussions should focus on How to reach those in need?
   Brian: Isolation may be most difficult to handle.
   Sherry: We should use this group if one of us tests positive.
6. Thurston County Court House Ballot Measure
   Sherry shared that she reviewed the County’s proposal. The proposal includes a 125-foot
   building, with 1100 parking spaces in the structure. One proposal moves Japanese Garden. The
   wetland is eliminated. The group concluded that ENA should provide input.
   Some board members were suspicious about timing and think it is being pushed through
   without an adequate public process
   Jim Rioux will reach out to the County’s PM to invite him to speak with ENA
   Jim S – Traffic will be an issue so other associations may want to participate.
7. Meeting Adjourned

8/21/19 Swantown Inn 7-8:30 pm

Attendees:

Board members – Jim Sweeney, Jim Rioux, Roger Horn, Brian Brannies, Sheena Pietzold, Nathan Allan, Sherry Chilcutt, Amy Hill

Others – Cheryl Bayle, Stephanie Johnson (City Parks, Arts, and Recreation), Dave Marty and Koshare Eagle (Indian Creek Neighborhood Association)

Board approved minutes from the July meeting.

Art Crossing – 2 years ago the city started a master plan for art crossings (called gateways in the comprehensive plan). It explored 8 gateways, or transitions between neighborhoods and the city core. It also explored grand boulevards. The goal is to work on place making and expressing neighborhood identities. The art should be reflective of the neighborhoods and also work to connect the neighborhoods to the city and each other. The first area looked at was Harrison and Division, but the limited space available in that area makes the project very complicated. West Bay Drive was moved to the top of the list. Working through the process with the West Bay area really helped develop the process, create templates, and work out some kinks. West Bay is almost at the installation part of the process and Eastside St will be next. The process include reaching out to the neighborhoods at 3 separate points throughout. There is also a workshop for artists which really seemed to help emerging artists learn what they need to do to be public artists for this project. There is a jury to help decide which artists to move forward with and it included neighborhood association president(s), a landscape architect, and city arts commissioner(s). In all, the process for West Bay Drive took about a year. For budget, there is $50,000 for artists to create art, and another $25,000 as a separate installation budget. Stephanie Johnson would like to come to the ENA picnic on Sunday (8/25) to talk to the neighbors for about 20 minutes to gain feedback that will inform the artists’ work. She will also go to Indian Creek Neighborhood picnic at beginning of September. Stephanie will provide a survey monkey survey link with the 4 questions she plans to discuss at the picnic so we can help others not able to attend the picnic still be able to provide input. We will promote through Nextdoor and our website with a 2 week deadline. She will do the same again later for the Indian Creek Neighborhood closer to their picnic.

Candidate Forum – Set for Wednesday, October. 9^th at 6:30-8 at Elks Lodge. All 6 candidates for City Council have said they will attend. Not sure if it should include any other political race candidates. Representatives from each of the neighborhoods involved will meet next week on the 28th to coordinate and talk about format, etc. The Elks Lodge will just be taking donations, not charging an official fee. We think we donated $25 per neighborhood at the candidate forum two years ago, but not sure about that. The CNA has been very involved and is supportive. The neighborhoods involved include ENA, Indian Creek, South Capital, Carlyon North, Wildwood, CRANA, and Nottingham. There will probably be another forum on the west side at some point.

Treasurer report:

• Checking: $465.74
• Savings: $1059.77
• Signs: $1302.49
• Trees: $152.48
• Community Beautification: $408.12

Picnic – Ralph’s is donating again. There is a $50 gift card waiting to be picked up. The Eastside Co-op is also donating again, but we haven’t heard back from Big Tom’s yet. Nathan will follow up with them, but if we don’t hear back, we will need to buy the burger stuff ourselves. The board passed a vote to spend up to $400 on the picnic. Anyone who wants to help prep sides and burger toppings, come by Brian’s place to help prep around noon on Sunday. Everyone should make sure their signs are out. Roger will follow up on possibly inviting the Lions Club members – they had mentioned being interested in being a part of their namesake park.

Discussed purchasing new/more signs or perhaps having a build party to make a bunch of wooden sandwich board signs. They’d probably be about $20 a piece and we could make a template and spray paint our logo on them. Tabled the discussion for now.

Sub area plan – It was scheduled for Planning Commission review on Monday, but the City wanted to slow the process a little bit because of a couple of action items added later in the draft development. We’re still trying to keep a tight timeline, but perhaps this gives us a chance to give the neighborhood a chance to review the draft before going to the Planning Commission (which will now likely be in September). We discussed putting a description of the process so far and upcoming as well as the draft plan on the website and advertising it on Nextdoor as well. The Core Team will send a draft version to the Board on Monday (8/26), the Board will provide any comments and/or their approval by email by Friday (8/30). The Core team will then have a draft ready for the Planning Commission in early September.

CNA special meetings – In August, the CNA had a facilitated training on communications. The goal was learning ways to communicate amongst themselves better and in more meaningful ways. There will be a second special meeting on September 28th at the Salvation Army designed for the Neighborhood Association Boards. It will also be related to how we can improve communications amongst ourselves and the city. These are funded through a grant.

Map Your Neighborhood – Trainings coming up on Aug. 28th (city, Fire Station 1 on Eastside), Sept. 10th (county, Thurston County Emergency Services Building on Pacific). If someone attends, maybe we could get the materials and provide them on our website.

Armory – The Military Department really wants to sell the building. The Boys and Girls Club has turned it down, but Jim S. still talking with the new president to convince them. Perhaps we can help get it listed as a historic building. We discussed that the best approach would probably to get it registered at the state level. To get it listed, it would need a sponsor. The Board voted to approve being the sponsor and Jim S. will complete the proper paperwork to make the request. We’ll need to move quickly on this.

Plum Street Village – Nathan attended the second Citizen Advisory Committee meeting. They’re still kind of trying to figure out what they’re trying to accomplish with these meetings. The village is at capacity and have successfully transitioned 7 people. The committee suggested looking into how to get them internet (currently using a hot spot). When folks are transitioned out of the village, they are provided very minimal essentials. Committee discussed things they could do to help connect them with more furniture, kitchen ware, etc. Several of the churches around the city are looking at hosting a few tiny houses. LIHI is helping one church on Boulevard with such an effort. It seems to be going very well still, and there have been no issues with neighbors or the neighboring businesses.