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 9th 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.