ENA Board Meeting
Dec 24, 2022
7:00 PM
1613 Union Ave SE

Attendees: Roger Horn, Sherry Chilcutt, Jim Sweeney, Karen Lang Sweeney, Abigail Atwombly, Cheryl Bayle

Approval of the minutes:

No minutes available from Annual meeting.

Treasurer Report:

Checking $699.40
Savings $963.62
Neighborhood signs $1307.39
Legion Way Trees $153.46
Community Beautification $410.17
Grand total $3534.04

Annual General Meeting Report, Nov. 30 th

About 20 people came. There was significant snow that evening which lowered attendance. We have email addresses that need to be entered into our new system. We will hold this item till Nathan returns and we can quiz him. Jim Sweeney will send thank you email to Angel Nava and Stephanie Johnson.

Mailing address

List Still in progress. Cheryl would love to get her hands on the large map that Jim Rioux has to help her identify address associated with vacant parcels.

Oly Lightstravaganza report

Doing a great job with outdoor events. Several more events coming.

Winter Walkabout

Instead of our traditional walkabout, we might ask people to pick the top 3 holiday displays and let us know. We will award a prize to the top 3. We are going to skip the mapping exercise this year due to a lack of energy. Roger will write a blurb and post it on the website. We will give $30 gift cards to Big Toms or Left Bank. Roger will write a blurb on Saturday and Sherry will put it on Nextdoor. People will be invited to email Roger with their picks.

Email List Issues

Jim Rioux is not getting all the board emails, through google groups. We will commit to adding Jim’s personal email in our communications forever.

RNA grant blurb finished?

Roger and Sherry will work on that and get it sent in by end of year.

Land use & env committee-Neighborhood center

Dec.15th Jim Sweeney is available for online attending and keeping us in the loop to see where we are with the neighborhood center.

Mail chimp – vs website

Where do new emails get added? Hold for future meeting.

New Board members and looking to elections.

Abigail will join the board. Dave Groves was ill tonight and will attend a future meeting. Roger has agreed to continue as Vice President, Jim Sweeney was voted in as secretary and Sherry will continue her dual role as Treasurer/President.

Looking towards 2023

What projects are we considering?

First half of the show, click here.

There was a brief, social intermission.

Second half of the show, click here.

ENA Board Meeting
10/13/2022
7:00 PM
Swantown Inn

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Roger Horn, Cheryl Bayle, Nathan Allen, Jim Rioux

Treasurer Report

Checking $996.18
Savings $963.48
Signs $1307.26
Trees $153.42
Beautification $410.09
Total $3800.37

All grant requirements are done except narrative about the project.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes approved with edits from Roger.

CNA Report

None CNA representative was not in attendance.

Talent Show – Salvation Army

Roger shared latest version of banner. B&B Sign Company agreed to requested changes.

Roger shared questions for talent. The board agreed to send the questions.

Roger has seven acts. He would like three more. Nathan suggested reaching out to the City’s poet laureate. Roger asked about talent outside of neighborhood. All agreed that would be OK.

Roger’s dance group leader suggested SambaOlyWa.

Sherry and Cheryl will make snacks.

Roger asked if Hank would serve as MC. Sherry said yes.

Roger asked if Hank would know of others that could perform. Sherry will ask.

Roger shared a draft program. Roger asked for help with the brochure. Nathan offered to help after Monday.

Sherry asked about what kind of Covid precautions we should take? Roger suggested buying masks and making them available to attendees.

Address List

Jim showed a map of the neighborhood zones he created. Jim shred printed copies of the database broken out by zones.

Nathan asked that we come up with key so that people checking the homes know what to put into the database. Jim will come up with a key based on what Sherry already started and then upload the database to google docs and share the file with everyone on the board

Membership Programs (Move to 3)

Nathan reviewed the recommendation from Jim R. The board agreed with the recommendation.

Nathan already paid for the license. $320 for two memberships. ENA portion would be $160.

Nathan will confirm cost and request approval for reimbursement at next meeting.

General Meeting – November 3, 5-8 pm.

Sherry location is at Armory. Charge $84.

There was discussion about speakers. It was decided to invite parks staff to discuss progress on the Armory and art installation near the neighborhood. Nathan explained Community Solar program and suggested we reach out to them to speak.

Jim will facilitate nomination of new board members.

Sherry will reach out to area churches to see if they have interest in participating as board members.

Sherry mentioned that Zoom has a transcription tool that we may want to use to capture meeting notes.

Where? Salvation Army Worship Center, 1505 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA (Corner of Central)

What? Local Talent Acts

The Eastside Neighborhood Association is sponsoring a free, family-friendly variety show that will be held at the Salvation Army on the corner of Central and 4th Ave SE.

People of all ages are welcome to attend. In addition to performances, the event will include an intermission with refreshments, and a chance to get to know one another in a friendly social setting.

Our goal is to include a wide variety of performances that will appeal to people of all ages. It is not a competition, just an afternoon of entertainment. The show will include performances such as poetry, singing, guitar, story-telling and piano.

We expect it to be a fun event, and hope you bring your friends!

If you have questions, you can send them to Roger Horn at ro********@ya***.com.

ENA Board Meeting
9/15/2022
7:00 PM
Swantown Inn

Attendees: Sherry Chilcutt, Roger Horn, Cheryl Bayle, Nathan Allen, Jim Rioux, Jim Sweeney,

Treasurer Report

Checking $759.55
Savings $963.27
Signs $1306.91
Trees $153.36
Beautification $409.97

There may be an invoice from the mural project that was double paid. We may need to reconcile with the City. At this time the City says we are ok.

Homes First is trying to raise $500 to start work on five houses. Sherry will keep in touch with them and see if they need ENA support.

Taxes have been filed. Sherry will change our tax status to a non-political non-profit. This will make us eligible for significant cost savings that political non-profits are not eligible for.

CNA Report

Sherry had some concern about the fact that we were unable to back up Karen for the last CNA meeting. The consensus was that this will likely be rare and its OK if ENA is not in attendance once in a while.

The board discussed the City’s proposal for a Regional Fire Authority. The significant increase in property tax with no clear benefit to Olympia citizens was frustrating.

Talent Show – Salvation Army

Roger has three acts for sure and one more poet will be asked. He wondered if we should we ask for others from the northeast or any other neighborhoods? Jim Sweeney suggested downtown.

Nathan suggested reaching out to the ODA.

Sherry will check in with Andy a professional trumpeter.

Nathan suggested putting up a flier in capital guitar.

Roger has a few other leads he will contact including reaching out to Avanti high school. The date and time is set for Saturday October 22, 3-5 pm.

Address List

Jim R was successful in splitting the data so that we can sort by street name. He will try to do some further breakdown to group houses into zones.

Member List Status and Levels Discussion

The board decided to form a small group to come up with a proposal. The group will consist of Dan, Jim R, and Nathan.

Nathan reminded the board that the basic reason for the change is to have a database of active people in the neighborhood. Our current system can’t do that for us. The intent is to encourage donations but not require it. The business level will give us a way to promote neighborhood businesses.

November General Meeting

Sherry asked what date worked better for everyone, November 3rd, or 9th. Roger pointed out that we had already set the date for November 3rd. The board decided to stick with November 3rd.

There was some discussion about the location. Newbridge and the Armory were mentioned. The Armory seemed a better choice. Sherry will contact Stephanie about the Armory.

We will plan to start at 5:30 pm with snacks and start the meeting at 6:00 pm.

The board discussed the following topics for an agenda. Nathan pointed out that we should pick something that will bring people out and we need to give people a positive reason to attend.

• Nathan– Quince St. village
• Jim Sweeney – Citywide homeless plan.
• Jim R -Lions Park improvements and other parks issue
• Jim S – Emergency Management
• Sherry -City events

Jim reminded the board that we will need to nominate new board members so that we can choose officers in January.

Nathan agreed to contact old officers to see if they have interest.

Jim R will send message to e-mail list from last annual meeting.

Art Crossing Meeting at the Armory

How can we best support attendance?

The meeting is scheduled September 29 at 6:30 am.

Sherry is looking for messaging to get people to attend. Jim will help Sherry write something.

Jim will get pictures of artwork that the chosen artist created to Nathan.

3900 Boulevard Rd Meeting at ORLA

Jim Sweeney shared that people from LiHi spoke well about homeless community in Olympia.

Roger said that he also attended and didn’t hear any opposition. Some important issues were highlighted.

Sherry said the issues raised were traffic and stormwater.

The concerns from people from the Newcastle neighborhood were parking, flooding, transportation, access to LBA, and loss of open space.

Interpretive Sign at Armory – $50,000 Contract

Jim S volunteered to serve on the committee that will give input on the content and design of the sign.

Sherry mentioned that the Armory received $1 million grant for Heritage Capital Project Grant.

We now have a very active pair with seven puppies located on Henry Street, which is just off 11th Avenue Southeast. The coyotes have been seen a lot more often during the day, not just in the green spaces but in driveways and other developed areas.

A neighbor has shared this album, along with the fact that they have killed a number of the neighbors cats. If you own a pet, we strongly advise you to keep it inside at night.

Department of Fish and Wildlife will not do anything. The coyotes were here long before it was as populated as it is now, just like the neighborhood deer.

Running from 4pm to 7pm, Eastside Big Tom’s has graciously donated the burgers, there will also be hotdogs. You are welcome to bring a side or dessert to share.

From one of the volunteers, “There was a very successful project to plant two trees at Lion’s Park this morning. I think the attached picture shows most if not all the volunteers. Also, some good discussion on how to build on this effort, e.g., planting oak trees on Legion Way all the way to Edison.” 

No matter your abilities, knowledge or age, there are opportunities often to get involved within our neighborhood and help build community. If you know of a project, effort or need, feel free to reach out the ENA to get support.