April 2015 Board Meeting Minutes

Swantown Inn Bed & Breakfast, 1431 11th Ave SE (corner of Central)
Wednesday, March 18th, 2014, 6:30PM 
Monthly Board meeting of the Eastside Neighborhood Association.
Board Members In Attendance: Nathan Allan, Susan Herring,  Melissa Bluestein, Rita Sammons, Ira Silberlicht, Brian Brannies, , Sherry Cillicut
Board Members Absent:  Sheena Pietzold (sick sitter), Ted Braid (had volunteered at Annual meeting but did not show up), Mitch Dennis (we are confirming if he is continuing on as a board member)
Neighbors in Attendance: Sophie – City of Olympia (Bike Boulevard), Teresa Goen-Burgman – Concerned Eastside Neighbors (Medela Rezone), Pat Rasmussen – Olympia village convergence building, Julie Rodwell – Highway Noise Abatement, plus a few more supporters of these speakers

Minutes

  • Approval of March Minutes
    • Motion Approved
  • Decision on who is going to be Secretary, or if it will be handled jointly.
    • Jointly handled, by Melissa and Sheena.  If backup needed Brian will fill in.
  • ENA Generic Business Cards
    • Distribute to Board Members (10 to 20 each)
  • Dog waste stations update
    • Call for volunteers to help on last installation.
    • Ira waiting for Nathan to get back to him.
  • Neighborhood Match Grant Update
    • RNA (Recogonized Neighborhood Association) updated with City of Olympia by Sherry.
    • Decisions made in May. Volunteer hours can be billed starting in May.
    • Take out bounce house as it increases insurance from $101 to $400+?
    • Annual picnic. Need to have lower insurance. Bouncy house not approved by city.
    • Ideas instead: sack races. Face painting. Children’s museum booth.
    • Band: Oly Mountain Boys: bluegrass band. $750 for two hours.
  • ENA Sign Cleaning
    • Nathan has personally purchased an extension pole for his own use and offers this for cleaning our signs.  Hence we just need cleaning product. “Simple Green” is Nathan’s suggestion. Any better ideas? Simple green at Home Depot $20 on sale. We’re saving $100!
  • Annual Garage Sale
    • More signage? Serve dual purpose with Annual Picnic promotion and general meetings.
    • 10 more signs and 15 more stands (as they break) = $182.57
    • Waiting to vote until matching grant comes through.
  • CNA – Report from attending CNA meetings.
    • Report from Tim Minarachi, who is representing the ENA until a board member can attend.
    • First of, they’re re-upping the MOU, or Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a bridge between the CNA and the City. – minor changes to section it’s filed under from Land Use to Administration (basic relocation) They are adapting a set of standards to guide public input.
    • They want to “rebuild trust between the city and citizens through involvement” In short, the entire meeting was about continuing to develop the CNA, lots of back-patting.
    • They are going to try to get the city to start an official position in an “office of neighborhoods”, basically take on a staff position to handle the paperwork side of things. Or at least that’s the impression I got. There was also a lot of talk about recruiting more neighborhoods and increasing involvement in the CNA- basically it seems to me they have the same problem as the other neighborhood associations with attendance and involvement. They really had no idea how to involve more people.
  • Federal and State Procedures on Highway Noise Abatement
    • Julie Rodwell would like to discuss if our neighborhood has ever looked at more noise protection from I5.
    • PDF: Federal and State Procedures on Highway Noise Abatement.
    • Highlights:
    • I-5 built in 1969, 1 year before noise mitigation in place.
    • Trying to find out how we qualify for a retrofit.
    • No project, no readings.
    • I-5 isn’t officially a code violation for noise.
    • WSDOT says the canyon falls in the grey zone, but it’s not true.
    • Ivy and wood fences do not keep noise out. Appears to be the city right of way, maps aren’t definitive.
    • Reasonableness criteria:
    • We need official readings.
    • Possibility of homeowners building the wall
    • Local improvement project? Outlay is minimal (with approval) and having it be a living wall or art wall and spread out over 30 years possibly.
    • Formula to have a degradation for funding depending on how close you live.
    • Benefits: health vs. hearing loss
    • Should we write our legislators?
    • Motion made by Brian for Julie, as our ENA representative, to go to the City of Lacey and any government agency, to find out more about the costs. Motion approved by ENA board.
    • Can someone in the area, an acoustic consultant or a decibel reader do preliminary readings?
  • Proposal for another security minded ENA General Meeting brought forward by Anna Schlecht
    • Anna isn’t present.
    • Security was discussed but to have a Neighborhood Watch, we have to have someone spearhead instead of just saying we need to have this group. All of the residents would have to participate.
    • Everyone needs to get to know each other better. Have more lights, motion detectors. Report the crimes.
    • Bring up safety issues at the May General meeting. Could be June.
    • Nathan feels we should have positive upbeat meeting and skip the safety issues update.
  • Bike Boulevard in Eastiside – Sophie Stimson, Senior Planner, Public Works Transportation
    • a. Route: Electronic version will be on site.
    • b. Citizens advisory committee involved in developing the route.
    • c. Council wanted a route through the downtown area.
    • d. Will be in the works around next Spring 2016.
    • e. This is a pilot project to see how the community responds and make the case to fund more of these projects.
    • f. This really is the beginning of the project and much more to work on.
    • g. Information will be given as they spend more time researching.
    • h. Tacoma rail also being contacted as improving the pavement around the tracks is their responsibility.
  • Olympia village convergence building – Pat Russmussen
    • a. See presentation on website.
    • b. Ie.)Portland has a project called City Repair where they paint decorative art on the intersections to slow the traffic.
    • c. People in neighborhoods all doing events at the same time.

      i. The Commons@Fertile Ground

      ii. GRuB Farmhouse

      iii. Edible Forest Gardens

      iv. Love our Local Festival

      v. Joy Avenue Pathway

      vi. Farmer’s Market

    • d. Develop a schedule in our neighborhood and other neighborhoods for placemaking.

      i. Coordinate with week of the picnic

      ii. Possibly paint the bulkhead on 5th at Boundary

    • e. Someone brought up National Night Out.

      i. More info is needed.

  • Treasurers Report
    • a. Renewing Long Term CD

      i. Due in the next week. It’s worth $1031.09.

      1. Keep it in the CD or put in Savings account

      2. Motion brought up to put into savings. Motion

      approved.

    • b. Accounts as of 3/31/15

      i. $698.94 in checking

      ii. $328.93 savings

      iii. $1297.22 in Signs

      iv. $150 in trees

      v. $505.36 for Community Beautification

  • New business.
    • a. Theresa – Forest Cemetery: backside of property being developed.

      i. Proposing a new development. 18-24 new units per acre on 9

      ii. Supposed to be a 1 year moratorium on zoning

      iii. Distance of cemetery to Freeway is 200 yards.

      iv. No city/county ordinances for sound.

      v. Public meeting April 23rd and public hearing coming

      vi. Information posted on website.

      vii. CEPA review was done through Puget Sound Energy acres property and not done on site. The desire is to have the city planner come to the site.

      viii. Brian will try to attend and speak for 3 minutes as a neighborhood property owner and a representative of the ENA and that we are “concerned” about the amount of traffic that will develop in this area.

      ix. Theresa would like the development to be single family instead of rental units.

      x. Where is the new master application?

      xi. co************************@***il.com

  • Meeting adjourned at 8:45pm
  • Minutes submitted by Melissa Bluestein, Joint ENA Secratary

January 2015 Board Minutes

Attendance

  • Board Members Present:  Nathan Allan,   Brian Brannies,  Sandia Slaby,  , Katy Beattie
  • Board Members Absent: Kara Randall, Whitney Bowerman, Mitch Dennis, Sheena Pietzold, Sherry Cillicut


February Annual Meeting

Time: Wednesday 18th, 6:30pm

Location: New Bridge? Brian will look into location, asking the churches for use of their location

Agenda for Annual Meeting:

  • Food Project will be on the agenda
  • Pest control; guest speaker to educate?
  • Bread and Roses; information on new format?
  • ENA vs. NextDoor
  • Change the Bylaws for the Board
  • Dog Poop Bag Stations
  • City of Olympia Matching Grant Program
  • Elections will take place; Board members, Vice President, Secretary

Become a Board Member!

Your voice is your power to affect change in your community. Please join the board and help us accomplish items that are good for our neighborhood! We accomplish, at least, one big project a year. We appreciate a wide representation of our neighborhood being represented on the board so that the many voices, from many areas of our vast neighborhood are heard. For more info on joining the board check this informational page.

Dog Bag Stations

One more has been installed and there is only one to go. One has been requested up towards Lyons Park, but there is one in the park already.

City of Olympia Matching Grant Program

Brian has located two areas that he will pursue a matching grant for. We will also look into obtaining the matching grant for our Annual Summer Picnic.

CNA Meetings

Nathan can no longer attend on Mondays, so we need another member to attend so that we can maintain a presence. Brian can go. We would like to have another member who is able to back Brian up with this, in case he can’t attend.

Annual Calendar:

  • Nathan to create calendar of meetings and events for the 2015 year
  • Flag football event on Thanksgiving morning – Katy and Andrew will set up the day of @ 6:30-8

November 2014 Board Meeting Minutes

Attendance

  • Board Members Present:  Nathan Allan, Whitney Bowerman,  Brian Brannies,  Sandia Slaby, Pat Bayle, Jim Longley, Mitch Dennis, Sheena Pietzold, Katy Beattie
  • Board Members Absent: Kara Randall
  • Other Attendees: Roger Horn, Eddy


Dog waste stations

Church will help with dog waste stations; There are still troubles Getting a hold of people; Locations of sites were discussed;

Purchasing bags….biodegradable bags are they worth it? Cost effective? Sandia would like to look into the cost difference and what that means for ENA. Cost of bags (Nathan added to minutes when he found the details relevant);

$138.18 for 4000 Biodegradable bags (funny thing only considered so in 49 states not CA)
Shipping did cost.
What Aly found on Amazing is basically $31.38 for 1000 bags. So about the same.
Nathan searched around a little and did not find an alternative that works.

Future of the board

Join the ENA board! Four members are not continuing, possibly five. Become an active advocate for your neighborhood. Once a month meetings, and accomplishing tasks like the dog poop bag stations, food bank donations, etc.
February is goal for annual meeting.

Newsletter

  • Some neighbors have said they miss it.
  • Idea to send postcards directing people to read more at the website.
  • Print a few newsletters for those who may request it.
  • Brian is willing to print off postcards; ENA may still have credit at a local printshop.
  • Brian is willing to spearhead getting this accomplished.
  • We hope that mailing list is more accurate than in the past. A lot of effort has been put into verifying addresses.

CNA

It seems the focus of the CNA is less about working together and more about listening to presentations.  ENA has been represented in some capacity at almost every meeting this year. Representatives are wondering about the effectiveness of the CNA and the overall purpose of it as it seems to be very much concerned with big picture issues like city planning. Our presence is valued at the CNA meetings is that our voice is then reported back to City Council. CNA can, and has been in the past, be an effective voice.

Treasurers report

  • Sherry was absent from the meeting but reported $750 in checking.
  • Nathan still needs to get on the account as back-up.

Madison Holiday Store

Madison Elementary PTO Representative, Eddy, says they are looking for donations for kids to purchase for presents for their families.

Report from City Council

  • Providing $250,000 for downtown plan
  • Talk of changing code to work on creating neighborhood centers like Westside coop or San Francisco street bakery
  • Putting money into hazard trees which would affect legion way