6:30 Board Meeting begins with a  warm-up question

Kristin Yates reads the minutes

Angela Kremer states that during January’s meeting she mentioned that being inclusive and fighting systemic racism is very important to the board. She would like us to do more outreach to people of color throughout the neighborhood who so often do not have their voices heard.  She also wrote a letter to the Urban League to make amends for the email correspondence they were included in over the holidays and to invite them to more involvement within the board.

With this clarification Joe Entler moves to approve the minutes

All in favor none opposed

Neighborhood Safety Update

No police were present for a neighborhood safety update but Angela Kremer mentions a shooting that took place outside of Billy Webb Elks Lodge On NE Williams and Tillamook.  Police are calling it a gang related shooting at this point. One man was injured but will recover. Read Story Here

A guest talks about a blog that can be helpful regarding sharing information about what is occurring in the neighborhood.

There is a discussion about making sure there is police presence within the neighborhood and Pat Montgomery will coordinate with Jeri Stein to get an article written about Neighborhood Watch and reporting crime within the neighborhood for April’s paper. Reporting crime is very important because it is only then that police will increase patrols when they notice “hot spots”. We need to do more education around how to report a crime so people will not feel intimidated by the process.

LUTC Update with Allan Rudwick

Allan is the new LUTC Chair and Mike Warwick has taken the role of Vice Chair

Allan mentions two groups who spoke at their meeting last week. One group spoke about a new building development on Vancouver which will replace a 4-square house that is presently there.  The other man presented about a courtyard that is being put in. Both groups are present at this meeting and will share with us later on.

Rodney Bikeway—LUTC is encouraging the city to leave some stop signs on Rodney so it doesn’t become a street that people use as a cut through.  Most likely they will keep the road block that they have put up but there is an open house coming up in mid-March date is TBD.

Paul Van Orden also wrote two letters to the city about the injustice that seems to be occurring regarding how the city is handling the illegal parking on Williams across from New Seasons and also the food cart pod on Vancouver. The city is coming down really hard on the food cart pod, which is livelihood for those folks who have lived in the neighborhood a long time where as they have been very permissive about the illegal parking. Paul’s letters points out this unfairness.

Allan Rudwick has started a subcommittee with Phil Conti and Laurie Simpson regarding neighborhood design guidelines.  Their first meeting is on Tuesday, February 24th at 8:30 if you would like to join.

Appreciation that LUTC is now scheduled before ENAs meeting which is really helpful for us to be able to communicate to neighbors when they ask about what is happening in the neighborhood.

3116 North Vanocouver

The group from 3116 North Vancouver presents information about the development that they are putting up there in place of an old 4-square home.  There building will be five stories tall with 18 units for rent.  Each unit is about 250-260 sq feet and the rental price will be $800-$900/month

The church next door has been told about the development is happy about the changes.  The house had been abandoned before the contractor placed a tenant in there, who is living rent free, and there had always been transient people living within the house.

Clint Lundmark asks if the building is viable for living in, and therefore moving, and they respond saying there looks to be some foundation damage to the home (the floors are sagging) and the walls are made of asbestos.

Jeri Stein asks if it will be a multi-use building and they respond saying that it will only be apartment units

One North PDX  with Owen Gabbert

This will be a 15,000 sq feet courtyard that the neighborhood will have access to off of Femont and Williams.  They are looking for people who will submit quotes that will be used in the steel bands that line the courtyard.  You can make submissions through mid-March at their website and there are also two boxes located at New Seasons and one at the Urban League.  They have also contacted the local schools about submissions and they are encouraged to contact the local churches as well.

Legacy Emanuel Hospital Update

Pamela Weatherspoon is head of Community Relations at Legacy Emanuel and Randall Children’s Hospital. Five years ago they decided to go tobacco free on their campus but they noticed that hospital employees and visitors to the hospital still continue to smoke.  Their plan is to remove the waste cans along the outside to make it harder for people to smoke in those places.  Most likely people will still continue to smoke on the sidewalks along Vancouver and also Kirby.  If you have concerns about this please contact Pamela.  There will be more vigilance regarding litter pickup in those areas.

Dawson Park Concerts and Movie

Would you like to help?  Please contact Pamela Weatherspoon.  This is a great way to involve yourself in something very exciting that happens within the neighborhood with people who know what they are doing.  Pamela is also requesting that ENA sponsors the concerts by giving $1,000.

Patricia Montgomery motions that we support Dawson Park Concerts and Movie with $1,000

All in favor, none opposed

Annie Rudwick will get a check cut for them by Friday, February 20th.

Meeting Organization

A discussion occurs about whether we should move the meeting back to 6:15 because we have so much to cover during the meeting and we really like to be done by 8:00pm.

Meeting will stay at 6:30 but we will try very hard to keep it within the 1.5 hour boundary creating some basic ground rules.

• Raise your hand and wait to be acknowledge by the facilitator to speak.  This will also set up a good precedence so guests feel comfortable sharing and knowing the protocol.
• Also we will wait to have public comment until the end to prevent tangents.  You are welcome to give feedback to the topic being discussed but please hold off on general subjects that do not pertain to the agenda.

Community Conversations —Angela Kremer

Jeri F and Shirley Bogan want to move forward with an immediate project and there is talk about getting a neighborhood clean-up going for smaller items that fit in a trash bag.  They want to create parameters and get a group together to walk through the neighborhood to clean it up a bit.

Shirley sent out an email to nine folks who expressed interest in this project during the community conversation and only heard back from two people.  Jim and Shirley Bogan would love a group to be formed that would grab some bags and gloves and head out to clean up some trash.

Clint suggests that it would pair well with the Eliot Clean-Up we already have since we have dumpster available (so no one would have to take home a bunch of trash) and because on that day we have Men’s Residential Center volunteers and pizza is usually donated.  We could have the two events partner up so when the folks walking through the neighborhood finish there is food waiting!  There is also the idea thrown out that we should engage business owners because they want clean streets as much as residents do.

Clint will write to Alan Sanchez about heading up the Clean-up like he has done for the past two years because he knows what is required.

At this point we are at a stand still with board members not having the time to take on the cleanup.

Diversity Committee

Angela talks about the new Diversity Committee that is starting up.  It’s members are:

• Jim Hlava
• Angela Kremer
• Pamela Weatherspoon
• Shirley Bogan

The Diversity Committees is forming with the beginning goals of:

• Connecting with organizations of color, nonprofits and churches represented within Eliot.
• Welcoming new members by fostering a community that is based on being inclusive & developing equity.

 Retreat

When would we like the date to be?  Angela plans on it being on a Saturday or Sunday in March or April and that it would take about four hours.

Welcome to Reverend Deborah Brown who leads the congregation at St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church. They have warmly welcomed us to have our Eliot Neighborhood and LUTC meetings at the church.

8:25 Meeting Adjourned