Board Meeting Minutes 2008-03-10

Posted on by Eliot Neighborhood

ELIOT NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
MEETING MINUTES 3/10/08

7:00pm Meeting called to order by Gary Hampton, chair.

Board Members present:  Pauline Bradford, Chris Yeargers (co), Joan Ivan, Julia Peters, Jim Hlava, Clint Lundmark, Jennifer Wilson (co), Howie Bierbaum, Naomi Sacks, Gary Hampton, Aurora Lora, Kirsten Jenkins.

Neighbors and presenters:  Officer Pete Helzer, Lee Perlman, Tamille Lundmark, Sylvia Evans, Matt Gilley, Celeste Carey, Teresa James, Richard Thoen, John Barnett, Katy Saner.

Minutes:  Pauline Bradford motioned to approve, seconded by Chris Yeargers.  Unanimously approved.

1. City Announcements were passed around and voiced below.

2. Community Policing with Officer Pete Helzer
a.       Crime was down again for an average of 1.3 incidents/day for the month of February, mostly nuisance crimes (car prowls, tagging).  Vandalism is down.
b.      Ofc. Helzer is now on the stolen car detail for NE.  He reports the worst places to leave your car are Lloyd Center, Jantzen Beach, and Emanuel Hospital.  J  The most stolen vehicle in the metro area is a mid-90s Accord, with Camry’s and Civic’s not far behind.
c.       2/3/08 there was a shooting at Fremont and Williams.  Six or nine .40 caliber rounds were fired and a woman was hit but not seriously injured.
d.      What to do if you see a drug deal in progress?  Get the license plate number and call the non-emergency police number.
e.       Contact phelzer@portlandpolice.org if you have questions.  He’s now on Auto Theft detail, but can track down answers to your questions.

3.  Dawson Park Construction Site
a.       Celeste Carey encouraged close supervision of the site by neighbors to prevent tagging and vandalism.
b.      Teresa James, Richard Thoen and Katy Saner presented on behalf of Inline Commercial Construction.  The work hours will be from 8:30am-5pm.  Workers may show up earlier, but can’t start working until 8:30.  Protective measures include fencing with barbed wire around the top.  Boring will be done at the site.  With encouragement from the PDC, a spotlight will be on the dome at night.  There’s concern over tagging and the copper being stolen.  Projected end date is 5/23/08.
c.       To report an incident, call the police non-emergency line, Richard Thoen at 503-849-1717 or Katy Saner at 503-664-6064.

4.                  NECN with Sylvia Evans

a.       Spiffin; up MLK:  April 19th:  clean up from 9am-12 noon, 12-1pm is lunch, 1-5 is entertainment.  Hoping to gather at either Cascadia or further north at the empty lot before Popeye’s by Ainsworth.  Looking for 300+ volunteers, if you’d like to help!  A motion to support the event was made by Naomi, seconded by Kirsten and met with unanimous approval from the board.
b.      Fremont between Vancouver and MLK needs lighting-hoping to do that 4/19.
c.       Public Safety meeting on March 25.  Looking for folks to do a foot patrol/neighborhood watch from Vancouver to 15th.
d.      NECN is in transition.  The Executive Director and others were fired.  They will be using TACS for 4-6 as interim ED while they try to pull the board together and work on the process of getting a new ED.

5.                  Movies in the Park:  Gary is hoping to schedule at Dawson Park for this summer.

6.                  Cascadia:  Jim Hlava presented on building options.  Some options and concerns included:
a.       Using 25% of the building for client housing, others as mixed-income housing
b.      Potential commercial/business use
c.       Question of parking?
d.      Might destroy current building
e.   New building could go right up to the sidewalk.
f.    Will there be a decorative design to it?
g.   Concern was raised about how much input the ENDA board actually has.  Jim assured that he’s in charge of the building and people’s input really matters.  Please talk to him about questions and concerns you might have.  Jennifer Wilson and Naomi Sacks expressed interest in keeping in contact with updates on the project.

7.                  Land Use
a.       Emanuel Children’s Hospital will have 20 new individual rooms with beds, each being an average of 300 sq. ft.  An expanded parking lot of 3 stories holding 427 cars will be built.  There will be new trees, curbs and lighting on Gantenbein.
b.      The Wonder Bread Project is alive but pulling back.  Word is the outlet will stay open on a month-to-month lease.
c.       You can look at the new plans for the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church online.

8.                  Spring General Membership Meeting:  April 14th at 7pm at Emanuel MOB West.  Gary has food lined up and will make the agenda.  Some suggestions were to focus on community events and getting more folks involved.  (Note:  20+ people have moved into Eliot in the past year.)

9.                  Russell St. Dental Clinic:  A letter of discontent from Clint Lundmark was read, concerning inconsistency.  If ENDA has said before we don’t want any more special services in the neighborhood, will we look inconsistent advocating for this clinic?  The general consensus of the board was that while we don’t want to encourage more special services to move in, we’re not opposed to keeping the ones already here.  The board still offers support and the letter will be sent.

Motion to adjourn meeting at 9:14pm from Julia, seconded by Howie.  Unanimous approval.

Respectfully submitted by Julia Peters, ENDA Recorder, 3/11/08.