In the Saint Philip the Deacon Church, 120 NE Knott St, Portland, OR 97212

Board Members Present

• Jimmy Wilson – Co-Chair
• Allan Rudwick, Co-Chair  
• Jennifer Wilcox – Recorder
• Susan Stringer – Newsletter Editor
• Jim Hlava – Treasurer –
• Shireen Hasan – Community Outreach –
• Jere Fitterman   
• Jonathan Konkol   
• Sherry Staggs  

Board Members Absent

• Darren Holcomb   
• Patricia Montgomery   

Others Present

• Richard Hunter
• Johnny Engleheart
• Ernest Warren
• Dory Nafshun
• Merik Smith
• Micah McCrany Dennis
• Anthony Saunders
• Thursday Bram Cook
• Audrey Terrell

Meeting called to order:  6:37 p.m.  Food was available during the meeting including pizza provided by Mississippi Pizza.

Robert Boyer—Eliot Neighborhood Past, Present, Future

Mr. Boyer gave a presentation about the history of the Eliot Neighborhood Association which he helped to create. 

Byrd Cruz—Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2

Byrd is a Librarian, Researcher  and Founding Member of the Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2, EDPA2. EDPA2 is an ad hoc community based organization comprised of survivors and descendants of the Emanuel Hospital expansion forced removal. Byrd is a local expert on this issue and has devoted extensive study in this area toward advocacy for the descendants of this unresolved and painful era of Portland’s history.  Byrd will be giving a presentation entitled Reclaiming Stolen Black Lands in the “Whitest City” at the Eliot Center of the First Unitarian Church on March 31 at 7pm.

It was noted that the ENA has sent a letter to Emanuel Hospital requesting that land be donated to the community.

Garlington Garden

The Garlington Center includes a 2400 SQ foot vacant outdoor area which Cascadia intends to develop a 1200 SQ foot community garden and a 1200 SQ foot children’s play area.  Growing Gardens will partner with Cascadia to develop and maintain and teach gardening skills to Garlington residents, clients and the community.  Cascadia is applying to Metro, to City of PDX, Prosper Portland as well as a few small foundations.  Cascadia requests that ENA will support the effort in general and by getting the word out via their membership – in case there are some very interested in gardening who’d like to participate.

An offer was made for Constructing Hope to assist with building the garden beds.

Jere moved and Jonathan seconded that ENA edit the letter of previously written to support the garden and play area.  This motion passed unanimously.

People Stepping Down

Two people are stepping down from the Land Use committee. One is moving and the other has other commitments.  This leaves only 4 people on the committee.  Carla who is currently chair of the livability committee is planning on moving as well. 

Jere is stepping down as the NECN representative.  They meet on the 3^rd Tuesday of the month.  Someone will need to take over this role.

Thursday is stepping down as the webmaster.  Sue has agreed to do this on an interim basis.

Jim would like to step down as treasurer.

Jimmy suggested that there should be a mentoring/teaching process from those who are stepping down to help teach new people the role.  Should we have a nominating committee?  It is helpful to have a smooth transition and opportunities for job shadowing.

No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Blazers Money:

We have the contact info for someone with the Blazers.  Jimmy agreed to reach out to the Blazers to discuss continuing the payment they have given us in the past.  The Board agreed to support him in this effort.   No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Candidate Forum:

We discussed the idea of a candidate forum.  It was agreed to ask NECN to put one on. No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

General Meeting:

We have a general meeting coming up.  Do we want to have a speaker?  Alan agreed to reach out to Mary Peveto to ask her to speak. No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Business Connections:

Susan recently talked with Corey Kaster who is interested in connecting the Eliot District businesses with each other.  The goal would be to help the owners know each other and work together.  Jimmy has been introducing himself to all the businesses in the neighborhood.  No motions were made on this item and no vote took place.

Minutes of the Previous Board Meeting: January 27,2020

Two corrections were made to the minutes.  Susan moved to accept as corrected. Jere seconded.

Alan reported that 4 candidates have requested to come to a meeting and he asked for clarification on what to tell them.  It was agreed that he could tell them the ENA meetings are open to the community and they can attend.  We may ask them a question and they would be given 5 minutes to answer.  We may also ask them to listen to our concerns.

Newsletter Report:

The deadline for articles is March 1. 

LUTC (Land Use Transportation Committee Report

This committee currently consists of Allan Rudwick, Brad Baker, Jonathan Konkol, and Phil Conti.

 There was a discussion of whose responsibility it is to report to NECN. 

Livability Report:

We have a relationship with Central City Concern’s Clean Start PDX program to help with community clean up.  If there are large items left out we can call them and they will come and take care of it.  They are doing a great job.  The adopt a block captains have their contact information.

Treasurer Report:

Jim will email the report.  He noted that at this point we have no income so our bank account total is slowly decreasing.

NECN

Jere is stepping down and we will need a new representative.  There was a discussion of the ENA’s responsibility to NECN.  Do we need to inform them of changes to the Land Use committee membership?  No motion was made and no vote was taken.

Next Board meeting: March 16th at 6:30pm

Meeting adjourned at 8:45pm.