York Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, October 17,2007
7:07-9:15 pm
Garden Street United Methodist Church

  • Present: Anne Mackie, Barbara Davenport, Carolyn Mulder, Tom Scott, Jeff Bates, Carol Dixon, Helen Jackson and Libby Stark. George Liepart and Seth Cool indicated they would not be present.
  • Guests: David Camp (Planning Committee member and Transportation Sub-Committee Chair)
  • Announcements: Libby Stark announced that cards are being circulated for Seth Cool (recently married), Jeff and Sarah Bates (new baby) and Jessica Bandstra (recently relocated temporarily). As no donations have been collected it was decided not to give gifts. Tom Scott announced that the WWU email system has been filtering out some YNA emails; Tom anticipates the problem to be resolved later this week. David Camp is the new transportation liaison to the COB and will be receiving the updates.
  • Approval of minutes: Helen Jackson made a motion to approve the minutes from the September board meeting. Jeff Bates seconded and the motion passed unanimously.
  • I. Current issues with an upcoming deadline:

    II. Committee reports:

    III. Current Issues

    Topics for next board meeting: holiday caroling and wagon ride, January board meeting agenda, board elections.

    The meeting adjourned at 9:15.


    Submitted by Libby Stark

    York Planning Committee Report
    October 17, 2007
    Submitted by committee chair, Anne Mackie

    Accomplishments this month:

    1. Hosted first general neighborhood meeting for the York Plan Update project: City Planner Chris Koch was guest speaker; 30 people attended; four work groups formed with leaders:
    2. All have set follow-up meetings.

    3. The neighborhood assessment survey is continuing, and a group of WWU students have been recruited to conduct door-to-door surveys of residents who have not submitted a survey. Helen is coordinating this effort.
    4. A joint Sehome/York meeting is set for Monday, Nov. 5 at the Methodist Church, room B, 7:00p.m. to discuss the Samish Way Urban Village concept. A special letter of invitation will be mailed to business owners and residents within or near the York section. (See the attached letter of invitation and copy of Bellingham Herald article.)

     

    Disaster Preparedness Meeting Notes
    Monday, October 15, 2007
    7:00-8:45

    Attendees: Carol Dixon, Ivy Yap, Kirsten Shore, Libby Stark

    1. Review of YN picnic and new volunteers: Lucy and Jon have been identified as potential block captains. Carol notes that a lot of information was handed out at the picnic. Don Davis from the COB attended.
    2. Train-the-trainer with LuAnn Johnson review: Both Carol and Kirsten attended and state that the process is coming together after the training last month. The goal is to have block captains organize their neighbors to get together and then have a trainer (Carol or Kirsten) come and deliver the 90 minute presentation.
    3. Any more block captains? More structure to MYN block boundaries? It was decided that Ivy’s block, 1600 Grant, would be a good block to act as a guinea pig since there are currently two interested block captains and there is only one side to the street. Other potential block captains are Dale and Kirsten ( 1300 Humboldt), Marguerite and Libby (1400 Iron), Jennifer (1400 James), 1300 and 1400 Ellis (Carol), 1300 Franklin (also Carol, but she will check with Lynn and Ray).
       
      Block captains will be given the sorted list of owner v rental properties and will be encouraged to include the cross streets (i.e. Potter, Gladstone, etc). Block captains are to use discretion when asking neighbors to participate. Ivy volunteered to design a postcard-type flier that can be given to neighbors when block captains are organizing to announce the upcoming event.
    4. Review list of owner v. renter occupied houses: Libby still needs to sort the list and will email it out the DP committee and any block captains.
    5. Other items and schedule of next meeting: Libby will email out a reminder for the 11/6 meeting at the COB (City Hall) where other neighborhoods share what they have been doing. Next meeting will be Monday, 11/12 at 7 pm at Carol’s.

     

    Historic Preservation Committee Report

    October preservation meeting has been rescheduled from Oct. 16 to Oct. 23, 7:00pm at Nelson’s Market, so no new information. We do not have any WWU Service Learning students to help with house identification. All students are working on the survey for plan update.

    Franklin Park Committee Report

    The Work Party on Saturday, October 13, 9am-12pm: Six volunteers, with three coming from Western, worked on the Franklin Street Island project. We accomplished a great deal as we worked toward planting the island late next year, 2008.

    Franklin Park Improvements Grant   The Franklin Park Improvements Committee with seven members attending met with Jonathan Schilk and Katie Franks on Monday, October 8, 2007, 5: 15pm-7pm. Jonathan presented a 30% completion- site plan for grant improvements. Members questioned and suggested on elements of the plan. Overall, members were favorable to the elements in the design. Jonathan, also, gave the committee approximate costs. At this point, the grant funds would fall short $65,088.61 from achieving funding for the current site plan. Katie mentioned some ways that we might raise funds and suggested going ahead with the improvements we can presently afford. Prices are such to go up the longer we wait. Decisions will need to be made on priorities and presented to the York Neighborhood Association.

    Work Party scheduled for Saturday, October 27, 2007 from 9am-12pm with neighbors and Parks Department volunteers: The Park’s Volunteer Program is bringing volunteers from Western and native plants to plant on the Hillside above Franklin Park where neighborhoods have created a wooded trail. All Board members are invited to join in the fun of this worthwhile project!

     

    Wine and Roses Garden Club Committee Report

    The Wine and Roses Garden Club October meeting will be held October 24th at Mary Newman’s home. Items to be discussed will include:

     

    Quality Committee Report

    See above in meeting minutes.

     

    Treasury Report