ECCO Meeting Minutes for July 14th, 2011

ECCO Meeting Minutes for July 14th, 2011

Meetings are held at St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church at 7:00

Minutes submitted by Katherine St. Martin

Attendance

Board members: Nancy Ward (President), Sarah Sponheim (Vice President), Katherine St. Martin (Secretary), Tim Norkus-Crampton, Kaitryne and Brad Durham, Linda Todd, Gael Ellis

 Monica Smith (NRP), Leslie Foreman (Representing Meg Tuthill’s City Council Representative Office)

Community residents: Joe Nelson, Judd Larson, Les Westendorp, Jay Dean.

Minutes from June 2nd Meeting approved

Announcements

- Uptown Art Fair Kickoff Event will be held at Calhoun Square on July 21^st from 6:00-8:30pm.  The check-in and party are on the second floor.  RSVP by navigating to the events tab in uptownminneapolis.com

-Minneapolis Center for Neighborhood Organizing is holding a workshop at St. Olaf Church, 2901 Emerson Ave N, Minneapolis.  Training will cover topics such as grassroots issues and recruiting volunteers for a five week period; once a week for two hours on Wednesdays

-National Night Out is the first Tuesday in August.  If your block plans to hold a party, there is one week left to contact city police to block the parking areas off with caution tape.  The city does not provide barricades; if your block requires barricades they should be rented from an outside source.

-There is a door-to-door scam in ECCO where a man knocks on the door claiming his car is broken down and requesting cash

- The NRP Policy Board is walking in the Aquatennial on July 20^th to celebrate 20 years of NRP work.  If anyone is interested in walking in the parade to represent ECCO, they are welcome to contact NRP for details. 

Linda Todd (Uptown Neighborhood News)

Linda announced that the UNN is currently accepting applications for a new editor.  Interviews will begin August 1^st.  Please contact the UNN if you are interested.

The UNN budget was recently submitted to CARAG for approval.  With the continuing support of the advertisement representatives and secretary staff, the UNN is currently financially stable and hopes to add a bookkeeper to the staff this year. 

Leslie Foreman (Representing Meg Tuthill’s office, City Council Representative)

The taxi project is underway in Uptown.  The taxi project’s mission is to reduce taxi traffic in high-density areas of Uptown by creating five taxi stands with capacity to hold 21 cabs.  Last weekend was the kick-off.  The project intends to maintain these stands seven nights a week with no parking in the stands after 10 pm.  The City Council’s office recommends that patrons ask the host staff where the closest taxi stand location is; the finalized list of locations will be published after the first couple weeks of the project. 

Residents should be aware that the City is conducting “smoke tests” to identify potential leaks in underground sewage pipes.   If a sewage leak is suspected, technicians will pump non-toxic  smoke into the pipe and watch to see if the smoke comes up through the group in immediate area.  Be aware that if you see smoke rising, it is part of this inspection for underground sewage leaks and poses no harm to residents. 

Hennepin County organizes collection events throughout the year to give residents more convenient, local disposal options for their household hazardous wastes.  There is an Upcoming community collection event Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for July 21 - 23, Minneapolis
Dunwoody College of Technology, 818 Dunwoody Blvd, Minneapolis.

The Hollywood Hustler store is scheduled to open despite local opposition at 26^th Street and Hennepin because the store complies with the City’s zoning ordinances.   The 85% general retail is walled off separately from the 15% adult items sold in the store.  In response to local resident opposition, Meg Tuthill and a representative from the City attorney’s office and zoning and planning staff are planning a meeting for next week to discuss whether this store (the fifth of its kind) signals a tipping point and whether the zoning ordinances need to be re-looked for this kind of establishment.  Linda brought up the point that there is a difference between an offensive business and one that poses actual danger.  She recommended that the meeting look at available data to determine whether there is a threat that needs to be evaluated or mitigated with a growing number of adult stores or if this issue is simply a matter of preference.  If you are interested in attending this meeting please email Leslie.Foreman@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Gael shared her recent experience with the new parking meters at the downtown Farmer’s Market on Lyndale.  She found the new parking meters to be an unexpected shock without the education and awareness of how and when to use them.  She also cautioned that a weekend morning wasn’t an appropriate time to enforce parking meters; it seems counterintuitive to dissuade people from coming into downtown on the weekends. 

Brad asked whether Meg had met with the Mayor regarding our community’s continuing request for details on a plan to return the property taxes in the 10^th Ward to sustainable levels.  Leslie responded that Meg had not met with the Mayor yet and replied that part of the City’s plan to reduce the property taxes revolved around passing the closed police pension plan which was not resolved before the legislative session closed.  The topic will hopefully be revisited at special session. 

Monica asked why the road construction sites had used toilet paper to cover the asphalt and whether that was going to be cleaned up?  Leslie responded that the thin paper is commonly used because it disintegrates after the first rain.  

As always, you can contact Meg’s office at 612-673-2210 or meg.tuthill@ci.minneapolis.mn.us.

Committee Reports:

Environmental “Green Team” Report

Sarah and Nancy volunteered their time to walk the Loon Lake Trolley path weeding the ragweed on the path as well as treating the thistles. 

Nancy framed the discussion about the Ash trees and Emerald Ash Borer by stating that everyone present was interested in preserving our community canopy and that this discussion is intended to determine a process for making decisions regarding the Ash trees.  She stated that the farthest thing from the Board’s mind is to dictate a plan to the community.  She opened the topic for discussion.

Les Westendorp presented the Board with a petition signed by much of the 3200 block of Irving residents which formalized their agreement that the proactive 5-year plan to remove and replace the boulevard Ash trees before they become infected was not appropriate.  The petition read:

“We believe that the program of accelerated boulevard ash tree removal is too drastic.  If 20% of the trees are removed each year over a 5-year period, there will be no large trees in the boulevard canopy.  We think this will adversely affect the boulevard appearance for everyone.  The U of M Extension bulletin M1242 (regarding Emerald Ash Borer) states there is no reason to remove healthy ash trees, but keep them in your landscape.  We think that the methods of informing residents of this plan and notifying them of their options has been inadequate. “

Les expressed that many in the community feel that the 5-year plan is too proactive and would unnecessarily accelerate shrinking the canopy. Judd Larson also spoke regarding the original 5-year plan, recognizing that it may be too drastic but emphasized that the intent was good; to proactively prepare the community to lose these trees.  He suggested everyone consider being proactive on some level so that all 150 of the ECCO Ash trees are not affected at the same time 5-10 years from now.  He suggested proactively selecting trees that were in a position of least impact (where an Ash is next to another tree on the same lot or an Ash is particularly small or ailing).  Sarah and Nancy did reconfirm that the City continues to support whatever plan the community decides but it important to remember that the City has money and replacement trees now whereas in the future when all the trees are infected at the same time, they may be strapped for resources. Kaitryne reminded the group that individual homeowners can have a positive future impact on the boulevard tree situation by supplementing the canopy with trees in their yard and to look into the Tree Trust for aid in planting trees.  Jay Dean spoke out to remind us that while we seek a community solution, the plan must respect the individual decisions on the homeowners for each tree.  Overall there was consensus that the 5-year plan was too dramatic of a plan and that each block needs to be engaged to find a compromise between individual choices to keep trees until they are infected and selective proactive replacement on a longer-term schedule. 

The Board unanimously moved to create a separate Tree Committee to create and facilitate community and neighbors decision-making process and timeline with the mission of maintaining the canopy. 

NRP Committee

Monica gave a brief summary of the current NRP money situation.  In late 2010, the City froze 50% of uncontracted NRP phase II funds. The City has since announced that they were returning $2.6 million of those frozen funds back to the NRP for redistribution.  NRP is proposing to redistribute the previously frozen funds to neighborhoods adversely affected by the freezing of the funds. The Board members discussed that they agreed this solution was a positive measure to not punish the proactive neighborhoods while also equally distributing the remaining funds among the neighborhoods who were most affected by the NRP funds freeze. 

The Board unanimously moved to support the current NRP plan to regarding the $2.6.

Monica made several announcements concerning ongoing NRP opportunities:

There is still opportunity to apply for Phase II housing grant and loan programs. The Matching Grant Program features a matching grant of 25% NRP funds to 75% homeowner funds, with a maximum grant of $3,000. There are no income limits.  Residents have asked if they could apply for more than one grant if they have not exceeded the $3,000 limit.

The Board unanimously moved to allow residents to apply for multiple grants as long as the total grant money per residence did not exceed the $3,000 limit.

The Low Interest Loan program offers 4% fixed rate loans with flexible terms with a maximum loan of $7,500. Household income limits apply.  For more information, please go to the NRP section of our website: www.eastcalhoun.org.

CES home energy visits are still available.  ECCO is second place to Kingfield neighborhood for the greatest percentage of neighbors to receive CES visits.  Only a few households are needed to secure first place and a $5,000 award for our community.  In order to receive a home energy visit with CES, households must attend a CES workshop.  Workshop times and locations are available through www.mnces.org.

Monica also read a thank you letter from the Joyce Food Shelf regarding the recent ECCO donation. 

Gael will cover Constant Contact and Katherine will make any necessary updates to the ECCO website from August 6^th through August 20^th while Monica is occupied; she will resume these duties on the 21^st.

Social Committee

Nancy presented the Social Committee announcements. 

July 17: Gael presented a photo of the completed ECCO Waste Watchers/Organics Aquatennial Milk Carton Boat Race Craft.  The community really pulled together to create and register an incredible watercraft made entirely from milk cartons and recyclable cardboard to celebrate the green carts and everything that can benefit from organics composting.  The race is at 10:00 at Thomas Beach.  Join the team and cheer them on.

August 11th: Obstacle Course Croquet will be held just south of the tot-lot on Lake Calhoun at 6pm.  Come join the fun and bring a pot-luck dish to share.  Volunteers to set up obstacles for the event and bring extra croquets sets are welcome at 5:30. 

Upcoming events are the annual Winetasting fundraiser and the Labor Day gathering with its parade and bike décor, etc.    Brad agreed to connect with Brad Albertson and Nancy will contact Judy Shields to begin coordinating the Labor Day event. 

Zoning Committee

Nancy opened the floor to discuss the Mesa Pizza business application to the City for an extension to their hours until 3am.  She noted that the board could make a statement regarding our position on the extended hours.  She pointed out that this process was actually going before the City licensing committee instead of zoning and could be revoked for due cause in the future.

Linda and Katherine felt that the selling and delivering of pizza until 3am was fairly innocuous and pointed out that young people in the community, such as teenagers and young professionals, would utilize late pizza services.  Brad and Sarah felt that the 3am closing time would specifically cater to the bar-goers who stayed until last call at the uptown bars and draw out the parade of people returning to their cars throughout our homes even later into the evening.  Nancy felt that a statement couldn’t be made at this time because the board did not have a clear majority on the issue. 

Decision Making Between Meetings

Nancy opened this discussion by reminding the board of the multiple times this year where the City’s scheduled meetings or hearings on an ECCO related topic without a month’s public notice.  This creates an environment where the ECCO Board must be able to vote and decide on a statement or position between meetings. 

Sarah shared her experiences on another board in which the bylaws allowed the group to make decisions with an email vote that the President or staff personnel tallied.  She recommended that a similar idea could work for ECCO and the between-meetings statements and votes could be recorded in the next meetings minutes.  Several board members felt that the bylaws should be consulted to make sure that the parameters for decision-making are understood. Nancy offered to consult the bylaws and send out her assessment of the information via email to the board who could then create a small group to craft a proposition for between meeting decision making.  This could be presented at the next meeting for a formal vote. 

Nancy also announced that due to time constraints and the need to follow other pursuits, she will not be running for President of ECCO next year. 

Meeting adjourned.

Next ECCO Meeting will be held on September 1^st 2011 at 7 pm inside St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church.  Note: no August meeting.