Minutes of the NWSNA March 18, 2014 Meeting
Location: Bloomingfoods West Community Room
Present:
Barbara Metz
Tim Clougher
Bill Baus
David Gulyas
Carol Gulyas
Several board members were absent due to Spring break travels, so we had a small
meeting this month.
Habitat for Humanity Development in the B-line Woods
We were glad to welcome Barbara Metz and Tim Clougher to the meeting. They
shared their concern that the minutes of the March 18th meeting regarding the
Habitat for Humanity development did not represent the views of the entire
neighborhood. They wanted to make sure that in future the NWSNA would try to
discern the views of the neighborhood before stating a position for or against an
issue.
Carol Gulyas said that unless neighbors attend meetings or communicate in some
other way, it is difficult to know their views. (Before the H4H development appeared
before the Plan Commission, we did send a brief, unscientific email survey, but only
23 of the 73 respondents identified themselves as being from the neighborhood. Of
the 23, 15 did not support the waiver of a second hearing before the Plan
Commission. 7 responders supported waiving the second hearing. Given that the
NWS has 400 residences, the results did not seem meaningful at the time and
became moot once it was clear that the Plan Commission was waiving the second
hearing and moving discussion to City Council.)
The NWSNA is committed to trying to speak for the interests of the neighborhood as
far as we can know them. (See “Neighborhood Communication” section below.)
Carol encouraged Tim and Barbara to come to future NWSNA meetings and to
encourage others to come to future NWSNA meetings.
Tim and Barbara shared their support for the H4H development and expressed their
appreciation for the fact that the NWSNA is now engaged in constructive dialog with
H4H to make the development as “green” as it can be. One of the ideas suggested is
to work with Habitat and the City to plant trees between Butler Park and the RR
tracks, which would provide a screen over the chain-link fence that the RR will erect
between the RR tracks the H4H development. Neighbors could help with the treeplanting drive, and this would engage all in improving the vista looking north from
Butler Park. We also agreed that the H4H families might provide much-needed
stability to the neighborhood, which would aid the Fairview School.
All present agreed that we are looking forward to welcoming new H4H families to
our community.
Key stages for the H4H development are:
i. Mar. 26: City Council Final Vote
ii. Back to Plan Commission for Design Details
iii. To Planning Staff for tree removal
iv. Habitat Neighbor meetings for Design Details
Neighborhood Communication
Carol shared copies of the contacts and key dates portion of the NWSNA newsletter
that will soon be mailed (courtesy of a HAND “Small and Simple” grant) to the entire
NWSNA resident database. The newsletter will seek to inform the entire
neighborhood about the NWSNA, share Board contact information, get more email
signups, and to provide the meeting schedule and other key dates for the year. It
will also include a section that asks what issues neighbors are most interested
in/concerned about.
Tim pointed out that many neighbors may not have internet access. Carol agreed
and pointed out that we have leafleted the 400 residences in the neighborhood at
least three times in the past year, but that this is a heavy burden to impose on
volunteers and that leaflets are often not impactful. Carol suggested that perhaps
there is a way that we can enlist key people who have internet access to volunteer to
inform those on their block that may not have internet access. (This is a topic for
future meetings.) We will probably not be able to communicate with the
neighborhood solely through electronic media.
Little Free Library grant possibility
Carol shared that the Monroe County Public Library has a possibility of getting a
grant for neighborhoods to get a “Little Free Library” (examples at
www.littlefreelibrary.org) and that we have communicated that our neighborhood
would be very interested in participating.
Dues
Tim Clougher and Barbara Metz paid their dues for the year and were given
receipts. A more structured method of recording dues payments is in the works.