South University Neighborhood Association
Executive Board Meeting October 5, 2015
Attending: Board members Pamela Miller, Rebekah Hanley, Nancy Meyer, Kari Parsons, Tim Shinabarger, Carolyn Jacobs, Bill Aspegren; SUNA member Connie Van Flandern
University of Oregon Update— Karen Hyatt, UOʼs director of local community and neighborhood relations, via email: Karen will attend the November SUNA General Meeting and will staff a table of information; she will recruit UO colleagues to participate. She is willing to speak about Hayward Field renovation, but it will only be basic information for now–someone from UO can make a presentation to the board or general meeting after the first of the year and they will be able to provide more information then.
Planning for November 4th General Meeting–Pamela and Nancy met to discuss format for the general membership meeting. The plan is to have information tables by interest groups with a few minutes of short presentations. Parties will have information tables for the YMCA, Edison Gardens, SUNA, the UO, City of Eugene parking and parking permits. Connie said Civic Stadium supporters printed t-shirts; she suggested they could bring t-shirts and put them on a table at the general meeting. Kari said she will ask a SUNA resident who serves on the Civic board.
Pamela said although the UO doesnʼt want to address Hayward Field changes until after the New Year, we want them to attend the November meeting and hear our comments. She said we need to find a way to get neighborsʼ feedback to the UO before the New Year or it will be too late. Nancy said we need the UOʼs timeline and general information for renovating Hayward Field. She said the concern is that the neighbors wonʼt be able to provide input . Tim suggested SUNA take Karen up on her offer to speak to the November meeting on the basics of the Hayward renovation. Pamela said she will ask Karen to do so. Tim said he will review the city building permit site for any information that might be publicly available regarding Hayward renovations.
Continuing on Hayward Field, Pamela said typically the two things that come up are noise and parking. She said Fairmount Neighborhood has two-hour parking around the clock; if we want to consider changing parking policy in SUNA, we need to talk to the city about that, not to the university. Or if the university wants a variance granted by the city, we need to talk to the city about it, not to UO. Bill said we might want to talk to Jeff Petrie (City of Eugene parking program specialist) about extending parking restrictions for athletic events. Carolyn said the SUNA table should have a way for people to write down things they want the SUNA board to address.
Pamela called for volunteers to bring baked goods and beverages to the meeting. Pamela said she would bring juice, Kari and Nancy said they would bring cookies. Connie said she is still willing to do a postcard to announce the meeting.
Little Free Library at University Park–Connie said the carpenter, Ethan, is going to build it with two book shelves and the lower shelf can be for kidsʼ books. She said Ethan is willing to do a second box for Edison School. She said for an Edison Little Free Library, sheʼd like it to be built underneath the existing kiosk and include exclusively childrenʼs books.
Carolyn called for having a photo at the November general meeting to show the Little Free Library in University Park if itʼs complete by then. Rebekah suggested we start collecting book donations. Connie said SUNA should have an annual book exchange. Pamela said people can bring books to the November general meeting to donate to the Little Free Library or to exchange–bring books to leave, take books you want. Nancy asked Connie to do a five-minute talk to the general meeting attendees about the Little Free Libraries.
Social Media Report–Connie talked about the new “Next Door South University” site. She said some neighborhoods have concerns about putting out too much information on their neighborhood sites. She said the SUNA Next Door site has 62 people participating. She said SUNA has had a Facebook site since 2013 and it has 77 people.
Connie said people who are active on Next Door can post their house as a safe house for Halloweʼen trick-or-treaters– marking their house on an interactive map by placing a candy corn icon on their location. She said one of the main “proʼs” of the site is its incredible connectivity, but one of its “cons” is people are getting too many emails through it. She said there are settings to control what types of messages you receive. She said she will send out a link telling people how to control their settings. She asked for feedback on the new site and said she will continue to monitor the amount of emails people are getting.
SUNA Web Site— Connie said she has been adding historical content.
City of Eugene Neighborhood Matching Grant Program–Connie said nobody from SUNA has submitted grant proposals and the deadline is approaching. She said by end of October neighbors have to submit their ideas, but not all the specifics, to the city. She referred to University Park in context of grant proposals. Kari said city park staff told her SUNA needs to adopt University Park. Connie said we need to draw up what we want the park to look like — do we want it to include a gazebo? a dog park? a place to have music? She said the city is working on a 10-year parks plan and we need to do something now. Kari said if the city is going to re-design University Park anyway it would be a shame to do things that the city would soon be removing. Connie said she would follow up with city staff to find out deadlines for grant proposal submittals.
Board Vacancies–Tim said he will review the SUNA Charter to find out the proper way to fill current board vacancies.
Charter Update–Bill said city staff have not done any review yet to the proposed revisions to the SUNA Charter.
MUPTE Nominations Update–Carolyn said neighborhoods had until last Friday to submit nominations for members to serve on the cityʼs MUPTE Advisory Board (MUPTE= Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption). Nominees had to write a 100-word description of themselves. Bill Aspegren was nominated. Carolyn recommended the board vote for Bill and for John Jaworski of Northeast Neighbors. She said the neighborhood representatives will be the only two people on the MUPTE board who are not developers or city staff. Nancy moved and Kari seconded to vote for Bill Aspegren and John Jaworski. Approval was unanimous.
Neighborhood Street Signs: Nancy said she talked with Eric Jones, spokesman for the City of Eugene, about the Olympic Trials. Nancy requested the city restore street signs so people will know where they are during the Olympic Trials. She proposed the city use the 12-foot metal street post signs. She said in response the city spokesman gave her the contact information for Tom Larsen, the city traffic engineer who made a presentation to the SUNA board at a meeting this summer. Nancy asked Eric to bring the idea to his next meeting and say it would be good PR for the city to have street signs on the corners when everybodyʼs here for the Trials.
Pamela said the new 10-foot signs the city has put up are not tall enough and signs have been removed from the new metal posts on Harris Street.
November Board Meeting Topics: Kari-fundraisers. Tim-Board appointments.
Minutes submitted by Tim Shinabarger, SUNA Board Secretary