SUNA Board Meeting: Agenda with Minutes
Monday, August 19, 2019 7-8:30pm
Marcia Regnier’s home, 1240 E 22nd
Attendance: Marcia Regnier, Bill Aspegren, Carolyn Jacobs, Lauren Willis, Tracy Phelan, Connie VanFlandern, Nancy Meyer
Absent: Kari Parsons, Marsha Shankman, Grace Swanson, Laura Illig, Matt Roberts
Standing Items & Short Announcements
1. July minutes Approved by the board
2. Treasurer’s report/City $ $25 cash from raffle transferred to Nancy for the $25
Sundance Gift card given to Ian Whitelaw in thanks for his picnic support
City allocation of funds:
- Not allowed for equipment, so the lock box will be returned by Connie to Vernon Campbell. Board will use the four keys for kiosk content
- Nancy was reimbursed through city funds for the $77 picnic postcards
- Bill will be reimbursed for the cost of the Prince Puckler ice cream, since it was donated to SUNA at better than half price
3. University update – Matt not in attendance
Continuing Business/Reports
4. Summer Picnic – Over 68 people signed in – which meant many more were in attendance (kids/folks who didn’t sign in). It was a good turn out – and nice to have our past and present state representatives in attendance (Rep Wilde, ex-Rep Barnhart, ex-state school superintendent Susan Castillo). Rep Zelenka was invited but didn’t respond
Suggestions: Next year: *Call it an “Ice Cream Social” rather than a picnic, to clear up uncertainty about food *include a large thank you/appreciation to Prince Puckler for its ice cream donation *make sure not to put postcards in mail boxes if hand delivered. The city probably wouldn’t include bail in our allocations, either J
5. Disaster Preparedness Committee Update: Marcia shared Dave’s report:
Some committee members met with UO disaster planners, and were impressed with their broad scope of planning. The committee has designated four groups of 20-30 houses as “test houses” to begin the Map Your Neighborhood activity, each led by committee members. One group has had its initial meeting and the other three will in the next few months. Dave will follow-up with some people he met at the picnic who expressed interest in becoming involved.
It’s been suggested that neighbors include information that they’re comfortable sharing with other neighbors in attendance at the meeting. Also, the hope is that every block will have a location designated so neighbors can quickly check on everyone’s safety immediately after a disaster – before moving on to locations with more supplies.
6. Housing: Updates re: codes/Density efforts
Bill and Carolyn suggested: *with passage of HB2001, the goal is to retain the city’s current density requirements to limit intense building *this means listening/lobbying for city councilor candidates who support neighborhood interests *Bill suggested BEST has some good ideas for neighborhoods, but is not something to support financially
Nancy has sent another letter to Rep Zelenka encouraging his efforts with the City Council to limit the use of non-owner short term rentals. This was also included in a letter Nanc sent to Rep Wilde, with SUNA concerns about out of town owners renting homes on a short term basis (thereby taking them off the market, impacting community livability, etc).
7. Edison updates: Block Party – Fri Sept 6 – update: Various hand offs of materials are being made to support the Edison block party (Nancy has given supplies to Marsha, Bill will get signs to Kari, and the Board decided to offer the extra picnic ice cream cones for the event.)
Connie will try to get SUNA vests to the Disaster Preparedness crowd by the gathering.
It was reiterated that we very much hope to find an Edison parent interested in serving on the SUNA board in order to represent the school.
Rebuilding: Nancy has already written 4J and architects with several SUNA concerns: *saving the Little Library (hopefully in its current location) *creating a top level safety location (in terms of seismic activity) *creating a space to store supplies for the community in case of a disaster (medical, water, food, etc).
Nancy also included an offer for the committee to speak at a general meeting with updates to share for the Edison community
8 General Meeting discussion: A tentative date of Wednesday, Oct 23 7pm, Edison, has been set – pending input from potential speakers.
It was decided the carbon footprint talk wouldn’t garner as much neighborhood interest as information on the impact of the June Olympic Trials.
Nancy has already written Jeff Petry (Parking Supervisor) to ask about his parking plans so we can understand them and possibly lend support earlier this time. Matt Roberts has already responded to an email, and will work with Nancy for speakers from the University and Track to offer short presentations/Q&A about the plans/impact/goals of the Trials.
We can also present information for neighbors about renting homes, possibly with a neutral format.
Carolyn is meeting with the representative of the City Hate/Bias group to better understand the time/topics involved in the ‘Tool kit’ to help communities limit, respond, and report crimes of bias and hate. We’ll plan how to incorporate this information once we understand their parameters.
January 24 is the “Great Shakeout Day” – so having a General Meeting near that time would tie in with the state and local news about potential earthquakes. Lauren has been working on getting the film (“Unprepared”) and speakers. The Board will work with Dave Regnier to determine how to balance the PBS/speaker information with the local planning.
If you haven’t seen the film (and it’s strongly recommended) – you can YouTube it.
Good of the Order and Neighborhood updates/announcements
University Park planning – Connie reports the city has $750,000 to spend on University Park. The time frame will include community input in spring 2020, with a starting point in 2022. This will give us time to increase the finances (possibly through parking fees during the Trials) and prioritize planning goals for the park.
Next Door App – Nancy asked about the distinction between this app and NextDoor Digest…apparently this involves interacting with the settings. And on that impossible note, I sign off.
Good seeing everyone – with thanks again for your time and support of our community.
Nancy
Next meeting: Monday, September 16, 7pm – hopefully, at Edison