Minutes of the Center Neighborhood Monthly Meeting
February 21, 2006 7pm
Shogren House
Board Members Present: Barry Bradie, John Rusoff, Robert Jordan, Martha Westgate, Cameron Clemens, Judy Kennedy, Jon Laufenberg
Other Attendees: Richard Glenn, Bert Boehm, DyLynn Robertson, Gerda Allen, April Burris, Matt Nicely, Niko Lande, Liz Mohr, Seth Warncke, Adrian Russell-Falla, Lee Perlman (press)
Introductions 7:00pm
Action: The January minutes are approved.
Treasury report – Robert: Theresa is back in town and wants to resume her duties as treasurer. Current balances: roughly $630 in checking; $7000 money market.
We may commit up to $1000 to our Community Visioning project.
Land Use report – Barry: There have been several notices of property owners seeking to split their dividable lots. The application for the buildings at the corner of 60th & Glisan have been filed.
Robert and I met with the architect/developer who bought part of the Penumbra Kelley parking deck and plans to develop it. Robert: he wants to build a 3-story condo on top. Neighbors express concern about parking.
John Wish, from the Multnomah Friends, came to remind us of their upcoming hearing (March 1) and to say that they’re no longer planning on a backyard park due to neighbors’ concerns about the possibility of it attracting undesirable activity.
Dan Saltzman, City Commissioner
Commission Saltzman, who’s up for re-election, came by to talk about his work as a commissioner and for Q&A. He talked about the budget and the budget process and mentioned cuts to Parks (one of his bureaus) in particular. There will be community meetings to discuss the budget proposals. Other topics included:
– his proposal [which has since passed] to regulate payday lenders
– wind energy for public agencies, anticipated to cost no more than current rates. The proposal would be to contract with a particular company to generate new capacity in Oregon, creating jobs and helping to bridge the urban/rural gap.
– police & fire disability and pension fund: proposes to put new hires into PERS, reform the disability fund
– the Children’s Investment Fund, a 2002 ballot measure, to invest in proven programs
Community Connections – Martha: we should know soon if our Visioning grant was funded. Then we’ll either have to get busy to carry out a plan or decide whether to proceed to plan without funds in hand.
Transportation Committee – Martha: Providence rejected a request to staff a full-time Transportation Coordinator position. Currently such duties are performed by a team of employees who are supposed to be allowed to do this work without it increasing their job workload. This is a good time to revisit stating what we’d like to see along Glisan.
Neighborhood Cleanup
John Rusoff will again take the lead. Our report to SEUL is due by the end of May. Mt Tabor is doing theirs May 6.
Action: Our date will be May 20th, right after the General Meeting.
Miscellaneous items
Action: Contribute $100 to help pay for a non-alcoholic Grant High Senior Party.
Fred Meyers stairs update Kroger responded to our letter by kicking it back down to the Fred Meyer division office back here in Portland.
Without trying to establish rules for appropriateness, we agreed to allow Cathy Riddell to be included on board emails per her request.
We authorized DyLynn Robertson and Seth Warncke to look into the possibly of having a bulletin-board system on one the various Center NA websites. (neighborhood link; ONI; OregonLive)
Newsletter Newsletter submission deadline will need to be March 17th. Potential articles include: Name change (possibly multiple opinion pieces); Cleanup and form; website; station area plan; visioning grant; bylaws update; elections; General Meeting
Action: We authorized funds to mail the next newsletter
MaryLou Henrich is a candidate for State Representative to fill Steve March’s seat. She spoke for a few minutes about her candidacy and qualifications.
Adjourned 8:40
Next meeting 3/21/2006