February 17th, 2011,
6:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.,
East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center
2307 17th Ave S.
2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC
web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office:
2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Attendees: Hannah Lieder, Al
Bangoura ( and Charles (CSA 6), Shirley Heyer, Jenny Bjorgo, Brad Pass, Carol Pass, Linda
Leonard, Mary Gonsior, Seven Sruthers, Earl Sims, Mohammed Cali, Mary Juanita Leonard, Chiffon
Williams,
6:50
Introduction:
· Greetings and Introductions
· Approval of Agenda
·
Minutes from EPIC General Membership Meeting 1/20/2011
Linda and Jenny moved to the committee of the
whole and it passed.
6:55 Announcements &
Reports:
NRP
Task Force – If you want to be a part of this committee, Contact Carol Pass,
612- 280-8418
Meeting times will be announced,
and will be arranged to match schedules of committee members.
Jenny's announcement--lots of
volunteers available from Jenny's school for doing surveys, etc.
7:00 Phillips
Community Center Partnership and Swimming Pool
– Minneapolis Swims receives 501©(3).
Bill submitted to the
legislature by Rep. Karen Clark. Hand outs,
Q & A, Next Steps
Hanna:
Gwen is a
consultant from St. Paul. We have a competition swimming pool. They never pay
for themselves. Therapy pools have been proposed as addition. Hanna teaches at
the YWCA which also has preschool and level 1,2 and parent/child lessons in the
warm pool. We need it to have sustainable operating costs. It's less money
total if we put more capital into the second pool NOW. This reduces future
operating costs. There may be additional funds for therapy pools. Hanna stated
she never expected any Park Board money for renovation or building pools. There
may have been some confusion with some commissioners. Hanna went to the State
of MN for bonding and didn't make any rigid private/public money distinction.
Apparently someone with the Park Board interpreted Hanna's efforts as being in
competition with the Park Board's bonding requests.
- sponsorship includes Republican leadership
- there is also a physician who is "on board"
- we have to show there is state significance......The MN branch of the national swimming competitive group is sending out letters to the 8,000 competitive MN swimmers to lobby their state-wide legislators for this project;
- Drowning is most significant among black males; there are national efforts to increase swimming lessons for ethnic people and for increased participation in competition
- Hanna is developing relationship with DNR as well with swimming being a life skill
- Meeting next week with Three Rivers and Karen Clark........partnership programming will increase diversity populations using the programs.
- The sherrif's department sees this as public safety and will write a letter of support
- The mayor gave a pat on the back and that's about it.
Phillips
Wellness Corridor
Mary and Jenny put the motion
out to accept Bob Albee's Proposal that E 24th from I 35 to 55 named Phillip's
Community Wellness Corridor and we encourage the Phillips Community Park
Initiative group to flesh out the concept to bring to the neighborhoods for discussion
and implementation. PASSED
- Shirley said MTransit dropped the E 24th St. route in the past--Midtown wants to reconsider another route again
- She noted there are more agencies and businesses than we used to have.
- Shirley doesn't want to become another Sabbathani Center where there is leased space but people don't know one another and are isolated from one another.
- Mary asked who will decide what this means and where it is going.
- Brad explained that group represents the community broadly. The accountability is with the reps to their own groups.
- The neighborhood still gets to decide what to do internally to the neighborhood.
7:10 Linda/Chiffon motion to move to regular
meeting from Committee of the Whole when Mary Gonsior arrived.
Recent letter from the Park
Board.
History
The attorney who writes the bills met with
Karen Clark and community on Thursday and the bill had to be submitted by
Friday. It would not have been possible to work with Park Board under that
deadline.
We have only a six month window
for.......
We want the Park Board to
understand that in our efforts to lobby for East Phillips bonding the Park
Board refused to accept the money. Karen Clark essentially wrote a letter
delivered asap to the chair at the time that if the Park Board did not accept
the proposal she would quit supporting any of the park board initiatives. There were commissioners who said on TV
aren't they all Indians.......why don't we spread this around and send the
money to the north side.
We know we have a new superintendent
who is probably a finer person than any of the commissioners in terms of being
a listener, caring for the poor, and understanding diversity.
-When the urgent and imperative
actions Hanna and Carol took became public a commissioner screamed and yelled
at Carol about taking initiative, Carol realized the experience of repeated
abuse.
AL: PCC gave her background and
she's dealt with situations like this in Detroit. She has dealt with public initiative in the
past and is comfortable.
-Carol and Hanna's goals
included: Unassailable by the mayor and city council. Make the Park Board and
this CSA "shine"
-Hanna said understanding Park
Board funding was a surprise; all but one of her board members are first time
on any board. There is a group of people trying to learn and trying to lead and
they make mistakes.
-Our community assumes that
this proposal would have been lost in the Park Board proposal and we could have
been defeated at a number of points.
-Shirley explained MET Council
a bit because Hanna asked.
-Hanna understands the Park
Board was surprised, annoyed, and upset. She understands now. For the Park
Board not to see that the bill is social justice, public safety, an access
issue to services and natural resources. This would be the only indoor public
swimming pool in the city.
-Off the record the community
members gave personal responses about working with the Park Board. The summary
is that the culture here and people and institutions here have had to fight for
everything we get......[not just with the Park Board]
8:00
East
Phillips Park Community Center- Partnerships
and Phillips CSA, Q & A Brad
- February 28 is the official opening date and it looks possible.
- Partnership programs are being scheduled with Travis
- New system "active net" links everything in the parks/rec system
- You can use a card for all the financial transactions
- You can have photo ID cards
- Open Arms with the intern from McAllister is considering a nutrition program for summer lunch program
- Leonardo's BASEMENT on 45th and Nicollet does go-carts; three dimensional design; science and technology like lego robotics
- Institute of Production and Recording on Washington and ?; multi-media technology; Lance Sabin has lots of other connections with private interprise. It 's youth driven and TBD "Indigenous creative" is the name of the program and it is part of a non-profit.
- AOC with Youth Adventure and Intermedia Arts is starting out by creating name and brand. Project Footsteps, Freeport West, a marketing guy from General Mills and others are partnering.
- There are computers for adults and youth; teaching/instruction possible
Travis...on-line
by March 7
- youth martial arts
- women's self defense
- yoga
- fundamental baseball with a league
- basketball camp in May
8:10 NRP Phase I Review:
The final assessment was finished and writing the Phase One report nearly
complete.
8:15 NRP Phase II Planning: Business
Survey, Resident Survey Participation Agreement was discussed
MOTION:
for Participation Agreement Approval, JB & CP, Passed
We edited the Phase II survey and Steering Committee
need it back with comments by Friday night.
The surveys are part of what will go into the new
planning document and doing the door-to-door needs to start this weekend. Members at the meeting discussed and
critiqued the survey
Task Force, Focus Groups
we need more participants and Steve might be
interested.
8:18 Future Funding for Neighborhoods: Response
of the NRP Policy Board, Pro-Democracy Issues
Board
Motions
MOTION
(JB, ES ) Passed: WHEREAS the NRP neighborhoods
were given the responsibility to watch over these funds given to us by the
state, and whereas the city has committed itself to informing the neighborhoods
of major decisions and allowing them to participate, and WHEREAS the city made
these changes with no notification to the neighborhoods, no advance notice to
the city council, and no notification to any of the parties that would be
damaged by these decisions, EPIC believes, as a neighborhood, that we are
legally, politically and morally responsible to protect these funds for their
appropriate and intended use by the neighborhoods to which they were allocated.
THEREFORE, be it resolved that EPIC join the other injured parties (other
neighborhoods) in a temporary restraining order against this city action and we join them if it proceeds to a law
suit. (Carol and Chiffon proposed the
amendment that was accepted.) PASSED
Constitutional
Amendment
MOTION
(JB, ES) Passed: Resolved that EPIC will ask
our Representative and Senator to introduce a motion parallel to Vermont's
regarding proposing an amendment to the constitution for the state's
consideration which provides that corporations are not persons under the laws
of the United States or any of its jurisdictional subdivisions. PASSED
8:25 Housing and Development Update:
·
Greenway Apartments : Recent
Progress; Loren Bruggeman is partnering with PRG to move ahead. Affordable
family housing and it will be the first such housing on the Greenway. One block
wide.
·
2600-2606
17th Ave. Proposal for Apartment Building of 20 Units by
Alliance on an R2B site which is very small. Update, Q & A So far they have not been allowed to build
there. We are trying to get someone to buy the sites and put duplexes. We don't
want spot zoning.
·
Habitat House at 2428 16th Ave.
S. Tear down and rebuild is the proposal. Carol wants to talk to the Village
project people. There are empty lots on both sides and that's where the circle
is supposed to be for the next phase. We need to include the town home people.
·
PRG possible Rehab at 2620 17th
Ave. S.--oak pillars; the owner wants too much money; 4 BR
·
Housing Committee; Steve says
it fits his interests and skills
Mary suggested segmented board
meetings so that one hour is common business and the second hour is committee
time.
8:35 Crime Concerns and Other Livability
Issues:
People are more aggressive about finding vulnerable
objects and locations. Pull the
shades!
-Steve says the foundry shakes his house
between 3 and 4 in the morning.......it's a noise violation. Steve talked with
Gary Schiff who referred him to a committee.
Smith Foundry has good people and they are willing to help but not sure
how. It keeps him up.
-The neighborhood organization
will contact the owner on Steve's behalf.
Brad and Carol will brainstorm
with the owner.
The business is nonconforming
and doesn't fit industrial one and two........they are not to upgrade and
market forces are supposed to encourage them to move; Carol pointed out that
they have a good neighbor agreement and we might be able to get them to
reconfigure the equipment somehow. That
business helped us rebuild the neighborhood by giving $4,000 which brought in
funds for lots of houses.
8:35 Annual Meeting : In
April . . .?????? at the new community center
8:50 Adjournment:
