February 8, 2018

EPIC Community Meetiing Minutes 02-08-2018


2-8-2018, 6:30 – 8:50
Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office: 2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: (612) -280-8418

Board Roster:, Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Tom Harris, Cassandra Holmes, Linda Leonard, Carol Pass, Linda Vermillion, Marc Trius
Board Members Present: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, Linda Leonard, Carol Pass, Marc Trius, Linda Vermillion
Board Members Not Present:, Tom Harris,
Members: Brad Pass
Guests: Shirley Heyer, Cassandra Meyer, Kameron Lindsey

6:30     Social Time/ Greetings and Introductions


6:50     Approval of Proposed Agenda: CS, LD, Approved.
Approval of December 14th General Membership Draft Minutes: BP, RC, approved.

7:10     Announcements:

·       Next EPIC Board Meeting, Saturday, March 3rd, 10:00 am-noon, EPIC’s office 2433 Bloomington Ave. S.

·       Next EPIC Community Meeting, Thursday, March 8th,  6:30 - 8:45, East Phillips Park

  • Annual Meeting will be April 28, 2018
  • SummerFest will be June 24, 2018
  • Midtown Phillips Annual Meeting Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 (5:00 meeting) at the Midtown Global Market
  • Phillips West Winter Social Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 (5:00 Social) at Lutheran Center for Changing Lives
  • Green Zones is meeting monthly for 8 months. There is a citizen’s board that meets the 4th Tuesday of the month. You can find their sustainability project with CPED. Their meeting calendar is on the City website.
  • VW Meeting. CH is working to reserve the EPPCCC community room, to meet with Ned Brooks and neighbors to discuss the VW money and opportunities to garner funds to reduce pollution related to the Roof Depot and neighboring sites. Note: we have learned that individual companies can apply for funds. Ask for Ned Brooks to provide all grants available with deadlines for filing.

7:15     Q&A about where the Roof Depot and Indoor Urban Farm has arrived at present. Bench mar

Presented a history of  EPIC’s efforts to reduced and eliminate pollution and develop a vision for a better use of this site for residents of East Phillips. Showed a PowerPoint presentation from 2014 showing how studies have tied PAHS emissions to ADHD in children. Discussed the city’s purchase of the property, EPIC’s efforts to have a voice in the future of the site, the failure of the city to follow its policy of engaging residents in decision-making, the history of EPIC planning leading to a vision for building an indoor urban farm, legislative funding of the EPNI collaboration, and its work to date. The large community meeting held to present the city’s plan, and the EPIC plan, resulted in a nearly unanimous vote in favor of the EPIC project. Public Works had informed residents they planned to take down the Roof Depot building and be “in the ground” in Spring, 2018. Since then, the City decided they had to take a 2-year hiatus. Our work stopped the Public Works project for two years. EPIC will now be working on a business plan for the overall concept and the individual businesses that will operate in the property will be creating their own business (sustainability) plans, and all will begin the capital campaign…raising money to further fund this project.

7:45     Pollution Problem

Cassandra works for MPCA, long history in South Mpls. She has been personally affected by the health problems that result from pollution. Trying to address this, she studied engineering and sustainable design.               
Discussion of various permit requirements, testing standards, etc. related to permitting Bituminous Roadways and neighboring sites.

8:00      Swimming Program Financing

The situation: The Swimming pool will open soon. Let’s build a program so that we are not pushed out of access to this new amenity in our community. Large pool will open in spring, small pool will open this summer. Funding has come in from public schools and Augsburg. Scheduling for the pool has been turned over to the Park Board and these large donors are already promised large chunks of accessibility. EPIC needs to find partners and funding for an East Phillips Swim Program NOW if we don’t want to miss the boat. LL has done some research.”
                       
Previous Board MOTION: EPIC will guarantee that East Phillips children have access to the pool for which we have already invested $75,000, therefore, EPIC will set aside a minimum of $10,000 for an East Phillips
Children and Youth swim program. LL, MT. Approved.

MOTION changed the amount at GMM on Jan 11th: EPIC will allocate $20,000 of the new youth programming money of  $51,970.04 toward beginning a swimming program for Phillips youth at the new pool. MG, RC, approved. Requires a second vote. Quorum was present.

NEW MOTION 2nd Vote: EPIC will allocate $20,000 of the new youth programming money of  $51,970.04 toward beginning a swimming program for Phillips youth at the new pool. LL, LD, Approved.

8:30     Crime and Safety – Bus Shelter Report

EPIC wants to change the direction of the bus shelter on Lake St. and 17th to face the street. The city responded that this is impossible because of accessibility issues. The design is also intended to shield from cars spraying pedestrians with water, etc. Additional research is needed, as RC noted a shelter already on Lake St. that is facing the street. EPIC will continue to work on this, but we seem to need a different solution.

8:40     Committee Chair Positions Open

If you want to make something happen on your own, you can propose a committee to work on specific projects, etc. The opportunity to serve the EPIC neighborhood does not stop with the board.

8:50     Adjourn

February 3, 2018

EPIC Board Meeting Minutes 02 - 03


February 3rd, 2018, 10:00 am -12:00
East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office: 2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: (612) 280-8418

Board Roster: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Tom Harris, Cassandra Holmes, Linda Leonard, Carol Pass, Marc Trius, Linda Vermillion.
Board Members Present: Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, Linda Leonard, Carol Pass, Marc Trius, Linda Vermillion
Board Members Not Present: Rosie Cruz, Tom Harris.
EPIC Members: Brad Pass
Guests: Shirley Heyer, Abba Mohamed

10:38   Introductions:

·       Greetings and Introductions
·       Approval of Agenda: Approved with addition of announcements (by consensus.)
·       Approval of Minutes from January1, 2018: Approved with correction (Tom Harris was excused, not absent), by consensus.

10:43   Announcements:
  • General Membership Meeting, February 8th, Thursday, at East Phillips Park, 6:30 to 8:45 pm.
  • Annual Meeting will be April 28, 2018
  • SummerFest will be June 24, 2018
  • Midtown Phillips Annual Meeting Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 (5:00 Social, 5:30 meeting) at the Midtown Global Market
  • Phillips West Winter Social Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 (5:00 Social) at Lutheran Center for Changing Lives
  • Green Zones is meeting monthly for 8 months. There is a citizen’s board that meets the 4th Tuesday of the month. You can find their sustainability project with CPED. Their meeting calendar is online on the City website.
  • VW Meeting. CH is working to reserve the EPPCCC community room on Tuesday evening, Feb. 27th, to meet with Ned Brooks and a couple others to discuss the VW money and opportunities to garner funds to reduce pollution related to the Roof Depot and neighboring sites. Note: we have learned that individual vehicles can apply for funds. Ask for Ned Brooks to provide all grants available with deadlines for filing.
  • Introduced Abba Mohamed, EPIC resident and local business owner, who is working with EPNI planning group.

11:06   Roof Depot vs. EP Indoor Urban Farm
      Bench Marks, Completed and New
  • 2013-14; distributed NIMBY (PowerPoint presented to EPIC community in late 2014. The city was present, and it was a large community meeting. This was the beginning of a coalition of neighborhood residents working to envision a different future for the Roof Depot, Asphalt plant sites. EPIC presented research showing that the pollutants produced by these industries in a residential community has been found to cause serious health and developmental issues among children.
  • The Project. A series of meetings followed to try to figure out what to do. EPIC fought off various other polluting plans in the past.  To fight the city’s plan to move the water works to the site, bringing massive diesel trucks and pollution, we knew we needed an alternate plan. We soon had $9M pledged to our project, and the community started putting together an economically sustainable plan. Unfortunately, the city threatened the property owners with imminent domain. The first drawings were presented at the EPIC annual meeting in 2015. The community voted unanimous support.
  • THE CITY PURCHASES THE ROOF DEPOT SITE.  Our effort at purchase is shut down.
  • Growing the Project. With an email list of 400, along with targeted door-knocking in the vicinity of the site and around the eighborhood, and in partnership with community groups and Midtown Neighborhood, Karen Clark, industry experts, and various community leaders. Eventually, the city told us “maybe” we could have a small section of the property for this project.
  •  The MOTION and some success. CM Alondra Cano got a motion through the city council saying it had to work with the East Phillips community but the City states they will tear the Roof Depot down and "be in the ground" this Spring.
  • Lobbying the legislature with success.  EPIC receives a state grant from DEED of $319,000.
  • The participating groups and their constituents form East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, EPNI, the collaboration of small businesses and nonprofits to work on creating the EP Indoor Urban Farm.

  •  The community succeeds in delaying Public Works from moving ahead for two years.
  • Contract with DEED. There is a heavy load on EPIC as fiscal agent and grant recipient of the grant.   It is important that fund requests start moving as there are deadlines for submitting reimbursement request.
  • The immediate future. Some of the funds are intended to help the smaller partners grow so that when the building is up, these organizations will be ready to go. Each business needs to create an economically sustainable business plan. We also must figure out how to finance the building – will it be dependent on grants? How will this project work in a market-based system? The city had said they plan to tear down the building this fall – once they tear it down, everything changes. We have already stopped them, and we now have 2 years. This is a huge accomplishment! We have to have this figured out soon!

11:48   What next? New Projects.
           Swimming pool will become available later than we thought. The swimming pool project is  another    long-term project of EPIC and other neighborhoods who have been working on together for several years. Last Tuesday EPPP met with Zana Murdoch The construction is almost done, the pools are functional, and have the most up to date sustainability features. There is still work to do on the locker rooms, teen center, etc. This was a community driven project. It was important to meet the needs of the community. They are in the process of hiring lifeguards. It will be about 2 months before the pools open. There are jobs available, and they will train lifeguards. Go to MPRB online and go to Phillips Aquatic Center and look up "jobs".
  • We know that people in EPIC’s community can’t afford, and believe they shouldn’t have to pay the rates that Augsburg College and Minneapolis schools have to pay. MPRB has programs for putting youth to work in exchange for participating in park programs, and there is an opportunity to provide similar opportunities to Phillips youth.

At a previous meeting EPIC set aside $10,000 for an East Phillips Children and Youth swim program. However, at the last membership meeting the community increased the amount to $20,000.

Membership Meeting MOTION: EPIC will guarantee that East Phillips children have access to the pool for which we have already invested $75,000, therefore, EPIC will set aside a minimum of $20,000 for an East Phillips Children and Youth swim program. LL, MT. Approved.

Board New MOTION: EPIC will guarantee that East Phillips children have access to the pool for which we have already invested $75,000, therefore, EPIC will set aside a minimum of $20,000 for an East Phillips Children and Youth swim program. LV, LD. Approved.


12:00   Adjourned