October 11, 2018

EPIC Community Meeting Draft Minutes 10 - 11


October 11th, 2018, 6:30 – 8:50
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, Linda Vermillion, Abah Mohamed
Board Members Present: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Linda Leonard, Carol Pass, Linda Vermillion, Abah Mohamed
Board Members Not Present: Tom Harris, Cassandra Holmes.
Members: Brad Pass, Alfonso Cruz, Steve Sandberg, Sarah Santiago,Skylar Sellers, Tammy Skinaway
Guests: Shirley Heyer, Cassandra Meyer, Ahmed Hirsi

6:30     Social Time/ Greetings and Introductions


6:55     Approval of Proposed Agenda: LL, LV, Approved
Approval of September 13th General Membership Draft Minutes:  MG, LD, Approved

7:00     Announcements: 


·       Next EPIC Board Meeting, November 3rd at the EPIC office 10 AM Saturday morning.

·       EPIC Community Meeting, Thursday,  November 8th, 6:30 at the East Phillips Park

  • All Phillips Clean Sweep-October 13th, starting at 9 am (flyer)
  • Fall Harvest Party- Saturday starting at 4:30 pm on October 20th (flyer)
  • Volunteer staff for the Alley newspaper: Steve Sandberg; the paper serves the four “Phillips” neighborhoods.
  • Little Earth is having a meeting on Saturday (Oct. 13th) to focus on the missing and murdered indigenous women of the US and Canada, starting around 1 pm.
  • Karen Clark is retiring, there will be a big kick-off meal for her right here at EPPCCC on December 6 at 6:30 pm. Contact EPIC if you want to help with this event.

7:30     Cassandra Meyer from MPCA offers a Q and A on air pollution, polluting industries and    permitting in East Phillips and to give us a status update on permit process for Bituminous Roadway and Smith Foundry. This is to be a run-up for a larger meeting in November with MCDA Staff to try to decide what to do.

There is an investigative and reporting process that is underway. Bituminous wants to move, so let them know if we find a place (within 20 miles of current location, or anywhere in Hennepin County.) There is a listserve available and if you want to be involved, see instructions below. Meetings will be announced over this listserve. Any S. Mpls project will appear in this listserve. Next month MPCA will be answering questions and reports at the Nov. 8th General Membership Meeting (starts at 6:30 pm.)

Listserve instructions:
Go to www.pca.state.mn.us/air-south-minneapolis and enter your email; click “next”. If prompted, click the box titled “Air permitting in South Minneapolis” (under the “Air” category near the bottom of the page) and click “submit”. Or, email Cassandra.meyer@state.mn.us saying you would like to signup for the South Minneapolis GovDelivery email list.

The MPCA doesn’t have the authority to shut them down if they are in compliance with the requirements. The city, county or state could write a law that forces this pollution out of densely populated areas.

A new group, Science for the People, is looking for a project where they could use their expertise.

8:24     Updating our Finances - EPIC Financial Future – four financial goals

·       EPIC needs to access administrative money to pay bills soon, i.e. rent, office supplies, Internet access.
·       EPIC has traditionally great sponsored programs for youth. We currently need to replenish those funds.
·       EPIC needs to make use of its old money and apply for new…CPP dollars or we could lose it.
·       EPIC always tries to leverage our dollars whenever we can.

EPIC Admin Funds are almost gone. To replenish them we are advised to take $25,000 from the Foreclosure Assistance fund into a Plan Modification moving this money into our new Admin Contract to provide for EPIC’s admin needs. We need to spend this old allocated, but uncontracted money out of a new contract.

This is the 2nd vote on this motion:

MOTION: EPIC chooses to transfer $25,000 from strategy 1.1.2 Foreclosure Assistance to EPIC’s new NRP Phase II Plan Admin Contract (#C-43629). LV, MG, Approved.

8:35     Implications from the big meeting on the Roof Depot site.

The vote at the end of the meeting showed that no residents were opposed to the city giving EPIC the small parcel of land needed to implement the urban indoor agriculture project. We are waiting to hear from CM Cano when the Ways and Means committee will meet to make decisions and recommendations.

8:45     Take the neighborhood Survey in preparation for preparing our CPP application for future
          EPIC funding. Comment on the Survey.

Discussed making a few changes.

8:55     Adjourn

October 6, 2018

EPIC Board Meeting Minutes 10- 06


October 6th, 2018, 10:00 am -12:00
East Phillips Office, 2433 Bloomington 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, Abah Mohamed, Carol Pass, Linda Vermillion.
Board Members Present: Carol Pass, Linda Leonard, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Rosie Cruz, Carrandra Holmes
Board Members Not Present: Tom Harris, Linda Vermillion, Abah Mohamed
EPIC Members: Brad Pass, Kelly Trius,
Guests: Shirley Heyer

10:26   Introductions:
·       Greetings and Introductions
·       Approval of Agenda: MG, CH, approved
·       Approval of Board Minutes from September 8th, 2018, MG, LD, Approved.

10:30   Announcements:         
·       General Membership Meeting, October 11th, Thursday, at East Phillips Park, 6:30 to 8:45 pm.
·       All Phillips Clean Sweep- October 13th
·       Harvest Party- October 20th


10:35   EPIC Survey Final OK

·       Swimming pool ideas: connect with day cares, Little Earth YDC, and other groups that can register and attend children learning to swim, swim recreation.
·       Will this be translated? Our last survey was translated into Spanish and Somali
·       What are we trying to do with the info we gain from this survey? Make priorities in projects and funding.
·       Separate form for personal info – I want to help.
·       Larger section for demographics.
·       MG will reformat survey.

EPIC Survey Implementation

Online Survey, in-person survey, Phillips Clean Sweep, Little Earth (already completed survey); Homeless survey (recently completed); focus groups; EPIC meetings.

Hire local residents to conduct in-person surveys.
Phone surveys.

Next goal is to do the work to create our CPP application for our next round of funding. Projects, Goals?

Discussion.

Consolidation of old NRP funds

Reviewed NRP funds and discussed how to write new-contracts to ensure we don’t lose these funds.

·       Housing: in-fill housing, housing connected to the indoor urban farm. This is the only fund that MUST be spent on housing.
·       Crime and Safety: Phillips clean sweep
·       Economic Development/Business Empowerment: 17th Avenue Roundabout
·       Neighborhood Empowerment through Identity: Phillips Clean Sweep; Web design to enhance community communication

Board attendance

LD will draft a letter to board members who have unexcused absences for review by executive committee.

12:15   Adjourn