EPIC Community Meeting 8-13

 EPIC Community Meeting Minutes

August 13^th, 2020 2019, 6:30 – 8:50

East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.

EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com

Email: epic.ssantiago@gmail.com

Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404

Phone: (612) -280-8418

 

Board Roster: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah Mohamed, Carol Pass, Steve Sandberg, Sarah Santiago. 

Board Members Present: Laura Dale, Carol Pass, Sarah Santiago, Mary Gonsior, Steve Sandberg, Cassandra Holmes

Board Members Not Present: Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah Mohamed, Rosie Cruz

Members: Hannah Lieder, Linda Leonard

Guests: Shirley Heyer

 

6:30     Social Time

6:45     Greetings and Introductions

·      How to become a member via a virtual meeting:

o   Privately chat Sarah S with your name and email to be added to EPICs membership email list

6:50     Approve tonight’s agenda, approved as amended

Approve minutes from July community meeting, approved

           

6:55     Announcements

·       Next Board Meeting will be: September 3rd at 7pm via Zoom – watch your email for the link to join

o   Board Meetings are open to the public

·       Next Community Meeting will be: September 10^th at 6:30 via Zoom – watch your email for the link to join

·       Next Executive Committee meeting is September 17^th from 7-8pm via Zoom

o   Executive Committee meetings are the third Thursday of every month

o   Executive Committee meetings are open to the public

·      EPIC has a housing program! 0% interest! Fix up your home or buy a new home in East Phillips – Check your email for the brochure or go to: mncee.org/eastphillips

·      If you smell a foul odor around Smith foundry or Bituminous Roadways call 311 to report

o    Write down your incident number

 

7:00     Working meeting – prioritize what to work on:

·      Budget concerns – David Rubedor letter

o   Big budget shortfall due to Covid – 15% cut of our budget

o   They will have more updates on how it will impact neighborhood organizations

o   Can ask Steve Gallagher any questions

o   How do we hire staff now?

·      Community partnership programs

o   Make spreadsheet of all those we provided funding to for next meeting

o   Contact those who we haven’t heard from after the next meeting

·      Unarmed civilians article

o   Over one million dollars to provide training to neighbors

o   Put NRP safety discussions on Facebook/E-news

§  Mary will send to Sarah

o   Look more into program

§  Pass onto 18^th Ave block and board members

·      Bikeways and Bike program – Hannah Lieder

o   We need more north/south bikeways (lots of east/west bikeways)

o   Who can lobby for this?

§  Hannah will research further

o   In other neighborhoods there are speed bumps and clear signage

§  Need to make 17^th Ave a robust bikeway

§  Idea to talk to Alondra and see how to get on the bike committee

o   There is a bike program for children – it is free

§  Hannah will send the application to Sarah S

§  Free bikes for kids - needs to be applied for by a nonprofit organization

§  Hannah is having issues keeping the tires inflated, the kids keep getting flat tires

§  The children need locks-in the past EPIC worked out a deal with Welna to get locks at cost

·      Can we do something similar with bike tire tubes?

·      Traffic concerns – Hannah Lieder

o   Idea to create a traffic committee

o   Cedar Avenue is extremely busy at all times of the day

§  Cedar is a county highway – there is a program – our streets – trying to better care for county roads

§  The city did a traffic study: 27^th and Cedar is the second worst intersection in the city

o   Way too many cars and traffic all throughout the neighborhood – should only be for local traffic

o   Speeding concern – make all the stops 4 way stops

o   Come up with a cohesive plan and present to the city

·      Walkie Talkies

o   Download a free walkie talkie app: Zello, HeyTell, Voxer, TiKL Touch Walkie-Talkie, iPTT – Zello has best reviews

§  Create own network

§  Linda will send to Sarah

·      Doodle Poll

o   Send Mary reminder to do Doodle poll

·      We need to decide what we can do

o   Set up a group to get some of these issues addressed

·      If you request it, the city will come out and do some kind of study to see how much lighting there is on your block, if you meet the requirements you can have lighting added – Steve will send the contact info for this and Sarah will put in the EPIC E-News

o   18^th Ave is also trying to find someone to add lights to the front of houses

o   If there is a business or a landlord on the block willing to foot the bill to add lights that is an option too

o   EPIC could send a letter to landlords explaining some of the reasons funding something like this would be advantageous for them

·      7-Eleven going in on 25^th and Bloomington

o   Brad thinks EPIC should write a letter to 7-Eleven regarding advice on how to run a gas station in East Phillips

EPIC Board Meeting 8-6

 EPIC Board Meeting Minutes

August 6^th, 2020, 7pm-9pm

EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com

Email: epic.ssantiago@gmail.com

Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404

Phone: (612) -280-8418

 

Board Roster: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah Mohamed, Carol Pass, Steve Sandberg, Sarah Santiago. 

Board Members Present: Steve Sandberg, Carol Pass, Laura Dale, Shontal Lajeunesse, Cassie Holmes

Board Members Not Present: Abah Mohamed, Rosie Cruz

Members:

Guests: Shirley Heyer, Sam, Rachel Glover, Shay Freeman, Tim Springer, Jeremy Gray, Iglon

 

7:00     Agenda Approval, LD, SL, approved

Minutes Approval, LD, SaS, approved

 

7:10     Announcements

·      Next Community Meeting will be: Thursday August 13^th at 6:30 at East Phillips Park or via Zoom (TBD)

·      Next Board Meeting will be: September 3^rd at 7pm at the EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue) or via Zoom (TBD)

o   Board Meetings are open to the public

·      Next Executive Committee meeting will be: Thursday August 20^th at the EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue) or via Zoom (TBD)

o   Executive Committee meetings are open to the public

o   Board members please send agenda items (for both community meetings and board meetings) to Sarah before executive meetings each month

 

7:24     18^th Avenue and 29^th/28^th street block fund request

·      June 29^th – neighbors gathered and met for the first time

·      Safety for neighbors is first priority, beautifying the neighborhood is second priority

·      Night watch – neighbors have been staying up all night

o   Walkie talkies are one of the top priorities with this

·      If traffic control were to be permanent would need to be done with public works

·      What has been done on 18^th Ave has pushed the issues to other blocks – ideally need this to be an East Phillips neighborhood plan

·      A lot of blocks are wanting these protections

o   How to do this so that it helps everyone and not just two blocks

o   Don’t want to create policies that we can’t live up to

·      If they have the supplies, they have done things on their own and as we go through the line items, keep that in mind

·      Foot patrol is not something that EPIC can fund

·      Lighting would be possible for EPIC to fund

·      Idea to have foot safety patrol south of 28^th between Cedar and Bloomington – with t-shirts etc.

·      Things like paper/ink to print flyers for meetings

·      EPIC still has walkie talkies from past foot patrol

o   Between five and ten walkie talkies are needed

o   Sarah will follow up with Sam about walkie talkies

·      Sarah will propose dates to set up a time for board members and neighbors to go through proposal line by line

8:15     Update on EPNI

·      Rally on Sunday at noon at 28th and Longfellow – wear a mask and practice social distancing

·      CEAC (Citizens Environmental Advisory Commission – part of the cities sustainability department) has spoken out about the project saying the city needs to give the land to EPNI

o   The city has threatened to decommission CEAC if they speak out about this

8:26     Discussion on the DEED grant/EPIC matching funds

·      When writing the DEED grant, EPIC was written as matching funds

o   $40,000

8:29     EPIC speed bump policy/history

·      Any confirmation on the moratorium on speed bumps? – yes there is on Avenue and Streets, but not in alleys – $1600 and 51% of the residents on the alley needs to sign the petition

o   Does EPIC want to contribute to the $1600 for alley speed bumps?

·      EPIC has been a part of two speed bump projects in the past

·      If a block wants speed bumps EPIC will follow a process like we did before: the block comes to an EPIC meeting to make a request, this is followed by a discussion, followed by a motion and vote

o   CP: we need to identify other considerations i.e. in desperate need, available funding etc.

o   Are there other ways we can help find funding i.e. go-fund me, grant writing, or other means of raising funds for speed bumps?

8:40     Re building lake street meeting update

·      Partner with pwd and Lake Street Council about Lake Street corridor/Hi-Lake and meeting with Wellington and Burgemum

·      Carol attended meeting with someone from Mayor’s office, Midtown Phillips, Powderhorn and Longfellow

o   Very heated discussion

o   Mayor’s office seemed to have a plan and then proposed it to the neighbors and neighborhood organizations

8:44     Board virtual gathering to catch up and connect with one another-are others interested?

·      Yes!

·      Sarah and Mary will propose dates and times – possibly do it physically distanced at a park

8:47     Accessibility of funds – Sarah

·      Take a look at our policies and processes of vetting individuals that would meet our legal needs and not require things like background checks for the individuals we are funding

o   Ask city attorney or our non-profit lawyer to check on how to avoid these issues – i.e. waivers

§  Ask about multi-lingual waivers

o   Need to have an attorney to look at liability – need to protect EPIC board members

o   Steve thinks we need to ask Steve Gallagher or Bob Cooper because they are specialized in neighborhood organizations

o   Sarah will follow up with Mary to get contact info from attorney she used at CBE

9:09     What do we want put in EPICs Alley post?

·      EPNI update

·      If possible keep housing information

9:15     Additions to community meeting draft agenda

·      Door knock and flyer a few blocks at a time about community meetings – put questions in order i.e how you want to stay connected with EPIC and whether you are

·      Working meeting – set up door knocking etc.

 

Brad wants to use Mailchimp or constant contact for emails because issues with BCCing – put on next board meeting