EPIC
Community Meeting Draft Minutes
August 11, 2022, 6:30 – 7:30
Cedar Field Park, 2700 Cedar Ave S.
EPIC web address: eastphillips.org
Email: sarah@eastphillips.org
Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis, MN
55404
Phone:
(612)
354-6802
Board Roster: Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, David Ingold, Shontal Lajeunesse, Steve Sandberg, Schuyler Sellars, Karen Townsend, Nikolas Winter-Simat, LR Young
Board Members Present: Steve Sandberg, Cassandra Holmes, David Ingold, Karen Townsend, Mary Gonsior, Shontal Lajeunesse
Board Members Not Present:
Members: Emrys Stramer
Guests: Soren, Claire Weiss,
Chloe, Andrew
6:30 Welcome
●
Vision
and Mission
●
Intros
●
Agenda
Approval,
Minutes Approval, Approved
●
Group
Agreements
○
Respect each other; aim for kindness
○
Respect each other's time; aim for
brevity
○
Respect the agenda; aim for unity
○
Own your words, actions, and reactions;
aim for peace
●
How
to become a member
○
Mark
on the sign in sheet that you want to be a member
○
Chat
Sarah or email sarah@eastphillips.org with your email address and physical address (to verify you
live in East Phillips)
○
All
members are allowed to vote on EPIC decisions and motions
●
Announcements
o
Next
Board Meeting will be: Saturday,
September 3 from 10am-11am join online (link to join is at
eastphillips.org)
▪
Board
Meetings are open to the public
o
Next
Community Meeting will be: Thursday, September 8 from 6:30-7:30 at Little Earth
Farm (corner of Ogema Pl and EM Stately St)
▪
We will have healing services, food,
music, art and a community conversation facilitated by Nonviolent Peaceforce
o
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/east-phillips:
Programs for East Phillips Residents | Center
for Energy and Environment (mncee.org)
o
If
you smell a foul odor around Smith foundry or Bituminous Roadways call 311 to
report
▪
Write
down your incident number
o Microgrant program
▪
Get
paid to organize and lead community clean ups - Cleaning Captain
▪
Do
you have an area on your property that keeps getting tagged (graffitti)? Or are
you a public artist? - have an artist create a public art project to help
prevent further tagging or help install public art projects
▪
Do
you want to organize skill shares for your neighbors - de escalation skills,
how to build a bench etc. - EPIC will reimburse you for expenses and pay guest
speakers
▪
Would
you like free alley lighting on your garage or home to disincentivize crime?
EPIC will pay for all expenses - electrician and all
▪
Do
you want funds towards a block party? - Get reimbursed for paper products, kids
activities etc.
●
Find
more information and application at eastphillips.org or call Sarah (612) 354-6802
o
Clean
Sweep - the Phillips wide community clean up is looking for new leadership to
plan and implement this important event - interested? Could get compensated to
do this through our Cleaning Captain microgrant program - Contact info@eastphillips.org
o
Environmental
Justice in East Phillips
▪
Interested
in hosting an air monitor sensor?
●
Free,
but need an outside outlet
●
Provides
live access to air quality in our neighborhood - see EPIC’s Facebook page to
see live updates of this
▪
Interested
in forming an environmental justice/science committee or be a liaison for EPIC?
Possible projects:
●
Ask to work on a proposal for Green Zone
fund
●
Partner with University or High School
course
●
Inquire about led testing of water
o September 20 5:30-7:30
▪
People’s Land Network will be at the East
Phillips Garden talking about soil health
o Permaculture workshops
in September
6:35 Community Decisions
1)
LifeStyle
Recovery Community Groups proposal - view proposal and budget attached
a) At least 50% of the
participants need to be East Phillips neighbors
b) Question about
partnerships
c) Question about leaders
MOTION: The EPIC
Board of Directors and EPIC membership approve of the LifeStyle Recovery
Community Groups proposal with minor changes based on city funding requirements
from the Equitable Engagement Fund for $15,000, DI, MG, Approved
2)
EPIC
housing program
a)
EPIC received
input from the community in May and June to have home grants.
i)
Wording
from proposal that went before the community”
(1)
Home grants: Approximately $20k. Provide approximately two grants of
$10k each for housing rehab projects.
b)
After
discussions with the city and Center for Energy and the Environment (the
organization that does our current housing program), the board was concerned
about capacity and starting a new program where EPIC would need to facilitate a
lottery, recipients of the grant would need to get bids and complete the house
project, all before December 31 2022
i)
Decided
to propose the following motion to the community to put the funds towards our
current housing program to ensure that the funds are spent before the end of
the year
MOTION: Move $20k from Home
Grants to the current CEE Housing Program, DI,
KT, Approved
6:52 Claire Weiss and Chloe, research assistants
for a study partnered with Minneapolis
and Saint Paul Parks, working closely with East Phillips Park
●
Looking
for kids ages 6-12 youth
○
Live
within 2 miles of East Phillips Park or Powderhorn Park
○
Brief
survey
○
Tracker
only tracks time spent being sedentary and active
●
Looking
for community advisory board
○
Review
project materials
○
Need
to care about parks and community
○
Pay
is $30/hour
6:45 Community Discussion topic: Midtown
Greenway about Phillips
Traffic Safety Improvement Project
● City
working on traffic improvements on 24th St, 26th St, 28th St
○
Contracted with Midtown
Greenway to get out to the community
● These
streets have more crashes than other streets
● Improvements
coming in next couple of years
● Engaged
with public Fall 2021
○
Most common comment was
speeding
■
Focusing on how to slow
down cars
○
Not being able to see
whether cars are coming
○
People shared that they
wanted 26th and 28th to go to 2 lanes
● Right now
in Phase IIA
● Medians,
crosswalks, bumpouts to make safer for pedestrians and bikers
○
Protected bike lanes -
physical separation (not just paint for bike lanes)
● Construction
will start in 2024
7:05 Questions for presenter
7:12 Adjourn
