January 16th, 2014, 6:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
East
Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office: 2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
“The world needs dreamers and the world
needs doers,
but most of all the world needs
dreamers who do.”
Board Members Present: Earl Simms, Rosie Cruz, Carol Pass, Linda Leonard, Mary
Gonsior, Ali Micalin
Board Members Not Present: Jenny Bjorgo, Sherdl Kordian
EPIC Members: Hannah Lieder, Kevin Lieder, Brad Pass. Leroy Jeffers, Laura Dale, Aisha Gomez, Alfonso Cruz, Don Greeley, Officer Taylor, Pat Fleetham, Gloria Reyes, Raul Martez, Chiffon Williams
Guests: Peggy Clark, Don Greeley, Lt. Taylor, Aisha Gomez
EPIC Members: Hannah Lieder, Kevin Lieder, Brad Pass. Leroy Jeffers, Laura Dale, Aisha Gomez, Alfonso Cruz, Don Greeley, Officer Taylor, Pat Fleetham, Gloria Reyes, Raul Martez, Chiffon Williams
Guests: Peggy Clark, Don Greeley, Lt. Taylor, Aisha Gomez
6:45 Introductions:
· Greetings and Introduction
· Approval of Agenda
· Approval of December 12th, 2013 Minutes with corrections:
6:45 Introductions; “Announcements: ‘parking of any kind of trucks’”
6:55 Announcements:
· Global Soup Cook Off
- Saturday, January 18th, 12 – 2pm at the midtown Global Market;
usually request a donation of $5 going to childcare center.
· 2014 Twins Winter
Caravan also at the Global Market –Tuesday,
January 21st,11:30 – 12:15pm Players
will be Pedro Florimon, Joe Mauer, and Ricky Nolasco
· Step – Up thee City’s
Summer Job Program for Youth – Accepting
Applications NOW! Call New Council Member Alondra Cano’s office for details
(612) 673-2209
· Chinese New year
Celebration: Friday, January 31st, 5 - 8 pm, Global Market
· Shirley Heyer: Phillips West
is having their Winter Social Thurs., Jan. 23 at Lutheran Social Services
starts at 5 pm. Midtown Phillips annual meeting is the last Tuesday in Feb. (25th)
A supper is served, everyone is invited. Starts at 5:30 pm.
Guests: Don Greeley, Lt. Taylor
The police and the community in our partnership
for 2013 finished the year with the largest reduction in violent crimes in
history. Just in the Phillips area, there was a reduction of homicides (zero),
19% reduction in rapes and aggravated assaults. We came real close to having
the largest decrease in Part I Crimes (overall 15%, EPIC 4% reduction.) We
appreciate everyone’s partnership and assistance.
Inspector Sullivan decided last fall to
assign five officers to a “beat” in Phillips. They have assigned areas and will
change around as needed, working from 4 pm until 2 am. Two are Somali officers
and their focus will be areas and issues that pertain to that population. La
Que Buena has been submitted to county attorney for “nuisance” action and is
under review. Negotiations are going on between the city and the business.
Guest: Aisha (Alondra Cano)
Aisha reported that Cano’s office
discovered that the firm is in a process because of an “adverse license”
status. The business has agreed to give up special eating license to stay open
past 2 am, they will install cameras in the back (parking lot), they will give
up alcohol license, police will be allowed in to do “sweeps”; on Fri/Sat they
will have a security guard at doors; they will enforce a dress code (no gang
colors/tats). The city prefers to negotiate to avoid a prolonged legal battle.
Police have requested constituent
“impact statements”. DG assured RC that these can be filed anonymously.
Chiffon reported that the stats on
homicide are incorrect; there were three homicides in 2013. Pat Fleetham also
pointed out that 53 prostitution arrests all occurred on one day (special
sting) in Phillips, and 24 cars were impounded. Don Greeley will check on these stats, and keep us informed
on La Que Buena.
7:00 East
Phillips Programming Partnership (A Standing Committee of EPIC): (Brad Pass)
The goal
of this partnership is overcoming the Digital Divide in East Phillips. Report
on East Phillips Park Computer Lab Upgrade, a current project of the
partnership. A handout from the
Committee report includes improvements including:
·
The
Park Board has already increased the internet speed by a factor of ten.
·
Add
five more computers.
·
Train
children using a “teen team challenge” for youth to become “supervisors” of the
computer lab.
Funding is provided by the Park Board
and the Osiris Organization. The group meets on the last Tuesday of the month
here at the park at 11:30 am. On January 31, 9 am, there will be another
meeting discussing the “digital divide”.
7:25 Creating
the East Phillips
Priority Plan: NRP Phase II Plan Handed out. Consider our funding and coordination
with NRP Phase II plans.
EPIC was one of the last neighborhoods to come
in with their Phase II plan at the end of 2012, after a year long extensive
period of surveys and neighborhood communication. In fact, EPIC received its
501(c)(3) status in only 2007. We were working prior to that, but after the
organization suffered a complete loss of the board in 2006, it took some time
to get everything back in place, and people lost a taste for citizen
participation. As a result of not
having 501(c)(3) status, no office, no money, we continued to operate with just
a trickle of funding coming in. At the end of Phase I, the city of Mpls. came
along and took about half of all Mpls.Neighborhoods funding, supposedly for
property tax relief…so all neighborhoods including EPIC had only half of the
funds that had been planned for Phase II. It has been hard, but the point of
reviewing this information, is that the first year of CPP planning was spent
completing the community engagement for EPIC’s NRP Phase II Plan.
EPIC had been thorough, conducting door to door
surveys, focus groups, business bot on Lake and off..and the Phase II Action Plan document contains
pages of graphs representing the information that was garnered through this
process.
In one year, EPIC completed the Phase I review,
prepared a CPP plan and NRP Phase II Action plan. These were all completed in
January 2012. Of the $58,000 allocated to EPIC in 2012, we spent only a small
portion. We have been frugal, and
we were used to getting things done without a lot of money.
Early in 2012, right after EPIC finished our NRP
Phase II Plan, EPIC requested to use this extensively surveyed Plan, which had
been completed the last month of 2011, as our priority plan and we were told
this was fine and would make no difference to anything . EPIC passed a motion
to that effect in the early summer of 2012. Our Phase II Plan was a process of
assessing neighborhood needs and wants and was one of the most successfully
accomplished in terms of community outreach and statistics that actually
reflected the ethnic composition of the neighborhood. We did not do a Priority
Plan, along with many other neighborhoods, because we were told it was
unnecessary. NCR staff agreed that we had already just completed the same work
and they were not going to make us do it again. This would serve as our
2012-2013 Priority Plan.
We are now just about through that $58,000 now.
Since we have completed the plan the board and neighborhood
have worked to:
·
Contract out $50,000 to help begin
Greenway Heights Apartments.
·
Create and contracted a plan modification
to provide $35,000 for balconies on the Greenway Heights Apts.
·
Create a Housing program for home buyers,
home rehab and foreclosure prevention and contracted with CEE to do the loans:
$115,000
·
Put up NRP Soccer and Baseball field
funding $50,000, and petitioned and lobbied the County for the East Phillips
Park.
·
Contracted with the Park Board to pay for
the PCC Pool architectural and
Design work $25,000
·
Elderly assistance from Phase II plan
with A-POD for $2,500
·
Elderly and adult assistance from Phase
II plan with Running Wolf for $5,000
·
Worked on setting aside $10,000 for fund
raising for the PCC Pool
·
Created a refugee resettlement program
for new Nepali immigrants.
·
Won a grant to rebuild parts of the EPIC
Community Garden.
·
Put together a proposal and received
funding to upgrade the computer lab in the East Phillips Park.
Challenges
The Board has had some challenges related to
health, including one death of a spouse, but the Board and Community also have made real progress, including having
a very stable and “present” board.
Things ahead:
·
Financial audit
·
Review of EPIC Bylaws
·
A new CPP submission and Priority Plans (it’s
been two years now.)
PF asked about partnering with other
neighborhoods regarding lighting. LL reported that she and Ryan Brueske have
logged where the biggest needs for lighting are located. SH reported that
Midtown and Heart of the Beast want to work with EPIC to address signage and
lighting on Lake St.
7:40 Update
on EPIC’s Finances:
We have contracted approx. $188,500 Phase II NRP
funds $50,000 old Phase I funds
We
currently have $123,934 in 2012-13 funds to roll over into 2014-16.
Plus
$194,881 for the 2014-16 funding cycle or $318,815 for the next three years
EPIC has been working in a very innovative way
with many partners. Hopefully, we can work on a little bit simpler plan this
time around, but it will require additional community participation. Youth
crime has dropped significantly since we have had this park and soccer fields, it
has been really much safer. This park with the soccer fields is probably one of
the best things that has happened to this neighborhood and is one of the
most-used parks in the city.
CP is proud of our plan and our progress. It may
not have been as fast as other neighborhoods, but we have done a good job,
worked hard, and we’re proud of our work.
8:10 EPIC
Garden Grant: Some garden history and plan for youth to help restoration.
The EPIC garden is the recipient of a
grant $4,500 from Seward Coop to make repairs, and improvements. Some of these
funds have been set aside to provide stipends for youth 13 and up to help with
working on the garden to implement these repairs and improvements. This will
give youth a sense of ownership in the garden.
There are about 32 plots, and each year
about one-third of them open up. Contact Brad if you are interested in
gardening this summer.
The garden was purchased by the Green Institute
with EPIC NRP funds before EPIC had our 501(c)(3), and held onto it until EPIC
purchased the property for $1. It is owned by EPIC and is in a conservation
easement and cannot be developed…it will remain a garden.
Phillips
Fitness update. The Mpls park board is in partnership
with the Native American ?? and the operations continue with the same costs and
hours as before.
8:20 Adjournment
