September 8, 2011,
6:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center
2307 17th Ave S.
2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC
web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office:
2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Attendance: Board Members: Steve
Struthers, Jennie Bjorgo, Carol Pass, Mary Gonsior, Earl Simms, Rosie Cruz,
Linda Leonard,
EPIC Members: Addi Batica, Elsa Batica,
Kim Hayden, Al Bangoura, Margaret Castaway, Ayman Nakhla, Hannah Lieder, Brad
Pass, Jose Alvarez, Stephanie Allen, Mahamed Cali, Hindoto Pokawa, Margaret
Kirkpatrick, Desirae Bowker, Carlyle Bowker, Troy Menenger, , Alfonso Cruz
6:30
Introduction:
· Greetings and Introductions
· Motion: Meet as a Committee of the Whole
(BP, JB; Passed)
·
Approval of Agenda
·
Minutes
from EPIC 8/11 /2011 General Membership
Meeting
·
Quorum achieved, (CP, JB;
passed)
6:40 Announcements:
·
Report “Bridging Phillips” August
13th, Saturday, A Celebration of our Connections on our one Connecting Street,
24th St.
·
Final
Review of NRP Phase II Plan at Next Monthly EPIC Meeting, Oct. 13, 2011
o
There needs to be neighborhood-wide
notification of the vote. Flyers, ads
o
We have done sufficient
communication, surveys and more. But, we want to do MORE than what is required.
We are concerned that there is political pressure to “stall out” EPIC’s Phase
II plan. We want to be so thorough that there can be no reason to stall our
completion.
·
CLEAN
SWEEP, Saturday Oct. 8, 2011 (Flyer distributed)
·
Basilica
Songs of Hope, Readings & Songs from Many
Traditions, Saturday Sept. 10th,
7:00 PM to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
·
Cepro
Site Celebration Oct. 6th 5 to 6:30, Open House on the site,
Community ribbon cutting, music, refreshments
o
New “accessible” park near Abbott
Hospital
·
Reopening
of the Running Wolf Fitness Center in the restored Phillips Community Center,
2323 11th Ave S, This Month! No date yet,
but hoping for September.
7:00 Preparation for EPIC’s NRP Phase
II Housing Rehab Support Deferred Loans for East Phillips Residents, RFP:
Q&A,
Final Approval for this. (Board recommended CEE as provider.)
Motion:
Ratify
Board motion: Approve the Draft Housing Rehab
Proposal dated 8/8/2011 to carry out Phase II Housing
Rehab Program. (CP, JB; passed.) EPIC
will try to contract this as soon as possible.
7:20 Housing consultant Proposal, Board
motion:
Motion: Ratify Board &
community motion: Accept the
proposal from Doug Wise (PRG) in Response to our RFP. This includes the $4,200 fee to come from consolidated
Phase I funds. ( JB, LL) Passed. Time line may
need amending.
7:30 Motion: Ratify Board motion: Close the
old People of Phillips NRP Contract and become recipients of 22.69% of the remaining dollars (JB, BP;
passed)
7:35 Programs
for Kids:
We have a lot of
kids, and we have a lot of needs. We have a lot of people who want to meet
these needs. How can we bring together the people and resources needed to
provide activities and programs for kids? What can EPIC do? Can we write
grants? Can we provide money? Can we provide expertise? EPIC has done what it
can to
support all these
efforts to carry out these projects. Al B is coming with a request for a Rock
Climbing Club; this is an example of the kind of requests that we expect to
continue receiving, and we want to respond in ways that help get these programs
funded and running.
Rock Climbing Club:
Al Bangoura: The
Park has invested $6M into various programs for youth, along with local
employers. They, like EPIC, try to always leverage their funds to bring in
additional funding. The park needs help to continue to expand programming, they
need financial support from many to continue and grow these programs. The Rock
Climbing program is very exciting; but there is a cost: transportation club
participates, equipment, etc.
Jennifer: shared
how this “club” got started. Kids learn safety, responsibility, problem
solving, physical strength, focus mentally, coordination, balance,
self-reliance. The list goes on…The $400 for access passes, and $200 for
transportation. The Park is underwriting the other costs involved.
Motion: EPIC will
provide $600, $400 for passes, $200 transportation from CPP Funds to the Park
for the EPPCCC Rock Climbing Club. (LL,
JB; Passed)
8:15 EPIC/NRP
Draft Phase II Neighborhood Action Plan:
Passed out the short
version of the plan(both versions have been available for some time, short
version online).
There are two numbers listed on the
document. The plan proposes how to spend NPR phaseII money if NRP had dispersed
all the money originally allocated to NRP Phase II, there is also a second
column with different amounts listed in case EPIC only receive the smaller
amount of money.
We want to approve the plan with both
numbers so that we are ready in the case of whatever amounts gets approved.
Questions were raised as to how the
plan A and plan B would get changed if the whole amount of money was received.
Brad stated that after submission and approval, we can alter the plan. Doing so
would be an easy process and may make the most sense.
Motion: (Ratify Board
motions) See Carol’s copy of plan…moving $50,000 from Housing Goal 1,
obj 3 to obj 2. and amend the
Participation Agreement time table to reflect current timing.
(cp, mk; passed.)
Motion: (Ratify Board
motions) Pass the EPIC/NRP
Draft Phase II Neighborhood Action Plan(Final form, as amended), for a final vote on Oct. 13, 2011 (LL, MC; passed.)
8:40 Crime & Problem Properties
Sat
Aug 27th, there was a break in at cars at town homes. There was discussion on ways EPIC could
assist town home residents with crime prevention and organization
Cities
management runs the association meetings for town homes and residents will
contact them for follow up.
Livability
issue: Question was raised about how
have some blocks have public trash cans for their blocks along walk ways. –One
can get a trash can by calling waste management and must adopt the trash can
for 2yrs. Adopting person is responsible
for trash can to be emptied and free of graffiti.
EPIC is writing
letters to landlords where we suspect illegal activity: 2520 17th
Ave S
Townhouse Association
– President
How do we
communicate?
9:00 Adjournment
