January
10th, 2013, 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
Board Members Present: Carol Pass, Mary Gonsior, Chiffon Williams, Linda Leonard,
Earl Simms
Board Members Not Present: Rosie Cruz, Jennie Bjorgo, Jose Luis Villasenor
Guests: Mallory Morken (Garden Matters), Joe Estrade (MAIC – COPE
Expeditions Program),
6:50 Announcements:
· EPIC Membership Meeting: Thursday, February 14th, 6:30 PM, the East Phillips Park
Center,
· Park Board Public Hearing on the disposition of the former
Waite House Property will be held on Jan. 16, 6:30 pm at MPRB HQ, 2117 W. River
Rd. Minneapolis.
· Public hearing for 24-hour operation of Ultra Wash Laundry,
Monday, Jan. 28, 1:30 pm City Hall Rm 317.
· Basketball Saturday was a great success. Chiffon gave a
report. 70 people attended!
6:55 Introductions:
· Greetings and Introductions
· Meet as a
committee of the whole (MG, PF) Passed.
· Approval of Agenda. As amended to move Housing to the end of
the meeting. (PF, BP) Passed.
· Approval of Minutes from EPIC 12/13/2012 General Membership
Meeting (BP, PF) Passed.
7:00 Swimming
Pool Update: Three options
BASE
OPTION: Project currently has funds to do this option: $2.25M; Anticipated Net Income would be
$41,266.
OPTION 1:
Knock out the wall and add 2 lanes to the main pool, expand the teaching pool,
change showers and more. Cost: $5.1M; Anticipated Net Income would be $92,200.
OPTION 2:
Knock out the wall and add 2 lanes to the main pool, add a deep water pool for
diving, expand the teaching pool and more. Bleachers would be opened up in all
the Options, not the Base Plan. Showers reconfigured and new office space would
come from moving the showers. Classrooms added to replace lost classrooms in
current structure.
Option 2
cost: $7.5M; Anticipated Net Income would be $108,200.
The
Business Plan has established the sustainability of the project. The Park Board
withdrew the requirement to create an “operations endowment”. Waiting for the
timeline for fundraising (based on the option selected by the Park Board.)
Minneapolis Swims would like to receive funding from the neighborhoods to help
with fundraising, and will be working to engage the neighborhoods in about a 1
mile radius.
Board
Motions:
MOTION: The EPIC board supports the pool
concept plans and would highly recommend raising adequate money to go all the
way to Option 2. EPIC requests that the Park Board extend the deadline for
fundraising to facilitate raising funds to achieve Option 2. Passed.
7:50 Phillips
Gardening Hubs- Mallory
Mallory is with
AmeriCore at Gardening Matters, and coordinates Phillips Local Food Resources,
a neighborhood gardening network. Acting together in partnership, individuals
and organizations seek to learn about gardening, improve health, grow
community, and save money/resources. Individual membership is on a sliding
scale basis, and Group membership is available. Membership provides access to
seeds, tools and classes. Seeking support with letting people know about the
opportunities, and/or marketing by neighborhood organizations.
February: Upcoming
event at Phillips Community Center: Seed packing party. Another benefit of
being a member is taking advantage of bulk buying. It requires a lot of
volunteer hours to “repack” the seeds.
Brad will distribute
information about the membership to the 17th Avenue gardeners. CP
will include an announcement in EPIC email.
7:50 Greenway
Heights Apartments - Update: Power pole problems.
EPIC is working with
resolving the problem.
8:10 Quorum was
achieved, Earl Simms arrived.
8:00 Crime
Cameras report- Update-Warrant List and Impact Statements
Ventura Village is
proceeding with their plan to purchase their own “generator powered” camera.
Ventura Village will purchase the camera, which will be “owned” by the City. VV
has committed $30,000; Hope Village has committed $5,000; if EPIC wants to be
included in the “use” agreement for this camera, we need to decide now.
MOTION: EPIC supports the cost of the camera in the amount of $15,000
in exchange for amendment of the agreement to proportionally share use of the
equipment. This requires a 30-day review for final passage (CP, PF) Passed.
MOTION: EPIC passes the
motions that were previously approved as a committee of the whole. (BP, PF)
Passed.
8:20 Crime: Impact Statements were explained and
warrant list passed out.
You can sign up by
contacting Don Greeley.
8:22 City
Grievance Policy – ADA Compliance,
discussion that the NCR Grievance Policy only establishes procedures for
Grievances by the City against the neighborhoods and no procedures for or even
notice of Neighborhoods grievances, which they may have against the City,
therefore also no protection from retaliation by City staff or officials.
Board Motion
MOTION: EPIC insists that NCR and NCEC add language to the proposed
changes to the NCR Bylaws and the CPP grievance policy that creates a process
protective of contracted neighborhood organizations and/or individuals against
retaliation for grievances filed against NCR, NCR staff, and the NCEC
Commission. Passed.
8:24 Partnership of Diabetics (A-POD
program): Future of the
program and the Latino Outreach.
EPIC voted to support
A-POD with $2,500 at two past Community meetings (one for review and one for
final vote) and a board meeting. CP has received a revised budget, and she will
review the budget and report to the board next month. It is to be a match with
an Allina grant. CP pointer out that EPIC’s partnership commits us to assist with helping A-POD recruit
East Phillips participants of all ethicities and provide interpreters for
Latino neighbors from East Phillips, so we need to act on this. Priority for
this project comes from our Phase II Plan re: elders and Latino Outreach.
8:25 EPIC
Anti-Pollution Effort:
Update on Abbott
Hospital air quality permit- Impact of the Clark Law. Tech Support Doc.
Increased HAPS
The air quality issue
appears to be the best option we have for removing these polluting businesses
from the neighborhood. We have to find out what hazardous air pollution has
gone up due to changes in Abbott Hospital’s practices. We need to read the
document on their new generators and determine what additional hazardous
particles they are adding to the neighborhood.
8:34 Housing:
Layout for Brochure
has been approved. See Brochure. EPIC/NRP Phase II Housing Programs to roll out
in end of January to meet a spring time availability. Marketing our programs,
Ideas for the greatest equity? We still need application forms and training for
door-knockers. We want to have the brochure translated into Spanish and
possibly Somali languages.
8:40 Waite House Property Sale
The Park Board will make the final
decision on January 16th as to who will be chosen to purchase the building.
Midtown recommended selling the building to Banyan. Proposals under
consideration:
· Banyan presented a plan to purchase the building, and they have
money set aside to demolish; and will raise funds to rebuild, resulting in a
$7M building.
· Heart of the Beast presented a plan to use the building “as
is”. They want to rent with the option to buy (with a large deposit) for 2
years while they raise funds to renovate the building. They were willing to
have the neighborhood and community groups use the building for other things.
· Latino neighbors and others expressed disappointment that
there has been no response from Midtown board members or Park Board officials to
correct for the lack of inclusion in the public process, with the exception of
the Park staff’s (Board’s?) negative response of removing the requirement that
there even be such an effort at inclusion on the part of Midtown.
· EPIC asserts again that our call for this was not an
objection to any competing project, but a response to complaints from
culturally diverse community members both in and outside of Midtown Phillips
concerning their almost total lack of inclusion. It was noted that, while this
is not our neighborhood, many, even most of our families straddle the
boundaries of the neighborhoods and also many family members in East Phillips
have children that are involved in either Waite House or Banyan.
