September
7th, 2013, Saturday, 10:00 am
East
Phillips Park Cultural and Community Center
EPIC web address: http://www.eastphillips-epic.com/index.html
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.”
Present
board members: Carol Pass. Mary Gonsior, Linda Leonard, Aisha Gomez, Rosie Cruz, Ali Micali, Earl Simms
Absent
board members: Jennie Bjorgo, Sherdl Kordian
Members: Brad Pass,
10:00
Introduction:
·
Approval of Agenda – Passed
·
Approval of August 3rd Board Meeting Minutes
passed
10:10 Announcements:
·
EPIC Membership Meeting: Thursday, September
12, 6:30 pm, the East Phillips Park Center
·
Today is the Monarch Festival, 10am to
4pm, East Lake Nokomis Ave. & 50th St.
·
Bridging Festival- Sunday,Sept. 8, 1pm -Whittier
side of 24th St Ped. Bridge over 35W.
·
Peavey Park Celebration, Saturday, Sept.
14th, 12am – Sunday Sept. 15th 12 am
·
9th Annual Native American Day, Saturday,
12 am Sept. 28th-12 am Sun, 29th
MIDTOWN FARMERS MARKET
·
EPIC Harvest Party …October 19th
at 5 pm in the Garden.
·
Clean Sweep- October 12th,
first meeting yesterday; this is about our 15th year; give away 400
t-shirts each year (kids design); this is a great community event
· EPIC funded East Phillips Programs: EPIC Park Youth Soccer,
A Partnership of Diabetics, A-POD Collaborative
·
Roofs – Insurance pay outs are benefitting
the neighborhood. Tell your friends to contact EPIC for details.
·
Crime Report- Lights and Cameras in the
Alley behind the Cedar Store.
10:15
Requests for Program Funding:
Somali American
Community Organization: funding for Back-to-School Backpacks, Reimbursement
receipts required and addresses. Budget to be presented at GMM.
10:25 LITTLE
EARTH Request for Support from EPIC:
for Little Earth Apartment Building Rehab
10:35 Homeownership
Crisis in Phillips: Foreclosures
and Vacant Lots, Completion of the Village in Phillips and others with PRG.
Possible Contract
·
Other lots and opportunities. Actions
taken, Greater Metro Housing Corp, Hennepin County, PRG, TC Community Land Bank,
Inventorying Properties, Seeking new HomeOwners.
·
Progress on rehab loans: EPIC moved the
income cap from 80% to 100% of HUD medial income guidelines. This should help
move these loans. Maybe we need a party for this?
Notes:
Remove
“for up to five houses” from paragraph 3.
Questions for PRG:
1.
How would houses be selected? For which blocks?
2.
Is there any cap on the total cost?
3.
What category of housing does this apply to? Can “John Doe” get his house
rehabbed under this program? Or, does this apply to only foreclosed, or
tax-forfeited housing? Where is this explained in the funding documents?
10:50 Blueprint
for Equity Report:
District
7, Corcoran, Powderhorn, Central, Bancroft and four Phillips neighborhoods.
Based
on the motion that was passed by EPIC (see below), EPIC should think about and
have a conversation (among board members, and some others) how we understand
equity and what we are doing to achieve it among all the groups in our
neighborhood: political, religious, gender, age, sexual orientation, geographic,
economic, and ethnic. We should write a policy or have policies regarding these
issues.
NOTE: MOTION:
(CP, AG) EPIC will join with the other District 7 neighborhoods to respond to
the BluePrint for Equity from NCR, and will question the outlined process and
seek to honor the Core Principles of Community Engagement , in particular items
4 and 5. Our concern is that the initial design of the process was not done in
consultation with the neighborhoods, and the intake of information, and
ultimate goals for this process are not transparent, were not initiated by the
neighborhoods, and appear to violate the Core Principles of Community
Engagement. (Passed.)
Health Insurance – MN Care new program
Minnesota
is setting up its own outreach program, called MNsure. EPIC should facilitate
education, outreach and enrollment for residents to access new health care
program. There are funds available for training, and SH may write a grant.
11:15 Adjourn
