February 18, 2014 Minutes

Armatage Neighborhood Association Meeting

Called to order at 6:33 by Board Vice President, Kelly Fasani

ANA board members in attendance: Tom Alagna, Sarah Broich, Kelly Falsani, Jeff Forss, Denis Houle, Steve Johnson, Nikki Lindberg and Keith Swanson.

Others in attendance: Tina Erazmus, ANA staff member; and Jen Swanson, David DeNamur.

Park Update by New Park Director: Nikki Friederich

  • Nikki has been with the parks for the past 15 years, mostly in south Minneapolis. She started today as our new full-time park director, and she hopes to be here a long time!
  • Spring sports (Track & Field, Baseballl, Softball, T-ball  & Fundamentals) registration will be held on March 18, 20, 25, 27. They will be hosting a basketball tournament in March. Summer registration opens mid-March (summer brochure should be available at our next meeting). The ice rink will remain open until March 2, weather permitting.
  • She was asked about any planned capital improvements, and she will look into it and let us know.

City Council Member, Linea Palmisano and Aide Ken Taylor

  • Light Rail Update: A new alternative has been presented, and although it has not been fully agreed to yet, it seems like a workable solution with some better sharing of burdens and broader sharing of benefits. There will be several town hall and public meetings about this new plan. She just performed a safety walk with the West Calhoun neighborhood to assess areas relating to safety of the neighborhood and the LRT. Questions were raised over costs and time frame. She said there are some misperceptions about deadlines, and although the City Council wanted a solution by the end of March, she expects that it will take longer to come to agreement on the final plan and its financing.
  • Fair Skies: After their meeting, it was decided that her office would help them gather, share and promote information about airport noise (instead of just by complaints), which should allow better comparisons. More technical people are getting involved and she should have more updates next month.
  • 70/30 charter businesses: If it was enforced, would hurt many small local businesses and there is a movement to change the policy. Restaurant owners are asking the city to remove this provision from the charter which she doesn’t think the Council will approve, so it could become a ballot initiative. She will also be exploring other options with restaurants.
  • Teardowns and plowing issues are taking bulk of their time responding to concerns.
  • The Penn Avenue construction project (Phase 2) will have a Facebook page with daily updates, and the project is expected to start in early to mid-April. The traffic control option at Xerxes (bump-outs) are not working very well. The road is county owned, but because it effect Edina and Minneapolis residents, her office is getting involved with future solutions. There is talk again of adding a stoplight at the 60th/Xerxes intersection.
  • In support of our neighborhood safety priority, she mentioned that there is a new community attorney who could come to a meeting if we are interested.

Announcement: New Minneapolis Crime Prevention Specialist, Jennifer Waisanen

She has been with the MPD since 1996, and started in 9-1-1, and did was a CPS on the north side of Minneapolis before taking her new position.

Coordinator Update

  • Tina met with Jennifer Waisanen regarding a Safety Workshop in April. The workshop would include information about personal as well as home safety. Expected it would be about 1.5 hours. Would be have some give-aways for attendees, and could have a drawing for gift cards as well. Another opportunity to recruit block leaders as well. Motion to pay $150 for self-defense speaker/presenter, Mary Brandy, at the April 17th workshop (April 10th back-up date), seconded and approved.
  • At May annual meeting with announce our need for block leaders, and can use National Night Out as the time frame for promoting the “leave the light” on campaign.
  • Recent newsletter had a good open rate via email.
  • Tina requested ANA notecards. Motion to spend up to $30 for notecards/envelopes, seconded and carries.
  • Tina also was hoping the ANA could get a digital camera, as her phone storage is full, and doesn’t always take the best pictures.
  • Steve Johnson has a camera he will donate to the ANA.
  • Topic/presenter ideas for the May annual meeting:
    •    Fair Skies
    •    Mayor Hodges
    •    Food (food truck, other catering ideas)
    •    Gail Dorfman
    •    Guy to share history of our neighborhood (his book is out on the counter(
    •    Minneapolis Park board member: could talk about changes in department; plans for Minnehaha creek; downtown marina; park clean-up day (in May)
    •    Contact Wagners to see if they could host

GMHC and Center for Energy and Environment Update (Tom)

Just got information last week about GMHC and CEE funds, which have been used in the past as a revolving loan program for homeowners. We will need to learn more about the options we now have for these funds, but would like to continue to offer these low interest loans to neighbors, and will need to promote the availability of these loans.

Treasurer Report

Updated financial report distributed. Motion to accept report.

Secretary Report

January minutes approved via email.

New Business

  • Saturday Skate & Snack went well.
  • 56 & Penn crossing-light issue continues to be an issue for kids, so please help them out if you are in the area.

Meeting adjourned at 7:43 p.m.