ANA Meeting Minutes: 2022 Annual Meeting

5/17/22 / 6:30 PM / Armatage Park

BOARD ATTENDEES

Eli Johnson, Ethan Komoroski, Sharla McIntosh-Ziegler, Kevin Ross, Charlie Wolfe

NOT IN ATTENDANCE: Samantha Bild, Vikisha Goberdhan, Janhel Leandre, Judy Vecere, Nikki Lindberg

OTHER ATTENDEES

Lauren Anderson (Coordinator), Jordan Nelson (Armatage Park Director), Dennis Houle (neighbor), Julie Gramentz (Unwind Within and neighbor), Marion Greene (Hennepin County Commissioner D3), Cathy Abene (Parks Commissioner D6), Kevin Brown (neighbor), Tara Brown (Green Team member, neighbor), Linea Palmisano (W13 council member, council VP)

THE MEETING

This is our 2022 Annual Meeting. Updated financials were sent via email.

6:30    Welcome and Introductions (Kevin Ross)

6:35    Updates from Elected Representatives

• State Representative Jamie Long
  • Had to testify at the legislature, could not attend
• Parks Commissioner Cathy Abene
  • Natural resource-forward agenda
  • Youth-focused funds from the last board are under lock and key, developing plans for deploying those investments and other 4 year outlooks now.
  • Chris DesRoches, MPRB, is managing the trails and sport courts from a “surface treatment” perspective.
• County Commissioner Marion Greene
  • Bread and butter work is human services, roads and bridges, transportation, library,
  • Housing: affordability crisis is happening. During early stages of the pandemic, Hennepin County purchased a number of hotels to house folks. Now converting them to Single Room Occupancy. There’s a social worker on staff and other support services on site.
  • Economic Development: supporting small businesses, creating networking opportunities for folks in their job training program (Pathway program links them directly to county jobs)
  • Climate: final version of Hennepin County Climate Action Plan voted on in about the last year. Writing up a Zero Waste Plan for the county
  • Redistricting: Armatage will no longer be in Commissioner Greene’s district. We’re getting absorbed by Debbie Goetell’s district. Now 4 commissioners have Minneapolis in their district, which she views as a sweet opportunity.
• City Council Vice President Linea Palmisano
  • Future of public safety, future police chief public hearings recently.
  • Gov’t restructuring committee: legislative and executive.
  • BIHZ Committee confirmed Community Planning and Economic Development director Andrea Brennan and Regulatory Services director Saray Garnett-Hochuli
  • Tree planting initiative. 200k trees for $1 million. Carbon credit offset program is starting with this effort, not much detail but sounds neat.

7:05    Growing Together: Stress Management & Relaxation Techniques with Julie Gramentz, Unwind Within

• Julie walked us through some movements that we should use once per hour during our day to keep us from stiffening into hunched over sculptures. This included neck mobility, posture practice, back stretches, and breathing exercises.
• She gave us a “sniffer”: a saturated wick of her proprietary (you’ll have to ask her) Breathe essential oil mix. It truly was refreshing.

7:35    Neighborhood Updates & Board Election Information

• Green Team
  • Continued/Ongoing efforts: Spring and Fall neighborhood cleanups, Zero Waste stewards at events, raingarden program
  • Regenerative farming, soil health education series in March
  • Applied for and received $30k in grants to increase the scope of the raingarden program to include more equity. Also can set $10k of that money towards a natural vegetation barrier/pollinator garden at the Tot Lot.
• Community Engagement
  • Past year
    • Spring Tea and Blooms
    • Summer Food Truck Night
    • Halloween and Holiday Light Tours
  • Upcoming
    • Summer Food Truck Festival
    • Home Maintenance Fair
• Safety, Equity, and Outreach
  • Past year
    • Meet Your Community Helpers Event
    • Jim Crown of the North screening
    • Safety Campaign
    • Tech Help for Seniors
  • Upcoming
    • Movie in the Park
    • Renter pop up event

• Board Election
  • New candidates close at 9PM on 5/17. Voting thru 5/24
  • 3 candidates running for the 5 open seats
    • Nikki Lindberg
    • Sharla McIntosh Ziegler
    • Kevin Ross

7:45    New Business/Closing

Meeting adjourned at 7:46

UPCOMING MEETINGS/EVENTS

• Jun 2 – Community Engagement Committee (6:00-7:00pm, Outdoors at Armatage Park)
• Jun 7 – Safety, Equity & Outreach Committee (6:00-7:00pm, Outdoors at Armatage Park)
• Jun 9 – Green Team Meeting (7:00-8:30pm, GT Member Backyard TBD)
• Jun 10 – Summer Movie in the Park: Back to the Future (8:50pm, Armatage Park)
• Jun 11 – Garden Evolution FREE Workshop (10:00-11:30am, Armatage Community Center)
• Jun 21 – Monthly Meeting (6:30-8:30pm, Outdoors at Armatage Park)