April 2015

BOARD MEETING MINUTES – Monday, April 20, 2015 – 7:00 p.m., Fuller Park

Board members present: Steve Bieringer, Ryan Fisher, Sandra Bartsias, Lauren Anderson, Karen Costello, Eric David, Mary Jane Mitchell

Board members absent: Andrea Siegel, Laura Silver, Dylan Sirny, Matt Chapman

Also present: Charlie Siftar, Tom Balcolm, Joy Gottschalk, Lynell Voigt, Regan Palmer, Dan Kvamme, Michael Burnhagen

Called to order: 7:05pm

Green Day Event Wrap Up
Sustainability Committee reported on its second annual Green Day event, which took place on Saturday, April 11th. Attendance was fairly good, but it was a beautiful day and the Fuller park playground had been closed the day before so traffic was a bit lower than the Committee had hoped. Final costs came in around $1100 – the neighborhood-wide postcard to promote the event was the biggest expense. City of Mpls, Hennepin County Master Gardeners, Spark-y (and their aquaponics demo), Minnehaha Creek Watershed District’s Master Water Stewards, Charlie’s Bike Shop, and Beez Kneez all hosted informational tables for residents. There were a few hiccups with exhibitors arriving late but volunteers made it happen. Beez Kneez presented the first workshop on protecting urban bees and Lauren gave the second on Minneapolis’s organics recycling. The Sustainability Committee will meet to debrief in the coming weeks and plan for next year’s spring event.

Fuller Park Playground Grand Opening Event
The playground is currently blocked off to finish the concrete and rubber ramps. The concrete has been poured and in currently curing. If manufacturer Kompan is able to pour rubberized accessible ramps the playground should be open this Friday, April 24th. The Grand Opening event will take place at 5:30-7:00pm right before the TNA Annual Meeting on Monday, May 18th. TNA and the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board are cosponsoring the event. The MPRB has funding for light refreshments. At Green Day, Toppers offered to donate pizza for the Annual Meeting. Steve can follow up to see what they’re willing to donate. If Toppers isn’t able to provide a donation, the board would like to provide an alternative for attendees.

Annual Meeting
Mary Jane proposed a budget of $450 for refreshments and door prizes (potentially gift certificates to Charlie’s Bike Shop and Tangletown Gardens) and $600 for a postcard for a total budget of $1,050. The motion to approve this budget was seconded and approved. The MPRB plans to send out a postcard invite for the Grand Opening, so hopefully TNA can include more information about the Annual Meeting on their postcard and save the postcard funds.

TNA 2015 Annual Garage Sale
Registrations are still trickling in, but we have 42 homes registered to participate in the 2015 sale. Steve and Eric are finishing up the a-frame signs to place at commercial nodes and will add weights. Garage sale maps will be in a weather-proof pocket on the signs as well as on www.tangletown.org and on Tangletown Nextdoor. Steve proposed a budget of $500 for the 2015 Garage Sale. The motion was seconded and approved.

Washburn Water Tower Landscaping
Reisdent Dan Jurek has raised $711 (over his $350 goal) through gofundme to plant and has contracted with Bluebird Gardening, which is offering its labor at a discount rate.

Washburn School parking ramp
Neighborhood resident Regan Palmer presented on the parking congestion around Washburn. Since minimizing bus service for high school students, parking on city streets has increased tremendously. Washburn’s principal, Rhonda Dean, is interested in informally surveying the neighborhood to gauge interest and support for constructing a parking ramp on the site of the existing main parking lot. Lauren inquired about any recent efforts to flyer/notify residents for a community meeting and Regan reported that a community meeting where a wide radius of residents are notified in advance hasn’t taken place in 18 years. Washburn would prefer not to have the streets around the school become permit parking only as has been down around Southwest High School and has proposed a parking ramp in response. Anticipated ramp concerns around safety and security in and under the ramp, lighting, construction cost per stall, and visual appearance for immediate neighbors were discussed. Board members suggested conducting an informal neighbor survey on parking, congestion as well as working with Councilmember Quincy’s office to engage Public Works in a traffic, parking and speed study as potential solutions. TNA would like to work more closely with Washburn and Regan will reach out to Washburn leadership to hopefully have either the principal or vice principal at a neighborhood meeting.

Spring Fling Event – May 16th
Our wonderful businesses at Nicollet/Grand & 48th are hosting the Spring Fling in honor of the Minneapolis Bike to Local Business day through the Minneapolis Bike Coalition. Outdoor activities will start at 11am at Nicollet & 48th with a parade to 48th & Grand at 12:30 where there will be local music and more activities until 4pm. Trustone Financial plans to donate $250 toward live band, the Thunderheads. The board would like to contribute $500 to fund music at the event, $250 of which would come from Tangletown account and $250 from a local business. A motion to approve this expenditure was made, seconded, and approved by the full Board.

Tangletown 4th of July
Abby, Steve and Ryan met to kick off planning a couple weeks ago. The event format will be very similar to last year with food trucks, live music, and activities.

TNA Partnership opportunities w/ Toppers Pizza
Abby connected with Toppers Pizza about partnering and donating pizzas for future events. She’ll follow up about donating for the Annual Meeting.

Officer reports:
• Secretary’s report – Steve made a motion to approve the March 2015 Minutes, which was seconded by Matt and approved.
• Treasurer’s report – Since the end of March, TNA has spent $3,000 on events and the spring newsletter. The TNA accounts and CPP accounts are at $15,617.38 and $21,279.51 respectively. Sandra and Abby are meeting in the next week and Sandra will plan to submit the 2014 annual report to NCR. Abby will follow up with CEE to try and get information

Committee reports:
• Arts – Nothing to report.
• Communication – Laura is in the process of scheduling a meeting prior to the Annual Meeting.
• NRP/Business – Mary Jane and Abby met about TNA’s business façade grant program. Abby will follow up key businesses. The TNA board would like to collectively survey the business nodes around the neighborhood. Ryan suggested creating a half sheet for businesses about TNA programs and business façade grants. Lauren also brought up having a resident version. Abby proposed having a business forum in the next couple months – she will put some ideas together and bring them to the board at a future meeting.
• Sustainability – See above report on Green Day recap. Karen will report on the April 30th Solar Garden workshop next month.

Partner and other announcements:
Tom Balcom brought up the Judson Street Festival on Sunday, May 17th from 12pm to 4pm.

Minnehaha Bike Trail Improvement Meeting #2 is coming up at Washburn Library on Thursday, April 23rd.

Adjourned: 8:38pm

Minutes submitted by Lauren Anderson, TNA Secretary