June 2005

Agenda (June 20th)
Call to order
Reports
-Treasurer
-July 4th event
– Home Tour
Tom Balcom–Historic Walking Tour
Neighborhood Governance 101
NRP Overview
Election of Officers
Other Business
Adjourn

MINUTES (draft as of June 20th)
Attendance (confirmed with signin sheet):
BOARD: Catalina Chadbourn, Mary Davidson, Steve Edwards, Ron Feldman, Norman Foster, Andrew Hedden, Doug Jondle, Karen Larson, Laura Silver, Joe Thiegs, Peter Timmons, Supat Tipayamongkol, Lynell Voigt
BOARD NOT PRESENT: Martha Gaarder, Dan Hanson
OTHERS: Georgia Stephens, John Dybvig (Council Member Benson’s office), Peg Mountin (NRP Program), Beth Elliott (City of Mpls), Anne Geske (Southwest Journal), Tom Nadeau.

Chairs
Catalina Chadbourn and Karen Larson were proposed and elected to co-chair the meeting, since a new President has not yet been elected.

Reports
-Treasurer: Georgia Stephens reported May 30th balance of $5,943 at the bank
Further expenses related to the newsletter printing and mailing make the current balance $3,394.32. The profit and loss statement for the period of June 2004 to April 2005 was circulated to the Board members present and other attendees.

– July 4th event
Planning for the July 4th event continues. A planning update was circulated. Activities include the Parade, Publicity, Food (Taste of Tangletown potluck), Raffle, t-shirt sales, Entertainment featuring The Abdomen, Inflatable slide, and possibly games if enough volunteers are found. Lots are still needed.
(You can email to july4th@TANGLETOWN.ORG to volunteer).

– Home Tour
Lynell Voigt reported that the 2005 Fall Home Tour will be on Sunday September 18th, from 1 to 5pm. We still need a few homes, and want to make sure all parts of Tangletown are represented. Email to
hometour@TANGLETOWN.ORG if you have an idea for a home for the tour. Hosts and hostesses are also needed for 1-3pm and 3-5pm slots.

Neighborhood Governance 101
Beth Elliot of the City of Minneapolis (beth.elliott@ci.minneapolis.mn.us) gave the meeting an overview of Neighborhood Governance 101, especially as it relates to city planning and zoning. The city is also currently working on the South Lyndale Corridor plan to look at land uses in that corridor.

The City looks to its Master Plan The Minneapolis Plan to guide its decisions. The city’s population is growing after 50 years of decline. The city’s goal is to have new housing served by transit as much as possible, and to have commercial activity along commerical corridors. Tangletown’s major streets such as Nicollet, Lyndale, 46th and Diamond Lake connect neighborhood commerical nodes at 54th/Lyndale, 46th/Nicollet, and Nicollet/Diamond Lake.

In terms of zoning, a basic primer is the Land Use Guide for Minneapolis (Adobe Acrobat pdf format). In terms of neighborhood associations such as TNA, they can express advice to the city in terms of approving requests for zoning changes or variances. Applicants are advised by city planners to always contact neighborhood associations.

In response to a question, city staff advised that residents with issues about upkeep of property can call 612 673 5858 (Housing Inspections). Specific statements are more helpful to inspectors than general comments about appearance. Council Member Benson’s office can relay comments as well but it is best to use the Housing Inspections approach first.

NRP Overview
Peg Mountin (612 673 5102) pmountin@nrp.org of the NRP (Neighborhood Revitalizaton Program) gave an update on Tangletown’s past and future NRP activities:
• Tangletown has Phase I funding of about $67,000 (less costs of neighborhood survey sent out Jan 2005) to carry forward to Phase II, for the purposes already identified in the TNA NRP Phase II Plan Development Participation Agreement (August 16, 2004) [this document is available on this web site: see the NRP tab at top of web page and look for “2004 Aug NRP Phase II amendments DOCUMENT” (it’s a zip file of a PDF–email me at nsjfoster@mac.com if you can’t access it]. This document identifies a budget of $36,000 for the process of surveying the neighborhood, outreach, developing a vision statement and neighborhood action plan for Phase II, and all approvals. There are also about $19,153 of uncontracted funds from Phase I available.
• The survey sent out in January 2005 as part of this public participation has been tabulated. 22% of surveys were returned, which is very good. [Futher details of the results and comments will appear on this web site].
• The TNA Board has set up a Steering Committee approach for overseeing NRP activities, both in Phase I and for planning for Phase II. Phase I activities are largely complete for Tangletown.
• Phase II funding will be about $336,708 for 5-10 year period. It was over $1M in Phase I. After a 10% set aside for administration (over 5 years), 70% of the remainder must be used for housing related purposes (Tangletown used about 25% in Phase I for housing). Housing related purposes are described in NRP Housing Fund Proposals & Program Guidelines, adopted by the citywide NRP Policy Board on November 22, 2004, so Phase II housing activities by neighborhoods are more likely to be selecting from a set of citywide contracts for about 14 specific purposes (such as assitance to elderly homeowners with emergency repairs).
• TNA’s initial priority should be to hire an employee or independent contractor to assist both the NRP Steering Committee and the Board in its Phase II efforts.
• NRP will be arranging an audit of the NRP and TNA accounts in the near future. No significant issues are expected or anticipated.
The Board voted to set up a Personnel committee to undertake a search for a staff person or independent contractor. Board members nominated and elected to the committee are: Mary Davidson, Steve Edwards, Ron Feldman, and Karen Larson.

Tom Balcom–The Historic Walking Tour of Tangletown will take place on July 6th, starting at Washburn Library (5244 Lyndale Ave S) at 6.30pm and lasting until 8.30pm

Date to hold–On October 25th, Tom will be presenting on Tangletown history at Washburn High School at a Washburn Community Education event.

Election of Officers
Nominations were taken and the following people elected to serve on the TNA Board for 2005-2006:
President–Karen Larson
Vice President–Steve Edwards
Treasurer–Supat Tipayamongkol
Secretary–Peter Timmons
Editor–Norman Foster (and Karen Larson and Georgia Stephens)

They can be reached at
president @TANGLETOWN.ORG
vicepresident @TANGLETOWN.ORG
secretary @TANGLETOWN.ORG
treasurer @TANGLETOWN.ORG
editor @TANGLETOWN.ORG
The meeting was adjourned at 8.50pm
See you all at the July 4th celebration!