March 2012

TANGLETOWN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES (DRAFT)
Monday, March 19, 2011 7:00 p.m., Fuller Park

Board members present: Mary Jane Mitchell – President, Tony Proell –Vice President, Ryan Fisher – Treasurer, Carolyn Dungan – Secretary, Tjody DeVaal – Editor, Andrea Siegel, Lynell Voigt, Janine Allison

Also present: Amanda Vallone – TNA coordinator, Matt Perry – President Nicollet-East Harriet Business Association (NEHBA), Chadwick Phillips – Hip Hop artist requesting grant for class at Watershed, Carole Anderson – Fuller Park, Charlie Siftor – Tangletown Bike Shop, Lance Knuckles – Neighborhood Community Relations (NCR) Support Specialist

  1. Meeting was called to order at 7:08 p.m.
  2. The February meeting minutes were approved without change.
  3. A proposal for $1,500 grant for High School summer class was presented by Chadwick Phillips, a singer, rapper and poet recently from New York city.  Mr. Phillips is providing a rhyme/poetry/writing class for high school students this summer from July 9 to August 3 at Watershed School.  There are two classes a day- one morning and one afternoon.  The curriculum includes life coaching, poem writing, poetry performance, and the history of music, movies, painting, and sketching.  The students will receive school credits for taking the course.  The expected enrollment is a total of 120.  The class will be offered free of charge to the students.  The grant will go towards paying for transportation and tuition.  The board took the proposal under consideration for discussion and vote at their next meeting.
  4. Matt Perry, president of NEHBA reported NEHBA and the recent Community Engagement meeting.  Matt provided Mary Jane and Ryan with information regarding the eligibility of the TNA newsletter for NRP funding.  Last year NRP funded 75% of the cost of the newsletter.   Matt sent a recommendation to the city staff to restore funding for both official neighborhood and non-neighborhood groups.  Matt also requested that $1 Million be given back to neighborhoods based on the dollars lost in NRP phase II, however, there were not enough members at the Community Engagement meeting to achieve a quorum on the vote.  Matt reported that  Lyndale roadwork begins on Nicollet from Minnehaha Creek to 56th Street during the first week of April and that updates can be found at  lyndaleconstruction.com.  The marketing plan to support vendors during construction includes three components:  Educate, Communicate, Celebrate.  A few vendors have responded.  Matt announced that $50,000 additional funds have been awarded for façade improvement and that there is an application pending for $50,000 in additional grant money for marketing such as the brochures for Experience Southwest.  The City Council will vote on the grant on April 2.   Matt commented that NEHBA currently has 85 members, that July is the next cycle and that there is a prorated membership fee of $50 membership for the remaining season for new members (offered through July).  Matt made the board aware that Lyndale bridge construction signs and equipment have been moved and signs stolen.  Matt requested that the board help get out the word to discourage this since we as taxpayers pay for any damage or movement of signs and also we don’t want anyone to get hurt.  It is appropriate to call 911 to report these types of illegal activities.  Matt noted that the bridge will be open early to mid October. 
  5. Fuller park update was provided by Carole Anderson.  Most of the supplies for the Fuller Park building renovations have been ordered but renovations have been delayed.   There is still $10,000 unused funds in the contract.  Janine moved to extend the contract to 12/31/2012.  The board passed the motion unanimously.  Carole announced that the annual Bunny Party will be hosted at Fuller Park on April 7 from 10 to 11:30 by Community Service Area 10 (Martin Luther King, Lyndale, Farmstead, Fuller and Painter parks).   Carole noted that the summer program sign up starts April 14, registration is open now for sport programs and that an open house for the recreation plus program will be held tomorrow night at Fuller Park.
  6. Newsletter update was provided by Tjody DeVaal.  Mary Jane approved Tjody’s proposal to include in the newsletter an announcement for the Tangletown Crafters’ show in early June.   Tjody noted that we have a sufficient number of articles for this edition.   The board discussed the preferred method of delivery for the newsletter.  The Southwest Journal delivers on April 2 but Amanda feels that the best delivery is by U.S. mail.  Tjody stated that the printer will put the mailing labels on the newsletters and deliver them to the post office.  Since the post office takes up to 3 weeks for bulk mail delivery Ryan suggested that we could send it first class and it would get delivered right away but that it would increase the postage cost from approximately $400 to $800.  The board decided to continue with bulk mail delivery.  Ryan will deposit the dollars in the Post Office account by April 1.  The board members will let  Tjody know when they receive the newsletter in the mail to gauge how long it takes.
  7. Community Coordinator report was provided by Amanda Vallone.  Amanda has arranged to have appetizers purchased from Prima, drinks from Kowalski’s, and deserts provided by board members at the annual meeting.  We may also possibly purchase coffee from Caribou.  We have a new Neighborhood Support Specialist, Lance Knuckles.  Lance will be our eyes and ears for partnering with the city.  Lance will attend our meetings every other month.  He would like to help us look at CPP plans and our financials.  Mary Jane suggested that at a fall meeting Lance explain to the board all of the various city programs to which we have access.  We can reach out to Lance at Lance.Knuckles@minneapolismn.gov.
  8. Garage sale – Steven and April not present.  Mary Jane believes that funds for more sandwich boards has already been approved by the board.
  9. Treasurer’s report was provided by Ryan Fisher.  The streetscaping project renderings are in the works and should help to get businesses excited about the project.  Ryan met with Lance Knuckles and Amanda Vallone to discuss the payment process reimbursements under NCR.
  10. Tangletown Bike Shop update was provided by Charlie Siftor.  The grand opening for the shop is on Saturday, March 24th from 10am– 6pm.  The shop provides bicycle sales and service.  The soft opening was March 1st.  The response from the community has been good and the shop is already busy. 
  11. Adjournment  8:32pm

 

Next Meeting:  Monday, April 16, 2012

 

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