BOARD MEETING MINUTES – Monday, November 20, 2017 – 7:00 p.m., Fuller Park
Board members present: Dick Fiala, Dan Williams, Joy Gottschalk, Briana Daymont, Ryan Fisher, Steve Wohlford, Kathy Kornblum
Board members absent: Valerie Hurst, Justin Wills, Gabe Moreno
Also present: Sally Bauer (TNA Executive Director), Rachel Hoben (Fuller Park Center Director), Jeremy Schroeder (City Councilmember-elect), Laurie McGinley (MPS Planning and Design Manager), 5 neighborhood residents
Called to order: 7:04pm
Officer Reports:
Secretary – Dick moved to approve the October 2017 minutes, Briana seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.
Fuller Park Update
About 20 people attended the November 18th Community Craze event. New/updated park activity guides are also available
Washburn High School Addition – Laurie McGinley
Washburn is “bursting at the seams”. The newest science facilities are already 20 years old and the older labs are very outdated. Inadequate facilities do not allow science teachers to teach what they’d like due to, among other things, lack of adequate ventilation.
The music wing also hasn’t been updated in a long time. All music wing risers and flooring (which is asbestos tile) must be removed. The ceiling will be also removed to accommodate construction for utilities for the new science wing above, and new more acoustically insulated ceiling will be added back. The music department will move out a few weeks before the school year ends for asbestos abatement.
The already funded $7.5m project will include renovation of 2000 ft2 and convert five existing under-utilized rooms into chemistry classrooms. A new 10,000ft2 wing will be constructed above the existing music wing on the north-west corner of the school. Due to Washburn’s elevation, this will appear as a 3rd story from the back of the school but in reality is the second floor. The project will also add six individual all-gender bathrooms. The construction team hopes to choose a contractor by January, though heavy construction work will not start until school lets out in June. Light work will begin in May. The construction management team feels very confident about the scope of the abatement and do not expect delays.
Two bid options will be requested from contractors. The first will be to start in June and be ready in August before the school year starts, which will require work until 10pm when the city’s noise ordinance starts. The second option will be to start in June and be done by January 1st 2019, though this option is less than ideal due to construction noise and operations which will be distracting to students and staff during the fall semester. The project was already bid once but that round did not work out and re-bids are necessary.
Joy asked about solar opportunities; this will not be considered for this project and they haven’t looked into structural capability for solar.
Parking lots will be re-striped resulting in a gain of a few parking spaces. City ordinances also require screening of parking lots, which the School District will accommodate with black metal picket fence and shrubs. Hardy shrubs will be planted as they do not have funding for long-term grounds maintenance. The trash enclosures will be re-built with a cedar fence. Residents attending our meeting were concerned about trash and snow plowing issues that may be exacerbated by the parking lot fence. The architects have done a quick study of parking ramp and it simply will not fit on the lot.
Many new bike racks will also be installed on the edge of the “mall” between Washburn and Justice Page Middle School. Four trees will be added; none will be lost. A resident asked about energy efficiency of the project. The AC system is already adequate for the new space because it was planned with excess capacity. They are not planning a “green roof” at this time.
A resident asked about more crosswalks given expectations about future attendance. Laurie answered that if residents are able to find volunteers to staff crosswalks near a school, the city will more than likely stripe a new crosswalk.
5th Precinct Court Watch
The city attorney for 5th precinct reached out to the board to see if TNA was interested in attending a meeting to re-start the Court Watch program in our precinct. Briana attended the initial meeting. The Court Watch program can provide more information (like sentencing decisions) when cases are closed, and can also help in sentencing through Community Impact Statements which are read aloud in court before sentencing. It can also help with identifying specific types/patterns of crimes through better resident feedback to the City and communication between neighborhoods. Out of the 15 neighborhoods in the 5th precinct, representatives of only 3 neighborhoods attended, raising the question of whether there is enough critical mass to begin the program here. We would need to ensure that enough neighborhoods participate, though the program wouldn’t get off the ground until early 2018 anyway.
Board involvement would include showing up to meetings, providing cases to track, and helping with impact statements when a case goes to court. Briana’s biggest question was how to provide cases we want tracked; the board does not currently review cases and we don’t know where we’d get this info from. It turns out that our police department contact (Jennifer) can add anyone on the board to the MPD action alerts for the neighborhood, which includes enough information to identify a case.
Joy and Kathy though that the program doesn’t have to be board-focused, but if so we’d have to find a neighborhood resident to be the point-person for this program.
Briana would like to reply to the City that we’d like to continue participating, to which Joy and Kathy agreed. Steve disagreed for two reasons: he thinks the sentencing impact could be disproportionate in cases where TNA would facilitate an impact statement versus those whhere TNA wouldn’t, and also that this is not necessarily a core function of the board. Dick thought this would be interesting to pursue from an informational standpoint if nothing else. Joy suggested tabling until after strategic planning and then soliciting volunteers from the neighborhood for a crime/safety committee with this program as a suggested starting point to discuss.
Executive Director Report
Finances: Sally described her implementation of the new financial control policies she, Joy, and Justin have been working on. Sally will be doing accounting (tracking money spent and handling city reimbursements), Justin will write checks and manage the bank account, and Joy will sign-off/approve based on board direction.
Fiscal Year Change: The City uses the calendar year (Jan 1 – Dec 31) as their fiscal year, while TNA’s financial year ends June 30th. Sally proposed changing the TNA fiscal year to match the City which will make coordination and reimbursements with the City easier. Sufficient public notice for this change was provided via social media and email newsletter per the City’s requirements. Steve asked about the impact of a half fiscal year, Sally said there are hoops to jump through but no negative impacts.
Steve moved to change TNA bylaws to read “Section 1. Fiscal Year. The fiscal year of TNA shall begin on the first day of January xxxx”. Dan seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.
ED Reports: Sally will begin adding monthly reports to the Google Drive detailing her work and progress on various programs, events, and tasks.
Washburn Water Tower plantings: the City’s Department of Public Works want to do plantings around the tower, and will present about them at January board meeting. Sally and Tom Balcom will meet with DPW officials this month to get more details.
New City Council Member
Steve suggested we should schedule Jeremy Schroeder for an introduction at a future board meeting.
Adjourned: 8:35
Minutes submitted by Dan Williams, TNA Secretary