Minutes from December 2020 WNA General Meeting

2021-01-05

Minutes from December 2020 WNA General Meeting

Draft minutes until approved in the next month’s meeting:

Meeting held online via Zoom.

7:00 – 7:10 Welcome and Introductions (note: Meeting is recorded)

Board:Maija Spencer (vice-chair), Beth Heins (secretary), Shirley Minor, Nancy Flynn, Francesca Anzola (leaving the neighborhood/stepping off board), Anjala Ehelebe, Dennis Kennedy (treasurer)

Community: Luke Groser, Sandy Stephens (with Albina Head Start – at the 15th & Dekum Methodist church the last 12-15 years), Kevin Saxton (with the architects with Home Forward), Lewis Lyles (with Home Forward), Pamela Kambur, Jonathan Trutt, John, Rick Reynolds, Mayan McDermott, Doris Evans

7:10 – 7:15 Approve December agenda – Anjala move, Beth second, all in favor. No minutes from last month’s informal meeting, nothing to approve.

7:15 – 7:50 General Business

7:15 – 7:30pm Presentation on HeadStart project at NE 15th and Dekum – Pamela Kambur, Home Forward ; Jonathan Trutt; also Kevin Saxton (with the architect firm)
- Type II Land Use Review for modular classrooms (5 min)
- Pamela’s contact info: pamela.kambur@homeforward.org
- Jonathan, director of development at Home Forward: Dekum Court is at 27th & Saratoga, about 50 years old and part of Portland’s Housing Authority. They’re fixing up existing sites, but in this instance saw a lot of potential in the amount of land and the location. There’s an existing Head Start classroom there but they need to take down that building. After meeting with/talking with the Head Start team, Home Forward is helping build replacement space at the Clegg site, corner of Dekum & 15th.
- Kevin shares the site plan, which is going in for approval shortly. The existing building was the Methodist Church, with a parking lot, and driveway access onto Dekum and Saratoga.
  - Looking at adding a building in the grassy unbuilt area to the west of the church building. Will also redo the parking lot and driveway access.
  - Planner is reviewing the conditional use review; expect that’ll be done by mid-to-late December
  - Then there’s a 3-week public comment period before the decision is recorded.
  - Construction would start in approximately May 2021, completing in August, with the building open before the next school year starts.
  - Instead of using a foundation, building frame, etc, they decided to use a modular building. It will contain 2 classrooms and will improve Head Start’s efficiency.
  - Question: knowing that this is the concept drawing – is it handicapped accessible? Answer: yes, accessible parking space, and route from the sidewalk into the building
  - Question: is the picture showing the only entry/exit? Answer: There will be another one as well.
  - Question: did they explore opportunities on the former Concordia University site? Answer: Yes, but there isn’t really anyone to talk to, it was hard/impossible to make progress there. With the timeline they have – open fall 2021 – they opted to move forward with the 15th & Dekum site.
  - Head Start does serve infants & toddlers at the Faubion site.
  - Pamela adds: this started as a discussion about a temporary relocation from the Dekum Court site, but they have included plans for an educational facility in the master plan for the Dekum Court site and are planning to work with Head Start and Portland Public Schools to see how best they can support the families and kids in the development.
  - Question: While the church was for sale, community members noted that it served as a gathering place for community organizations, including for people of color. Are there plans to make community space available at Dekum Court? Answer: Community space is something the planners are thinking about – primarily for residents but also available to the public.
  - Question: What about community access to the 15th & Dekum site? Answer: Head Start has to make sure that the building is secure so they can’t commit to opening it up. It’s also not really set up well in terms of accessibility.
  - Question: Will the play area at the new location be open to the public? Answer: Likely liability concerns will mean it has to remain private to the Head Start facilities. They do try to have positive impacts to the community such as serving as food distribution sites.
7:30 – 7:45pm Woodlawn Holiday Events
- Green Beans Books Fundraiser for Woodlawn School, Thurs Dec 3 – all day. Mention “Woodlawn” when you order online or by phone, and earn 10% for the school. http://www.greenbeanbookspdx.com/
- Quince & Brier Holiday Night Market – Sat, Dec 5 and 19th, 4pm-7pm. Behind P’s & Q’s Market, 1301 NE Dekum. Local makers. There are also trees and wreaths available.
- Woodlawn Yoga is doing 108 sun salutations around the solstice (Dec 20 we think) – this will take about 2 hours and is online
- What else is happening?
7:45 – 7:50pm Neighbors for Clean Air update – Maija
- Whatsinourair.org – a site built by Neighbors For Clean Air to share information.
- 65% of Portland metro emissions come from non-road vehicles such as construction, marine. 20% is rail, industrial, 15% is road vehicles
- They’re trying to tighten regulations on the off-road equipment that currently don’t have to meet diesel exhaust standards.
- You can use their mapping tool to see what sort of permits/activity have happened near a given address.
- Rob Nusse and Maxine Dexter are working on bills to introduce in state legislature to create an indirect source rule – to direct the DEQ to make rules to control emissions in off-road vehicles.
- Question: does the city have guidelines around their vehicles? Answer: The city is moving toward less-polluting vehicles: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/701085

7:50 – 8:15 Board Business

Treasurer’s Report – Dennis Kennedy
- $7,664.95 – only expenses were the two approved for our web hosting, plus moving $300 previously approved to the Farmer’s Market account
- NECN communication budget – Maija reports: (NECN) Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods will provide up to $500 to help support our 2020-2021 communication funds – can be web hosting, zoom costs, etc.
- Dennis and Maija can partner to support this request – need to pull a bank statement and how we’ll use the money.
  - Ideas: publicize farmer’s market and local businesses, banners for the farmer’s market, solar lights for the bulletin board on Dekum (which the board paid to have built) – Shirley will research prices
  - Nancy has a template from last year’s submission
Land Use and Transportation – Anjala Ehelebe
- City effort around sheltering the houseless – hearing on Dec 8th: https://www.portland.gov/bps/s2hc/about-shelter-housing-continuum-project
- A neighbor has applied for an Accessory Dwelling Unit update – to continue using it as a short term rental; we can’t approve or deny, we’re just informed.
- There will be a Land Use & Transportation meeting later this month – possibly this weekend. They’re working on identifying houses that contribute to the historic nature of neighborhoods.
Farmer’s Market- Mayan McDermott:
- The season ended and they had their final board meeting. Major issues to look at:
  - since they had their trailer broken into, they’re storing materials at Cafe Eleven (thank you!!) and Keith is trying to repair the trailer.
  - Are there storage options close to the market? Ideally they have an option that isn’t relying on a trailer parked on the street.
  - Anjala: could the trailer get stored in the Classic Foods back driveway?
  - Rick: also was thinking Classic Foods might be a good option.
  - Maija thinks Woodlawn School has used some space at Classic Foods related to their food pantry during the pandemic, maybe that space would be available.
  - Nancy: How can we thank Jake if he does help out? WNA meant to get him something and that got lost in the pandemic. How about writing a formal email of thanks and asking for help. Anjala moves Beth write a letter for both thanks and help with storage for the farmers market. Nancy seconds, all in favor. Beth will send a draft to the board this week.
Northeast Coalition of Neighbors (NECN) – Dennis Kennedy
- The director from NECN (Adam Lyons) has been hired to be the Director of Communication for the new commissioner Mingus Mapps, so has stepped down and Jessica Rojas has been identified to replace him as interim executive director.
- Anjala suggests we invite commissioners to our meetings, starting with Mingus Mapps.
- No other updates regarding NECN
Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) – Erin Cooper – not present/no update.

8:15 – 8:30 Final thoughts, announcements, other upcoming events

Call for contributions:
- Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods newspaper Hey Neighbor seeks community content. They’re looking for stories of 500 words or less, with high-resolution photos when possible. More information here: https://www.necoalition.org/writers
- Due date is Dec 5th and this next issue runs Jan- March.
- Ideas: article about success stories from the farmer’s market; update on the Dekum Court project
Classic Foods outlet store has a nice setup, lots of great pantry and gift options. They’re open Thursday-Sunday.
Community garden update: donated more than 550 pounds of fresh-grown food to the food pantry at St Andrews. They’re open Wednesday-Saturday 9-1 and accepting donations if you have something to drop it off at NE 8th south of Alberta.
Anjala is working with the Woodlawn PTA for February to present on the history of Woodlawn.