Woodlawn Neighborhood Association General Meeting Agenda
MEETING MINUTES
WNA General Meeting Agenda
10/06/2026
Melissa Jura & Nancy Flynn • Classic Foods • 10/06/2026
AT A GLANCE
| DATE
10/06/2026 |
TIME
6:30-8:00pm |
LOCATION
Classic Foods |
| MEETING TYPE
General |
ATTENDANCE
|
RECORDED BY
Melissa Jura/Nancy Flynn |
Please make every effort to join us In Person: Classic Foods, 817 NE Madrona St
| WOODLAWN WELCOME AND VISION
“In the future, Woodlawn will be a place where people live harmoniously, respectfully, and in support of one another. The neighborhood will be a clean and thriving community… All Woodlawn residents will share and pursue the common values of health, efficiency, beauty, equity, and justice.” |
6:30-7:20 General Business
Board and Community Introductions (5 minutes)
Approve September meeting minutes (5 minutes)
Melissa makes a motion to approve the September minutes. Joy seconds. All are in favor. The September 2026 minutes are approved.
Board Elections – PZ (10 minutes)
PZ reviews all of the open positions. Each has a term of one year. Board members need to attend as many meetings as possible and get involved in the WNA agenda and annual activities. The proposed Board slate is as follows:
Chair — PZ/Peter Zelenka
Vice Chair – Jimmy Avery
Treasurer – Joy Keen
Secretary – Guthrie Hausken (can only serve through August 2027)
Outreach – Linde Parcels
Land Use & Transportation – Anjala Ehelebe
Member-at-Large – Mike Adams
Member-at-Large – Angela Taylor
Member-at-Large – James Yarger
The vote was for all on one ticket since every candidate was unopposed. Everyone votes yes, no one opposed. WNA Board for 2026-2027 is elected.
Presentation by Councilor Dan Ryan –
Dan Ryan has been on the city council since 2020. A native Portlander, he notes that we have grown but are now at the bottom of cities in job creation and unemployment. We all want to see active storefronts and have safe sidewalks. A new program to revitalize storefronts has the Mayor’s support and is just starting up. Another local initiative is to target livability on Hayden Island which seems like one of the city’s “forgotten” neighborhoods. City revenues are down and thus the city has a general fund problem.The answer is not more regulation, fees, and fines. School issues were also discussed as enrollments are down and many school buildings are in need of repair/upgrade. In Dan’s opinion, we should have clean, safe streets and sidewalks, efficient utilities, and a robust system of neighborhoods. The city is currently doing a much-needed reboot as to how the city services neighborhood associations. NAs are the grassroots way to have access to what people in the city want. There was also discussion about the Trailblazers and the possibility that they might be leaving Portland. The city does own the building where they play so there is room for some discussion and negotiation there.
There was then a question-and-answer session that included questions about street safety and issues with sidewalk drug-dealing. There are issues about the city and the county working together to effectively address such issues. Almost every property crime is related to drugs. 50% of public safety is overseen by the County. Police are frustrated by having fewer officers and other safety offerings have been affected by ongoing budget issues and crises.
Other questions concerned (1) plans to close and/or consolidate neighborhood schools due to declining enrollments and budget shortfalls; (2) public defender shortages because of lack of funding; and (3) how we can track what our elected officials spend their time on. Ryan noted that the city has (not unexpected) growing pains due to charter reform and some of those challenges are still in the mix.
On another topic, Ryan noted that Portland is still in the permitting phase for potential Amazon drone deliveries. District 2 reps are good at working together to do the right thing and are hearing the cries of alarm about this. There are also issues about approving permits for Waymos to be used in Portland. Dan Ryan said the administration has a permitting bureau but there are currently no codes to address things such as delivery by drone. There may be potential airspace issues, too, as we are close to the PDX airport. At the meeting, it seems that no one liked the idea of these drones!
Will Melspelt who works with Councilor Ryan left his business card and contact information.
Community Topics
Open mic – please prepare your topics at 2-3 minutes with 2-3 minutes for questions (5-6 minutes total) – It’s your turn to activate in Woodlawn! (15 minutes total)
*Conclusion of neighborhood meeting, feel free to stay to socialize!*
7:20-7:30 Social Time & Break
- Meet your neighbors! Connect with the community, presenters, and others active in the Woodlawn area.
7:30-8:00 Board Business
Chair Updates – PZ
Status of 2026 Holiday Market. PZ asks if this should be a WNA event. Perhaps we should join forces with other neighborhoods to stage such an event? PZ suggests the first Saturday of December as a possible date. Jake has offered to donate space at Classic Foods. The event requires about 50 hours of work of which 10 are already done. PZ feels we should roll with it for this year and join forces with Concordia for a Holiday Market in 2027. While it isn’t a huge money-maker, the Holiday Market raffle can raise $200-$300. Jill and Angela will get prizes from neighborhood businesses in November for the December raffle. A volunteer sign-up form for the Holiday Market will also get created.
Status of WFM Monthly Winter Market. We need to raise money to able to continue having a monthly farmers market through the winter months. Anjala asks why do we need funding and PZ clarifies that two team leaders were hired to work at the summer market because there were not enough volunteers and so we are now short of funds. In the past, the University of Oregon, Alberta Food Co-op, and Smith Foods have been sponsors. Anjala mentions that a former WNA board member thinks the market should re-up the monthly contributions idea. Joy has done work on Give Butter to get such an option activated. Guthrie suggests we create and then hand out pamphlets to “incentivize” this ongoing donation idea. Melissa offers to print them.
Woodlawn Yards Plaza Party Update. PZ notes that Elana Pirtle-Guiney was there. Donations included $100, a $15 monthly recurring commitment, and $57 in cash.
WNA Offsite Meeting. PZ notes that Tiny Giants Brewing would love to host but they have trivia on Tuesday nights. Linde suggests a WNA Social instead of moving a monthly meeting there. October 21st is penciled in for a WNA Social. PZ will confirm with Tiny Giants.
Vice Chair Updates – Joy
Joy has contact information for new board members, Jimmy and Mike. No updates other than great difficulty working with Beneficial Bank on our accounts. We are hoping to change WNA to a Google non-profit account in January. Joy will continue to monitor both Give Butter and PayPal accounts. Joy makes a motion to remove Barbara England and Dennis Kennedy from the Beneficial Bank accounts. Anjala seconds the motion. All are in favor and the motion passes.Joy makes a motion to add Joy Keen and Peter Zelenka to both WNA and WFM Beneficial Bank accounts. Anjala seconds the motion. All are in favor and the motion passes. Joy makes a motion to add Brezil Hamilton to the Woodlawn Farmers Market Beneficial Bank account. PZ seconds the motion. All are in favor and the motion passes.
Treasurer’s Report – Melissa
We changed the Google Drive password! Password will be in the Bit Warden for everyone. We have $1736.41 in the bank. There is one outstanding check from the plaza opening and also one very old outstanding check from 2025 NNO that Melissa has given up on being cashed. Melissa has prepared an information packet about basic Treasurer duties and information from WNA Treasurer files she has. She will e-mail this to the Board. Beneficial Bank continues to be challenging to work with. Melissa notes the following as our annual expenses—Zoom, Google, SOS, and DOJ reports. Note: in 2025 she paid personally for the DOJ report but in 2026 she used WNA funds.
Land Use and Transportation Report – Anjala
Warehouse/Data Centers: Proposed “warehouses” for NE Portland might actually be data centers. This could lead to many LUTC issues.
Potential WNA Tree Committee. James Y. wants to form a tree committee. He has been in contact with the Heritage Tree Foundation and is becoming an official tree steward. We do have one Heritage Tree in Woodlawn Park, just south of the playground. Will Melspelt told James that the Liberty Street tree may be safe! He will follow up and get back to James with more information. Anjala participated in a city- sponsored shade-tree walk; shade trees improve a neighborhood’s overall health. There is a free tree program going on right now where neighborhood residents can get trees.
Anjala will work to form a sub-committee for tree issues as well as the various ongoing traffic concerns such as the NE 15th & Lombard intersection and the potential for painting crosswalks on Dekum.
Secretary’s Report – Nancy
No report as Nancy was unable to attend the meeting. Out of town.
Outreach and Community Engagement Report – Linde
Linde now has two people who will help her with the newsletter. We currently have nearly 800 “real people” on Mail Chimp. We are also using Facebook and Next Door to get information out. Those can be less than perfect communication channels.
October 24, 2026, is No Ivy Day in Woodlawn Park—and throughout Portland as a whole. You can sign up to volunteer to get rid of invasive Ivy. Website — https://www.portland.gov/parks/nas/events/2026/10/24/no-ivy-day-2026-multiple-locations. That day is also the final Woodlawn Farmers Market.
Background on the Woodlawn Yards Plaza for new board members. This project was initiated by a neighbor, John Tudisco, who was not on the WNA Board. Because we have 501c3 status, WNA can be a resource for neighbors who want to apply for grants that require this status. PZ also noted that the WFM is sometimes an avenue for grants as well. We have applied for a $15K grant through Metro to be able to do some “build-outs’ in the plaza including a community/history bulleting board/kiosks. Other plaza programming ideas include summers concerts, events for children, and history walking tours hosted by Anjala. Fill out the PBOT Plaza Survey if you haven’t already done so.
https://www.portland.gov/transportation/planning/plazas/2026-plaza-survey
New board member Jimmy asks about our most pressing needs for volunteering. PZ described our historic “roster” of annual events for both WNA and WFM. Linde notes that perhaps we aren’t exploring “new” ideas because we have both volunteer and funding challenges.
NECN update – Anjala
Neighborhood Noise Level Issues. NECN has received reports from two people in Arbor Lodge that the sound level in N/NE Portland violates acceptable sound limits. People are getting together to write letters to the city about the fact that just because we have industrial areas near our neighborhoods doesn’t mean we have to suffer noise levels above acceptable limits.
Potential Amazon drone deliveries are also of concern to many NECN neighborhoods. See above for discussion with Councilor Dan Ryan about this topic.
Board and New Board Attendees—Mike Adams, Jimmy Avery, Anjala Ehelebe, Guthrie Hausken, Melissa Jura, Joy Keen, Linde Parcels, Angela Taylor James Yarger, PZ Zelenka.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.
NOVEMBER 2026
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Questions? Email info@gowoodlawn.com