Meeting Minutes November 11, 2008

Ward 3 Neighborhood Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7 p.m.
Burger King Conference Room;
King Street- Northampton.
Attendees: Gerald Budgar, Owen Freeman-Daniels, Marianna McKim, Jim Nash, Lola Reid, Fred Zimnoch, Gloria Parker, Tim Fisher, Bob Reckman, Phil Sullivan and guest Adam Cohen

Review of minutes of October 14, 2008
There was discussion on wording in the Friends of Homeless paragraph. The minutes were approved with the following changes:
Friends of the Homeless: Yvonne described her work at the homeless shelter on 43 Center St. in the former Elk’s Lodge. This is an emergency solution that serves 60 meals, has 20 beds plus 6 beds at IC Church in Easthampton. It’s staffed with volunteers or about 40 teams of 4 volunteers between Nov 1 and April 1. With at least 1 professional staff at all times. She looks forward to following the new trend of apartment like homes for the homeless. In this effort we offered to work with her but she indicated that we did not have a legal right to know the location of the shelter prior to finalizing plans. We made no arrangements for further discussions.


Treasurer’s Report
Balance = 706.98.
Received dues from 11 people.
We have 152 members.
No expenses incurred for the month.

President’s Report
• Pictures of the annual meadow cleanup will be posted. It was a successful event. Meadows today are much, much cleaner today than in past years.

• Lilly Lombard reported trash dumping and drug use in Ward 4 meadows: Discussion about possibly restricting vehicle traffic with Northampton Agriculture Commission. People and commission members are concerned about erosions of roads, dumping, drugs, Jerry suggested that fines be raised in conservancy zones and he spoke with Councilor Bob about this possibility. Farmers are asking that dumping be reported. Meeting with citizen and police chief is being planned in February.

• Hazard Mitigation Plan: How does the city deal with floods and emergency situations. Pumps are old at the sewer treatment plant on Hockanum Road. We asked Bob to give the board a report about the condition of the sewer treatment plant. Bob emailed members with the following email from George Brehm of the DPW:
I averaged the last twenty years of data and the flood control
station has been activated 40 days per year during that span. A maximum
of 81 days in 1996 and a minimum of 18 days in 1991. As I mentioned in
out telephone conversation, on clear days one pump might pump only every
several hours to keep up with the constant stormwater flow but I've seen
times during severe storms where all three pumps were at full capacity.
It is essential the City replaces the two remaining obsolete gasoline
engines as well as the gasoline generator.

Bob added that the cost for replacing a gasoline engine with a new diesel engine 14 years ago was 100,000. If there are any questions regarding this information, please contact Bob or George Brehm.

• Triangle at Conz/Pleasant intersection – Joint project with Northampton and DEP.
Underground gas tanks are leaking from an old gas station and affecting the quality of ground water. Gas is under the street and near the car wash. A filtration system is being built to get rid of the gasoline for 6 months. They will check the groundwater after this 6 month period and bring groundwater up to the appropriate standard. Cost is being borne by property owners and a grant.

• Fairgrounds Neighborhood Advisory Committee - Barbara Smith a neighbor of the fairground, Jerry and others, asked questions about the fair redevelopment project. City needs to raise $$ for drainage problem and the fairgrounds folks need to raise money for architectural plans for building before project begins. This meeting was an opportunity for fair officers to update the advisory committee on the status of the redevelopment project.

• Ward 3 Brochure – It was agreed that the brochure needed to be updated. Owen and Lola will work on updating the content of the brochure.

• 2009 Northampton Elections - We want Ward 3 to be active with providing the residents with election information. Perhaps holding a forum or candidates night. Talk about issues of Ward 3 and City. Tim, Phil and Bob will be working on organizing two events related to the election.

• New Zoning Ordinance - A zoning ordinance was proposed that will allow building without setbacks from boundary lines. Wayne will get information about details of this proposal to Bob. North Street Association has the ordinance on its website

Miscellaneous Reporting:
Please add Phil’s email sulanco@verizon.net to your Ward 3 board member list.
It was requested that after board members read the minutes they inform the note taker that they have received the minutes and make comments to the note taker as soon as possible.


Nomination Committee – Jim Nash
Ward 3 is in need of a secretary and Jim requested that current board member consider this position. Secretary is a recognized position on the Board. Request to list serve to donate a laptop for Ward 3. Secretary can use the laptop. Agree to keep with current system of asking for volunteers to take on note taking during meetings. Jim will place an ad for board members and committee members on our website.

Dues Discussion - Dues year tabled until next year/meeting?.

Bridge Street School Committee – Tim Fisher
Goal of the committee is to prevent the closing of Bridge Street School and work with the City to resolve the city budget school crisis. Ten people were identified to work on committee with Tim. Background materials of situation have been created by the committee and at the December meeting there will be a brief presentation of this material. Tim asked the board if the committee could include people that lived outside of Ward 3. The board agreed that membership could be broadened with a wide representation from other areas. An article is posted on www.northassoc.org. Bob Reckman, City Councilor supports the purpose of the committee and supports the continued operation of Bridge Street School and is against the its closing. Strategic plan consultant, Bill Allen said that his report is about a 5 year plan of curriculum; final report on December 15, 2008. Committee wants own report ready with our data. The committee is using the consensus modal for making decisions. Tim mentioned the importance of Ward 3 to support this committee. We supported Tim with the following actions:
1. Committee needs to meet
2. Keep Bob in loop
3. Let David Narkowicz know that its open to Ward 4
Lucy Hartry will be asked to our next meeting to speak with us and answer some of our questions.

Website workshop – Owen has set up a date of Monday, December 8th at 7pm of interested board members to demonstrate how to post information on the website.

Sustainability Committee - Jim Nash and Owen Freeman-Daniels - no report this month.

Rezoning Committee – Jim will apply to be on this temporary rezoning committee. It was noted that the in-fill area is smaller on Notre Dame map when compared to Northampton’s Sustainability Plan’s map. The following notes were made from the map that was distributed:
white parts are mixed; colored is one of the urban transects; light green- no development; orange is receiving area - more growth; white is where Notre Dame will ok infill. (White is acceptable, but not preferred.) There is more involved drawings in six areas. Notre Dame Northampton’s final presentation will be held on Saturday, December 13th at 3:00.

Traffic Calming – Lola Reid
Thursday the neighborhood will be canvassed to get signature for the traffic calming application. They will be signing up people for the pace car program.


Business Rep: Owen Freeman-Daniels – nothing to report

Homeless related issues: Nothing to report

Legislative Update
A public hearing regarding the panhandling ordinance proposed by Mayor’s Public Safety Committee is scheduled for Monday, November 24 at 6pm.

Best Practices Committee – Bob Reckman
Committee will be meeting tomorrow night to talk about set of recommendation. Hope to agree on a relatively short list of principles. Tomorrow there is a meeting in the hearing room at City Hall at 6pm; next Wednesday the 19th at 6pm at JFK. Draft report on December 4 to council; another public meeting in January.

Other Business:
Fred mentioned that the Bylaws need to be updated with what was voted on at the annual meeting and that an auditing committee be assigned to audit treasurer’s books

Citizen Website - Owen Freeman-Daniels
Owen and others talked about the lack of local news in the Gazette. What happens in City business? How do we cover official committee meetings reported on in a consistent fashion? Format like a website that employed an informal group of people that would report on specific committee meetings. Could advertise on this site and maybe pay people for their time. It would be a Ward 3 initiative and recruit folks to commit to attending and reporting out of discussion. Owen will report back at the next meeting

Permanent meeting site: Move that we meet at Bridge Street School until the summer.