Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting Tuesday, Sept 27th 2016 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area Directors present: Ed Rogers, Chuck Kreimendahl, Jenny Chipault, Jim Thoreson, Steve Fitzsimmons, Jonn Lager, Gregory Fischer, Tim Trapp, Ron Rotter, Lorie Raihala , Tom Jarvis

Other neighbors present: Nan Lager, Gwyn Schell (Santa visits)

1. Call to Order ~amp~ Introductions - E Rogers
   1. Introductions done.
2. Prior Minutes Review/Approval – Board
   1. L Raihala emailed J Chipault with updated spelling of her name. J Chipault will update August minutes.
      1. Motion to approve August minutes passes.
3. Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
   1. Anchor Bank has changed to Old National Bank. R Rotter moved money among categorical accounts.
   2. E Rogers has addresses for PTO for Midvale Lincoln and Van Hise schools so that we can donate toward the playground fund at each school.
   3. Money will be transferred out of PayPal to Old National Bank soon.
4. Legislative Reports - Carousel Bayrd/Maurice Cheeks
   1. Not present
5. Annual Meeting Plans – Board
   1. D Lamb could not be at the meeting tonight, but she wanted E Rogers to remind everyone that we normally have coffee, drinks, cider, cookies, etc. that are brought in by members of the board. G Poulson has been gracious enough in the past to bring in coffee and D Lamb does cider. Sarah Day has agreed to be our guest speaker. The Alder and County Supervisor have been invited. E Rogers also invited for Terese Berceau, our state assembly representative, and Fred Riser, our Senator. We received a request from Joe Parisi’s office to speak but that might be too many elected representatives speakers at one meeting so E Rogers asked if he could come to the November board meeting and his representative said he’d be glad to do that. He would like to do a Q~amp~A session. E Rogers checked our library room reservation for the October meeting and we have both rooms. The annual meeting in October will start at 6:30 pm.
      1. C Kreimendahl wonders if we can save costs of the annual meeting reminder postcard by emailing the people that we have email addresses for.
         1. T Jarvis says that is doable.
         2. Group leans toward sticking with postcards.
   2. S Fitzsimmons would like to be on the agenda for the annual meeting.
   3. E Rogers will get in touch with G Poulson about coffee.
   4. Board to bring in cookies or treats to annual meeting as able.
6. Santa Visits - Gwyn Schell
   1. Last year, we had 28 kids that received a visit from Santa at 8 different houses. Half of the kids were under 3 years old and half over 3 and each group received different gifts; thinking of doing one gift type this year instead of two types. Parents are emailed in advance to scope things out. G Schell will be running it next year. Date is two Thursdays before Christmas (December 15 in 2016). Volunteers meet at 6 pm at the Lutheran Church. G Schell would like to have it announced in the MHCA newsletter. Could have Santa surprise visiting kids (e.g., nieces/nephews, friends’ kids, grandkids, etc.); does not have to be kids that live in the neighborhood. Suits have been assessed and some need a bit of repair. G Schell would like to set up a separate email account for Santa visits. T Jarvis can help with that. Last year’s cost was just over $160 for everything. G Schell will continue to look for more volunteers as she builds up the number of houses involved.
7. Garage Sale 2016 - T Jarvis
   1. E Rogers gives thanks to T Jarvis, without whom the garage sale would not have happened.
   2. T Jarvis emailed people who had offered to volunteer during MHCA membership registration and he did get two people who helped out. T Jarvis printed map and then was subsequently contacted by 3 more people who wanted to be added so he added them to the online map. St. Vinny’s was told to come around 2:30 pm to gather unsold items. Crowds were good. We ended up having 22 registered sales, each paid a $10 fee. A three-day advertisement in the paper is ~$30. T Jarvis wonders about making registration cheaper for MHCA members.
   3. J Thoreson asked people if the Labor Day weekend was a good one and people did think it was good weekend for the sale.
   4. E Rogers thinks participation might be down over the years in part due to Craigslist. We add value by putting out nice signs, advertising in the paper, and coordinating the St. Vinny’s pickup.
   5. T Jarvis can email the people that volunteered this year to see if they are interested in taking it on next year so that it doesn’t require a last-minute save again in 2017.
   6. E Rogers says there’s a binder on how to do it that was put together by Jill Carlson, the last coordinator, so it should be very easy.
8. Food Carts and Parks - E Rogers
   1. E Rogers did some research about bringing food carts to parks after we talked about it at last month’s meeting. In the past, we’ve shied away from doing food carts because of the high price, but the price has either changed or it is lower than remembered. The Parks Department looks at events where there’s food at parks and breaks them into two categories: 1) money changes hands and 2) money does not change hands, which is doesn’t require permitting. If we wanted to do all-you-can-eat food carts, we wouldn’t need a permit. If money changes hands at the park, then we are required to get a permit. As a neighborhood association, we can apply for that permit on behalf of the vendors and we get a deal: there is a $50/event application fee that is waived for our first event and the other fees (vendor license) are half price. Normally, cost is $275 + $50 per vendor but we could get it at $138 per vendor minus the $50 fee, so 3 carts would be ~$400. There’s also the option of an umbrella license that allows up to 7 vendors and that would be $875, which we would get half price. E Rogers thinks all of the concerts in the series would count as one event.
      1. J Chipault thinks it would be worth the money, especially with young families attending who might be torn between having dinner or going to a concert.
      2. E Rogers notes that the food cart collective that operates on Midvale Avenue on Tuesdays would be the logical first connection because they have a group and could coordinate schedules with us to send multiple carts.
9. Announcements – Board
   1. Work on the ash trees is done for the year at Slater Park; 4 ash trees were treated and 5 were chopped down. Ash trees in Segoe Park were also removed. E Rogers asked West Parks supervisor to see if we could expedite getting more trees planted in place of those gone now because we would like an “orderly retreat” and want new trees to get established. E Rogers was told it would not be possible to accelerate the planting. Today, E Rogers noticed that they were planting trees in Slater Park!
      1. J Thoreson says they are ginkgo trees.
      2. C Kreimendahl mentions putting this in the newsletter.
   2. S Fitzsimmons got a new speaker system with a wireless microphone that he’s been using for the neighborhood watch meetings and he can bring it to the annual meeting next month.
   3. N Lager reminds the board that the Tokay median clean-up is October 29 and they will be planting daffodil bulbs. The city has offered to mow down any beds that we want mowed down. Also, there’s a fall garden tour of two neighborhood gardens on the same day.
   4. The Mayor’s neighborhood conference is October 8 this year and there is a $15 fee to attend. E Rogers will forward the details to the board via email. We could probably pay for 1-3 people to attend.
   5. E Rogers says City’s Board of Estimates met last night to mark up the capitol budget. As a board, we have expressed ourselves as clearly in support of the Midtown Police Station and this year it looked like the mayor wanted to delay it again by a few months. Our Alder, Maurice Cheeks, was part of a group of four Alders that did not accept that explanation. Alder Cheeks proposed to dock the Mayor’s travel budget for every day the Midtown Station was delayed. Our Alder was advocating for our request. The outcome is that we will be getting the Midtown Police Station will not be delayed.
   6. We are up to 512 MHCA registered members, which is the same as last year. We only have about a dozen printer member directories and membership cards left so not sure what we should do if we run out of extras – print more?
      1. Wait and see
   7. G Schell suggests more trash cans if we have food carts at the summer concert series.
10. Meeting adjourned at 8:02

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary