Drake Neighborhood Association
Board meeting minutes
February 9, 2000
Attending: Rachel Ahlmie, Nathan Brooks, Nancy Geiger, Jennifer Hoover,
Larry James, Forrest Meyer, Eldon McAfee, Dawn Price, Tony Schmitt,
Absent: Mark Bequeaith Bernie Burke, Patty Daniels Catherine Dietz-Kilen Ron Langston, Carl McPherson
January minutes and treasurers reports were approved.
Committee Reports:
Civic Affairs:
NBSD:
Neighborhood Based Service Delivery Ed Liedham, shared his cell
phone number (779-3796) and encouraged persons to give him a call. An
effort is being made to have landlords get their tenants to use garbage
lids effectively.
The flower pickup program will begin on May 12th.
Teeva is coordinating a speaker for the March DNA membership meeting.
Drake University Long Range Planning:
Larry, Patty, Nathan and Eldon meet with Drake officials and members of
their Building and Grounds Committee. It was described as a good
startup meeting. There was groundwork laid as to what makes the DNA a
good and bad housing area. Their discussion included the issue of the
possible expansion of the NFC are to past 31st Street.
MLK Parkway:
Nathan gave a brief overview of the situation.
Taits:
No news nor current rumors to report.
Lost Souls:
The former Lost Souls Café location has been purchased and the
Mission Furniture business is expected to move there this spring.
Polk County Bar Assn:
We received a handout pertaining to property tax disparity in the
metropolitan area. There is a Property Tax Select Committee, which will
be looking into this issue.
Community Center
Jennifer James has joined the Planning Committee
Walgreens
Larry James suggested sending a letter to Jim Grant concerning any
outstanding issues with the new Walgreen's. His desire was to secure in
writing the various 'understandings' on the project.
House Tour
To date six or seven houses are confirmed for the first weekend in
June. The tour will operate for the same hours on Saturday and Sunday.
The next committee meeting will be Feb 19th, 10am at the James
residence. Volunteers are needed.
Newsletter
The Jan/Feb issue is out. The goal is to send a newsletter monthly
about two weeks after each board meeting. There was a discussion of
having ads for the newsletter and perhaps on the website. Hopefully the
purpose would be to cover the costs of these two communication methods.
Beautification
April 15th is the I235 cleanup date.
Scrub dates were discussed. There was interest in having the various
organizations having dates one in-the-spring, one in-the-summer and one
in-the-fall to better serve the neighbors.
Membership meeting
March 9th, 7pm at the First Christian Church Fellowship Hall will be
the next general membership meeting. Tony will handle the refreshments
to be paid from general funds. Teeva is contacting someone to be the
speaker on garden/landscaping issues.
Showmotion Stage
Jennifer Hoover will check if the Stage can come to the Farmer's
Market. The Showmotion Stage has as a stated goal to get the Arts out
into the community and our location could work for them.
Organization reports:
Drake University
April 28/29 are the Drake Relays for which tickets are on sale.
President Maxwell is working hard on a Program Review for all of the
campus. The Fall 2000 new student number indicators are looking good
for this time of year. The Disability Resource Center needs volunteers
to read books onto tape. Their phone number is 271-3100. Drake has a
Take-a-Daughter-to-Work-Day participant who will serve on their
national board.
Des Moines Neighbors : no report
Neighborhood Housing Services : no report
Neighborhood Development Corp:
They may look at Forest Ave from ML King to 25th Street as a section of
the city for their funds. There have only been preliminary plans done
to invite ideas.
New business:
Walgreen's
Upon proper motion and second, the Board approved a Drake University
request for approval of a proposal from Larry James, Jr and Larry James
regarding the moving of the house at 2927 Brattelboro. The gentlemen
desire to save the house but did not name a new address for the house.
Farmer's Market
Jennifer reported that some interest has already been shown in this
year's Farmer's Market by some vendors. A meeting will be set for late
March of the steering committee.
Neighborhood promotion
There is interest among some Board members to survey/interview new
residents to gather their ideas and impressions of the neighborhood and
the DNA. The information gathered could be used in the development of
new promotional materials about the Assn.
Designated Neighborhood Status
There was a general discussion of the differences and similarities of
the designated neighborhood status and recognized neighborhood status.
The question was raised as to whether or not there is interest in
getting a larger 'designated' area.
Upon proper motion and second, the motion passed to request
expansion of the area to include the entire Assn besides the DrakePark
and Carpenter Neighbors area.
Carpenter/Drake Park Action Plan
This plan has fulfilled it first purposes but needs to be updated to
continue to have an impact, it is believed.
Blind Munchies Bldg
Chris Tucker introduced himself as someone who might want to bring a café into the Blind Munchies building. There would not be live music. He answered some general questions of intent but did not have a full business plan to share.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Geiger, Secretary
The meeting notes are copied and pasted from a variety of sources, and so the font sizes may be inconsistent. If you have trouble reading any of the notes, please let us know.