Drake Neighborhood
Association
Board meeting minutes
March 8, 2000
Attending: Mark Bequeath, Nathan Brooks, Bernie Burke, Patty
Daniels, Catherine Dietz-Kilen, Ron Langston, Eldon McAfee, Forrest
Meyer, Dawn Price, Tony Schmitt
Absent: Nancy Geiger and Rachel Ahimie (excused); also Jennifer Hoover and Carl McPherson.
February minutes: a few misspellings were corrected: Ed Leedam's name was misspelled, under Drake U long range planning the word "are" at the end of the last full line should be "area." Teva Dawson spells her first name with one "e." Minutes were approved as corrected.
Treasurer's report: Balance is $7140.77.
Committee reports:
Neighborhood based service
delivery --
Two or three active drug houses have been identified and the police are keeping an eye on it. 26th and 27th have been quiet. The police dept. is giving landlords info on potential tenants as requested. The proprietors of The Cottage have reportedly been noticing drug activity at 28th and Cottage Grove.
Teva reported that they are prepared for the general membership meeting tomorrow night (March 9).
There continues to be a problem with realtor/landlord Scott Thomas placing signs in illegal areas. Ed Leedam is looking into it. Patty Daniels commented that it would be helpful to local realtors if we did not extend efforts to keep signs to a minimum would not extend to realtors trying to direct motorists to open houses. Discussion followed.
Taits -- No information beyond what was in the newspaper. Ron Langston reported that Rose Mitchell, VP at HyVee, is willing to talk with us about our hopes regarding the property. She expressed that HyVee wants to work with the community. Ron will put Eldon in touch with Rose and Eldon will take it from there. Concerns were expressed related to losing the presence of a neighborhood grocery store. Eldon has received an e-mail from the president of the Woodland Park Neighborhood Assn so perhaps we can work jointly on this.
Farmer's Market -- Jennifer is planning a meeting on April 1. Carl Bobenhouse has had three calls from potential new vendors. He has promised they will receive information about how to participate and has passed that information along to Jennifer. There was a meeting at the Dept. of Agriculture last week for prospective new vendors (for all area farmer's markets). Forrest will e-mail Jennifer regarding whether a meeting room at Drake is needed for the April 1. meeting. Forrest will also make sure Dolph Pulliam is aware of the meeting.
House Tour -- 10 houses and apartments have agreed to be involved. Two of the houses will be part of the National Historic Register district. Ideas for potential sponsors are needed. Sponsors are needed for the transportation and other projects. We're looking for $1000 for big-name sponsors. Also we have $500, $250 and $100 levels. Also, individual houses are available for $100 sponsorship levels. Please pass names along to Jennifer James. Reminder that every board member must work at least two shifts.
The tour will start on International house, then down 28th to Rutland and Cottage Grove. Then it will proceed to Kingman -- another property between 31st and 35th on Kingman or near there would help the flow of the tour.
Newsletter -- Lots of nice comments on the latest newsletter. Jennifer James reported that research on potential advertising brought up the fact that we used to accept ads as recently as 1991. One southside organization charges up to $50 for larger ads. Since our goal is a newsletter every month, costs will be higher. We'd ideally print on an 11 by 17 page and fold it -- that costs a bit more. Bernie suggested that we try to recoup most or all of the printing costs. Patty suggested signing people up for a full year and billing them monthly. Current circulation is about 350 paid members and additional copies distributed at neighborhood businesses. This would make the newsletter a membership marketing tool. We don't want to make money on this as it would become unrelated business income that would be potentially taxable. Jen Sayers, our volunteer designer, will run an ad next time and that will help us show potential advertisers what an ad would look like.
Jennifer indicated that she would welcome any submissions. Copy for the next issue is due March 21.
Beautification -- We should be
receiving a letter from Teva's organization regarding availability
of some free plants. Teva is trying to get a Casey foundation
grant for neighbors getting to know one another through gardening.
She is looking for some people who are successful with their
gardens to mentor others. Teva and Mark are looking for areas
that should be targeted, and people to spearhead the effort.
Suggested need areas -- 26th Street (Jennifer Hoover suggested
to spearhead), 28th from the freeway to School (perhaps the coalition
person could help), 31st from the
freeway to Kingman or even beyond there.
Scrub Date is September 23. We were unable to get the dates we requested. September 23 was our second or third choice. Carpenter and Kirkwood Glen have spring dates. Drake Park's date is in October. Jennifer James suggested an unofficial clean-up prior to the house tour. Forrest agreed to approach Drake about using University dumpsters for such an activity. It was agreed that the evening of Friday, June 2 be used for an unofficial clean-up with perhaps a social event afterwards. A 5:30 start time was agreed upon. We will meet at the James home (2909 Cottage Grove).
Freeway cleanup is April 15. The commitment we made for the I-235 cleanup was a two year commitment; it's time to renew. Tony Schmitt moved that we renew the commitment. Mark Bequeaith seconded. Discussion followed about moving our section to a more visible location, perhaps on the north side. Motion passed.
Question were raised about whether private garbage companies are supposed to have tarps. They are. DOT can enforce if you call with specific time, company and location where non-tarped trucks are seen.
Community Garden organizational meeting on Saturday March 11 at 8 a.m. at Mark Bequeaith's home. Discussion followed about compost and wood chips available for neighbors to use. Compost will be delivered to the community garden as well.
Member Services -- In addition to Teva's presentation, Rep. Ed Fallon and LaVon Gafum are coming to discuss the proposed grocery store at 6th and University. Mark can update the members on the Casey Foundation initiative. Eldon will give a general update. Nathan asked about whether it's appropriate to have a table with his County Supervisor campaign information and volunteer sign-up. Discussion followed; we agreed we'd allow any candidate to do this.
Candidate requests -- Eldon asked how the board feels about requests by candidates who wish to speak to the board and/or the membership. It was suggested that candidates should address the full membership, not just board. The idea of a membership-wide forum for candidates was discussed. This would need to take place prior to the June 6 primary. A debate format was discussed but it was agreed this would be duplicating the Des Moines Neighbors' efforts. A forum format was the concensus. Discussion followed as to whether to do a primary forum or a general election forum -- or both. Holding the quarterly meeting a little early in mid-April would work well. It was agreed to hold the meeting on Thursday, May 4. This will be our quarterly membership meeting.
Organization reports:
Drake University -- still waiting to hear from the President's
Office about a long range planning meeting. Larry James suggested
we request that Drake give us 90 days notice when houses are
torn down so that we have an opportunity to look at alternative
such as moving houses.
Des Moines Neighbors -- Nathan reported that the last meeting consisted of a presentation of the tax abatement process and policies.
Neighborhood Housing Services - Not much new to report. Eldon suggested the tool lending library would make a good newsletter story.
Neighborhood Development Corp -- Didn't make the last meeting; the one before they discussed a CDFI. Neighborhood Dev. Corp isn't structured to do this but Neighborhood Finance Corp is -- they will pursue this so that the funds can be available to Neighborhood Dev. Corp. Things are progressing nicely and it looks good for a CDFI soon (this is a bank-type institution funded by federal government and it has specific parameters regarding community involvement).
History
City of Des Moines has Excellence in Historic Preservation Awards.
Eldon passed around information. April 15 is the due date.
Jennifer will put it in the newsletter. Also, Robert Weisner
of Weisner Pharmacy in Dexter, IA called -- he used to live in
the neighborhood. He has a bunch of pictures of Des Moines and
the Drake area. He would be willing to come and speak and share
what he has. History Committee will contact.
Old Business
We are still looking to set up a meeting on the neighborhood
promotion project. We are beginning the process to seek designated
neighborhood status for areas of the Drake Neighborhood not currently
designated. We are beginning the process to update the Carpenter/Drake
Park Action Plan.
New Business
Christopher Tucker has contacted us about proposed changes in
operating hours in the Blind Munchies building. He is planning
to start up a coffee house. He did not attend this time and
may attend next month.
Points of Information -- John McCoviak has been promoted to a statewide position. Tony Schmitt has the info on his replacement.
21st street project is on hold due to city staffing problems. Catherine reported that Mary Neiderbach has stepped in and is now the person assigned to move on the project.
Larry reported on his house move. They are moving the house displaced by the Walgreens to a lot on 26th Street. Foundation work will be at the end of this month or beginning of April. The house will go onto the foundation in late April. It's a two bathroom home that is still single-family. Larry shared some of the details of the house moving process.
House File 482, the bill on historic restoration and property rehabilitation tax credit, has survived the funnel date and appears to have bipartisan support. You can follow its progress at Iowa General Assembly website. You can e-mail legislators from there. The board authorized Eldon to contact legislators on behalf of the DNA.
Adjourned at 9 p.m.
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.