Current Meeting Minutes
November 16, 2016
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
Present: Jan de Leeuw, Judy Farmer, Deanne Gomez, Dan Pape, Daniel Cohnstaedt, Danno Regester, Max Brown, Sarah Medeiros
Absent: Brian Borrello
Guest: Tom Griffin-Valade, North Portland Neighborhood Office
Location: Peninsula Park Community Center, Fireside Room
Introductions: Board members introduced themselves and mentioned the areas of interest they had in the Piedmont Neighborhood Association. In addition to their PNA interests, Jan will continue to attend the monthly NPLUG (North Portland Land Use Group) meetings; Danno will follow PSAC (North Portland Public Safety Action Committee) issues and activities and attend their meetings; Judy will continue attending the NoPoParks Meetings.
Officers: Jan will serve as the PNA Chair, Judy Farmer as the Secretary and Deanne Gomez will continue as Treasurer. The other Board members concurred in this decision.
Annual PNA Events: Neighborhood Clean-up at Holy Redeemer Church in April, National Night Out in early August in Peninsula Park and the Annual Neighborhood Block Party on the last Thursday in August at Deanne’s home.
Actual and possible Projects List
At some point, it will be necessary for the Board to decide whether to concentrate on a few specific items or move forward with all projects.
Farragut Park Dog Park: Jan briefed the group on the efforts to create a fenced dog park in the Northeast corner of the park, hopefully, using the in place Union Pacific fence for the North border. The last time the matter was discussed with Parks Jan was told that all new initiatives were on hold. Danno mentioned that he had conversations with Stephen Bouffard, Parks Property Management Specialist, that some dog park proposals were moving forward. *Danno offered to talk with Bouffard about folding the Farragut Park proposal in with the ones being considered for approval.*
*Tom offered to get contact information for the person coordinating the Union Pacific Railroad charitable arm so we could pursue building connections with them in hopes of someday soliciting financial support from them.*
Jan wants to have the Dog Park as an agenda item for the January 2017 General Meeting since there are neighbors who are opposed to the project.
Historic status for Peninsula Park: A proposal was developed in 1985 to obtain historic status for Peninsula Park and Rose Garden, but, for unknown reasons, this did not happen. Judy will continue to investigate this matter, using the 1985 proposal as a starting point. Jan will research his records for the name of the current city designee who is responsible for this activity.
Intersection Street Painting: Various intersections have potential to be painted, including Williams Ave, North of Lombard; Bryant Street Bridge; Kirby and Farragut; Baldwin and Commercial. Brian Borello has offered to assist with planning and doing street painting projects.
Neighborhood Watch Blocks: Danno has worked with neighbors in the northwest section of Piedmont and several watch blocks have been activated.
PNA Website: In early 2016, work was done by a paid intern over a four-month period, revamping the website and making it a Word Press blog before she returned to school. So the website has been dormant for the past few months. *Danno knows someone who might be interested in working on the web site and will check with them and report back.*
In addition to information about PNA events and activities, Jan wants to post short bios about the board members.
e-Newsletter: The possibility of developing a quarterly e-Newsletter was discussed in terms of creating content and how much time it would take. No decisions were reached. Overlook neighborhood does a Friday e-mail blast. Kenton neighborhood provides an e-Newsletter.
Soil sampling: Sampling could be taken in the Piedmont Parks as this area is known for having dangerous chemicals in the soil. Ginger Edwards has soil samples taken from other North Portland parks. Some heavy metals have been found in these area park playgrounds
Air pollution monitoring: The first thing to do on this issue is to locate the monitoring stations in our neighborhood or the closest ones to Piedmont.
Contact non-geographical ONI entities: There are several local government entities with resources available to the Piedmont neighborhood including Commissioner Fritz’s office, although commissioner department responsibilities may change when Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler takes office in January 2017.
There are 3,000 street trees in Piedmont now dropping their leaves. There was some discussion about who is responsible for picking up the leaves. The first item to research is finding out the City Leaf Districts.
Contact Historic Columbian Cemetery: This is another initiative that can be considered. The Cemetery is located at 1151 N Columbia Boulevard.
Contact industrial neighbors: A general welcome letter can be developed and sent to the companies, large and small, that now have been incorporated in the Piedmont Neighborhood with the recent by-laws change.
Neighborhood development guidelines: As the Piedmont area continues to rapidly grow, it will be important to consider a coordinated plan for development.
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Farmer
Secretary
Prior Meeting Minutes
Thursday March 17 2016
Piedmont Neighborhood Association Board meeting
Peninsula Park Community Center
Attendance: Linda Martinson, Deanne Gomez, Jan de Leeuw, Kristen Saxton, Brianna Beyrooty, Judy Farmer, Audrey Burkhardt
We discussed details of organizing another pancake breakfast this year. Proceed will go to benefit possibly the Peninsula Park Rose Garden or other neighborhood project, to be determined. We will obtain a block party permit as holding this event in a park is too expensive, we will ask for food donations, obtain barricades, make sure those cooking have food handler cards. NW Natural will offer their grill truck and tent again this year. Kristen and Audrey will coordinate a date that works for NW Natural and continue planning at next meeting.
Parks Committee updates:
Judy brought some Peninsula Park Rose Garden fliers as well as information on upcoming events in the Rose Garden.
- July 15th 2016 Ice cream social
- August 21 2016 Art in the Rose Garden
Judy will speak more about the Rose Garden both at our next board meeting on April 21 and also at the General meeting on April 28.
Jan reports that on April 6th, there will be an info fair at the Kenton Firehouse from 6-8pm. Portland Parks and Rec as well as Columbia Riverkeepers are sponsoring this event to share into relating to parks and clean water in Portland. All are invited and welcome.
Land use committee:
The PIR master plan has been postponed. More details at a later date.
We discussed the possibility of “adopting” into our neighborhood association the strip of land between N. Columbia Blvd and the Columbia River Slough, which is currently not included in any neighborhood. We have discussed this many times before and have always decided not to adopt this strip of land. During this discussion, all board members present were in favor of at least considering adopting this land, especially as this would give us a connection to the slough and we may be able to have a positive impact in that area. Jan will ask Tom at ONI how to move forward with this process and report back at the next meeting.
North Portland Neighborhoods Chairs meeting updates:
This meeting focused on insurance information. It was determined that Rabbit Hill community garden is covered under our insurance.
General information: our insurance through the City of Portland covers all activities with the following exceptions: there may be no alcohol or marijuana at PNA events, no water activities and no bouncy houses.
Portland Bureau of Emergency Management will be giving a presentation (not yet scheduled) to inform Portland citizens about polluted water mitigation. When this presentation is scheduled, we will help promote this event to our neighborhood.
PNA is still invested in working with Ryan Olsen to help facilitate the planting of trees in Piedmont after three large trees were cut down at his development site on N. Holland and Vancouver. Kristen will contact Ryan to help coordinate a possible plan.
NET (Neighborhood Emergency Team): goals include identifying block captains who will obtain information from neighbors in order to generate a list of resources within the community as well as list of those needing assistance during emergencies, etc.
Website updates: Brianna is continuing to update the website with board member names, pictures, profiles. She will include “what we do” as Piedmont Neighborhood Association and include an email sign up and how to get involved tab.
We discussed signage including possibly creating a sandwich board type sign to put out on the street corner the day of board/general meetings. We will continue to discuss outreach and communication options.
Next board meeting: Thursday April 21, 7-9pm, Peninsula Park Community Center
General meeting is next month: Thursday April 28 from 7-9pm at June Key Delta House
Thursday Feb. 18, 2016
Piedmont Neighborhood Association Board Meeting
Peninsula Park Community Center
Attendance: Linda M, Deanne Gomez, Jan de Leeuw, Tommy Harrington, Brian Borrello, Max Brown, Kristen Saxton, Brianna Beyrooty, Matt Ziblich
Matt Ziblich with Rabbit Hill garden has applied for the NPNS small grants program grant and will be receiving $525 toward the upkeep of the Rabbit Hill garden at N. Rodney and N. Baldwin. PNA will disperse grant funds to Rabbit Hill. There will also be a repainting of the street mural at N. Russett and N. Williams at the beginning of August.
Land use committee updates:
The City of Portland is discussing a proposal that houses built before 1960 be deconstructed by hand versus demolition. There may be an upcoming hearing date to provide input.
We discussed the new Preservation Strategy booklet and design produced by the Friends of the Peninsula Park Rose Garden that includes historical photos and proposals for redoing the brick walkways, adding a pergula at the N. Ainsworth corner in 2025 and creating a pollinator garden in 2018. Brian proposed that we investigate the possibility of using the $10,000 set aside by the City for our use in creating a Rosa Parks memorial. Perhaps this could be incorporated into the pergula design or some other sort of memorial could be designed. Brian will ask City representative about this money.
We discussed the City Beautiful Movement master plan used to design the Piedmont neighborhood in the early 1900s. We discussed the desire to develop and encourage the use of a master plan mindset toward development in our neighborhood and all neighborhoods in Portland. Brian will check with Diana Moosman to see how the Boise/Elliott neighborhood development guidelines have impacted development in that neighborhood.
Land use committee has received notification of a pre-application for a medical waste sterilization plant in Piedmont north of Columbia Blvd. On March 3, there will be an applicant permit process in which the business owner learns about the permit process.
Communications: Brianna is working on revisioning the website. She would like to locate pictures from the neighborhood. She will create a “dropbox” where we can send pictures. She hopes to showcase Piedmont businesses and parks on the website as well as posting meeting schedules.
