Minutes for November 12th - Unofficial
Jeff Jones, Treasurer, called the meeting to order at 7.04pm
Board members present: Steve Cole (late), William Archer, Susan Hathaway-Marxer, Peter O’Neil, Jon Eaton, Dean Gisvold, Tiffanie Shakespeare, Jim Barta, Christine Coers-Mitchell, Pam Lindholm-Levy, Sally Mcpherson, Michela McMahon, Jeff Jones. Ryan Carson & Jason Messer.
Board members absent: Colin Burn, Barb Christopher, Thomas Mertes, Meryl Logue, Nathan Corser, Aaron Stuckey,
Visitors: Grant High School Band director and Choir Director
Minutes: Jim proposed & Christine seconded. The minutes of the October meeting were approved.
Grant redesign: Grant High School is undergoing a redesign; the students will be relocating to the Marshall High School campus for two years and will then return to Grant after the construction is complete. The returning student body is then projected to be 1750, the design is hoping to accommodate over 2000.
A number of art program teachers have concerns about the proposed design of the auditorium. The current building can fit 1700 and the redesign only specifies a need for 500 people.
This reduction in size would limit the number of attendees that could attend concerts and other art programs. The example given was the upcoming Holiday concert which was sold out last year, the new proposed facility would not accommodate a concert of this size.
A concern of the teachers is that the proposals will reduce the auditorium to a common area rather than a usable area for performing arts.
The future plan is that teachers will have an office but no longer have a home room and will be required to move from room to room between classes. There will not be enough classrooms for teacher and the speakers are concerned that this will not best serve the students.
The students move to Marshall next spring, and the Project Manager will be presenting the design and project plan in mid-December.
The teachers are asking ICA for lend support with the effort to keep the auditorium to at least 1200 seats (noting that this will still won’t fulfil the needs of whole student body) and support from the ICA may help the School Board Members champion this issue.
Steve volunteered to draft a letter of support.
Report from the Police: The community officer did not attend this meeting.
Land Use: Jim gave a report of the Land Use Committees activities.
- Comprehensive Plan. Comments are still been taken and will be due by November 16th.
- The Shu house. Was demolished on 13th. The Land Use Committee is still unsure what will be going into the area and no additional information has been received from the developer and they have already given negative feedback on the design submitted.
During the demolition neighbors are concerned that there was no evidence of abatement for lead/asbestos, capture of material that could have been reused, how the demolition was approved before new plans were approved and what the next steps for ICA in approving the plans for the site. It was proposed by Christine proposed, Susan seconded and the Board approved that Dean addresses the neighbors’ concerns in regards to the demolition how the can a demo be approved before an approved plan is in place?
The neighbors to work with Steve & Dean to create an article for the newsletter.
- Utility pole boxes. It has been noticed that boxes going on to utility poles in the neighborhood, it is likely Century link, the Land use committee volunteered to look into it.
- The Mini mart on 8th & Broadway is going back to a garage.
- ADU’s (Additional Dwelling Units). The City is encouraging them but increasing property tax when they have been developed. The ADU’s are being taxed as a new construction and this is resulting in a big uplift to householders’ property tax bills. There was a question over whether this would this impact the historic tax break? The Land Use Committee did not know answer to this question but would look into it.
- Leaf pickup – feedback. The second leaf pickup is next week, neighbor not happy with work undertaken and concerns over timing of leaf pickup. The number to call and leave feedback is on the agenda. Jim to draft a letter to the City transportation /leaf pick up crew on behalf of the Board to leave feedback on the poor job on the the first pick up day.
NE Broadway/Wielder Alliance: Steve gave a report.
The Alliance asked if the ICA would be willing to fund their website for the year at a cost of circa $240/PA. Bev motioned that we fund a start-up website to not exceed one year and not over $500. Sally seconded. Steve and Tiff to work further on setting up the arrangement.
Professors from a Japanese city recently met with Steve and Dean, they are studying neighborhood association and are trying to implement a Neighborhood Association system.
Holiday party. 6.30 pm December 3rd at the Irvington club.
The tracker is being administered by Jim, but more volunteers are needed for the Holiday party.
Christine proposed, Pam seconded and the Board approved that $500 be allocated towards the costs of the party
Capital improvements – Susan.
- Fountain – the group is still working on this.
- Bike fix- it station.
Additional capital project are to be considered as other projects have been delayed.
- Klickitat Mall restoration to make the pedestrian walkway more user friendly.
An employee at the City suggested that we could do incremental improvements the area. The City also suggested using neighborhood money to offer to trim bushes. Or PBOT is looking for money and we could offer to help them out and adopt the walkway as a first step in the incremental plan.
A sub-committee of Barb, Steve and Susan was formed at last meeting to work on the RFP so can be approved at the next ICA meeting.
- Proposed trail around Irving Park, but likely to be an expensive project.
Tree inventory - Peter
Next steps in the tree inventory project is to Identify an Irvington tree plan, to promote the diversity of plants, plant more big trees and identify where these could go in the neighborhood.
Peter will be identifying members. To help with the development of the tree plane before December 15th. The likely outcome will be a coded neighborhood map.
Newsletter
Please send articles to Steve asap for next newsletter.
Ryan has an article the Gill Carson has written on the school k-8 and the re-drawing of school boundaries that could be used.
AOB:
- Traffic violations seemed to have increased in Portland. Call the non-emergency number for our community officer.
- Susan proposed and volunteered, Sally seconded and the Board approved for Susan to write to the Mayor and Commissioner on behalf of the Board to request increased police officers.
- The status of the extra sign project was discussed and the Board would like an update at the next meeting.
Next meeting: Thursday 14th January, 7p m. Irvington School Library.