WECAN Board Meeting [DRAFT] Minutes March 4, 2021

 WECAN Board Meeting [DRAFT] Minutes March 4, 2021 Meeting on Zoom @ 6:30 pm

Board Members present: Byron Ballard, Sherrod Barnes-Ginifer, Katherine de Vos Devine, Joe Fioccola, 

Rebecca Lance, Rachel Larson, and Pattiy Torno. Board Members not present: Mike Kenton and Rich Peterson. 

Also Present: Brenda Mills and Jeremy Lett.

CALL TO ORDER: Rebecca called the meeting to order at 6:33.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Rebecca moved, and Byron seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the

February 4, 2021 meeting as distributed. The motion passed.

CAN Update: Byron shared her impressions of the CAN Board Meeting of February 25. Discussed were expected levels of Board member participation, a call for volunteers, county projects’ involvement, an unpleasant discussion of panhandling, littering, and homelessness. CAN is planning a panel discussion to include APD, Homeless Initiative, Homeward Bound, Beloved Community, and “affected communities.” They are meeting with musicians about revisions to the Noise Ordinance. They were introduced to Brenda and Jeremy Lett and heard a presentation on 

climate change political action.

APD/CRO UPDATE: Pattiy shared a PowerPoint presentation given by Lt Mike Lamb from the APD Community Engagement Division to RADBA. In brief, APD is down 67 officers or 35% of sworn staff, and violent crime is up in the last 5 years. There is a new transparency dashboard at policedata.ashevillenc.gov, new ways to engage (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), and an anonymous tip line text TIP2APD to 847411. Rebecca heard that when a Girdwood resident reported a car break-in, they were fussed at for calling. Brenda asked for specific details also copied to neighborhood@ashevillenc.gov. Katherine pointed out that there is some dispute about exactly what constitutes breaking and entering a vehicle. (i.e., whether the vehicle was locked). 

NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES: Jeremy Lett was introduced as the new Neighborhood Specialist. Brenda offered two links: neighborhoods@ashevillenc.gov, neighborhood services, and ashevillenc.gov/neighborhood services. She and Jeremy are responsible for community-oriented problem solving and community engagement. The Reimaging Public Safety effort brought $700,000 to alternative departments, and $110,000 went to Community and Public Engagement. Jeremy was chosen from a field of 120 applicants. Both Brenda and Jeremy will attend the monthly meetings of the  APD Community Engagement Division. Jeremy moved from Georgia 8 years ago. He attended Warren Wilson College and Western Carolina University. He will work proactively on issues such as noise, homelessness, and solving community issues before getting other departments involved. 

CITY BUDGET: Brenda explained that the city was ramping up the budget engagement process with a meeting next Tuesday at 1 pm (no public comment allowed.) Planned are two rounds of meetings. The first will be on March 18and the second sometime in April. The consultants will return to review what we heard in a 5-minute video and launch a survey. The results will go to City Council and then review the next set of ideas. Three rounds will happen in April, and the City Manager’s budget is expected by the end of May with equity-focused budget engagement ideas such as neighborhood grants. She encouraged WECAN to think about what is important to the neighborhood. Pattiy asked about the Owens-Bell Park signage.  

OTHER ISSUES: Pattiy asked about a half marathon planned for March 20, which will have some closures on Clingman Avenue and other streets down to the Amboy Road Bridge. She shared the Neighborhood Web Map where WECAN is shown but not RAD explaining that in the past, Marsha informed us about events planned for or impacting our neighborhood and asking how to get back in the loop. Brenda explained that the map was a communications tool designed to notify neighborhoods and the biweekly City news for general announcements and explained that anyone can sign up to receive it. Once filled by Sarah Henry, the position has been posted and is expected to be filled in the next 2 months to work with business districts. Brenda also noted that Jeremy will be handling notices of outdoor events and putting out the biweekly newsletter. 

BLOCK JESSIE UPDATES:  RACHEL noted the ongoing problem of long trucks getting stuck blocking the road and cutting up yards. Rachel heard from Ken Putnam that he will respond after the loss of the Traffic Engineer.  PATTIY observed that the city seems to be unaware of any agreements with neighborhoods. Parks and Rec were not aware when they ignored the 2007 Owens-Bell Park agreement and cleared and mulched over the sunny cultural garden that had preserved contributions from many different neighbors. It is a symptom of a bigger problem. WECAN has several agreements, but with city staff turnover, there is no institutional memory. There was an unwritten agreement to reserve 2000 linear feet of granite curbstones harvested from Jefferson Drive for use in WECAN, of which 200 feet have been used so far. Brenda noted that Tom Downing is the city person to keep up with agreements. Brenda asked for a list of agreements and who made them. Pattiy and Joe will follow up and provide that list. Not on that list was the WECAN sign planting at the corner of Clingman and Hilliard. Someone has removed all the bushes and plants and even dug up some brick edging. Katherine witnessed an older white male with grey hair, a baseball cap, garden gloves, and a shovel digging up bricks on Sunday at 5 pm. Pattiy thought it might be someone from Parks and Rec. Brenda affirmed that Mark Foster denied such work there. Brenda will follow up with Susannah Horton with Parks and Rec. Joe heard from NCDOT that they also denied the removal. Over the last twenty years, WECAN has maintained the community garden, Owens-Bell Park, Clingman Edible garden, Melk, Sign garden, kudzu hill, end of Jefferson, Park to Jefferson trail, Roberts Street. RACHEL’s property taxes went up by 50%, and her neighbor’s 2 bedroom house on Park Square was just listed for $500,000. REBECCA: offered to help Pete and Pat apply for property tax exemption.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Pattiy reported the balance remained $1702.45. Responding to the ideas that “we should give to…” need to focus on the mission of WECAN.

 From the WECAN Website:

West End/Clingman Avenue Neighborhood, Inc, (WECAN) is a non-profit neighborhood association formed to promote and guide the process of revitalization of this historic neighborhood located on the edge of downtown Asheville, North Carolina. The major purpose of our organization is to preserve, protect and promote our neighborhood as a safe place to live and raise a family, with respect for our collective history and reverence for the natural surroundings.  In pursuit of this goal, we engage in a number of classes of activities: Neighborhood Involvement, Neighborhood Improvement, Neighborhood Preservation & Celebration and Neighborhood Futuring.   

Pattiy noted that RADBA also felt the effort to raise funds for other groups quarterly. We can raise funds for a purpose if it serves our mission. Do we need to be proactive with our funds or encourage donations to others? Pattiy shared that RADBA promoted “Buy a Tree for the Greenway” to fund a dozen additional trees for the city to plant along the greenway. Byron observed that in our community, we don’t know a lot of our neighbors. In the past, we held community-building events such as sending valentines, or holiday cards. It might behoove us to interact with our neighbors. We see fewer people involved.  People come to social events like Halloween, ice cream social, or moveable feasts, but not meetings. Eventually, it will be possible to resume socially distant gatherings. Food would be a great use of funds. Suggestions are to use Owens-Bell Park (with no alcohol) or Pattiy’s lot on Jefferson or even establish a progressive. National Night Out didn’t get many people. Maybe a dog event would get more people out. Katherine offered a list of projects from other neighborhoods such as murals, neighborhood art, a chalk project. She finds it interesting that there are few art-centered ideas, such as partnering with RADA to present a united front for a work-live neighborhood, integrating the Labyrinth, or curating street art to the Smoky Park Bridge. Pattiy suggested sponsoring a chalk drawing event for the RADTIP celebration. Pattiy noted the March 25 deadline for inclusion in official promotions. What is needed is a crew to organize and run it more than funds to pay for it. Back to the topic, Pattiy suggested setting priorities and a process to bring requests to the board. It was noted that board approval is not necessary, board does intend at this time to plan something as a group, but individuals may proceed. Katherine offered to begin the process. 

144-159 RIVERSIDE DRIVE: Planned are suggestions for 150-170 apartments with retail and parking. They are looking for feedback for ideas for the parking lot on the west side of Riverside Drive, suggestions for historic naming possibilities, and ideas to incorporate the smokestack. Pattiy sees the need for adequate parking as an overwhelming challenge. She sees it as an underdeveloped concept now, and it goes to the TRC in the next two weeks. Public input can be offered at TRC and P&Z, and City Council. We need to consider the worst-case scenario, such as when the next flood arrives, where will the 170 cars go? Rebecca asked if WECAN wants to take a stand. Pattiy suggested waiting until there are technical drawings. She offered to keep up with it and bring suggestions to the next WECAN meeting. Do we need to survey the neighborhood?  Not if we are open and inclusive in our discussion and publish our concerns, any opposing views will have time to offer their input in the public meetings.

ADJOURN: Meeting adjourned at 8:36 Next WECAN Board meeting April 1, 2021-no fooling!

Minutes submitted by Joe Fioccola