WECAN Board [DRAFT] Meeting Minutes April 1, 2021

 WECAN Board Meeting Minutes April 1, 2021 meeting on Zoom @ 6:30 pm

Board Members present: Byron Ballard, Joe Fioccola, Mike Kenton, Rebecca Lance, and Pattiy Torno.

Board Members not present: Sherrod Barnes-Ginifer, Katherine de Vos Devine, Rachel Larson, Stephanie El-Hajj, and Rich Peterson. 

Also Present: JP Chalarca and Diane Miller

CALL TO ORDER: Rebecca called the meeting to order at 6:30

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Rebecca moved, and Byron seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the March 4, 2021 meeting as distributed. The motion passed.

APD/CRO UPDATE: Pattiy noted from the RADBA meeting that crime stats for this area were good. The police are down 75 officers now and can’t do so many community interactions. Morale is low and we encounter officers we should thank them and let them know they are appreciated. Mike asked about the Citizens Police Academy which he recommends was still offered. Joe thinks COVID is delaying the next offering. Rebecca noted that the WECAN neighborhood has done a fantastic job appreciating our CRO Justin Wilson and Lt Sams when they came. It has been a year since anyone from APD attended one of our meetings and she misses them at our meetings. Pattiy observed that we have been very fortunate to have the amount of attention that we did.

BLOCK JESSIE UPDATES:  PATTIY observed some beautiful mature plantings on Park Square. MIKE noted that the house next to his old house was listed and sold over the list price in 1 day for over $510,000. PATTIY noticed that David Heetderks was re-mulching the Park-Jefferson Trail and she thanked Royce Tree Service for providing wood chip mulch. REBECCA helped Pete and Pat with property tax discount info. Pat is struggling with grief, home repair, maintenance, and yard work. JP offered to help. Habitat and MFO have emergency home repair programs. Byron will talk to Pat. Facebook will come through maybe with an army of elves to help. JoAnne is also doing okay and has some good family support. PATTIY noted that 91-year-old Mr. Matt Bacoate was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine-the highest civilian honor offered by the state of North Carolina. MIKE looks for an annual congress of honeybees at Pete’s porch. PATTIY reported that RADBA raised money and donated 16 trees to be planted at the greenway in RADTIP. The brewery project at 176 Clingman is on hold, no other info available at this time.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Pattiy reported no activity and the balance remained at $1702.45. 

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:

COMMUNITY GARDEN: Terrible weather with rain and wind but Carline is enthusiastic. Clara painted the beautiful new sign. Byron is very happy to have young people involved.

CAN UPDATE: Byron reported that CAN is struggling with internal issues. Joe added that April is their annual meeting and they are focusing on a membership drive and looking for more volunteers.

ASHEVILLE REDEFINES TRANSIT: Lee Lance will conduct a Doodle poll for the best time for a spring meeting.

OWENS-BELL PARK SIGNAGE: No activity. Pattiy plans on getting a graphic representation of what the signs should look like. Then a cost estimate from a professional sign company will help when applying for future grants. In the meantime, the city will replace the old photo signs which should last until grants are found.

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING: Rebecca is beginning to plan. She noted that good attendance has happened at in-person activities such as the Halloween potluck or community garden events. She suggested the field behind the community garden would allow space for distancing. Pattiy noted food should be individually portioned and she has a lot of paper products. JP offered to produce a draft save-the-date flyer for Saturday, July 1 with potluck and COVID guidelines to be finalized in June.

ADOPT A HIGHWAY: The next litter pickup was set for Tuesday, April 13 starting at 9 am starting at the sign garden.

CHALK ART: Katherine sent the following in an email: Application was submitted but no response yet. Proposed Dates: May 1 or 2. neighbors who would like to help: - Joshua Martin - Miriam Salloum - Lynn Player. She requested a response if you want to help plan or participate. She plans to: 1) draw out a [provisional] map; 2) make a schedule sign-up to organize volunteers; 3) buy chalk; 4) confer with the kids about other needs.

NCDOT AGREEMENTS: Pattiy and Joe had a productive meeting with Ken Putnam, McCray Coates, Chris Medlin, and Chad Bandy which clarified responsibilities. For RIGHT OF WAY areas, an Encroachment Agreement is needed. These include Clingman Avenue Streetscape, Sign Garden, Kudzu Hill, Edible Triangle, and Melk property. The City makes an agreement with NCDOT and WECAN then makes a maintenance agreement with the City. The agreement automatically renews unless either side chooses to terminate. The other type of agreement is for Real Property which involves usage such as planting rather than just maintenance. The Urban Trail between Park and Jefferson and Melk may fall in this category and would be an agreement with the City and not NCDOT. We asked for a blanket agreement for all NCDOT properties in WECAN but they prefer standalone agreements. Chad will dig up the Streetscape agreement and Ken will forward the Melk agreement and Pattiy will map out the specific areas we want to maintain. It may be possible to combine all these into a single amendment to the existing agreements which would still have to be approved by City Council. Still to discuss are agreements between WECAN and the City for the Community Garden and Owens-Bell Park.

ADJOURN: Meeting adjourned at 7:53          

Next WECAN Board meeting May 6, 2021     

Minutes submitted by Joe Fioccola