WECAN Board Meeting Minutes March 3, 2022 meeting on Zoom @
6:30 pm
Board Members present: Byron Ballard, Joe Fioccola, Rebecca Lance, Sylvia Organ, Carrie Pettler, Pattiy Torno and Suzanne Willis.
Board Members not present: Stephanie
El-Hajj, Mike Kenton, Rachel Larson, Rich Peterson, Brittany Wager and Davina
Weirich.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Pattiy moved and Byron seconded a motion to
approve the minutes of the February 3 Meeting as distributed and corrected. The
motion passed.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Pattiy received and paid the
receipts for the Haunted Trail decorations at $103.65. The balance is $1648.83.
She also submitted the annual 990-N e-postcard report to the IRS. She also accepted
a very useful binder that holds all the Treasurer’s papers from Mr. Bacoate.
A recording of the meeting began at 6:31 pm
BLOCK JESSIES: JP is moving to Charlotte. SUZANNE and daughter Zellie met with JoAnne and her daughter Robin who is staying with her. JoAnne has pneumonia last week but is back and would love to see visitors. In short they are healthy and in good spirits. JOE asked when we can get back to in-person meetings. Several are okay with it. The consensus was to try to meet outside behind the Community Garden on April 7. Rebecca will check with MHO for availability of their community room as a rain location. PATTIY noted several break-ins at the Glass Center and Odyssey Clays. Only cash was taken and they left people feeling very unsettled. No updates on Pat Crisp or Pete Bassett. JOE heard that Sandi and Gerald were planning on moving away. Sylvia heard that their house was going on the market tomorrow.
HAYWOOD STREET COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT UPDATES Carrie Pettler had five things to update. 1-Rebecca invited Theresa Stevens from the
Givens Estates to our next meeting regarding property management of HSCD.
Carrie encouraged people to visit Givens as they are now the official property
manager.
2-Pattiy suggested some more names for the
project. Researching Mrs. Foster was turning up blank and in an effort to honor
the heart of the neighborhood she suggested the names of someone we know and
knew and love: Jessie Nell(Mama Nell) Coleman and Jessie Mae Jones. They
represent the heart of the neighborhood. These two matriarchs of the
neighborhood she suggested should be honored by naming the building after Mama
Nell and the Community Room after Jessie Mae who worked many years preparing
meals for people.
3- The primary siding color was finalized:
“Deep Ocean”
4-Brian Combs was taking a well deserved sabbatical
until Easter (April 17.)
5- On February 22 the majority of City
Council voted to approve the purchase of the land and the conditional zoning.
The project is now shovel-ready. Carrie laid out the probable timeline:
Breaking ground by August 2022. Construction estimated time to complete is one
year (August 2023). Then it is planned to train staff for an additional year
(August 2024) before admitting tenants.
DISCUSSION: Rebecca
asked if the oak trees in front could not be saved, when they might go and if
they could be used to make benches. Carrie noted that funding was in place
sufficient to begin construction but another $1million is also needed and if
anyone wants to help or get involved with the fund raising committee reach out
to her.
MELK: Carrie
also expressed a concern about the Melk Property which is in between her house
and the Haywood Street Project. It is NCDOT property and the City has an
agreement with them and WECAN has a maintenance agreement with the City. It is
very challenging and there is a lot of debris and needles. She is looking for a
purpose for that area to be expressed. Maybe WECAN and HSCD can define what the
purpose should be. What might be planted there and can benefit the neighborhood
but not be abused. The current goal is to cut back brush to increase visibility
and deter camping and other lawlessness.
GARDEN GRANTS: Pattiy
reported that the agreement is signed and is going through the process of
getting all the other signatures and should be ready by next week. She
explained that we had to do a pivot since we only have signed agreements for
the Community Garden, Owens-Bell Park and the Melk Property it was holding up
the process waiting for the other agreements to come through. So, our focus
will be on those three. The Community Garden is the strongest community building
vehicle in WECAN and will be the biggest part of the budget, but it is flexible
and can also be used for the Haunted Trail next October. This spring we focus
on the Community Garden and next fall on planting in Owens-Bell Park. She noted
that John repaired the WECAN sign. She has spoken to Ken Putnam and McCrae
Coated and they both agree that our agreements should and eventually will
happen, but no estimate on when.
The first workdays were set for Friday March 4 and Saturday
March 5. Joe, Lynn, Zack, Swann, Brian and Mitch all expressed interest. Lynn
and Joe have prepared the site by removing the old rotted wood fence and
privets and Joe picked up T-posts and ground cloth and they organized the tasks
into 3 teams: Fence Team, Ground Team and Wood cleaning Team. Lyn created a
face book event staring at 9 on Friday and 10 on Saturday. We have a white
board with tasks to check off and it will be a lot of fun.
ART AND SPRING MEETING:
Rebecca explained the commitment to meet two times a year to keep communication
open and build rapport and not just complaints. She is expecting the next
meeting in April or May and asked if there was any interest in attending.
Sylvia wants to attend. Rebecca met Ben Woody, Development Director for the
City who happens to be in charge of enforcing the new Noise Ordinance. He told
her that decibel readings were taken and recommended action. He will also be at
the ART meeting.
WELCOME WAGON:
Lesa wants to continue but needs someone else to look at realtor records for
new arrivals. Rachel might be interested but Ranse offered to check with his
landlord who already does monthly checks.
A Go-Local card was suggested as a gift instead of a small plant. The
cost is $20 or 10 for $180. They do have a shelf life so a bulk purchase may
not work.
Rebecca expressed her conflicted feelings and disappointment
about the ongoing criticism of the board by a few on FB, and not
wanting that to go unanswered. She appreciates all of us and our
neighbors.
Next WECAN Board meeting April 7, 2022 @ 6:30
pm tentatively set as in-person at the field behind the Community Garden
Minutes submitted by Joe Fioccola
Email pattiytorno@gmail.com for a link to the recording of
the zoom meeting.
