Thursday, March 31, 2022

WECAN Board meeting minutes March 2022

 

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.

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

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.

 COMMUNITY GARDEN WORKDAY:

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.

  SUBCOMMITTEES

 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.

 COUNCIL COMMITTEES: Joe explained the City’s move to consolidate her 30-odd advisory boards into just four aligned with the City’s Living Asheville Comprehensive Plan. There are several public input sessions set in the next few weeks: March 3 from 5-7 (Too late! missed that one) Monday March 7 (12:30-2:30), Wednesday March 9 (3-7) and Friday March 11 (9-11.) For more information see restructurepilot@ publicinput.com/C1401.

 COALITION OF ASHEVILLE NEIGHBORHOODS: Byron reported that the City is working on changes to an Open Space Amendment and a work session is set for Tuesday March 8 from 2-4 pm. Joe explained that it had to do with development rules for projects over one acre and had to do with  affordable housing, tree preservation fee in lieu and other ways of avoiding it.

  OTHER BUSINESS:

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.

 ADJOURN: Meeting adjourned at 8:02 p.m.            

 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. 

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