Minutes
Summit Neighborhood Association
Board of Directors Meeting
January 28, 2019
Attendance: Kathleen Rourke, Read Porter, Erik Christiansen, Ethan Gyles, Anna Highsmith, Laura Ramsey, Tom Schmeling, Britt Page
Guests: Nirva LaFortune, Grant Dulgarian
December Minutes: Approved with minor corrections.
President’s Report: Ethan reviewed the month and mentioned that East Side Monthly would like to get quotes and photos from Snow Brigade for next issue.
Program and Committee Reports:
Membership Committee: Tom says a couple new members registered online this month.
Newsletter Committee: Ethan reminds everyone that it is time to start collecting content for the spring issue. Editor still being sought.
Events Committee: No one/nothing to report.
North Main Street Committee: Working group on attracting a Trader Joe’s, report from Laura. Proposal for a letter from SNA to Trader Joe’s. Nirva LaFortune suggests that a letter should come from SNA and Mt. Hope and Collier Park. She also suggests a community development component should be included (hiring locally, for example), perhaps in exchange for incentives, and thinks that the proposal should be comprehensive. Laura suggests a social media campaign might help as well, to at least demonstrate demand. Discussion followed. Laura then circulated the draft letter, which will be edited and shared with the other local organizations for their comment and support.
Update/Q&A with City Councilor Nirva LaFortune: Nirva reports on her meeting with the Mt. Hope Neighborhood Assoc., which is transforming into a neighborhood development center. She’s working with them to improve coordination between the many non-profits in the area. Also, more than $300,000 of renovation work has begun on the Vincent Brown Recreation Center, which was in poor condition. She’s hopeful that a non-profit friends group could be formed to help support it going forward. Regarding City Council, she reports that she was able to allocate some funds to MLK Elementary for playground improvements, but fundraising is still needed. She’s also advocating for road and sidewalk repairs, which currently do not have a line item in the budget. Discussion on these and other points (police substation on Camp St., Nathan Bishop Junior High, Council business) followed. Her monthly newsletter will come out next week, and upcoming community meetings will be listed.
Treasurer’s Report: Britt presents a financial summary of 2017 and 2018. This month’s expenses consisted mainly of paying the annual fee for the PO Box.
Community Garden Committee: Read reports on a few changes to the bylaws: name change of the park to Kerry Kohring Park, and what happens when some moves out of Providence (Memorial Day will be the cut-off). Tom moves to approve the changes. Anna seconds. Approved.
Ongoing Business:
Little Free Library: Anna reports that we are waiting for better weather and then we’ll run the contest again in April or so (since there were no submissions last time).
Drinking fountain project: Ethan reports that he’s still waiting for the Parks Dept to get back to him.
“Year of the City”: Erik reports that there’s an initial steering committee meeting at Brown U. on Friday.
2018+ Priorities Session – Next steps report. Tom brings up the need to set an annual meeting date in order to work backward and get the bylaws rewritten so they can be approved at that time. Consensus that the Annual Meeting should be set for Monday, April 29th.
Kathy raises the subject of the yard sale and questions about how it’s done, and when.
Britt mentions the public art item and says that people from Avenue Arts have expressed willingness to come to a meeting to discuss possibilities. General agreement that we should continue the conversation with them.
Erik raised the lead water line issue, with new program announced by PW for 0% interest loans. Discussion followed. It was noted that our neighborhood is remarkably better off than all other Providence neighborhoods re lead supply lines.
Ethan will repost the spreadsheet online so that everyone can edit and add new information.
Next meeting (changed) to Feb. 25th.