Columbia Park Neighborhood Association

Meeting Minutes August, October and November 2007

August 2007

COLUMBIA PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION (CPNA)
BOARD MEETING MINUTES: 8-20-07
_____________________________________________________________

In attendance: Liz Wielinski, Melody Devine, Peter Doughty, Mike Melman, Kathy Buchanan, Tracy Rognrud.

Call to order: 6:13 pm.

Motion to approve 6-18-07 minutes; seconded and approved.
Motion to approve tonight’s agenda: Sue Bembenek will not be here tonight. Agenda amended by removing the Central Avenue Committee update; amended agenda seconded and approved.

Open Spaces/Mississippi Task Force
Above the Falls Citizen Advisory Committee (AFCAC) Update: Liz went to the last meeting in place of Ciara. At this time there is not much going on that affects our neighborhood. There is a report coming out soon from the City’s Blue Ribbon Task Force. They are looking to buy property along the Upper Mississippi as it becomes available, a multi-year project.
Gateway: The neighborhood will be able to continue to use the Gateway site at 37th and University Avenue NE as an open space and community garden. The contract with the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority, owner of this property, has been extended for another five years.
Other: There is a small triangle of land in the neighborhood, near Spain Place, that was tax-forfeited. The property will be offered to adjacent neighbors first. It isn’t big enough to fit a house and is between alleys. If a neighbor does not purchase it, Hennepin County becomes the owner.
Parks: Liz states that the DeLaSalle athletic field plan was passed by the City Council. In addition, Jon Oyanagi has left his position as River District Manager for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation. The interim director is Dick Mammon, former head of Recreation.

Crime/Safety/Housing
Liz reports that she heard noise coming from Hi-View Park recently at 3 a.m., but it turned out to be people swimming in the pool goofing off. She called 911 about the noise; police arrived and the trespassers left. Tracy explains the events of July 23rd, in which her husband’s car was stolen with their daughter inside, resulting in a collision with another car whose driver was hurt, and both cars extremely damaged. The child was released before the crash. The perpetrator was caught: a young man from the Northeast area with a long rap sheet.
Northeast Citizen Patrol (NECP): No current news to report. Some NECP members, including founder John Schulte, stopped by National Night Out events earlier this month.
They encouraged involvement and gave out information.

Shoreham Area Advisory Council (SAAC): Liz announces that there is a public meeting about the reuse study tentatively set for Wednesday, September 26th. She will get the information to Dan at the Northeast Beat or to the LiveNE website to spread the word.

Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP)
NRP Phase II: Melody will still talk to Bev about the RFPs - to see if there are any templates for these letters. Tracy relays the name of someone that Sue recalled working with at the NRP office, and offers to look through the file cabinet again for any helpful information from the Phase I planning.
Convention: NRP is sending neighborhood representatives to attend a convention in DesMoines, IA in early September. CPNA President Liz Wielinski, meeting attendant and committee member extraordinaire, and Sue Bembenek, former Community Organizer and bookkeeper for CPNA and long-time resident, will be representing Columbia Park Neighborhood.

Bookkeeper Report: $6,489.53 balance in checking account. Kathy has worked out the average cost of staff per month, as requested by Liz. Kathy, bookkeeper: $68/month. Tracy, community organizer: $300/month. Liz wants the information to prepare for the future since it looks as if NRP is on the verge of disappearing. Liz has checked out the way other neighborhood organizations operate: some have full-time staff and offices, and some are the other extreme like Waite Park which is completely volunteer-run. NRP is legislated until 2009, and it looks like they want to turn the neighborhood groups into bigger districts. It has been suggested by another neighborhood that we might want to talk in order to see which neighborhoods mesh well and would make sense to work together - for instance the neighborhoods along Central Avenue in northeast.

Old Business
Neighborhood ID Signs: Melody hasn’t talked to her friend Scotty about them yet due to other time constraints. Since the future of NRP is uncertain, including neighborhoods as we know them, we all agree to table this project for now.
“30 m.p.h.” Signs: We want put the signs up for a limited time - a few weeks - in September. It is a good time because school is starting up, and also the ground is not yet frozen. Liz will do Main Street, Melody will do Van Buren, and Tracy will do 5th Street. These are problem areas where cars tend to speed. Melody will email the others with a nifty flyer she made to give to the neighbors on these streets, including a phone number for them to call to ok a sign in their yard. Liz and Melody will bring the signs home tonight - we will each take 9 signs.
Bridge Meeting: Next month’s CPNA meeting will take place at a different location in order to coordinate it with the St. Anthony Parkway Bridge meeting. We will be at the River Village community room at 2919 Randolph Street NE. Kudos to Liz for arranging this and for talking to key people about the Bridge! It will be important for the public to
express its opinion regarding the eventual rebuild of the bridge: historical, with trusses otherwise.

New Business
Liz announces that there is a meeting tomorrow night about the Lowry Avenue bridge if anyone can go.
Mail Bag: Tracy shows the thank-you notes from the Northeast Parade organization, since CPNA made a donation. There is an invitation to go on a local Mississippi boat cruise by the Watershed group. This is a good opportunity for networking and Liz is willing to go. A motion is made to reimburse Liz for the $15 cost for the event; seconded and approved. Tracy mentions that there is an upcoming community gardening workshop for anyone interested.
Other: Melody went to a seminar about mortgage fraud recently, and learned that this is something that may be related to the unusual happenings at the house next to her. The IRS and the FBI are interested in this kind of fraud and are doing a lot of investigating.

Motion to adjourn; seconded, all in favor.
Meeting ended at 8:13 pm.

October 2007

COLUMBIA PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION (CPNA)
BOARD MEETING MINUTES: 10-15-07
____________________________________________________________

In attendance: Liz Wielinski, Melody Devine, Peter Doughty, Mike Melman, Kathy Buchanan, Tracy Rognrud, Dan Bembenek, John Plifka, Mary Abrahams, Bob Boyd, Cindy Harper, Doron Clark.

Call to order: 6:08 PM
Motion to approve agenda with corrections: seconded and approved.
Crime/Housing/Safety
202 35th Avenue NE: John Plifka is here from Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, along with Mary Abrahams and Bob Boyd. They are here to propose the division of the properties at 202 35th Avenue NE and 3479 2nd Street NE in order to create two lots on which to build affordable single family housing in conjunction with Community Housing Resources (CHR). A variance in necessary in order to do this, which allows a difference of 2 inches per lot short of the minimum standard lot length. Bob Boyd from CHR explains their role in supporting and following up on the future home owners.
There is a motion to support this variance; seconded and all approve. Liz will write a letter stating the neighborhood’s support of this variance.

3620 Central Avenue NE: This property is a business called MGS Maintenance Services, Inc., located at the corner of Central Avenue NE and Columbia Parkway. They want to build an office onto the existing structure and have applied for a Conditional Use Permit.
Liz has already written a letter to the Planning Commission outlining the Neighborhood’s
conditions and recommendations and the Planning Commission has listed conditions as well, including the addressing of outstanding code violations before any new construction. Approval of Neighborhood letter was already secured via email due to deadlines.

3606 VanBuren: Liz wrote a letter on behalf of the Neighborhood to the property owner, Mr. Nguyen. The attending board members read it; requested changes regard structure, a more direct statement of the neighborhood’s stance and request for contact. The motion is made to approve the letter with changes; seconded and approved. Liz will send it out.

NECP: No word from Wes or Sara VanVickle about the neighborhood walking group.
2PAC: Liz went to the last meeting in response to recent vandalism in the alley near her home. She found out that there is a plan to send out housing inspectors in order to gain access to certain properties that may have violations. Next month Donna Gillitzer from the Juvenile Department will attend out meeting to discuss how to deal with juvenile crime. Also, 2PAC is looking for someone to represent Columbia Park. Tracy will write up this volunteer opportunity for the upcoming newsletter.

SAAC: Liz went to the reuse study meeting. There were a lot of developers there to talk about what to do with the property. The problem is that a parcel of land comes with it that isn’t zoned for housing due to pollution. The roundhouse was found to have a lot of open space inside, not much division. The back wall has some water damage. It is on the Minneapolis Preservation list. They haven’t completed the reuse study, it was just a public meeting and there will be another one in a couple months.

Open Spaces/Mississippi Task Force
Central Avenue Plan: Cindy Harper is here from Cunningham Group Architecture. They are working with the City of Minneapolis to complete the land us portion of the study for the “Making Central Avenue Great” plan. They need the participation of the neighborhoods that border Central Avenue and are asking the best way to encourage this kind of participation. Currently they are trying public meetings, ads in the Northeaster, surveys that can be mailed in, focus groups, posters, and signs on sidewalks. There is a meeting next Thursday at which the company will report on the feedback they have received so far. Liz and Peter say we will put an ad/article in the November newsletter.
Mike asks Cindy for an overview of the project, and she gives a synopsis. Right now they are in a planning stage, learning about the area from locals. Next is the ideas phase, looking at where they should focus - how to connect all the ideas and make them real…then they make decisions and get approval by steering committee. Finally, it will go up for a 45 day public review, ideally to be ready in February 2008. Right now it is off track because of lack of participation. She is leaving a stack of surveys for us.

Above the Falls Citizen Advisory Committee (AFCAC) Update
Lowry Avenue Bridge: When the new bridge is built it is in the plan to keep the bike paths on both sides. Peter will go to the next AFCAC meeting as the second alternate.

Gateway: Tracy reports that the gardening season will be officially over by the end of the month, when gardeners will be expected to have cleaned out their plots and will be sent their deposit checks. One strange thing is that the City’s water department seems to have come along and clipped off our lock and shut off the water. This happened in the beginning of October, without notice. Liz suggests calling them and asking for a replacement lock. Tracy will follow up.

Parks: Liz states that the St. Anthony bike trail, supposed to have been completed this year, was NOT done. Liz has contacted someone at Parks who gave some kind of convoluted excuse. In addition, after the Park Board had several community meetings about their Comprehensive Plan, very little was actually changed. There has been a proposed ordinance change for Citizen Participation that would require a Citizens Advisory Committee for only funded projects that are either major or new developments or significant redevelopments. Also the appeal time is proposed to be shortened from 10 days to 5. This creates an issue of not enough time for due process. Please call Liz at
home if you would like to know more about this. Also noted: the interim District Manager is not seeking this position, so there is still no permanent River District Manager.

Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) Phase II
Request For Proposal (RFP): Bev sent a copy of an example of an RFP to Melody. Liz and Melody agree about using the RFP from Phase I or example, and to make necessary changes. The RFP for a housing plan needs to get done. We will talk about this again in January. Ciara and Melody will have more time for it then, possibly working on it a bit in the meantime.
Save NRP: Liz joined this group. The City has recalculated the funding for NRP. Eventually the CPED money would phase out, which is the money used for administration, etc. Bob Miller sent out a letter with this information - Liz has forwarded it to all, and has made sure there are copies of it available tonight. The Save NRP group stressed grassroots efforts with council members to get the City to stop tapping the source of NRP funding -Tiff districts. The council members have been telling people things that are not true, for example: that they would have to get rid of some cops to keep funding NRP. This is not true- they are separate funds. Doron Clark, co-chair of Citizens of Windom Park, is here to help explain. Liz has drafted a letter on behalf of the neighborhood board in support of saving NRP. Melody motions to send this letter; motion seconded and all approve. Liz has a petition to sign in favor of keeping NRP. Also, there are postcards meant to send en masse to council members, asking them to support saving the NRP. We want to get it to them before their December meeting. Liz asks if anyone is willing to take some down their street, door knocking. Liz would collect them all to send all at once. Proposed deadline: October 31st. Some people take postcards to go door knocking. It’s important for Northeast because our councilman will vote against NRP at this point, but this is a citywide effort. The Save NRP meetings have doubled in size each time. This effort has to happen within the next two months or the NRP as we know it may be lost.

Report from Bookkeeper: $5358.28
Liz asks how much of this year’s CPED funding is left. Kathy doesn’t have that information here and will email it to Liz after she locates it at home. We need to spend all of our CPED money before the end of the year or they will take it back. We can put more into the next newsletter (more pages), and Tracy says the printer may need a new ink drum soon.

Old Business:
Bridge over BNSF Tracks: Also known as the St. Anthony Parkway bridge. There will be an article in the next newsletter asking people to join the St. Anthony Bridge taskforce. The meetings are supposed to start in January. Jack Yuzna from Transportation Planning & Engineering (City of Minneapolis) is the principle engineer on the project.

Central Avenue Library: Mike Melman is our representative. The meetings about the reconstruction have not begun yet. He will report on it next month.

New Business:
November newsletter: Deadline is Saturday, October 20.
Save NRP: News about this will appear in the next newsletter.
30 MPH Signs: Liz is taking a picture of one for the newsletter for a thank you article.
10-Bed-Fed: This is the new slogan for curfews. Notice will be in next newsletter.
Central Avenue Plan meeting dates: Will put notice in newsletter.
Use of room in Manor for DFL 2008 Precinct Caucuses Feb. 8: Motion is made to allow use of space; seconded and approved.
CPNA winter meeting schedule: Liz is requesting availability for all winter meetings.
NRP Elector: Sue is our elector, and Liz is going along as the alternate.
Mail Bag: Nothing new.

Motion to adjourn meeting: seconded and approved.

November 2007

COLUMBIA PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION (CPNA)
BOARD MEETING MINUTES 11-19-07
_________________________________________________
In attendance: Liz Wielinski, Kathy Buchanan, Tracy Rognrud, Mike Melman, Peter Doughty

Call to order: 6:15
Approval of tonight’s agenda: motion to approve; seconded, and all in favor.
Approval of 10/15/07 minutes: Add in Tracy’s notes about Jack Yuzna. Motion to approve with corrections; seconded, and all in favor. Also motion to approve minutes from 8/20/07; seconded and all in favor.

Housing/Crime/Safety
Northeast Citizen Patrol (NECP) & 2nd Precinct Advisory Committee (2PAC): NECP - see later in minutes, as a representative arrived later in meeting. No official representative for 2PAC yet.
SAAC: Part of the roof was taken down on the Roundhouse because they were caving in and part of the sub-roof contained asbestos. There is an upcoming meeting on the Reuse Study Report for the Roundhouse on 12/10 at 7:00 pm, at Columbia Manor. There is also a neighborhood-wide meeting regarding the Cedar Services site on 12/12 at 7:00pm, at Logan Park.

Open Spaces/Mississippi Task Force
Central Avenue Plan: No report from Sue. Next meeting is 12/4 from 9am - noon, at the Salvation Army building. We can cover it at the next CPNA Meeting.
Above the Falls Citizen Advisory Committee (AFCAC) Update: Peter went to the last meeting. He brought pictures of the Lowry Bridge designs that people can vote for online. Liz had previously sent a link through the Yahoo mail group for all to vote. Peter reports that, according to the Riverfront Policy Organization (RPO), the people that are below the falls aren’t interested in what’s going on above the falls. There was a fair amount of discussion about whether to keep moving and acquiring land versus holding off and waiting for a year to see if there is more money then. They voted to keep moving. The group plans to put together a letter to Commissioner Stenglein based on Ciara’s letter. In addition the Friends of the Mississippi River, one of the non-profit groups associated with AFCAC, will be throwing a party. It may be a good place to hob-nob.
Mike asks how close they are to deciding about the bridge, where it stands. Liz says we weren’t offered representation on the committee. She will send Mike some information about how to find this out. Peter offers this website: lowryavenuebridge.com . Bridge design pictures are discussed.
Parks: The Park Board are working on their 2008 budget. The “gap” keeps going up, so one of their closing-the-gap solutions is more advertising in the form of corporate partnerships. DeLaSalle has a new Reciprocal Use Agreement.

Donna Gillitzer, an Eastside Parole Officer is here from the probation office on 2632
Central Avenue. It is the only neighborhood office with all three parole/probation services. She specializes in Juveniles. Every time a juvenile in this area is arrested, she is notified by 2PAC. When she sees pattern, she adds that kid to her caseload. She and her fellow officers go to police meetings when they can. She tells about some of their projects. There is the Minneapolis Anti-Violence Initiative (MAVI), started in 1995 as a collaboration between police and probation. They do spot checks on people on probation, once a week in the 2nd precinct. There is the Juvenile Criminal Apprehension Team (JCAT), where they go out looking for juveniles with warrants in order to get them to court. They are making sure that juvenile crime is dealt with because it is getting out of control. She wants us to know, because these are things that they do that the public doesn’t always hear about. She wants us to know that there are initiatives going on to deal with juvenile crime. They know who they are, who their friends are…partly with the help of citizens who call in to report them.
-Mike asks: Do we call you or the police? Donna Gillitzer (DG): If it’s a law issue, call the police.
You can call her afterward, though. She adds that if her clients do community service, they do it in this neighborhood. If we know of any projects/messes, we should let her know since she has a couple of kids that need to serve some hours.
-Liz: Do you get a lot of calls about the house on Spain Place? DG: Yes, we check there often. The violent ones are not currently in the house, but one may be coming back in a couple of months. Liz: What about 37th Avenue….do you talk with Anoka County about what happens along that border? DG: Yes. We don’t hand our kids off to Anoka County, but will often look in on Anoka County kids that commit in Minneapolis. The goal is to turn them around and make them productive members.
-Liz tells of the problems with graffiti at Hi-View park. Should she tell DG about it when it happens? DG: I would like to see the pictures - the tags have a message sometimes and say who they’re going to hit next…I’d like to show them to the gang unit. There are feuding gangs and they can track them with graffiti sometimes.
-Tracy asks if she is familiar with Ricardo G. DG: Oh yes….(random discussion)
Liz wants to make sure the neighborhood knows about her services. DG gives us all her card. We would like to get this information into the next newsletter. DG says people can stop in or call anytime.
-Liz: People are afraid to call 911 because they want to be nice or think that the situation isn’t an “emergency”…it’s nice to have this “lower level” option. DG: Part of our job is to tell people not to leave garages open, etc. in order to protect themselves against crimes of opportunity. Also, we will look into things for people who don’t want to get into a confrontation about, like with neighbors.
Jane McCarney, NECP member and neighbor, and tells of the many juvenile crimes that happen near her part of the neighborhood (brick through window, for example). DG enlightens us on a few crime/gang trends: in Brooklyn Park there has been a thing where tough looking characters are laying in the intersections, intimidating drivers. It is spreading into Minneapolis. The gangs in the area are the Gangster Disciples (GD),


Vatos Locos (VL), and Surenos 13 (S13). A lot of young guys…not shootings and beatings, but more tagging going on around here.
-Mike: What can the neighborhood can do to help get bad people out of the area?
Jane: I’ve worked with Greg Simbeck on problem properties - one way to get rid of bad neighbors is to report that there were too many adults living in the place..also call on truants. (to DG) Are you working with Paul Ostrow on juvenile stuff? DG: No, it’s more day-to-day stuff. We get more done that way.
-Mike: Do you think you are creating effective resistance to this kind of juvenile crime?
DG: We gotta keep a positive attitude. Yes, some have kept on with crime and are in prison, but there are a lot who have gone to college, and are succeeding in life- well over 75-80%.
Miscellaneous discussion about crime/ reformation, hiring ex-cons versus juveniles. DG: A lot of these kids are truly mentally ill. It’s also shocking the kind of homes these kids come out of. It’s not an excuse, but if you take a kid out of an environment, you can hope that there’s hope for change.
-Jane: Are people afraid of calling 911? DG: Police are good about handling anonymity- you can tell them if you’re afraid of revenge. Call, because if a lot of people call about the same thing/people, they can see a pattern. They will be able to identify offenders and get them off the street. You can give my number to people, they can call me too.
Jane asks where we all live. Liz asks Jane about the neighborhood’s NECP walking group. Jane says they are taking a break…she gives us her phone number if we want to call her. The walking group is meeting the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm at the Columbia Grounds coffee shop during the winter, for discussion. Liz: Are you still walking the whole neighborhood, or just part of it? Jane: Mostly on this side (East of University), sometimes on the other side. Liz: It would be good if someone else could identify some of the (problem) kids over west. I could help with names, and other contacts with information.
Discussion about properties: Mike says you can call 311 to find out who owns a property. Jane says you can also find it online. The neighborhood has valid concerns about vacant properties.

Old Business
NE Library Renovation: Mike will be attending a meeting in December and will report on it at the January meeting.
Fall Newsletter: Peter is not happy about the “corrections” page Liz added after the printing. Liz apologizes profusely, and vows not to proofread at 2 a.m. again.
Bonus: Jane offers to help with the newsletter. She is an illustrator/graphic designer.

The rest of the agenda must be tabled until the January meeting. No meeting in December. Motion to adjourn; seconded and all say aye.
Meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.