Flowers of Marengo

Mtg Minutes 11/28/99

November 1999 Meeting Minutes

Flowers of Marengo

Minutes

November 28, 1999 Sunday @ 2 PM

Attending: Rob Wittry, Judith Saunders, Margaret Baxter, , Francis Friedman, Inez Ysla, Clara Johnson, Jean Williams, Jeffry Field, Ron Crockett, Roda Clark.

Minutes:

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1) Old Business.

a) Donation Basket/Voluntary Dues, Tax ID. Judith explained that voluntary dues follow the calendar year, so everyone will owe dues in January. Judith will try to complete the tax exempt forms before the next meeting.

b) Pasadena Beautiful Event. Trees were planted around the perimeter of Washington Middle Schools as well as on the school grounds. Fewer volunteers showed up than expected.

c) Woodbury Traffic Lighting. We are trying to have the traffic signals coordinated so that fewer cars will be tempted to use Marengo and will be enticed to use the larger feeder streets. The person Robert was working with left, and the replacement person has not called Robert back.

d) Street Cleaning/School Clean-up.

i) We continue to clean Marengo sidewalk along the border of Washington Middle School the first Saturday of each month (8 AM @ Marengo & Penn).

ii) Margaret will call Bobby Carter to have the Grandview men clean both sides of Marengo on Friday down to Penn.

iii) Soccer cleanup/parking/toilets. PUSD is renewing the soccer league's contract only on a month to month basis until more of the problems for the neighborhood are resolved, but requested improvements seemed to have stalled. Robert spoke again with the PUSD purchasing agent. We may need to consider other action.

e) Neighborhood Revitalization meeting report and progress. Robert distributed a list of the topics identified as concerns by people attending the meeting and the scored list that he received from Milly, along with the weighted scores that Robert calculated. Judith explained the procedure used at the meeting to generate topics and scores. People attending the meeting seemed confused about the scoring procedure and the process was further confused by clumping neighborhood strengths and problems together in the same scoring system. We encouraged Robert to have the leadership group connect related items on the list instead of considering them individually and to first separate the strengths from the problems. A strength of the meeting was having several city departments represented. A concern of the meeting were the trite, standard responses the city employees gave to neighbors who raised concerns, rather than any attempt to address the concerns with a fresh, problem solving approach. The leadership group needs to add a Spanish speaking representative to ensure all residents have a voice in the planning.

f) Status of ca/possum trap purchase: Deferred.

g) Illegal Dumping.

2) New Business.

a) Neighborhood Strengthening Project Meetings.

i) Robert attended the meeting. At the Fair Oaks Specific Plan Mtg, a group has proposed to develope housing for low-income seniors. The area's zoning allows for 20-24 units to be built, whereas the proposed development calls for more than 60 units. Our discussion did not support building a project at that density level. We have questioned both the value to the community and the type of unit that would provide the senior.

b) Treasurer Report.

i) Balance carried over after expenses of party 388.60

ii) Expenses 26.98

iii) New Balance for November 361.62

c) Awards for Beautiful Yards

i) Margaret identified several houses on her route where the yards have been really improved. We need to develop some guidelines for assigning the award. With the expanded boundaries, Sarah probably needs more help so the whole area can be considered.

d) Neighborhood Christmas Decorations

(1) We agreed to decorate each intersection within the boundaries of our association.

(2) We asked Margaret to do the purchasing, and to buy ribbon or tinsel and bows. Candy canes tend to get stolen, were scarce and may be too expensive.

(3) Inez will donate Christmas stationery and Judith will print on them so that neighbors know the decorations were provided by Flowers of Marengo.

(4) We will decorate Saturday after cleaning the school

(5) People volunteered to call members to ask them to come and help decorate, and to bring tape, staples, etc.

e) Goals for 2000-2001

i) Time didn't allow us to consider all the potential goals on Robert's list. We also are very interested in goals and activities that are covered in the Area Revitalization Plan, but aren't repeating those as our goals. The goals identified as having priority are (not in any particular order of importance):

(1) Disaster Planning for the Neighborhood

(2) Traffic (Speed, Volume, Enforcement)

(3) Recycling

(4) Continuing problems associated with school/soccer

(a) Traffic

(b) Adequate toilets

(c) Traffic

(d) Trash

(e) Extra burden on school for clean-up

(5) Coordinating Traffic with County

(6) Partnering with City to apply for CDBG grant for street lighting. Robert and Inez will work on this.

(7) Developing a Welcome Packet (Inez agreed to be Project Leader for this)

(8) Continue involvement in Fair Oaks Specific Plan

(9) Annual Party

(10) Parkway landscaping on Marengo @ Washington Middle School

(11) Fundraising

f) Developing Planning for Goals

i) Judith will develop project planning form to help with organization of goal accomplishment.

g) Next Meeting December 26, 1999 @ Judith Saunders' house. Holiday Social.

Respectfully submitted

Judith M. Saunders