Edgemoor Neighborhood Association

Monthly Business Meeting

July 6, 2006

Minutes

 

The Monthly Business Meeting of Edgemoor Neighborhood Association was called to order by Brien Thane at 7:15 on June 1st at the Fairhaven Park Pavilion.  Lauri Grove recorded the minutes.  We did not have a quorum present.

 

The minutes from the June meeting were approved with corrections made to the CSN report.

 

Report of Officers

President:: Brien Thane recapped the ‘1988-89 Agreements’ introduced at a previous ENA meeting (a copy of these Agreements can be found on the Fairhaven Neighbors website).  About 2 weeks ago he attended a meeting, regarding these Agreements, that also included Sue Kahn, Steve Wilson and Joan Beardsley.  Through her research, Sue found old zoning maps that indicated zoning areas were different back in 1988/89.  So what was considered to only pertain to the area adjacent to the Ferry Terminal - in fact also included the present Fairhaven Harbor site.  She also uncovered dates that implicated the ‘public’ hearings concerning height restrictions happened before the agreement to consider the ordinances and therefore in violation of the required process.   Sue Kahn found documents that the city staff weren’t aware existed.  We commend her for her work.

 

v  To date, hearings were held in regard to the Fairhaven Harbor appeals.  At the time of the meeting, the Hearing Examiner had not yet made a decision.

 

Treasurer: Lois Miles announced that the IRS was finally satisfied with the paperwork she submitted and we are about to officially become a 501c3 organization.  In addition she mentioned that Veronica ordered more ‘Drive 25’ signs that will be available for purchase.

 

Disbursements –  $88

Income -

Closing Balance - $2313.42

 

MNAC Representative: Brad Rose was not able to attend the meeting, but did send a reminder to read the current Just So You Are Aware newsletter.

 

Committee Reports

Communication: Kathy Kaiser noted that the summer newsletters have been rather brief due to lack of time and news.  The communication committee would like the neighborhood to become more involved by sending articles of interest, pictures, and community news.  Dr Gibb offered a couple articles about the potential Park District for the newsletter.

 

Hospitality: – No report.  After a general discussion, it was decided to have a summer social in place of the general meeting this August 3rd.  Same time, same place as our ENA meetings.  An announcement would be sent out to the membership. 

 

Growth and Land Use: Brad was not able to attend, but did send the following e-mail –

 

This year's Tour-De-Fairhaven will be held on Thursday July 20 at 7:00. We'll meet at the Village Green and then proceed to walk the town stopping at all potential, ongoing, and recently completed development projects in Fairhaven - plus a comparison of last year's situation should prove interesting. The tour will take around 2 hours. Last year a great time was had by all and hopefully we can get more people together this year.....the event is rain or shine (Unless it is really nasty) so dress for the weather and for walking. I'll send around an official notice later.”  The event was actually held on Wednesday, July 19th.

 

Membership:  - No report

 

Neighborhood Safety: - No report – just a reminder that more ‘Drive 25’ signs were ordered.

 

Neighborhood Plan Update –  No report

 

Representative Reports

Coalition of Southside Neighborhoods – Pam reported that CSN had decided to cancel the July and August meetings due to lack of summer attendance and travel schedules. The presentations this year–to-date had been very good.  The Coalition was determining how to proceed with speakers this Fall and were considering a move to quarterly meetings.  A suggestion was made to have CSN take over and combine quarterly meetings for all the neighborhoods.  Individual neighborhoods could rotate responsibility for arranging speakers.  This could increase attendance, stop duplication of speakers for individual neighborhoods, and allow neighbors to meet.  

 

Association of Bellingham NeighborhoodsWe are still soliciting a volunteer to represent ENA at the ABN meetings.  Meetings are held on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 7pm.  Please contact any officer if interested. Thank you.

 

Business

The on-going discussion about how to handle Internet voting was continued.  Brien did some research in an attempt to find out what other organizations have instituted for voting.  He e-mailed his findings to the Board for discussion prior to the meeting.  A couple questions were brought up concerning how to define ‘business’ and how to proceed to change ENA Bylaws.  It was decided that Brien would draft up an amendment to the Bylaws to allow for Internet voting.  The Board would review the draft at the September meeting to be voted on at the following meeting In accordance with Bylaw #9.

 

Earlier in the meeting, the Edgemoor neighborhood updated plan was questioned.  Following a brief general discussion, it was determined to be in our best interest to get that done soon.  Hosting another ‘Vision of Edgemoor’ meeting to aid in the updating process was considered as a possibility.  Brien offered to contact Brad to find out if and when he could facilitate such a meeting. 

 

Issues and Concerns

Edgemoor neighbors, Rob and Barbara Howard, brought to our attention a rental problem existing on Bayside Road.  Surrounding residents were concerned that college students living in the area were doing so in violation of the single-family zoning ordinances for Edgemoor neighborhood.  They had been working since February to get the city to take action.  They brought us up to date on their proceedings with the city (petitions, pictures, and documentation) and asked for help.  It was agreed to send an informative letter to the membership and offer a means for all concerned to comment. That sparked a discussion about a potential meeting presentation to address rental issues and how to deal with the problems.

 

Dr. Gibb asked ENA to consider forming an ad hoc committee to deal with the Chuckanut Mountains Park District.  A member of that ENA steering committee would then become part of the advisory committee once the park district was formed.  Dr. Gibb offered to head the committee to get it off the ground.  Anyone interested in more information about the committee or the park district should contact Dr. Gibb for details.     

 

Closing

Meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm.

 

The next meeting scheduled would be an Edgemoor Summer Social to be held on August 3rd from 7-9pm at Fairhaven Park Pavilion - same place, same time as monthly ENA meetings!  All Edgemoor residents are invited and welcome to attend.  ENA will provide refreshments and plan a book exchange.  Hope to see you there.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Lauri Grove