Edgemoor Neighborhood Association

Annual Membership Meeting

April 2, 2009

Minutes

 

The Annual Membership Meeting of the Edgemoor Neighborhood Association was called to order by Brad Rose, ENA President, at approximately 7:15 p.m.  The meeting was held at Lairmont Manor. Lauri Grove recorded the minutes.  A quorum was present.

 

Guest

Brad elected to begin the evening by turning the floor over to our informative guest speaker, Linda Anderson from Puget Sound Energy.  Linda spoke to the group about various ways to retrofit our homes for energy efficiency and the availability of money saving rebates.  From energy star-qualified water heaters, to energy efficient showerheads to insulation to compact fluorescent lights you will find a list of energy rebates and promotions for your home by visiting the Puget Sound Energy website at www.PSE.com.  Linda also talked about PSE’s voluntary Green Power Program which makes it easy for consumers to support renewable energy projects in the Pacific Northwest.  A few extra dollars a month allows PSE electric customers to purchase clean renewable energy and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. That led into a general discussion about the benefit and availability of solar power and panels.  Larry questioned energy audits as a way to find out if and where a house is ‘leaking’ energy and Linda responded that PSE does charge $95.00 for this service.  Puget Sound Energy’s website is very informative for anyone interested in more details.

 

Election

Since Brad agreed to continue to serve as president, a motion was made by Lylene Johnson to re-elect Brad Rose as ENA President for another term.  The motion was passed.  Lylene Johnson offered to share the secretarial position with Lauri Grove.  A motion was made to elect Lylene and re-elect Lauri Grove as ENA Co-Secretaries for another term. The motion was passed.  A motion was made by John Erickson to elect Martin Nickerson as ENA Growth and Land Use Chair. The motion was passed. Brad asked for a volunteer to take over Pam Went’s position as MNAC Alternate Representative. He suggested this alternate could eventually take over his position as MNAC Representative at term end.  A motion was made and passed to accept Larry Horowitz’s offer to replace Pam in interim as the ENA alternate MNAC representative. (When Brad’s term ends we will need to appoint a permanent replacement.) We still need volunteers to fill board positions for Neighborhood Safety and for Hospitality.  Thank you and welcome to the new members of the ENA Board.

 

The minutes from the March meeting were approved with a change in wording in the President’s Report - Roeder House was changed to Roeder Administration Building.

 

Reports of Officers

President’s Report: Brad reported that the South Neighborhood/ENA Small and Simple Grant was approved and since few were approved that was encouragement to do it well.  Mary Mullen from South Neighborhood would lead the organization of the project.  Edgemoor Neighborhood would be expected to contribute man-hours so we do need volunteers to step up.  Brad mentioned there would be a design charrette in April to work on developing a site plan for the project. He would post the date. Brad continued his report stating that the Urban Infill Toolkit was available for review on the city's website.  He said there were concerns voiced about pending changes to zoning codes and also that this type of Infill housing might be misused - opening the door for rental property.  Brad would post details and meeting dates.  In addition, there were a couple city planning notices.  One request was for moorage of a mobile dry dock vessel to the existing pier in Fairhaven. That dry dock vessel would not be a permanent structure requiring any piling or anchorage. The proposed use of this vessel could bring 80 to 160 jobs into the area.  Finally Brad touched on the meeting planned for the Chuckanut Village Marsh Restoration Project. It seems word got out before the proposed project was fleshed out and ready for public notice.  A meeting was planned for Tuesday, April 7th at Fairhaven Park Pavilion and a second planned for Thursday, April 23 in the Commons at Fairhaven Middle School.

 

MNAC Report: At the March meeting, Marla Gese (Pioneer Human Services) announced a re-entry housing project for offenders returning to Whatcom Co. that would be located on Holly Street.  There were some stipulations to qualify for housing – no sex offenders, arson convictions or violent offenders would be allowed. Brad went on to report that Tim Stewart talked about the Infill Toolkit and Brad offered that Nicole Oliver (Communication Coordinator) would be willing to come to an ENA meeting regarding the toolkit.  The meeting ended with a round table discussion about specifics happening in the various neighborhoods.

 

Treasurer’s Report: Diane reported one disbursement to Lauri Grove for a new coffeepot.

Income – $0

Disbursement - $32.53

Balance - $4030.43

 

Committee Reports

Chuckanut Mountain Park District: Bob Gibb informed the group that due to the economic recession and pending budget cuts Larabee Park was one of several state parks now on the list for possible closure. A park district with funds to help might have been nice…  He also reported that there was a Bill in Legislature to outlaw park districts in several areas.

 

Neighborhood Plan Update:  Martin mentioned a change in area boundaries extending Old Edgemoor to the south.  He would work on it and report back.

 

Representative Reports

AOBN:  A representative from Barbo’s furniture discussed business status in Bellingham and offered that the refurbishing and service industry had not suffered too much.  AOBN continued to search for focus and come up with topics for future discussions.

 

CSN:  The GIS software was now available and Sandie volunteered to become the Edgemoor ‘designated expert’.

 

RDNOW: Joe Yaver reported on the status of the EIS for Fairhaven Highlands.  It is not ready yet and they are waiting for material from the applicant’s attorney.  Joe expressed irritation that the lawyer’s filter the findings and RD is on record opposing this process.

 

Business, Issues and Concerns

Larry Horowitz reported a change in the classification of some of the wetlands on the Chuckanut Ridge site. Several of the wetlands were rerated to Category 1 and that new classification would increase the minimum required buffers. Larry announced this was an important victory and speculated that it would be unlikely vesting would hold up.

 

Closing

Meeting was adjourned at 9:15

The next meeting scheduled will be the Edgemoor Board Meeting to be held from 7-9 p.m. on May 7th at Fairhaven Park Pavilion.  All residents are welcome to attend.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Lauri Grove

 

 

Minutes are subject to approval.