Edgemoor Neighborhood Association

Monthly Meeting

November 3, 2011

Minutes

 

The ENA monthly meeting was called to order at approximately 7:02 pm on Thursday, November 3rd by President Lylene Johnson.  Lauri Grove recorded the minutes. There was a quorum of the Board.

 

ENA welcomed several students from the Human Services Program at Western Washington University who asked to sit in on our neighborhood meeting while they are learning about Non-profit Organizations.

 

The minutes from the September meeting were approved as submitted. 

 

Treasurer's Report: (Diane MacLean)

Diane received a check from the city for reimbursement of expenses incurred in the last year. She asked about the CSN fees for our portion of the expenses for the Candidate Forum held in October.  Lylene will turn that in to Diane as soon as she gets an amount. The new balance is $3096.06. A detailed report is on file.

 

Guest Speaker:

Emily Kubiak represented Sustainable Connection, a countywide non-profit membership organization that’s increasing awareness about the personal, community and economic benefits of choosing local, independently owned businesses first.  The organization also promotes healthy living by encouraging the community to adopt sustainable practices and energy savings. She focused on the residential aspects of the program as a 1-stop-shop offering energy saving tips on weatherization, solar panels, discounts, incentives, and tech support.  Sustainable Connections will come out to your home to measure airflow, insulation, water efficiency - a reasonably priced customized diagnostic audit of the house.  Interesting…

 

MNAC:  (John Erickson)

John highlighted the bright spots of last month’s meeting

·        MyDowntown@COB.org  posted a survey to get input from the community and offer opportunities to share ideas. There were 1600 responses to the survey and the results will be posted on the website.

·        The Bellingham airport has been expanding to accommodate 757 class planes. 

·        The Padden Trail “Kerfunkle”.  MNAC was requested to take action and make a recommendation to the Planning Commission regarding the Padden Trails project. Some thought information should have been circulated in advance so members could have been more prepared to vote. They also wanted a separate vote tallied for each individual neighborhood. MNAC opposed the rezone for multi-family development in that area of Samish Neighborhood.

·        John volunteered and was approved for a second term as MNAC Representative.

 

A Motion was made to elect John Erickson for a second term as MNAC representative for ENA.

The motion passed unanimously

 

President’s Report: (Lylene Johnson)

CSN hosted a successful Candidate Forum in October at the Firehouse Performing Art Center. John did a very good job as moderator for the event.  We will be hosting a presentation at Fairhaven Middle School on Dec 1st at 7pm with Representatives from SSA, the developers of the coal terminal, presenting information about the project and taking questions. John will once again act a moderator. There was a general discussion of how to best handle the Q and A portion of the evening. 

 

As an introduction to her new position as President of ENA, Lylene met with Linda Stewart. She recognized that we need to amend some of our bylaws to better suit the organization. MNAC will host a session on bylaws in January that might prove helpful. In the mean time, Linda offered a sample of recently amended neighborhood bylaws for review.  The Bylaw Committee plans to meet in November to begin the amendment process.

 

Questions were raised about adding items to the neighborhood plan concerning train traffic, the Lagoon and the trail link.  It was agreed that the increasing level of train traffic and noise should be mentioned in the update, but Lagoon concerns really should have been brought up earlier in the planning process. Lylene reiterated that we should and could get started on some of the action items in the plan. If items are important then we can work to get them done. Lidia, together with the Fairhaven Middle School PTA, gathered signatures that resulted in the installation of a light at the intersection outside the school. If sidewalks (for example) are important then we should follow her lead, form a committee, get signatures, and begin to take action.

   

Closing

The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 to allow time to mingle and enjoy refreshments.

The next Edgemoor Neighborhood Meeting will be a presentation from SSA held on Thursday, December 1st from 7-9pm at the Fairhaven Middle School. Check the blog for the agenda and additional information. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Lauri Grove

 

 

(Minutes are subject to approval)