Edgemoor Neighborhood Association

Monthly Board Meeting

October 4, 2012

ENA President, Lylene Johnson called the meeting to order at 7:00pm on October 4^th. The meeting was held in the Library at Fairhaven Middle School. Lauri Grove recorded the minutes. There was a quorum of the board.

Motion: The minutes for the September Annual Meeting were approved as submitted.

The agenda was approved with no additional items

Treasurers Report: (Diane MacLean)

No report. Diane was not in attendance.

Introductions: Quinn Welsh, a guest from WWU was welcomed to the meeting. He was in attendance to take notes for a writing assignment for his journalism class at Western.

MNAC: (John Erickson)

A proposal to ban fireworks in Bellingham was discussed and it was concluded that the ban put in place for safety in the community would be hard to enforce. If fireworks can be heard, seen and the perpetrators caught by the police they are illegal and the ban enforceable.

The role of MNAC is going to be changing. The mayor thought it was not a good idea to continue the practice of reviewing neighborhood plan updates or providing input on proposed developments. The committee was not made up of experts prepared to make such decisions and meetings became contentious. The MNAC charter would need to change to reflect this more generalized role. The committee will continue to be a forum for input, interaction and communication between city administration and the neighborhoods.

Old Business:

Views – Simon was not available to report

Speakers – Lylene suggested Geoff Middaugh, a retired forester to talk to us about ‘the right tree for the right place’. Other suggestions were made that might prove interesting for future meetings.

Traffic – John talked with Steve Hogan about the possibility of lowering the short span of 35mph speed limit on Chuckanut to a more consistent 25mph speed. Basically that would not be happening unless there a rash of accidents to support the need for a change.

Sidewalks - As for pedestrian safety, John discovered there are two areas high on the city’s list for consideration for sidewalks (however that doesn’t mean it will happen anytime soon). The two areas listed are from the west side of Hawthorn to 12^th Street and the west side of Chuckanut to Willow. If there is enough interest in the neighborhood we could consider forming an LID to fund and mitigate the cost of sidewalks or form a task group.

Speed – Lylene spoke with Jackie Lynch about ways to slow traffic in the neighborhood. For example, planting bushes near the road will narrow the feel of the street resulting in lower speed. There was a general discussion about speed and safety. Lylene asked John to dig into the possibility of speed bumps or a temporary ‘speed marker’ to indicate speed of passing cars as a reminder to slow down.

Neighborhood Plan - Lylene set up a meeting with planning department. Our neighborhood is entitled to 5 hours of help with updates to the neighborhood plan. Since the updated plan we turned into the city for docketing approval was denied, we want some direction to help determine whether it is worthwhile to make changes or continue working on it at this time.

New Business:

NextDoor Edgemoor Guidelines for use - NextDoor Edgemoor is growing and becoming a great venue for communication within the neighborhood. It is a fun free-flowing exchange of information and conversation – and we all want it to remain that way. There was a general discussion about how to best handle inappropriate posts and whether guidelines should be included on NextDoor Edgemoor. Also we talked about whether or not to add ENA information to the site. Most agreed that we would like Nextdoor Edgemoor to remain a social media separate from the ENA website and blog. However posting a link to the newsletter would be a nice way to remind neighbors that might not receive emails about upcoming meetings and interesting community information. It would also be nice to have someone in charge of various “features” – regular notices or happenings within the neighborhood… In conclusion, we decided to incorporate the basic guidelines taken off the NextDoor site and continue to enjoy a friendly conversation.

City issues:

The Gateway Pacific scoping process has started and there are groups sponsoring meetings to help anyone interested in formulating effective comments.

The necessary signatures were gathered to get the Chuckanut Community Forest Park District on the ballot.

Closing:

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50

The next monthly meeting will be held on November 1^st in the Library at Fairhaven Middle School.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lauri Grove

Minutes are subject to approval