Edgemoor Neighborhood Association

Monthly Board Meeting

January 3, 2013

 

 

ENA President, Lylene Johnson called the meeting to order at 6:59pm on Thursday, January 3rd. 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 December Meeting were approved as submitted.

The agenda was approved with no additional items

 

Treasurers Report: (Diane MacLean)

      Diane reported there was no change to the account balance - $2782.61. She made arrangements for a minimal activity online account at People’s Bank so officers can log on and print out a statement in her absence.

 

There was a round of introductions before Lylene turned the floor over to the guest speaker.

 

Guest Speaker: (Shannon Wright)

     Shannon Wright represented Communitywise Bellingham, a nonprofit outreach group established 2yrs ago in response to the proposed coal terminal. She stated their aim is to research and disseminate factual information (good and bad) with a focus on identifying local community impacts. We are now in the last couple weeks of the scoping process and it is important to study all aspects of this huge project to adequately address any environmental issues – we discussed some of these concerns specific to our neighborhood. Shannon offered that there will be 10-14 additional trains a day in and out of Bellingham and about 16-18 will be filled with coal. One way to deal with this increased traffic and potential bottleneck would be to extend the existing South Bellingham siding along the waterfront most likely eliminating parking and car access to Boulevard Park which is on railroad property. Would the city need to build a pedestrian overpass and a parking lot? How will it affect local businesses? Will it impact our property values, decrease our waterfront? How is it determined which comments end up in the study? Would there be an increase in revenue (yes for the county)?  Shannon was very interesting and knowledgeable.  She suggested going to the website for more details - www.communitywisebellingham.org

 

     Christopher Grannis attended the meeting representing the Chuckanut Community Forest District. He asked for volunteers to knock on doors and get the word out to vote for the proposed park district. There would be a send off gathering at the Firehouse in January sponsored by RD Now. ENA would spread the word through NextDoor Edgemoor and a post on the blog. Also donations would be helpful and can be done through PayPal on the website - www.chuckanutcommunityforest.com   

 

MNAC: (John Erickson)

     John reported that a lot was covered at the last Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission meeting.

     1) There was a House to Home Network presentation from Abby Lund (Whatcom Volunteers Center).  House to Home gets furniture to homeless people who have recently received housing. Need the basics in good condition. Delivery volunteers will pick up from donors since there is no way to warehouse furniture.

     2)  Janis Keller provided an overview of the city website and navigation instructions. She would be willing to come to a meeting to give us a tutorial and it was agreed to set that up.

     3)  The Infill toolkit was reviewed to see why it isn’t being used. There was a discussion about ways to increase infill and very possibly expand its application into single family neighborhoods. It was suggested we invite a speaker to discuss infill toolkit housing at a future meeting.

 

Business and issues:

     Speeding in Edgemoor – John did not have any new information.  He did suggest we work with Fairhaven Middle School PTA to give us more power behind our request for sidewalks in the neighborhood. They were instrumental in getting the traffic light by the school and may have suggestions to help us.

    

     Neighborhood Cleanup – Sandie was contacted by a neighbor suggesting the neighborhood get involved with cleanup of abandoned homeless camps along the railroad tracks.  Jim Koplowitz agreed to take over the matter.

 

     Caretakers House – A motion was made to donate $500.00 to the Center for Self Reliance for renovations to the Caretakers House on the property.

The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

 

     Trains – There were objections to the proposed proclamation made by the South Hill Neighborhood requesting the city to fund a complete diagnostic analysis of the Bellingham rail corridor.   After careful consideration it was decided not to support the request since that might take SSA off the hook to do such a study as part of the scoping process.

 

     Gateway Pacific Terminal – ENA would be submitting a scoping request written by Shannon Wright. The letter would be posted on the blog and circulated to the Board for approval.

 

     Closing:

     The meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm

     The next monthly meeting will be held on February 7th in the Library at Fairhaven Middle School. 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Lauri Grove    

 

Minutes are subject to approval