GANA Meeting Minutes

GANA (Green Acres Neighborhood Association) Meeting
4:00 PM, 2/2705
Eastside Bakehouse (on 3rd Street)

Attending
Georgia Schaich, Julia Jackson, Halley Walsh, Marion Hoffa, Jelene Campbell, Nathan Harman, Marian Shaaban, Diane Dormant, Ann Kreilkamp

Agenda

• Late night parties
• Spring GANA Yard Sale and Plant Swap
• New GANA website
• Walk the Neighborhod event
• City Repair projects

Summary
A great meeting with ideas flying thick and fast and people who volunteered for duty almost as fast. We discussed all planned agenda items plus one more: how to respond to the noise and disruption of late night student parties. We set a date for Spring Garage Sale and Plant Swap and a tentative location. We learned about what's to be included in our new website. We set possible dates for the upcoming Walk the Neighborhood event and mentioned possible topics for the mayor that afternoon. Finally, we talked about two City Repair projects, one completed, one for the near future.

The Process
We were thrilled to have nine people present, including two we haven't seen before, Nathan and Diane, both of whom brim with enthusiasm. We decided to keep our monthly gatherings on Sunday afternoons at the Eastside Bakehouse. Next meeting: April 3, 4 pm.

Late Night Student Parties was our first topic. Legal "quiet time" is set for 10 pm (or is it 9 pm?), but many loud parties start later than that and go on until 2 or 3 am. Green Acres streets are narrow, and some are posted no parking, and yet many times extra cars are parked up and down the streets. Plus, in the morning, we sometimes discover tire tracks on our lawns, plus beer bottles and other litter.

This topic arose because one man had asked the neighborhood association to get the police to enforce the laws. There seem to be three obvious ways to respond to this fact of testosterone-driven student life 1) call the police, call the landlord, 2) call the students involved. All present agreed that we want to encourage lines of communication with student renters, rather than sponsor draconian measures that institute an us/them mentality. For example, we might hold a neighborhood music evening for student musicians, or we might bring cookies to students living next door. Plus, anyone wanting to have a party can call the police to tell them how many cars they expect. Or, they can tell their guests to park across 3rd street in the old Chi-Chi parking lot and walk.

Spring Garage Sale and Plant Swap we set for April 23, with April 30th as back up, in case of rain. We tentatively plant to hold it in three different locations on Overhill Drive, reflecting three different activities 1) yard sale, plant swap, and a place for kids activities that includes a table where neighbors can gather and collate their own safety packet for a household disaster plan. Those present at this meeting agreed to be the committee for on the event.

Nathan, Diane, Jelene and Kadhim Shaaban agreed to organize the plant exchange, with the caveat that we need inform ourselves about invasive species, so that our plant exchange doesn't unknowingly spread them around the neighborhood.

Walk the Neighborhood is set for Saturday afternoon, either March 20 or April 3. Join us with the Mayor and other city officials as we walk our neighborhood and discuss improvements to Green Acres that we would like to see the city make. Though Diane's bad knees prevent her from joining us, she volunteered to host a refreshment break at her home half-way through the walk.

The GANA website is under construction as a IU Library Grad School project that Julia organized. Pages currently planned for the website: a History of Green Acres, a Calendar of Events, a Survey of Residents, Photos from the Neighborhood, a Bulletin Board, Kids Corner, a Household of the Month feature, a section where residents can create their own Profiles, and a For Sale/For Rent page. Halley passed around a GANA logo that she designed. For the history page, Nathan agreed to interview Stan Routon, a long-term resident. And, to help foster neighborhood cohesiveness and solidarity, we decided to also include on that page interviews with newly arrived residents, both students and young couples and families. Ann will interview students living near her, and Georgia a young couple near her.

City Repair Projects Ever since the Portland founder of City Repair Project presented in Bloomington, GANA members been have been dreaming up ideas to encourage community-building in Green Acres. Georgia did the first project, installing a map of Green Acres outside her house for a few days that showed properties the city currently lists as registered rentals. Through this email list Georgia invited neighbors to stop by and check out the map, and to note properties near them now for sale and/or functioning as unregistered rentals. Five people responded in writing, and a number of others stopped by to look.

The next project is to design and build a few benches for people who walk the neighborhood so that they may stop and rest or chat. These will be placed at the edge of yards and face the street of owners who agree to them. Nathan, who has experience and training with cob, will show photos and present designs for us at the next monthly meeting.

Nathan also agreed to coordinate a Green Acres team that will train as a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) with the Monroe Citizens Corps Council that was established in the wake of 9/11 and receives monies from the Homeland Security Office.

Remember, next meeting April 3, 4 pm, Eastside Bakehouse. I will also
send a reminder.

Ann Kreilkamp
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Original post by Melody