GANA Meeting Minutes

GANA meeting report 10/30/05

4:00 p.m. October 30, 2005, at the 3rd St. Bakehouse

Attending
Nathan Harmon, Maggie Jesseph, Georgia Schaich, Jelene Campbell, Julia Jackson, Millie Jackson, Sylvia van Bruggen, Ann Kreilkamp

Agenda

• Quiet Nights
• Sudden House Tear Down
• Speaker Series
• Surveys
• Looking Ahead

Summary
We planned for a Speaker Series, to begin in January; we were upset by the sudden house tear down at the end of 7th street; we discussed possible events for next year; and we agreed to get the neighborhood surveys out, NOW!

The Process
First, GANA treated everyone to drinks, and so the one primary impression of this meeting for me was all the whipped cream slurping. Meanwhile, Georgia reported on the effort made by students from the IUSA (Indiana University Student Association) to get Quiet Nights flyers on doorknobs of Green Acres houses, with limited success. (They had hoped for eight or ten volunteers but only two or three showed up on the evening of September 8.)

Millie and Nathan both came with news that they had witnessed the demolition of a house at the end of 7th Street next to the Bypass. According to signs plastered in front of it beforehand, the house had been “purchased by the state of Indiana in cooperation with the federal government.” Millie and Nathan were both astonished at how the house was torn down and carted away with no regard to recycling or sustainability, presumably to prepare years in advance for the widening of the Bypass which, due to peak oil, may never be built! Both are writing letters to the editor about this. Watch for them in the H-T sometime later this week.

Most of the meeting focused on the upcoming monthly Speaker Series. We decided that, except for an evening when we would ask the police and fire departments to give us a talk on neighborhood safety, we would pull all our speakers from with the Green Acres Neighborhood, with the intention to underscore the purpose and value of the soon-to-be-delivered surveys that hopefully will document the many and diverse talents and capacities of those who live here. Lots of names came to mind of people that might be interested and interesting to others, including someone who knows Feng Shui, a master gardener, a permaculturists and natural building person, a person to talk on wellness, one who could talk about non-violent communication, another who knows astrology, etc. etc. Please, if you would like to be a speaker, or if you know someone from whom you think the neighborhood might benefit from their knowledge and/or experience, please email me and we’ll add them to the list. We aim to start the Speaker Series in January, hopefully at the Baptist Church on 3rd St., and invite attendance from the greater Bloomington area.

Finally, Georgia listed events that we have sponsored in the past or that we have wanted to sponsor, so that we can be thinking about them in advance. They include: PlantShare (in April), Clean-Up (in Spring), a Neighborhood Festival (in September, timed to greet new and returning students), and a Small and Simple Grant for a neighborhood project (proposal due in June) — for example, how about a sidewalk on the north side of 3rd St. between Hillsdale and Overhill? Moreover, we agreed that within this next year we need to put out more information about the neighborhood, both to help us network with each other and for those who might consider purchasing a house with the intent to live in it. Such projects include the website, a banner, and a brochure. If you have the skills and wish to help us with any of these informational efforts, please email me. Thanks!

Finally, four or five of those attending agreed to meet on Thursday, November 3 at Georgia’s house at 1:30 p.m. to do final collation of the surveys with neighborhood emergency preparedness kits and loop them on the doorknobs of all neighborhood houses within a few days after that. So, when you get your survey, please do fill it in and get it back to us. That way we can collect the information and let you know who else you are enjoying this good life with in our Green Acres neighborhood.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ann Kreilkamp
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GANA Meeting Minutes

4:00 p.m. October 18, 2005, at 3rd St. Bakehouse

Attending
Alex Schneider, Nathan Harman, Maggie Jesseph, Jelene Campbell, Adam Lowe, Georgia Schaich

Agenda

• Small and Simple Grant ideas
• CERT
• IU Parking Lots
• Neighborhood Street Lighting

The Process
After settling into our corner of the restaurant with drinks and personal introductions for those who had not met before, we threw out ideas for a Small and Simple Grant. (These grants, all under $1000, are given out three times each year by HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development), a Bloomington city department. Ideas included the following: using the website as a tool for communication within the neighborhood, a Neighborhood Festival with a music theme to attract others into Green Acres, developing a strong corps of block captains to represent their neighbors at GANA executive meetings, and creating kiosks on strategic corners to be used as neighborhood communication boards. The grants are due in February, April and June, and if funds are awarded, then projects must be completed in August, September and November.

Green Acres has been asked to start a Neighborhood CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) by Mark Brostoff, chairperson of the Monroe County Citizen Corps Council. It is a program that trains people in neighborhoods, the workplace, and schools for basic disaster response skills. For example, CERTs are trained in the following areas: Fire Suppression, Urban Search and Rescue, Medical Operations, and Emergency Preparedness. To have our own CERT we would need to train between 10 and 15 people. We could work together to set the training dates. Check out the Monroe County Citizens Corps website at http://cgi.hoosier.net/~mccc/cgi-bin/main.php. There is a section on CERT. Adam Lowe and Nathan Harman expressed interest.

A discussion followed that revolved around the news and rumors about IU planning to build parking lots close to Elm Heights and Green Acres with major construction in 2006 through 2007. Those at the meeting wanted more information. Nathan expressed an interest in starting a committee that could follow up on this neighborhood concern by expressing our feelings to the IU Trustees in letter form or in person at a scheduled meeting.

As a follow-up Georgia reported facts on her walk with Lois Sabo-Skelton through the neighborhood on the evening of September 11 to survey where additional lighting might be useful — including five streetlights that are out and haven’t been replaced! A discussion evolved that included the following comments, pro and con: lots of cars from college students coming and going in high pedestrian areas; high lights throw more light but this not always desirable to those living in homes near them; better lighting would make the area safer for bikers, walkers, children, students, the elderly — everyone; pedestrians could be mugged, hit by a car, not see obstacles; GANA should promote a bike and walking path through the neighborhood; our city needs to explore solar lighting and the use of timers on streetlights during times when lights not needed; streetlights add to heat and light bubble around our city.

I will pass this information along to Tim Mayer who will involve our neighborhood in the next step of deciding what funds are available to improve dark areas of our neighborhood.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m.

Georgia Schaich
Interim scribe

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