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