MINUTES
FREMONT NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL ANNUAL MEETING
May 19, 2003
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: April Thanos, Alan Younker, Dic Selin, Jenny Eichwald, Benjamin Grossman, John Ryan, George Heideman, Julie DeBroux, Vafa Ghazi, Chip Nevins, Pete Hanning
Minutes approved for 4/28/03 as amended.
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS – Fliers for Judy Nicastro were handed out. She is living in the neighborhood, but it was pointed out she hadn’t joined FNC yet.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Benjamin prepared a complete picture of our finances (which are included in the record) and advised we have lots of money. He was commended for doing such a great job.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
LAND USE – none
GUERILLA GARDENING – The next event will be in the fall. Turnout has been smaller than hoped and Julie is looking for ideas to attract more people and area to target next time. We will try to arrange the dates with when the newsletter is issued to get more publicity.
COMMUNITY CENTER – It is in our neighborhood plan to be where the Powerhouse is next to BF Day, but there has been no action on it.
OPEN-SPACE – Fremont Park will be started in late summer. Chip meets with the city every couple of weeks. He will ask them to bring final plans to an FNC meeting. The Fremont Peak Park is the midst of design development – the next meeting is June 17th at BF Day at 7pm.
COMMUNICATONS – There was a postcard announcement of the Annual Meeting. Alan needs articles for the next issue, which will be in August. We should make sure he is aware of all events to make sure the newsletter date ties into the events.
BICYCLE ROUTES – The Bicycle Alliance of WA made a map of Fremont for walking. John would like help to make more bike lanes and he is working on getting the bike lane up Fremont Ave.
TRANSPORTATION – none – we need someone to head this committee
AFFORDABLE HOUSING – We are to bring our project to the City Council Committee, June 25th and then it will go before the entire Council, who usually follow the committee’s recommendations.
PUBLIC SAFETY – Pete went to the North Precinct advisory council meeting representing FNC and the Chamber. There were 40 people from various neighborhoods. They are looking for people to be on the support teams for domestic violence – to assist victims after the police have left. They get police training and go in pairs. He had a brochure about it and emergency preparedness.
ZOO – They are still planning a parking garage on 50th, but it hasn’t been a major topic so far. They are considering making the main entrance be on the north side.
MEMBERSHIP – We currently have 60 members.
OLD BUSINESS:
LUDC – Judy Nicastro visited the meeting. Pete brought up bike lanes, traffic problems, the light at 36th & Evanston and the Fremont Bridge approach work. Next meeting is June 2nd.
Fremont Works – Discussed traffic calming along 36th. They will probably propose a traffic circle in front of the Baptist church parking lot. They discussed a traffic median at 36th and Fremont, but it might be a problem for fire truck and truck going into the parking areas for the corner buildings. May be able to do something at the Troll. They will look at double sided parking on Linden to slow traffic and add needed parking.
We also discussed funding the traffic plans for Bridge Way. It is part of a hazard elimination project, could get a TIB grant, Metro Match, some from QFC and mitigation money from the Fremont Bridge approach project. They still might need federal money to do all that is necessary to make it efficient and safe.
NEW BUSINESS:
Fremont Map Project – Benjamin bought nice maps of Fremont from the city so we will have them as a reference at meetings. They cost $135 and it was approved to pay him back for the expense. He also passed out maps for us all to draw something personal about Fremont – he was at meeting where this was done in another city and it was very interesting what people felt was important about their neighborhood.
Election of Board and Officers – The slate as proposed were elected and all current board members were elected again. Cornelius Bader was added as a new board member.
President – Benjamin Grossman
Vice-President – George Heideman
Treasurer – April Thanos
Secretary – Norma Jones
OPEN DISCUSSION:
Pete Hanning suggested we invite the Chamber president and the Arts Commission president to some meetings.
We need to spend some money as some of it has time limits – plus we need to start doing more.
The bus stop, which was on Fremont by the Red Door, has been moved to the Fremont Bridge approach during construction of Block 40. The city was thinking of keeping it there, but it is a real problem for bikers, so it was moved and passed that John & Chip should write a letter about it to the city.
It was moved and passed to spend up to $200 on accounting software for the new treasurer.
Meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm.