LPNA Board Meeting Minutes – 4/17/2024

Posted on Posted onBy Greg Roggeman

Lindenwood Park Neighborhood Association

Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at Epiphany Catholic Church

 

Present: Pat Acquisto, Sara Davis, John Harris, Carol Hofer, Brian Kolde, Milton Murry, Tim Nowell, Greg Roggeman, Lisa Roggeman, Adam Rustige, Jenna Stout, Greg Todd

Apologies: Bret Narayan, Emily Yale

Guest: Greg Heaney

The Board welcomed guest speaker Greg Heaney, local resident and member of the Sour Soda band, at the April meeting. Heaney presented a proposal to perform a music-making event for children in the Park’s gazebo. He expressed an interest in both promotional and funding support from the LPNA. Board members discussed Sour Soda (Heaney’s band) as a potential LinFest children’s activity. At the end of the meeting, the Board voted to contribute $250 in support of an event later this summer.

 

A motion was made to approve the Minutes from February 17, by Sara Davis, and seconded by Pat Acquisto.

 

In preparation for the upcoming general membership meeting, Board members discussed potential guest speakers. It was decided that Adam would first approach Mayor Tishaura Jones, then Animal Control (dog safety), and finally the Purple Shirts (mental health assistance) to speak at the meeting.

 

Neighborhood Meeting: to be held at Watson Terrace Christian Church, June 3rd at 7pm

  • Guest speakers – Mayor, Animal Control, or Purple Shirts
  • LPNA Business
  • Elected Officials
  • LASM & Machacek

 

Aldermanic Report (Bret not in attendance):

Bret emailed a brief report with the following points:

  • A new session started on Tuesday, signaling a flurry of new bills to be signed into law by the Mayor and filed with the Board of Alderman (BOA).
  • He has a couple of bills headed to the Mayor’s desk:
    • Changes to the application process for incentives to ensure that SLDC and the BOA have information on whether the developer and/or parcel of land previously received city incentives.
    • Inspection of fire dampers to allow people more time to get out of tall buildings with smoke/fire and first responders more time to get in / out of buildings.

 

NIS Report:

Brian gave updates on problem properties:

  • 63xx Tholozan – furniture formerly on front yard due to contest probate at property. Daughter of deceased property owners has cleaned up the yard now.
  • 69xx Oleatha – junked backyard and street from scrap metal business. Ongoing issue, non-cooperative property owner, despite court action. Attempting to get property declared a public health nuisance.
  • 36xx Berger – vacant property. Fallen fence allowing for Forestry to cut grass in the backyard.
  • 60xx Mardel – Brian and Adam worked together to get this property boarded up.

 

The Board discussed how to address the ongoing 69xx Oleatha situation. Aldermanic action is needed for progress with the property. Adam will approach Bret for assistance with this property.

 

Committee Reports

 

Events:

  • Meetup: Next meetup will take place at El Paisano’s on Tuesday, April 23, from 6-8pm.
  • Flea Market: The event will be held from 7am-1pm on Saturday, May 18 at Watson Terrace Christian Church (same day as their BBQ). Pat and Sara signed up to volunteer during Friday evening to assist with pricing and table setup. Emily Yale will be volunteering on Saturday morning for early entry. Lisa noted that 6 LPNA tables are reserved, 15 tables have sold, and there’s room to accommodate up to 6-8 more tables.
  • LinFest: Lisa provided an update on preparations for LinFest (Saturday, October 5), including:
    • Planning committee members not being able to volunteer on the day of the event. Those who will not be available on event day will need to source 1-2 people to join the committee to assist them with their specific jobs. Due to a scheduling change, Jenna and John will be able to volunteer now. Greg Todd joined the committee. Adam agreed to supervise the LPNA tent. Adam and Carol are exploring the possibility of setting up a Venmo account to facilitate LPNA sales during the event.
    • Options for children’s activities are limited due to the Bubble Bus already being booked and the City not allowing inflatables nor live animals. Lisa is following up with Kim regarding what is and is not allowed.
    • Due to a hiring freeze and the already lack of staffing, the City is not able to provide more than possibly 1 giant tent (30’x30’).
    • No commitment from drinks vendors.
    • Some previous sponsors have “gone dark”, but Lisa and Emily Rogier are pursuing other options.
    • Lisa introduced a potential funding model of an annual corporate sponsorship by businesses. Money would go into a separate account to be used exclusively for LPNA events.
    • Two options for LinFest were presented: holding a dialed-down LinFest with limited sponsors / artisans or incorporating future LinFest into the last Lindenwood Live concert. The Board decided to continue to hold LinFest as normal this year as it is a community-building event.
  • Lindenwood Live Concerts: All bands secured and food trucks linked up for concert series. Greg Roggeman noted that food trucks will include Seoul Taco and California Cuisine. Tim is still waiting on response from R&R Sanitation (porta potties) regarding pricing hike from previous year. Need to secure volunteers to put up signs for concerts. Tom Acquisto will assist with signs on Watson Road.
  • Lawn & Garden Contest: Miriam Moynihan will be chairing the contest again this year. She will secure volunteers for judging the event.

 

Beautification:

  • Park: Emily emailed her updates.
    • Park building bidding process: pre-bid meeting coming up in early May, then bids received; around end of June, a contractor will be chosen for the project, then paperwork will occur and finally the Notice to Proceed will be issued. Materials will be ordered and a schedule with tentative start and end dates will be provided.
  • Community Garden & Wabash Garden:
    • Milton noted the irises are in bloom and lots of activity at the gardens, including rebuilding a garden bed. All spots in the community garden are full.
    • A mulching event took place on March 23rd.
  • Green Team:
    • Next trash cleanup is taking place on Saturday, April 20.
    • Since First Alarm’s owner sold his grass cutting equipment, Tim hired the new business-owner to cut the grass this year at the Park.

 

Communications

  • Greg Roggeman is continuing to update the LPNA website. He recently fixed an auto-reply email for the Century Homes plaque form to reflect current pricing.

 

Membership:

  • A total of 45 welcome packets were sent out at the end of February. Next batch will be sent out in May.
  • 281 current members (up from 255 in February). Several residents signed up and others renewed at the March general membership meeting.

 

 

Safety:

  • Committee members met virtually with Officer Gus Karagiannis regarding police crime reporting on Monday, February 26.
  • The next safety meeting (Thursday, April 18) will focus on a neighborhood survey to focus the activities of the safety committee.

 

Block Captains:

  • Lisa reported an increase in attendance at the recent meeting. This increase was in part due to Greg Todd’s reminder emails sent out prior to the meeting. Molly from the Machacek Library attended this meeting to give an overview of Library activities happening.
  • The list of block captains will be reviewed to remove inactive block captains and then used to recruit new block captains for those blocks.

 

Century Homes:

  • Committee members met on Thursday, April 11, to discuss marketing of plaques.
  • During the past weekend, committee members mailed out approximately 150 postcards to newly eligible homeowners for the 1925 houses.
  • The next plaque sale cycle ends on May 15. A total of 7 plaques have been sold during this cycle.

 

Treasurer’s Report:

  • Total deposits = $1405. Total deductions = $1044.65. March’s closing balance = $5320.75.

 

Old Business

  • Ward Mural: Adam is in contact with the Regional Arts Council. He will follow up on questions, including the potential location and size of a mural project in Lindenwood Park Neighborhood.
  • QT Update: Pat Acquisto, Tim Nowell, and Lisa Roggeman attended a virtual meeting with a QT representative regarding a proposed location at the US Ring Binder factory site. It was noted that QT plans to have diesel at this location. Board members brought up the problems of traffic flow, crime, noise, and the surplus of gas stations already in the area. In addition to LPNA, the Clifton Heights and Ellendale neighborhood associations have also expressed opposition to the project. The Board discussed next steps to stop QT from putting a gas station in at the location.
  • LPNA Banner: The banner needs updates (e.g. new logo, join added). Pat is working on getting a new banner ordered.
  • 501(c)3 Status: Greg Todd provided supplementary information on this process through email communication. This topic will be added to the next meeting agenda.

 

New Business

  • Block Captains for Board Bills: The use of block captains to increase awareness of various board bills. Pat is working on forming a neighborhood advocacy / government relations committee to read and evaluate board bills for impact on the neighborhood.

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Jenna Stout