5.20.15 EBCA Monthly Meeting Notes

Present:  Dawn, Marguerite & Dana (PNA Village), Kirk (Ballard District Council), Shannon, Steph, Andrew, Peter, Sue, Charlie, Holly, Chris, Ellen

Presentation on PNA Village:  Marguerite and Dana gave a presentation about the PNA Village, a network of volunteers that help elders with small tasks and larger projects. Examples of help might include yard maintenance, minor home repairs, transportation or shopping assistance, or help with pets.  The PNA has asked the EBCA to help spread the word, since they have expanded their reach to 15th Ave NW. We recommended getting the word out by presenting at the Ballard District Council. We also recommended reaching out to the schools connect to parents of school aged children who have aging parents who may consider a gift of membership to the PNA village.  More info can be found at: www.phinneycenter.org/village or pnavillage.org

Updates (action items in bold):

11th Ave NW Street End:  permitting issues appear to have been resolved and the project is going ahead.  Dawn is in touch and will let us know of any opportunities to become involved and when/if there’ll be a dedication onsite. Currently there is a dedication scheduled for June 11 4:30pm-7:30pm at Gould Hall Court, 1st Floor at UW.

Ballard Rotary Urban Quest (a scavenger hunt, for those among us not hip to the current lingo) will be held 6/6, 10am-12:30pm. It’s $100/4-person team to enter with a $500 first prize.  “It was a blast last year.”

14th Ave NW Park:  No new news.  Steph will e-mail Shannon a letter re: following up with a Deputy Mayor who expressed interest in moving the project forward.

Property at 9th Ave NW & NW 64th: Dawn was notified by a neighbor that the owners want to sell but only to a buyer who will keep the existing building. Parks Dept is not interested or has funding for the property. It’s not in very good condition, even though it has a new roof. We’ll probably let this go for now.

Changes to the #28 bus:  Metro is proposing a reroute of the 28, either next year sometime or when light rail goes to UW.  Charlie will write Metro a letter asking for more time to comment and a chance for dialog w/Metro about the route change.

Planters on 14th: Dawn has renewed the contract w/Seattle Conservation Corps for watering the planters this Summer for around $2000.  Keep turning in those Ballard Market receipts at Blowing Sands glass which help fund the watering!

NPSF projects:  Kirk reported that at some point the four projects that were forwarded to SDOT from the Ballard District will come back with a price tag attached. Then there will be further review and decisions about which to move forward on.  There may not be an opportunity to comment on the quality of the proposed solution from SDOT.

Sustainable Ballard Edible Garden Tour will be June 27 in the East Ballard, West Woodland area. Please nominate any good candidate gardens for the tour.  Could be an opportunity for EBCA to staff a table somewhere; we’ll take that up next month.  If you are interested, let us know.

17th Ave NW Greenway construction will be underway this summer.

Jane’s Walk:  Yay us!  A successful event!

Planters moving to Greg’s Garden: progress is being made, but the move most likely won’t happen before July.  Andrew is the liaison to this project, and will keep us posted.

August Night Out:  We decided not to have a big, centralized Night Out on 14th Ave NW, but rather to enjoy our individual block parties. Maybe we could have a 14th Ave NW-focused event on some other evening.

Meeting venue:  Meeting in people’s houses  limits the number of people who can participate; may keep some people away who would come to a more public venue; and makes it hard to have invited guests from the City, etc.  Shannon will look for a local venue that maybe we could rent once a month (Ballard High School as first choice, with perhaps some of the little churches scattered here and there in the hood as second if BHS doesn’t work out), and check with DON to see whether a year’s worth of rent would be an eligible expense/good candidate for a DON grant.

Monroe Substation:  Spring clean up is on hold, per Shannon.