Minutes of Board Meeting
February 20 2008
NSCC Northstar Dining Room

Directors Present:
Liz Kearns, Debra Willendorf, Tom Meyer, and Ellen Beck.

Board Representatives Present:
Ken Thompson (Liaison to North Precinct) and Kathleen Braden (List Serve).

Visitors: 
Bruce Kieser (Facilities and Plant Operations Director for North Seattle Community College), Wendy Chamberlin and Rene T. Murry (GAIN North Greenwood), Jean Wirch, Ron Horning, Peter Josuran, Jennifer Allen, and Matthew Olson.

Introductions were made around the tables.

It was noted that Board member Jerry Owens had called explaining that he had to work tonight and would miss our meeting. Kay Mesirow was out of town on business and also could not make the meeting.

Minutes:

The January 16, 2008 minutes were approved as presented.

Treasurer’s Report:
Debra presented the Treasurer’s Report for the period January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007. She noted that donations have been trending downward in the last year. She asked for the approval of reimbursement for monies she spent paying for LSCC domain name through March 20, 2017 and making copies of the Aurora Taskforce materials. The reimbursements were approved, as was the 2007 Financial Report.

NEW BUSINESS:

GAIN North Greenwood.
Wendy Chamberlin and Rene T. Murry spoke to us about GAIN North Greenwood (“GAIN North”). They explained how they were brought together in August 2007 by Cindy Potter when Cindy learned they both had concerns about the area from 95th to 105th and from Greenwood to Aurora. Wendy and Rene were able to “piggyback” their group on GAIN and create GAIN North. GAIN North Cards were passed out and it was explained that the “eye” on the card was yellow for the GAIN insignia, green for the GAIN North insignia, and red for the GAIN the Highlands (covering the area from 130th to 145th and Aurora) insignia.

GAIN North has quarterly meetings with guest speakers. They have had three community walks so far and have 90 members involved in a yahoo discussion site. Their goal is to get neighbors involved and reinvigorate Block Watch in order to make their neighborhood better.

Getting neighbors talking and communicating with one another had the following result for GAIN North. It was noticed that robberies were happening street by street through the neighborhood and that the robberies happened in the afternoon. Neighbors communicated and got active, getting out and visible on their blocks. They walked dogs, worked outside, took walks, etc. When the neighbors “took back their streets,” they were able to stop the robberies!

GAIN North plans to invite the Greenwood “sidewalk” group to their May meeting. In June, they plan a block watch training session. Wendy and Rene said their activities are time limited and event driven. They plan to focus on community walks and cleanup.

The next community walk/cleanup will take place March 15th, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. At that walk GAIN North will have a flyer that lists all their spring events. The Licton Springs community was invited to join GAIN North on this walk. A final count of participants needs to be given to GAIN North ten days before the event.

Wendy and Rene pointed out that they have a good relationship with the North Precinct. They said that they get responses when they identify themselves as being with GAIN.

North Aurora Revitalization Project
Debra passed out the informational materials on the Aurora group’s work. She has been our representative since October of 2007 and has attended many meetings, sometimes two and three in one week! Debra said that the groups at most meetings were mostly composed of community people, not business people. She said she has had to fight to not have topics eliminated.

Discussion followed
It is easier for sections of highways where businesses or a city are involved and interested in making improvements to effect changes. The fact is, changes work because of business. The changes that the City of Shoreline has made to Aurora have been a high priority for the City of Shoreline.

Technology Grant/Web Page.
Debra said LSCC would be applying for a technology grant from the City to create an interactive web page. The application is due March 10, 2008. If we are able to create an interactive web page, we will need to move the website to another host.

OLD BUSINESS:

Update on Future Plans for North Seattle Community College
Bruce Kieser wanted to expand upon his response at last month’s meeting regarding how many additional people would be at North Seattle Community College because of the planned addition of the DSHS, ESD, and the Work Source offices. The handout was a graph entitled “NSCC On-Campus Headcount, By Day of the Week, By Hour of the Day, Overall Total for all Agencies” and it indicated that the highest number of people on campus would be from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The highest number indicated was on Mondays when at 10:00 a.m. there would be approximately 1,700 people on campus. At 1:00 p.m., that number was down to less than 400.

Because community members not at last month’s meeting were present, Debra asked Bruce to recap the information we received last month, which he did.

Discussion followed Debra said that she and Liz had met with people in Ballard who were neighbors of the DSHS office there. They were told that there were problems with drinking and partying.

Bruce said that NSCC has security officers and will add an additional security officer when the offices are on campus. He also pointed out that NSCC has a good relationship with the police.

The NSCC security officers will differentiate the people on campus by their behavior, not their appearance. The free parking to be provided for the clients of DSHS will be a secure area and controlled by the College.

Concerned was expressed by community members. The feeling was that the impacts could be significant. Bruce was asked if the College had contingency plans for possible adverse consequences.

Bruce was asked about the presentation he would be making to the Maple Leaf community. He said that he was going to make a more generic presentation than he made at last month’s Licton Springs Community meeting. He said he was also going to be making outreach to the Haller Lake community and other communities/organizations, as well.

Discussion followed. It was suggested that the future plans for NSCC could be written up for an article in the North Seattle Herald-Outlook, a local community newspaper.

Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

The meeting adjourned at 9:08 p.m.

Respectfully submitted

Ellen M. Beck, Secretary