Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Neighborhood Meeting Minutes, October 17, 2013


Goss-Grove Neighborhood Meeting

October 17, 2013

NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 7 P.M.  1919 GROVE STREET

The meeting was opened by co-chairs, Jenny and  Stephen, to a full house at Mary and Maria’s.  Every chair and sofa seat in the house was filled. So great to see so many people greeting each other, renewing friendship and offering new friendship.  As usual, there were yummy desserts and lots of excellent wine. Thanks to all who took the time to attend and to our hostesses. 

It was a happy and unusual event in that there were two slates of candidates running for chair/co-chair.  Michele and Jeffrey generously offered to take the load off Jenny and Stephen.  J & S wanted to continue for one more year to continue some of the momentum built up this year, which was supported by a vote. Also by vote, Michele continues as secretary, and Jerri as treasurer. We look forward to next year when Michele and Jeffrey step up again to lead. 

The flooding of September was discussed with recounts of events and damage to homes and property.  Neighbors would like to be more informed and more prepared during this type of event.  A thank you was signed and sent to the city for the flood mitigation efforts they have done over the last several decades to lessen the impact of flooding of Boulder Creek.

Several neighbors who had significant damage thanked those people who helped during the cleanup.  The spirit of neighbor helping neighbor is strong in Goss Grove.

You can sign up for “reverse 911” notifications and get more emergency preparedness information at http://www.bouldercounty.org/safety/emergency/pages/default.aspx

Mary will contact the company that owns the ditch that overflowed, Jeffrey will contact the city for a speaker for the next meeting, and David will look into preparedness information for the neighborhood.  Michele will contact the city for a comprehensive street sweeping to cut down on the fine dust that is causing some respiratory distress for residents.

David suggested a field trip to sites around Boulder that have ideas that could be used for Goss Grove (public spaces, gardens, etc).  Probably an hour and a half, so nothing too time consuming.  He has a 15 passenger van, and we could combine the event with some food/wine enticement, too.  We decided next Spring would be a good time to do this…everyone is too busy through the end of the year. Any suggestions of where to visit?

There is a new residential advisor at Snow Lion.  Derrick Jones can be reached at djones@naropa.edu.  He has been super responsive and helpful. 

The gardening season is coming to an end for this year.  Last compost pick up is at the end of the month.  Please get your plots cleaned off.  Research into maintenance will be done by Michele, Christi, and Garrett.  There will be some plots available so contact Jenny if you would like a plot for next year. Jenny will get compost bags to put in the tool box for when the compost bin is gone. (late breaking news:  compost bin is still there!)

The compass rose was repainted by neighborhood residents led by Jan, who is the artist who designed the feature.  Thank you gift was approved for her work.  Mary had picked out a beautiful dragon fly ornament as part of it.  Lovely!

GGNA has long discussed an informational kiosk for the neighborhood and efforts will be renewed to design and construct this feature.

Neighborhood outreach was discussed.  An informational brochure will be provided digitally that neighbors can print on-demand to give out to their new neighbors.  Other methods of distribution were talked about including partnering with off campus housing office, distributing information on door hangers, etc.  Paige and David will work on this project.

The neighborhood email listserve is going away as of February 1, 2014.  This relieves Jenny of administering it. The neighborhood blog will still be our “face” to the outside world, but an automatic email will no longer be sent out when a new post is up.  Sign up to be informed, and to inform, on http://nextdoor.com/  As of November 20, 2013, we have 56 signed up…our target is 100 minimum. It is a great way to learn about the neighborhood and communicate with other residents. Another way to help other people know about NextDoor is to log in and invite others by postcard, email, etc.  It’s a super nice way to reach out as you just select the locations you want cards sent to.  It’s free and you can a certain number a month.  Reach out and get someone else involved. 

GGNA will talk to Naropa about participating in improvements of the 19th street pocket park.  We have talked in the past about a design class working up some ideas.  Although there is general enthusiasm about this idea, we have not gotten any real traction on this yet.  Let’s revisit next meeting.

A  new bike repair shop in the neighborhood!  Visit Ryan at Standard Bike Repair, new in the neighborhood at 1823 Marine, 10-5 and by appointment, 720-937-8984.  Thanks for joining us, Ryan!  As I recall, he heard about GGNA at Jalino’s. Interesting…we have not posted anything there for a long time. (Or maybe I am remembering incorrectly.)

Several residents have noticed increased difficulty parking this fall.  Enforcement is lacking and the hang tag permits that come with the parking sticker are being sold to non-residents.  This puts more cars on the already full streets. Mary will draft a letter to the city and collect data about the problem.  Please let her know if you are having any parking issues that she can pass on to the city.

The treasurer reported income from the garden plots and donations and expenses for the garden and compass rose for this year. 


Respectfully submitted by Michele Bishop

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