Minutes of the Board of Directors

of the East Central Neighborhood Association

11 April 2010

The meeting was called to order at 6:10 pm at Blood-n-Fire Ministries (300 N. Madison)

Board Members Present:

Board Members Absent:

Members Present:

1. Atkins, Debbie

2. Thornburg, Judy

Guests:

1. none

Minutes:

• MSP March 2010 minutes as presented
  
  

Announcements:

• none
  
  

Committee Reports:

• Finance

  • balance $3907.50

  • $14.98 electric bill (2 x 7.49)

  • discussion of proposed 2010 budget

  • MSP motion to accept 2010 budget as presented.

• Program

  • Report on Easter egg hunt (good time despite light rain)

  • neighborhood resident living near Washington Park donated ~300 plastic eggs for future events

  • Spring Rummage Sale scheduled for 22 May 2010 in the Noblitt lot (NW corner of N. Vine and E. Main) and at homes through out the neighborhood. 8:00 – noon

  • Volunteers will be helping improve the neighborhood:

    • Work day in neighborhood with adult volunteers on 12 June 2010.

    • Serve Week 2010 will be 14-18 June with teenage volunteers.

• Membership

  • no report

• Advocacy

  • Spring neighborhood clean-up scheduled for Saturday 15 May 2010 from 7:30 – 11:45 am. Meet at the Noblitt lot

  • Lynn Thornburg was acknowledged for writing a grant proposal to the Muncie Sanitary District to help support the OWSF.

• Weed-n-Seed

  • Annie reported that due to reduced funding for the federal law governing the weed-n-seed program, there have been changes in the local program.

  • A new MPD officer has been appointed as the weed-n-seed liaison. Annie did not remember his name, but he takes the place of Capt. Hensley who has retired from the force.

  • New liaison officer indicated that a shortage of funds would likely mean only one prostitution sting in the neighborhood this year.

Old Business:

• Annie reported on her attendance at the organizational meeting for the Minnetrista Farmers Market.

  • The ECNA is still welcome to have a booth “space”, but participants will have to park in the fairgrounds lot.

  • Fees are the same as last summer

  • We may be able to sell baked goods

  • by consensus it was determined that we should reserve a $10 booth space for the June-July period.

• Marie commented that several board members (2?) had yet to pay their annual ECNA membership dues.

• Paul reported on the Muncie Board of Public Works meeting that he and Mike attended on 10 March 2010

  • We indicated that we supported the goal of raising funds to support the Wayside Mission.

  • We expressed our concerns regarding Christian Festival planned for Washington Street on 18 June.

    • That we were not notified about the application for a street closure.

    • “Our” streets should not be considered a general “Festival” area in the city

    • Faith Builders (organizing group) has no connections to the neighborhood. So impacted residents may not be aware of the potential street closings, may not know who to contact in case of problems, and clean-up may not be a priority.

    • We are concerned that Faith Builders has not organized an event of this kind in the past and it does not fully appreciate the time and personnel commitments required to stage an event of this type.

  • The board indicated that the street closing application was not in effect due to a lack of proof of proper insurance for Faith Builders.

  • The Board of Public Works also indicated that they would question first time applicants more thoroughly in the future.
    
    

New Business:

• MSP motion to provide $100 to purchase some new shrubs to replace dying shrubs on our traffic island (corner of N. Madison and E. Wysor)

• Discussion of proposal from DeWayne to spend $300 on a water tank that could be placed in the bed of a pickup. Use would be water planting in the neighborhood. Water would come from runoff from roof of Blood-n-Fire building.

• MSP motion to table issue until more information was obtained and potential alternate funding options were explored.

• Chris reported that the Easter Egg sale had taken in $1400 while expenses were $600.
  
  

The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 pm