Board of Directors Minutes – Meeting of Feb 4, 2019

PRESENT: Matt Ruben, President; Barbara Mulckhuyse, Vice-President; Steve Richman, Treasurer; Janet Finegar, Secretary; Claire Adler; Avery Amaya; Melanie Coffman; Michael Coyne; Monika Kreidie; Aisha Loeks; Joe Mikuliak; Barbara SaverinoABSENT: Kristen Ainscoe, Ben Mann, Don PhillipsThe meeting was called to order by the President at 7:04 p.m.Motion: By Steve Richman, seconded by Barb Mulckhuyse. “To approve the minutes of the January Board meeting as presented.”  Passed 7-0-4 President’s Report: Matt Ruben: written report attached and reviewed.Matt presented some preliminary details about a concept to develop affordable housing (including a renovation of the library) at the Rodriguez Library site. The Board agreed that it is a good concept at this point and we should continue the conversation.There was some conversation about whether the current system of voting for NLNA elections is failing to encourage participation at meetings and encouraging “drive by voting.” Avery agreed that the Election Committee would consider the issue and present recommendations to the Board (which would, of necessity, probably be put into place for the 2020 round of elections rather than the round upcoming in 2019).NLNA President’s Report, February 2019

1. PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT, AND POLICY

• Construction Impacts – No updates of note since the last NLNA board meeting.
• Waterfront Issues – Update at our meeting.
• Business Improvement District (BID) – Update at our meeting.
• Developer Relations – With the assistance of Don and Barbara, I am going to brief the board on a potential development happening on the edge of the neighborhood, which would involve the NLNA in an indirect but potentially important role.

2. FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

• Annual Appeal – The 2019 Appeal is over as of January 31. Update in the Treasurer’s Report.
• Office Management/Oversight – Updates in the Operations Committee report.
• NLNA Elections – I would like to have an initial discussion with the board about the protocol for NLNA elections.

3. EVENTS AND OUTREACH

• Winterfest – This is February 10. It is imperative that board members sell tickets, and attend the event.
• January 29 Event on Bike Lanes and Traffic. This multi-civic open house, hosted at Yards by the city Office of Transportation and Infrastructure, drew more than 100 people, many from Northern Liberties. Sentiment was overwhelmingly positive for protected bike lanes and other traffic improvements on 2nd, 5th and 6th between Callowhill and Spring Garden.
• February 28 General Meeting. We will of course have meetings in April and May, for board nominations and elections. We’ve also agreed to have one on February 28. As always, I am open to agenda ideas – and I’d like to leave our board meeting with at least one or two, so we can start sending out “save the date” reminders to the community.

4. COMMUNICATION AND PUBLICITY

• Update in the Communications/Marketing Committee report.

5. OTHER ITEMS

• Board Polls – Ratification of any online or online board polls since last month’s board meeting.

 Treasurer's Report: Steve Richman: written report distributed and reviewed.TREASURER’S REPORT – FEBRUARY 2019

• 2018-19 Budget: January Financials - tables attached
  • For the four months ended on December 31st All Funds Income was $70,500; this was $6,800 more than projected. All Funds Expenses totaled $86,100, which was about $24,700 more than anticipated.  Current Year Net Income was -$17,900.  This was about what we projected.    
  • In the General Fund and Liberty Lands, our two major operating accounts, our financial position after the first four months of the fiscal year is as follows:
    • GF & LL Income (rounded): $69,700 -- $7,300 more than anticipated.
    • GF & LL Expenses (rounded): $82,400 -- $25,700 more than anticipated.
    • GF & LL Net Income: -$12,700 -- $18,400 lower than anticipated.
  • Significant variations from budgeted projections through November include:
    • Higher than anticipated income from grants (+$10,000).Liberty Lands received an unexpected grant from the Smart Family Fund.  This was partially offset by modest shortfalls in rent and donations. The Annual Appeal (including Op Santa) is running about $900 below expectations.
    • Higher than anticipated expenses for Liberty Lands improvements (+$24,500). These expenses, however, will be reimbursed by the State under the DCED grant we were awarded for a new fence.
    • Increases and decreases in other categories were largely offsetting.
  • Other Items
    • Grants from PTSSD – As anticipated, grants totaling $11,000 for the Fall Fest, Parade of Spirits, Operation Santa, recycle bins and tree-cycling have been received from the Penn Treaty SSD. An additional grant for $2,500 for Winterfest was approved by the PTSSD in January and will be received later this month.
    • Grant from the Smart Family Fund: A $10,000 grant to Liberty Lands from the Smart Family Fund was received in December.
    • 2019 Property Assessment: Our appeal of the reassessment of the community center was successful. This will produce a savings of $2,300 in the budget.
    • An agreement with NLArts for its use of the community center was signed.

Motion: By Joe Mikuliak, seconded by Barbara Saverino. “To accept the Treasurer's report as presented.”  Passed 11-0-0 Communications & Marketing Committees Report: Kristen Ainscoe: written report attached & reviewed.Communications/Marketing Committee

• We need to discuss the process for content that needs to go on the newsletter. I want to make sure that I don't miss any information. Matt, do you want to start sending any additional content that wasn't on the last email and then we can do a test run for next week?
• I delivered the thank you card and Winterfest tickets to Silk City.
• Event Form - I have developed an event form so that we can track participation, sponsors, goals, etc. I am going to test it at Winterfest and see if I need to make any updates and then I can discuss how to implement next meeting.
• I am waiting to hear back from Kevin on the deadlines for the marketing for the BID so that we can move forward with website updates and marketing.

 Fundraising Committee Report: Michael Coyne: written report attached and reviewed. Fundraising Committee

• Things are progressing and coming together well for this Sunday’s Winterfest celebration and party.
• We are busy collecting the donations from local businesses. We’ll be organizing things for the raffle and auction this Saturday.
• The Winterfest runs from 1:00 to 5:00 pm at North Bowl. Please encourage family, friends, neighbors, colleagues etc. to attend the best party in the city this coming Sunday.
• Tremendous gratitude and thanks goes to the Daskal family and North Bowl for hosting the event and their incredible generosity. Thank you as well to the Penn Treat Special Services District for their sponsorship.

Liberty Lands Committee Report: Janet Finegar: written report attached and reviewed.Liberty Lands Report February 2019

• Sidewalk/Fence project. Mark from Ventura has finished the sidewalk (and notes that we need to not put chemicals of any kind on it this winter while it cures. The top of the first 20' has been damaged by salt already, but he's going to fix it so it looks good). We still need to do a day's work with the digger and bobcat to move soil and get the remaining old railroad ties (garden bed edges) out for the fence to go in. That was pushed back from this week because of weather: we're now looking at Monday the 4th. I hope to meet with Eileen from PHS, the fence contractor, and Mark this week or next to go over the fence installation (including what to do with the height difference from the garden to the sidewalk along Bodine Street: putting in a low retaining wall is the most likely solution) and to schedule that.Finally, I submitted a report and request for funds to DCED – the grantor for this project – at the beginning of January. I'm hoping to see a check from them within the next two weeks.
• Around 400 christmas trees were collected for treecycling and were chipped on January 14. Continuing issues with Orianna Hill Park's surface kept us from getting the truck in to dump them, but we positioned the truck so that most of the chips were blown straight into the park and the remaining pile on the sidewalk (and the pile donated by Fishtown's chipping in early January) will get moved in by the bobcat. Schectman Tree also did some pruning of trees along the garden and removed the big sweet cherry tree from inside the garden and a dying willow oak. There was some neighborhood sorrow about the removal of those trees, but it seems to have died down. We're planning on saving the cherry wood to burn at Parade of Spirits next year. A PTSSD grant paid for the tree chipping cost.
• Hal Rosner from Schechtman advised that we should schedule a second pruning day this spring and take care of the honey locusts in the toddler playground. We will wait for the reimbursement from the sidewalk project before doing that, but (thanks to the Smart Family Fund grant) will have the funds to do that.
• Parking issues: the permit signs on American Street went up, but I haven't heard of anyone being ticketed for the front-in parking yet. Jacek sent out letters to the 3rd Street property owners about the possibility of going to permit parking there. We've received three reactions: two positive and one against it, although that person did not seem to understand what permit parking is. Thanks to Kevin Moran from the BID, the Parking Authority is going to do a study of the area – including around the park – to make recommendations on parking restrictions. Kevin will also raise with the authority the idea of making the 900 block of Bodine angle parking to increase spaces along the park.
• Laura and Len have evaluated the community garden plots based on the new ones opened up from the sinkhole repair and some gardeners leaving, and we have several new gardeners this year. February 12 will be a mandatory meeting for our community gardeners to discuss member expectations and rules, review the fence project, and make sure everyone is on the same page. We'll also be discussing the City Harvest program and looking for volunteers to help coordinate that.
• The city organization Volunteers Untapped is partnering with us in April for a workday that will involve Liberty Lands, Orianna Hill, and Orkney Park for three-park workday. We're hoping that the Great Lakes Brewing Company will again sponsor us for this, and we may have as many as 100 people working (75 from outside the neighborhood!). That will be April 13 and at Liberty Lands will focus on spreading playground mulch.
• Scheduled dates for the spring:
  • March 23 hardcore/gardener workday
  • April 13 All Park workday
  • May 4 plant sale at Community Center
  • May 18 (probably, date not official yet) Love Your Park workday
• Some events already planned for the spring:
  • CHANGE Church doing a community Easter festival/egg hunt on April 20.
  • World Dance Day performances and workshops on April 28
  • Fishtown Playschool Concert June 7
  • NLNA Music Festival June 29

 Operations Committee Report: Monika Kreidie.Monika reported that there is a new tenant on the 3^rdfloor. Monika also raised that there was a proposal to re-paint the main room of the community center and install chair rails to prevent new damage to the paint. There was some question about the proposed cost.Motion: By Janet Finegar, seconded by Claire Adler. “To approve up to $1,200 for painting and installing chair rails in the community center, with the most appropriate bid to be selected by the Operations Committee.”  Passed 11-0-0-Public Safety Committee Report: Melanie Coffman: written report attached and reviewed.Safety Report

• Safety Committee Meeting 1/14
  • We discussed Front & Girard, ideas for improvement. Venise Whitaker was conferenced in and able to provide more details. The meeting notes were summarized and emailed to her. Notes include feedback from safety committee and NLNA board members
  • Feedback from Northern Liberties Neighbors
    • Septa stairwell is unsafe, can’t see well from stairwell, elevator is unsafe, needs more lighting
    • Need more security cameras, traffic cameras
    • Want Big Belly Trashcans that you can step on with foot to open
    • Ask Goldman Clinic staff to provide outreach to addicts on corner , encouragement in recovery
    • Smoking cessation counseling
    • There’s a lot of drug use behind McDonald’s
    • Brand that area, can we make Front & Girard it’s own district and branding
    • Penn Treaty for street sweeping
    • Get Philadelphia Green involved to help provide better landscaping, plants, flowers. They helped revitalize Frankford Ave.
    • The Water Department can help with green storm water infrastructure
    • Spread the pigeon spikes far enough
    • Check Safety of Strip Club Fire Hazard. Also today they had an overflowing dumpster on the side of their building on Front Street.
    • Long term vision to connect Front & Girard with 2nd and Spring Garden. Need to Clean up Front Street. Restore Belgium Blocks, Pave over or pull up abandoned trolley lines , better lighting
    • Carvana is helping to fund the restoration of Tip Top playground that is along Front St.
    • RE L&I, would be great to get the vendor(s) farther off the corner. Also, Streets Dept might want to weigh in b/c a 5-ft wide walkway is required to be open on all sidewalks, so if the vendor is impinging on that, they would have to move. Also, what about trying to get the vendor to be on the street next to the curb instead of on the sidewalk? (Or are they already in the street?)
    • How about painting and sprucing up the El Station concrete support columns in the medians between the lanes on Girard? Or is that part of the concrete etc SEPTA work already mentioned in the document?
    • Pedestrian-scale lighting/decorative light posts on Front St from Wildey up beyond Girard
  • Front & Girard meeting 1/30
    • Venise invited the community ambassadors to discuss concerns and ask questions to reps from Streets, SEPTA, 311, L & I. People were frustrated about the trash in front of Dollar Tree and and building owner was there. He said that the Dollar Tree management have someone clean-up 1x day in front of the building. People suggested that Dollar Tree or the building owner should pay someone to clean the area multiple times/day. The owner was not open to that idea at the meeting.  We also talked about more lighting, better traffic patterns, and dealing with loitering. Venise confirmed that the Kiosk in front of the metro stop is not violating any rules.
    • *She wants people to come up with a name for the area around Front and Girard to rebrand it so it encompasses all the neighborhoods that border the area
  • CPR Class Monday, 2/11 We have 5people registered
  • Notes from the meeting of 6th District Police Department Advisory Council, Jan 30, 2019
  • The crime report of incidents in Northern Liberties/East Poplar area for January included: SEVENTEEN residential burglaries. Many victims admitted having left the door to their apartment unlocked while they were in another area of the apartment building. DO NOT DO THIS EVER!  Buzz into your apartment building people only who are coming to visit you. Never buzz in someone who has “Forgotten their key” or is “Delivering pizza to someone on the second floor.” And keep your door locked if you are expecting a neighbor to drop by.  THIRTY thefts from autos. This is an unusually high number. We all know how to prevent this crime – do not leave anything visible inside your car or pick-up truck.
  • CODE BLUE When the wind chill factor is 20° or below the city’s emergency services code blue system is activated. Code blue is when anyone in their right mind would not lay down on the sidewalk or stand around asking for money without proper winter clothing. If you encounter a person who needs help getting out of the cold, please call 911 or the city’s Homeless Services Outreach Center. Give them the person’s location and a description. You could be the last person to see them before they go to sleep in an alley and wake up with frostbite or die from hypothermia. The police stressed that they are prepared to get an involuntary commitment to force anyone not in their right mind to come in out of the cold so your call may really save someone’s life. Put the homeless outreach phone number in your smartphone: 215 232-1984
  • What to do about disruptive panhandling during a community meeting was also discussed.

 Zoning Committee Report: Joe Mikuliak; written report attached and reviewed.Motion: By Monika Kreidie, seconded by Barb Mulckhuyse. “To ratify the recommendations of the Zoning Committee in the matter of 909 North 2nd Street (North Bowl), i.e.: 'OUTSIDE - We are in agreement with the following: a) Seasonal operation (April 1 – October 31) of outdoor activities and music outside in parking lot area (Special Assembly). b) Hours:  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday 4 p.m. until 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 2-4 p.m. until 12 p.m.; Sunday 2-4 p.m. until 11 p.m. c) Games stop at 10:00 p.m. every day. d) No amplified music outside except during the 2nd Street Festival weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). e) No 3rd party promoters.   INSIDE: We are in agreement with the following: a) An increase in the number of live music nights. b) Live music ends at midnight. c) Sound cannot escape the premises. d) No 3rd party promoters. e) Support with a 3-year indoor variance. Our support is conditional upon answers to the following outstanding issues: a) Capacity of outdoor area b) Security for dispersing outdoor crowds after hours c) Feedback from North Bowl attorney regarding legal viability of dual use of parking lot.'”  Passed 11-0-0 Motion: By Janet Finegar, seconded by Monika Kreidie. “To ratify the recommendations of the Zoning Committee to reappoint the following people as members of the Zoning Committee for another year: Larry Freedman (chair), Charlie Abdo, Christine Furman, Melissa Magness, Joe Mikuliak, Sharon Richman, Jonathan Sher, Abbey Spector, Ira Upin, Kenny Grono, Jared Forman, Chris Isaacson – 12 members total.”  Passed 11-0-0 New BusinessIt was agreed that the NLNA would send a letter of support for the proposed mural at the “Fire” building at 4^thand Girard.Matt advised the Board that previous Board member and long-standing neighbor Harvey Bell died during late January, and that we would be investigating putting some kind of permanent memorial to Harvey at the Community Center. The meeting was adjourned by acclaim at 8:20 p.m.Addenda:ZONING COMMITTEE – Monday 1/28/19Members present: Larry Freedman (chair), Charlie Abdo, Christine Furman, Melissa Magness, Joe Mikuliak, Sharon Richman, Jonathan Sher, (Abbey Spector), Ira Upin     Members absent:  Kenny Grono, Jared Forman, Chris Isaacson909 N. 2nd Street (North Bowl) – CMX3 – Oron Dascal:  To discuss:  The legalization of the outdoor space use and an adjustment to the provisions of the special Assembly License. April through November 15 the parking lot (1900 sq. feet) is used for bocce games, a bar, socializing and live musical entertainment.Motion (Group):  Vote 7-0-0   OUTSIDE - We support the following: a) Seasonal operation (April 1 – October 31) of outdoor activities and music outside in parking lot area (Special Assembly).  b) Hours:  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday    4 p.m. until 11 p.m.,  Friday and Saturday 2-4 p.m. until 12 p.m., Sunday  2-4 p.m. until 11 p.m. c) Games stop at 10:00 p.m. everyday. d) No amplified music outside except during the 2nd Street Festival weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). e) No 3rd party promoters.  INSIDE: We support the following: a) An increase in the number of live music nights, b) Live music ends at midnight. c) Sound cannot escape the premises. d) No 3rd party promoters. e) Support with a 3-year indoor variance.  Outstanding issues:  a) Capacity of outdoor area  b) Security for dispersing outdoor crowds after hours c) Feedback from North Bowl attorney regarding legal viability of dual use of parking lot.Motion (Group) Passed 8-0 We ask the NLNA Board of Directors to reappoint the following people as members of the Zoning Committee for another year: Larry Freedman (chair), Charlie Abdo, Christine Furman, Melissa Magness, Joe Mikuliak, Sharon Richman, Jonathan Sher, Abbey Spector, Ira Upin, Kenny Grono, Jared Forman, Chris Isaacson (12 members)