BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES - Meeting of July 11, 2016 (updated again)

PRESENT: Matt Ruben, President; Michael Coyne, Vice-President; Steve Richman, Treasurer; Troy Crichton; Donald Hoegg; Ira Upin; Roneil Jackson; Monika Kreidie; Jeremy Lindemann; Don Phillips; Barbara Saverino; Chris Somers;ABSENT: Janet Finegar, Secretary; Joe MikuliakMinutes recorded by Jeremy LindemannThe meeting was called to order by the President at 7:11p.m.Motion: By Steve Richman, seconded by Chris Somers:“To approve the minutes of the June Board meeting as presented.”  11-0-0 Passed We had a presentation by Kieran Timberlake employees regarding the development and construction of an improved outdoor area at the NLNA community center. Following the bidding process, construction is expected to begin in October and conclude by the end of the year. The guiding priorities are to be environmental friendliness (rainwater capture, use of sunlight, etc.) usability, and quality (durable materials). Issues raised and discussed included but were not limited to the sinkhole, storm water management, ingress/egress from the building and cross managing cement park.President’s Report: Matt RubenPoints emphasized:

• The expected lighting of the Spring Garden underpass.

• A business improvement district meeting (Ad Hoc Strategic Planning Group) to take place on 07/13/2016 at Catina Dos Segundos.

• NLNA message board forums to be shut down.

President’s Report, July 2016

1. PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT, AND POLICY

Schmidts Commons/Liberties Walk – The Piazza has been rebranded as The Schmidts Commons. The new, stepped-up schedule of events seems to be working well.Construction Impacts – Nothing out of the ordinary this month.Spring Garden – The DRWC ceremony to formally turn on the lights on the completed underpass installation is tentatively slated for the week of August 1.Business Improvement District (BID) – The Commerce Dept was not successful in getting BID planning-grant money from the state. There’s a small meeting July 13 with a few local business people to start mapping out a self-funded planning process for a BID. I’ve also reached out to our friends in Fishtown about coordinating the beginning of our respective processes, in hopes of using a single consultant to make the processes more effective and economical.Madison Memorial Park – Barbara and I visited Transport Workers Local 234 Friday to request funds to help with this effort. Update on that from Barbara. The GoFundMe page should be going live this week. We also will approach Bob Brady for support, although that might have to wait until August, when the DNC is finished.

2. FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Ad Hoc Strategic Planning Group – Monika, Steve, Michael, Roneil, Lara and I are going to be meeting once a month for the forseeable future to work up some recommendations for the board on making our communication, document storage/sharing, volunteer management and other operations more systematic and efficient. I’ll provide some details at our meeting, and more at subsequent meetings as things develop.Lara on Board Email List – A reminder that Lara, as our Quality of Life Coordinator, has been added to our Google Groups board email list, as one of the initial administrative improvements alluded to above. She also will be attending some board meetings from time to time.Added Trash Expense for Liberty Lands – Steve and I will brief everyone on this at some point (President’s report, Treasurer’s report, or Liberty Lands report) and ask for board support for an allocation.

3. EVENTS AND OUTREACH

Music Fest – Update from Don.General Membership Meetings – Just a reminder that our next meeting will be in September (or perhaps early October).

4. COMMUNICATION AND PUBLICITY

Internet – All seems to be well, and growing. Katrina has started putting the word out on Facebook that we intend to shut down the northernliberties.org web forums in the next couple of months. The plan is initially to make that domain into nothing but a redirect page that will automatically take people to our home page at nlna.org – and then at a later date to develop it into a revenue-generating neighborhood-gateway site (which would of course include prominentlinks to our site).

5. OTHER ITEMS

Board Polls – Ratification of any online or online board polls since last month’s board meeting (office computer purchase).Motion: By Donald Hoegg, seconded by Michael Coyne:“To ratify the online poll approving the new computer purchase.”  Unanimously PassedTreasurer's Report: Steve RichmanPoints emphasized:

• Clean Streets is fully funded for this year and likely into next year thanks to Larry Freedman reaching out to developers for contributions. Chris Somers noted that realtors have expressed an interest in supporting clean streets.
• Steve Richman noted that largely due to seasonality and slow billing, Liberty Lands spending is approximately $5,000.00 under budget.
• Steve Richman noted that the Music Fest did not raise as much money as expected

Motion: By Don Phillips, seconded by Barbara Saverino:“To authorize additional spending of up to $2,175 for additional trash service at Liberty Lands if needed.”  Unanimously PassedTREASURER’S REPORT – JULY 2016

1. 2015-16 Budget: June Financials - tables attached

For the nine months ended on June 30 th all funds income was $219,601; this was $110,573 more than projected, due mostly to the receipt of $100,000 from Penn Treaty SSD. Expenses totaled $141,976, which was $38,113 more than anticipated – again, largely due to grant-related expenses. Net income was $77,625 – $72,460 more than projected. These amounts include nearly $106,000 in income from grants and about $50,000 in grant expenses.Excluding grant fund activity yields a more accurate representation of our financial position. Thus, if we limit the calculation to income and expenses from the General Fund and Liberty Lands accounts, our financial position after the first nine months of the fiscal year is as follows:Significant variations from budgeted projections through June include:

1. GF & LL Income: $113,826 -- $9,800 more than anticipated.
2. GF &LL Expenses: $88,581 -- $8,452 less than anticipated.
3. GF LL Net Income: $25,245 -- $18,252 more than anticipated.

Net income from fundraising activities was about $1,600 lower than anticipated, mostly due to the postponement of the Spring Music Fest. Otherwise, the Annual Appeal has brought in nearly $2,800 more than projected, and the Winterfest netted $1,400 more. Separately, corporate donations have totaled $19,400, $8,900 from PTSSD for Operation Santa, Krampuslauf, the Fall Fest, Winterfest, the Spring Music Fest and the 2 nd Street Festival, and $10,500 from developers for Operation Clean Streets. Thus far, expenses for the events funded by PTSSD have totaled approximately $4,940. Any remaining unspent funds (about $865 thru June 30) will have to be returned to PTSSD.A shortfall totaling about $5,100 in individual donations, candy machine income, the Fall Fest and community fundraising for Clean Streets partially offset the higher revenues reported above. In addition, while a $1,000 Activities Grant for Liberty Lands was received from the City, the budget anticipated that the grant would total $1,500.Spending was lower than anticipated for repair and maintenance (-$4,800.) The difference is almost entirely due to slow billing and seasonality. Spending was also lower than anticipated for professional services and program services (-$2,200).Other ItemsCapital Grant from PTSSD – As reported previously, PTSSD has awarded us a capital improvement grant of $178,000. Funding was approved to repair the exterior of the community center, renovate the basement and portions of the first floor, make substantial improvements to the yard and purchase new furnishings for the office, the basement and the main room on the first floor. In February we received $100,000. The balance – $78,000 – will be made available in November. To date, we have spent approximately $49,200 for renovations and improvements to the basement and the first floor, and repairs to the exterior of the building. This spending has generally been in line with expectations.Board Polls – In June two board polls were conducted to request funding authorization for: (1) up to $2,350 for trash removal at Liberty Lands; and (2) up to $1,500 for the purchase of a new computer for the office. The Board approved the request for purchase of the computer and pended action on the Liberty Lands request until further analysis could be conducted.2016-17 Budget – Preparation of next year’s budget will occur over the summer. As in past years draft budget recommendations will be presented to the board at the September meeting, and adoption of the budget would occur at the October meeting.Banking – Most board members will recall that nearly two years ago the bank we use -- 3 rd Federal – merged with National Penn. Now National Penn ismerging with BB&T and will operate under the BB&T name. Unlike the previous merger, this time our account numbers will change, requiring us to order new checks. Other changes in the structure of their accounts may lead to new fees or minimum balance requirements but we’re still sorting through that. While I don’t anticipate any changes that would lead us to switch banks, we should keep our options open as the transition occurs over the summer.Motion: By Troy Crichton, seconded by Chris Somers: “To accept the Treasurer's report as presented.”  Unanimously Passed Operations Committee Update:The 2^nd floor tenant will renew her lease.Fundraising Committee Update:Doughboy/ Madison Memorial Park UpdateThe “Doughboy” statue improvements will likely cost about $20,000 plus approximately $2,000 per year in maintenance costs. Options for funding include but are not limited to Fishtown's AmVets Post 146, online funding and regular donations.Project Overview:Northern Liberties Neighbors Association (NLNA) is raising money to restore and renovate the Doughboy statue and maintain the park located at 2nd & Spring Garden Streets. We are working with Kreilick Conservation LLC and the City of Philadelphia on the restoration of the statue. The Doughboy statue is located at Second and Spring Garden streets and honors soldiers (known as doughboys) from the community who served from the River Wards.

• Raising Funds to:
• Reproduce and install a bronze plaque with 400 names that was stolen, restoring the complete listing of soldiers from our community ($17,134)
• Replicate and attach missing bayonet to the soldier's left hand riffle ($1,000)
• Clean and apply a protective covering on the complete statue ($2,400)
• Support the ongoing maintenance of the statue and the park

Fund Raising

• Send letter to Rep. Bob Brady and Councilman Squilla (drafted, needs to be sent)
• Joint fundraising request for $22,000 to Penn Treaty Special Services District with Kensington Memorial AMvets Post 146 (Submitted – attending September 21 meeting)
• Donations from neighbors (Dropping off at NLNA office, started)
• Meeting with Transport Workers Union (Larry made connection, Matt and I attended July 9 Board meeting and discussed project and timeline. Waiting to hear back if they will support with donation)
• GoFundMe page – https://www.gofundme.com/doughboy2016 (Created, ready to launch and push out via Facebook, website and our email list serve)

Timeline

• Sign letter with City regarding final bid and project and discuss project invoicing schedule/payment etc.
• Fundraising public launch
• Begin work (Three months or so to complete, depending on weather etc.)
• Event to celebrate park renovations - TBD

Liberty Lands Committee ReportThere was a brief discussion of the illegal use of fireworks in the park during the 4^th of July holiday weekend.Liberty Lands Report

• Increased trash expenses – should be handled in Treasurer's report?
• Third of July and other enforcement hassles: Lots of things – problems with rule enforcement at the park (who does it, when, how, what kind of support/backup we give, etc.); increased trash including household trash left at the park; the Third of July fireworks mess and public response to it – go together to present a situation that the Liberty Lands committee is working on dealing with. We need to figure out some ways to make rule enforcement work better for the park and for us who end up doing most of it. Right now this is still something we're talking about among ourselves, but it may be an issue we need to discuss with the board and/or larger community in the fall, when we're all present and have a better sense of what we need or want.
• Report from Don about music festival?
• The reconstruction of the path that runs east-west through the south end of the park will occur this week – starting Monday and finished by the end of Friday (we hope and pray). This is a project that Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is doing for us through their Legacy Landscapes program – our friend at PHS, Eileen Gallagher, is handling it with some help/consult with Liz. This will make the path wider and more flat: better for anyone with stability issues of any kind.

 Zoning Committee Report: written report attached and reviewed.Motion: By Barbara Saverino, seconded by Monika Kreidie. “To ratify the recommendations of the Zoning Committee in the matter of 804 N. Front Street: i.e., 'We approve this project as presented.'”  Unanimously PassedMotion: By Roneil Jackson, seconded by Donald Hoegg. “To ratify the recommendations of the Zoning Committee in the matter of 601 North 5^th Street, i.e.: 'We support this project as presented with the following provisos: 1. All interior houses must have private trash and recycling pick-up. 2. If a dumpster is utilized, it cannot be visible from the street. 3. If meters cannot be located in the basement and are placed on the exterior of the houses, they must be obscured in some manner as specified in the 6/27/16 plan.'”  Unanimously PassedMotion: By Steven Richman, seconded by Monika Kreidie. “To ratify the recommendations of the Zoning Committee in the matter of 100 North Front Street, i.e.:'We support this project with the following provisos: 1. Hours will be from 9 a.m.- midnight, 7 days/week 2. Exhaust ductwork will be contained inside the building and vented on the roof with no external fan for make up air. 3. Trash will be stored in the basement and picked up from the basement. No trash will be stored on the curbs or sidewalk. 4. A trash can for customer use will be provided on the sidewalk by the entrance/exit, but the can will be brought into the store at night. 5. Signage will comply with code requirements.'”  Unanimously PassedMotion: By Barbara Saverino, seconded by Troy Crichton. “To ratify the recommendations of the Zoning Committee regarding the new Yards Brewery (5-6 Streets, Spring Garden-Willow Streets): i.e.: 'We would like them to return when their plans are further along in the process and they can describe how they will keep the sounds and smells contained within the building, waste storage and disposal, how the increased production volume will impact truck traffic (number and frequency of deliveries and pick-ups along 5 th Street), discuss the specific details for the pub and event space, parking for all proposed uses, security, etc. Larry may organize a meeting with some Zoning Committee members and the applicant and the applicant’s attorney (with refusal in hand not present prior to the zoning meeting) to help move this project forward.'”  Unanimously PassedOld BusinessSteve Richman proposed the formation of a small committee to organize the groundbreaking ceremony for the new outdoor pavilion area.New Business

• Yards Brewery would like us to be a non-profit sponsor of their “Smoke ‘em If You Got ‘em” event to take place on September 18, 2016. Troy Crichton and Chris Somers volunteered to attend and set up a display.
• 2^nd Street Fest: PBC will donate beer and set up taps. There will be an online signup to volunteer at the NLNA tent.   All board members should sign up for a 2 hour shift if possible.
• There was a discussion of recent burglaries from cars and residences in the neighborhood. There was also a discussion of community police relations

Motion: By Troy Crichton, seconded by Monika Kreidie. “To adjourn the meeting.”  Unanimously PassedThe meeting was adjourned by acclaim at 9:33p.m.Addenda:Zoning Committee Meeting Monday 6/27/16Members present: Larry Freedman (chair), Charlie Abdo, Anthony Bottenfield, Kenny Grono, Chris Isaacson, Sharon Richman, Jonathan Sher, Abbey Spector, Ira UpinMembers absent: Melissa Magness, Joe Mikuliak, Michael Simons804 N. Front St. – RM1 – Ron Patterson: A proposal to relocate lot lines - 105; 109 Brown remaining single-family dwellings – each home gets larger rear yards.Motion (Jon) - 2 nd (Kenny): Vote 7-0 We approve this project as presented.600 N. 5th St. – ICMX – Herc Grigos: A return visit with a proposal for 43 townhomes with 52 parking spaces.April 2016 Motion Thank you for your presentation. Please return to the Zoning Committee with the following: 1) Sight lines into the neighboring community under construction; 2) A better representation of the north boundary; 3) Description of the property line fence material; 4) Details of the hardscape materials; 5) Landscape plans with dimensions and species detailed; 6) Drawings in context with homes being build on 5 th Street 7) Exterior lighting plan; and, 8) Location of meters if not located in basement. Discussion: We need to assure that the interior houses will not place their trash on 5 th and 6 th Streets.Motion (Kenny) - 2 nd (Sharon): Vote 7-0-1 We support this project as presented with the following provisos: 1. All interior houses must have private trash and recycling pick-up. 2. If a dumpster is utilized, it cannot be visible from the street. 3. If meters cannot be located in the basement and are placed on the exterior of the houses, they must be obscured in some manner as specified in the 6/27/16 plan.1100 N. Front St. – CMX3 – Steve Maffei: A proposal for a restaurant as part of a larger building (special exception). Entrance is on Wildey Street. There will be hot cooking requiring exterior venting to the roof through interior ductwork. Trash will be stored in the basement and removed by a private contractor through the opening on Wildey Street. About 85% of their business will be take-out and delivery service. They have not requested a “loading zone” for food pickup and food deliveries. A blade sign will hang from the corner of the building (Wildey and Front Streets). A light will shine on the sign.Motion ( Group) : Vote 8-0 We support this project with the following provisos: 1. Hours will be from 9 a.m.- midnight, 7 days/week 2. Exhaust ductwork will be contained inside the building and vented on the roof with no external fan for make up air. 3. Trash will be stored in the basement and picked up from the basement. No trash will be stored on the curbs or sidewalk. 4. A trash can for customer use will be provided on the sidewalk by the entrance/exit, but the can will be brought into the store at night. 5. Signage will comply with code requirements.5th St. - 6th St./Spring Garden to Willow Sts. – CMX3 – Matt Handel: A proposal for a brewery including manufacturing, warehouse and distribution. In addition, there will be a brew pub. Refusal for manufacturing, an industrial use – not allowed in CMX3. Only a portion (70,000 sq. ft. on the first floor) will be used for brewing, tasting room, offices, event space. (This represents a considerable expansion over their current operation/location.) Other vendors would be in unused space. They are not far along in the planning stage. Potential ideas of how the space might be configured were presented but there were no specific plans. No information was available about how they could assure that sounds, smells and waste would be contained within the building, how much truck traffic would be generated by the expansion and increase in production. The parking situation was also unclear. With 400 parking spaces available, some would be for employees, some for outdoor events, some for patrons. Discussion: Conceptually, we are supportive of the proposed project, however we were not given enough information about the overall design, the manufacturing volume of the business, the sound, emanating odors, waste storage and disposal, trucking traffic, as well as the other proposed uses for the building (brew pub, outdoor service and events).Group Motion: We would like them to return when their plans are further along in the process and they can describe how they will keep the sounds and smells contained within the building, waste storage and disposal, how the increased production volume will impact truck traffic (number and frequency of deliveries and pick-ups along 5 th Street), discuss the specific details for the pub and event space, parking for all proposed uses, security, etc. Larry may organize a meeting with some Zoning Committee members and the applicant and the applicant’s attorney (with refusal in hand not present prior to the zoning meeting) to help move this project forward.