BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES – Meeting of October 5, 2015

PRESENT:  Matt Ruben, President; Michael Coyne, Vice-President; Steve Richman, Treasurer;  Janet Finegar, Secretary; Troy Crichton; Larry Freedman; Jesse Gardner; Sasi Judd; Monika Kreidie; Frank Maimone; Don Phillips; Barbara Saverino; Anne Waginger.ABSENT:   Jeremy Lindemann; Chris Somers.The meeting was called to order by the President at 7:10 p.m.Motion: By Monika Kreidie, seconded by Sasi Judd:“To approve the minutes of the September Board meeting as presented.”  Passed 8-0-2President’s Report: Matt Ruben.Matt reminded the Board of the fall meet-n-greet scheduled for October 22^nd and reported that it has been publicized on Facebook and the NLNA listserv.Matt reported that there is a Northern Liberties “slot” opening on the Board of the Penn Treaty Special Services District: any resident of Northern Liberties is eligible to apply for the position. He encouraged NLNA Board members to consider applying and will also publicize the opening to the neighborhood in general.Finally, Matt reported that the city's office responsible for taking care of and repairing statuary has said that the cost of replacing the bayonet and plaque on the Doughboy statue in Madison Memorial Park would be $2,500: this is money the city cannot put up but that we could pay and have the work done immediately. After some discussion, it was agreed that the NLNA should seek the funds to have the statue repaired from the local politicians, Penn Herb, and/or apply to the PTSSD for a small grant.Treasurer's Report: Steve Richman: written report distributed and reviewed.Steve reviewed the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016, highlighting changes from the previous year's budget and minor changes from the draft reviewed in September. On the whole, the fiscal health of the NLNA is excellent, with donations and revenues largely matching expenses. The proposed FY16 budget will allow the Association to continue its programs without reductions in services and to continue to maintain a responsible reserve fund.There was some conversation about budgeting for the Fall Music Festival and a plan for expending the funds left over from the grant given by the PTSSD in honor of Amber Long. It was agreed that the budget should assume that only one Music Festival will take place in FY16, given that one festival is often postponed or canceled based on weather. A plan was crafted for moving forward with spending the leftover funds for public safety programs.Motion: By Frank Maimone, seconded by Anne Waginger. “To accept the FY16 budget, with the amendment of eliminating the Fall Music Festival from the FY16 budget and projecting the $1,500 that was budgeted as income for the Fall Music Festival as income for the 2^nd Street Festival.”  Passed 12-0-0 New BusinessAnne reported that she is going to begin the process of putting together the letter and electronic version of our Annual Appeal. She will reach out to Katrina to draft a version of the appeal letter for the current year.Monika noted with appreciation how useful the www.nlna.org website is and also how much positive activity has been going on in the neighborhood recently.Janet reported that there is a controversy going on regarding the small/service streets off the west side of the 800 block of 5^th Street and the east side of the 800 block of 6^th Street: the residents either believe that the small streets are private or would like them to be privatized and have been discussing the issue with Council President Clarke's office. At the same time, there have been three incidents in the last week of slashed tires in the service street of 5^th Street. Matt has reached out to Clarke's office to urge them to help resolve the issues.Frank reported that Rustica has been working with a program through the Merchant Fund which is designed to help small businesses on commercial corridors. He recommended that local businesses look into the resource. Matt noted that the NLNA has helped some local businesses with applications in the past and that as the deadline approaches we can make people aware through the listserv. As part of the discussion, it was agreed that Anne would give Frank copies of the Annual Appeal brochure to send out with local pizza deliveries.Steve reported that we are in the preliminary stages of planning to apply to the PTSSD for a grant to do improvements at the Community Center – specifically, the back yard, the basement, and repointing of the building have all been raised as areas for improvement. He suggests putting together a committee to evaluate the various needs and put together a proposal. Monika, Jesse, Barbara, Steve, Sharon Richman and Sasi were all willing to be on such a committee. Liberty Lands Committee Report: Janet Finegar: reviewed –Liberty Lands Board Report – October 2015

• As the final activities of the 2014 PTSSD grant, we'll put in the new playground equipment on October 10. Seth's crew will do all the hard work and prep on the 9th, and then we'll do a community install on the 10th itself. There will also be a memorial tree planting on the 11th that we'll prep for beforehand.
• Probably because of the pope-weekend trash hiatus, there's been a LOT of short dumping at the park. We have new signs to put on the trash corrals, etc., this weekend. I'm also proposing to ask Matt to put this message on the NLNA listserv to cover a bunch of issues: “Respect our parks! Northern Liberties is extremely lucky to have two parks owned and maintained by the neighborhood – but they need the community's respect to function! Liberty Lands and Orianna Hill Park remind you that it is NEVER acceptable to use park cans for household trash or recycling. Dogs at Liberty Lands must ALWAYS be leashed (and the leash held onto at the other end!): no exceptions. Dogs at the dog run of Orianna Hill Park should be registered with the park (go to oriannahill.org) before they run. Finally, mark your calendars: both parks have work/play days scheduled for November 14, Philly's Love Your Park Fall Cleanup date. Meet your neighbors and help your parks!”
• After many hassles with Tim, the trash guy, we've gone back to Greg (who worked for us more than a year ago doing the trash hauling). We're hoping THIS will go well. We all still miss Dennis.
• On the other hand, we have a new “honey-do” guy (a person who does a bunch of trash pickup and other such chores around the park) named Chico, and he's been very useful, especially with weedwhacking the various areas that don't get mowed.
• Kate Hawk has taken on organizing the Fall Festival, which will be November 1. Janet applied for a PTSSD sponsorship to pay for the hay ride and moon bounce.
• Rotten weather cancelled the two events that should have been on Oct. 2/3: both have been rescheduled for late fall. The N3RD Street “Birthday Party” event will be on Saturday, Oct. 24 and the craft bazaar/fire dancing fundraiser for Lux Arati will be on November 15th.

The meeting was adjourned by acclaim at 8:45 p.m.