South Tabor Meeting Minutes
1/15/14
Written by: Brenda Reddaway
(Secretary is out on leave of absence)
Present at the meeting were: Sandra Hay Magdeleno (president), Duane Hanson (vice-president), Shem Harding (land use committee chair), Brenda Reddaway (communications chair), Jordan Palmeri, Ute Munger, Lindsey Schafer, Susie Peterson, Mark Hadley, Dave & Danielle Galat
Meeting called to order at 7PM.
Agenda rearranged slightly as the officer was not present to make his presentation. The representative from the Division Design Committee asked to come to our February meeting instead of January.
Mark Hadley and Susie Peterson made a presentation on the South Tabor Tree Project. This was started in January 2013 by the Urban Forestry Program, in which all the street trees in our neighborhood were to be inventoried. The count was made this last summer during 4 different inventories where the site, condition, and species of street trees were noted. The premise behind doing the inventory is to manage, improve, take care of, and provide education about our street trees. There were a total of 58 volunteers who worked a total of 300 hours. The final tally was 2,571 street trees in our neighborhood, providing $195,000 worth of environmental and aesthetic value. There will be 2 workshops held this year; one tentatively scheduled for March 14th to provide pruning education so that pruners can be sent out in the neighborhood, and another tentatively scheduled for May 30th about selecting and promoting tree diversity. Mark and Susan will be back at our February meeting to provide a more in-depth report on the South Tabor Tree Project. Susie also mentioned that Friends of Trees would be planting in South Tabor Saturday January 17th. Anyone interested in volunteering should meet at St Marks church at SE 54th & Powell at 8:45AM.
Officer Maxey reported on our neighborhood. There were 14 incidents last month, mostly theft and larson in random locations. He reminded us that nothing at all should be visible in vehicles to deter smash & grabs, and that we should all be keeping an eye out for our neighbors. He also commented that police resources are stretched pretty thin, and that it appears that it will get even thinner. Currently, there’s only a day shift at the SE Precinct and the rumor is that they will be going to the East Precinct and the SE Precinct will only house specialty units with no patrol. There’s 70 officers due to retire this year, and the Portland city council doesn’t think that our city need any new officers. He asked that if neighbors were of the opinion that police resources were of value to the city that they call or email the city council and express their support.
Sandra handed out a copy of an email sent by Steve Reinemer which briefly covered the Historic Land Use Committee meeting on January 14th regarding the Mt Tabor reservoirs. There was no final vote, though a show of hands suggested a split opinion. The public record will be held open til January 20th 12PM. Then there is one more week after that for responses to any new information that was presented. The final hearing and vote will be January 26th. Steve wrote that “the general sense is that the approval will hinge on stipulations that water will be maintained at appropriate levels most of the time, catch-up maintenance will be done and continued, and reversibility will be possible at reasonable cost”.
Shem reported on the land use committee meeting held on December 18th. They discussed potential issues needing LUC attention, including the Bus Rapid Transit Project on Powell Blvd, the Division Design Committee standards, the problem of increasing home demolitions in South Tabor, and access to Mt Tabor from SE 64th Ave. There was a presentation at their meeting on the 9-unit apartment building going in at 6518 SE Division; it was decided that no response was needed. There was discussion regarding the Franklin Modernization Project. A letter was drafted to be sent to PPS regarding neighbor concerns re the path that goes across Clinton Park from South Tabor to Mt Tabor, and changing Taggart Ct from a dead-end street to a parking-access road for the school. Shem noted that South Tabor can appeal any decision made by PPS and the city. The letter was voted on and approved (all yeas with no nays or abstentions) and will be sent.
Brenda handed in her budget for communications. She reviewed the SEUL communications funds packet; South Tabor will be entitled to $789.14 and we expect to use the funds on an annual newsletter and new neighbor welcome bags. It was voted and approved (all yeas with no nays or abstentions) by the board to accept the funds and that Brenda should be the contact person. Brenda wants to start profiling business owners, musicians, artists, etc that live in the neighborhood on the South Tabor Facebook group page and on the website. She also brought up the idea of having a Good Samaritan Program, where neighbors could help out their neighbors. Sandra mentioned it sounded like the Resource Sharing Program that they tried to implement a couple of years ago. Brenda also asked about changing the meeting place. The Discovery Church offered the use of their coffee shop The Porch. It was decided that there are a few more questions to be asked and it will be revisited at the next meeting.
Duane said that the Harvest Festival is scheduled for September 13th, 2015 at Trinity Fellowship Church.
The November minutes were reviewed and approved – 6 yeas, 1 abstention, 0 nays.
Sandra presented the 2015 budget. She projected that South Tabor could bring in about $4900 worth of revenue and that there would be $4415 in expenses.
Meeting was adjourned.
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