Members Present: Polly Gilbert, Carol Lavoie, Mickey McDiarmid, Erin Macri, Patrick McKee, Teresa Tripp, Dan McShane (County Council), Margaret Lyons, Mary Anne Stuckart, Don Gisher (City Council), Liz Jennings, Patti Basart; David Donohue, Roxanee Orr

Just to let Neighbors know that input from neighbors is most important and always valued so please speak up and let your voices be heard however, anything that needs to be voted on is done so by the board members obviously with all consideration to what the neighborhood wants and needs.

New Business: 1. Approved Minutes from 04/17/07 Meeting (board vote) Margaret Lyons moved to approve minutes, Erin Macri 2nd

2. By-laws need to be changed and voted on – Theresa Tripp (board Vote) Hugh pointed out that SNA needs to change by-laws in order to receive City money that Liz Jennings earned SNA by attending the Neighborhood Planning Academy. Katherine Hanowell has indicated the by-laws need to be inclusive. Theresa did not have a corrected copy of the by-laws changes. P. McKee was hesitant to vote without seeing the changes in writing. The proposed changes will be sent out before the next meeting and we will have a vote.

Traffic Committee – Patrick McKee …Hugh and you discussed the TIP with Chris Comeau The Transportation Improvement Program excluded a project that was proposed for James Street pedestrian crosswalk improvements - $550,000 was in the 2007 TIP and now in the 2008 TIP the James St $ was eliminated. P. McKee pointed out with Trader Joe’s opening, etc. the traffic on James will be increasing and the neighborhood was counting on the improvements. The public record is open until May 21 and P. McKee encouraged all neighbors to contact City Council via email, U.S. Mail or phone. L. Jennings pointed out that when we picked our top 3 projects for neighborhood traffic calming projects, we assumed that James St. would have $550,000 of pedestrian crosswalk improvements. P. McKee pointed out that two projects that were part of Project 21 proposal are still in the plan but not James St.

Action Item: Before Noon on Monday, May 21, please contact City council members: citycouncil@cob.org, Gene Knutson, 734-4686, Louise Bjornson, 733-7756. Erin Macri offered to draft a letter each resident could use to send to Council; it will be posted on Google site.

Patrick McKee - Intersections proposed by SNA for traffic calming devices will be studied by City Traffic Dept. for King, James and Grant Streets. L. Jennings suggested contacting Assumption School to help with traffic in the neighborhood.

Neighborhood Planning Committee – Liz Jennings The committee meets Bi-Monthly to update SNA plan to propose to City Planning Dept. in December. The DOT land is a major focal point of plan. The new owners -Hinton and Edelstein- wanted a blank check as far as zoning and the City Council said no. L. Jennings said they met with Mr. Hinton on Monday, May 14, and he indicated the owners do not have plans for the site in the immediate future. The Neighborhood Planning Committee will meet again with the owners and present what the SNA would like to do with the property. Theresa asked if the property would be maintained. Mickey reported that Mr. Hinton asked her partner if he would be willing to maintain the property. P. McKee said the SNA asked owner to work with SNA to change zoning to a smaller lot size. P. McKee told the owner that SNA can propose a zoning change for free and the owner seemed interested in working with the SNA. Next meeting is 6:30pm on May 21 at M. Lyons’ house, 2818 Humboldt St.

Mayors Neighborhood Advisory Committee – Patrick McKee The city is doing emergency planning and each neighborhood can have a representative. P. McKee encouraged someone from the neighborhood to become a member of the Emergency Planning Committee. Dan McShane said a new Food Bank that will withstand an earthquake is part of the plan. There will be a forum for mayoral and council candidates in the near future. L Jennings encouraged SNA to be inclusive so we don’t end up with problems like Fairhaven NA. Dan McShane said that York NA changed the zoning and it is very important to have a clear process if anybody objects to the changes.

Northern Neighbors Association - Do we want to join? - Margaret Lyons C. Lavoie wondered what the advantage would be for the SNA? L. Jennings suggested exercising caution and find out their agenda before joining. C. Lavoie suggested attending the meetings and D. Donohue suggested checking their website. L. Jennings said NNA was interested in Interstate-to-waters routes. No decision was made on joining the NNA.

Treasures Report – Hugh Conroy reported that we had a few more businesses join the SNA.

Old Business: SNA Annual Picnic – Erin Macri Erin said the picnic will be on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. Erin suggested including the businesses and inviting them to attend. Liz asked about SNA elections and the picnic. Theresa said our positions are 2 years and we can appoint new members if anyone resigns. Elections will be next spring.

Street Tree Grant – Patrick/David (form committee) David Donohue will be the Street Tree project coordinator and Patrick McKee will be the planner. There is an approved list of what trees can be planted. The trees can be distributed in a number of ways: lottery, knock on doors, create a barrier between industrial area and neighborhood, ask for donations to get a Street Tree and volunteers will come and plant the tree. L. Jennings asked if there is an application and people promise to water the trees. P. McKee said we need donations or volunteers for planting the trees. We need a class on how to plant trees.

The best time to plant is in the fall.

Announcements:
• Sunnyland Walk-a-Thon: June 1. Please help raise money for playground equipment in Memorial Park!

• L. Jennings showed a postcard that other neighborhoods send for mtg announcements.

• 2007 SNA Yearly Dues are now Due