Happy Valley Neighborhood Board Meeting Minutes 11/18/2008

The meeting was called to order by President John Hymas at 7:00PM at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church.
Neighbors in attendance were Hue Beattie, Yvonne Dean, Carolyn Herron, Wendy Scherrer, Richard Sullivan, Jim Spaich, Bobbi Vollendorff and Joe Deeny.

Discussion ensued on recent property assessments in the hood.  Nobody was very pleased with them and some people intended to challenge their assessments at the Board of Equalization.

Bobbi donated $25.00 to cover stamps for our mailer.

The planned tree planting was discussed.  John Merrill volunteered to help Johnny go from Mount Vernon to Lynden to pick up trees on Friday.  Justin and Jim were to help with the prep and all were to meet at Wendy’s Friday afternoon.  People volunteering for the actual Saturday planting were instructed to meet at Wendy’s between 9:30 and 10:00 for hot drinks and donuts before being assigned into planting teams.

Kate Nichols was contacted by Renee Lacroix, an environmental resources person at Public Works about a meeting set for December 4, 2008.  
The meeting is about rechanneling Padden Creek. The meeting location was not disclosed and neither was the time.  Hopefully Kate will read these minutes and email folks about the time and place.

Our big meeting with Raven Whitewolf to attempt and get one point of contact for all our Padden Creek and maintenance issues and will not take place until January.

Newsletter meeting with Jim, Jeff, Anne George and Tip to be arranged.  Wendy suggested that advertising in newsletter would be a good idea.  She suggested that we could use a business card size area in the newsletter and charge approximately $25.00 per issue or offer 4 issues for $80. The target groups are hood based business owners. Yvonne volunteered to work on the “model” document to keep track of advertisers.

The Next General meeting will be January 31.  Newsletter deadline will be around 14-15 of January.  Discussion returned to the newsletter and how the masthead could be reduced in size

Discussion moved to the $1000 money from the City.  We have spent approximately $525 on our new signs, $300 to rent our meeting space from Our Saviour’s Church and $175 stamps for mailings.

We are looking for a new treasurer.  Jeff Kraus is moving to Sedro Woolley.  Anne George is willing to deal with the membership part of the treasurer’s job.

Tip can you add all the new membership names to our data base?

Jim and Johnny met to work on the trifold mailout to advertise our neighborhood group and solicit money.  They plan to get it out in early December to encourage people to donate.

Johnny would like to have a meeting/neighborhood tour with the new President of WWU, Bruce Shepherd.  It was suggested that Linda Stewart and Tim Stewart be included.  Dates targeted for this meeting were Jan. 9, 16, 23, or 30. We’re thinking maybe 1:30-4:00 PM.  Justin, Yvonne, Carolyn, Johnny and Wendy would like to be included in this event.

Bicycle/Pedestrian Safety Committee was looking for input on making out hood more bicycle/pedestrian friendly.  The intersection at 25th and Bill McDonald Parkway is our priority.  If we have more opportunity we are also concerned about Donovan from Old Fairhaven Parkway to 32nd.


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