October 2012

1. Call to Order – Meeting called to order at 7:20 pm.
2. Sign In and Introductions
3. Treasurer report – No treasurer present but the balance is the same as last month, $1451.71.

4. Announcements

Karen Greene is now working at the Main Library. We can now consult her on any issues related to that library.

Brad Lancaster announces several upcoming events:

• November 4, 8 am – 12 pm, will be a community garden and playground cleanup day.
• November 12, 7:30 am, will be the neighborhood tree planting. Contact Robert Redding (520 490-8951 or robert@nestemail.com) to order trees – the deadline to order is October 27. See desertharvesters.org for the list of available trees, but contact Robert to order because this years order form is not yet available.
• November 18, 9 am – 12 or 2 pm (depending on when food runs out), will be the Desert Harvesters mesquite milling and mesquite breakfast bake sale at the community garden. Volunteers are needed and it would also be good to have people to communicate what is happening with the neighborhood art.

Brad informs us that 98% of the plantings in the reinvestment project have been completed. Not all the planned curb cuts were made because we’ve run out of money. Be sure to watch the new plants and water them if needed – the city has already stopped providing supplemental water.

The question comes up of whether to send out our yearly newsletter now to spread the word about these events as well as Chip and Mulchy and the Pie Party in the spring. We agree this would be a good idea and to contact Turtle to get it started.

Diane Austin and Danielle Salas are here from the U of A to gather some information for research that they are performing on people’s perceptions about land on the urban scale. They are interested in sampling Dunbar Spring and would like to know the best way to reach people – the listserve, website, and email are good but somewhat limited in their reach, better would be the newsletter and actual person-to-person contact at our upcoming neighborhood events. They will send us text to include in the newsletter and will hopefully we’ll see them at our upcoming events.

5. Discussion

(a) Speedway + Stone Development Update – Roy Drachman, the broker who is working the prospective developers of the southwest corner of Speedway and Stone, is here to tell us that the developers are interested in moving forward and are now working with the Chicago based John Buck Company. Patrick Buck of the John Buck Co. has already been out to visit and it sounds like they are very experienced with this type of development. They received our list of requests and seem amenable to all of them, except they mentioned that affordable housing may be difficult. We reiterate that that is a pretty important condition. No plans are on paper yet, but the concept is apartments for 250-300 students with retail, 3-4 stories, and a parking structure inside. They have sent out an RFP to architects and are looking to open fall of 2014. We should expect Patrick Buck and the John Buck Co. to be out contacts from here on.

(b) Reinvestment Project Art Update – Jesus Robles of the DUST artist team and Jennifer Donofrio of TDOT are here to update us on the status of the DUST bench project. Our approved plan was to have 20-30 stools along 9th Avenue, however, the project’s $2000 budget will only allow for the artists to construct 5 stools. For liability and funding reasons, the project can’t use the community for labor. The upside is that the artists will create a reusable mold and give it to the neighborhood, so we can create as many additional stools as we want in the right of way. The city will only be liable for the first five, meaning they’ll only fix or replace the first five if they fall apart. Jesus would like to help if we choose to build more, but that will be outside of the contract that they are currently working under. Jennifer says it should be okay for us to build the rest, but asks that we please contact her before building anything in the right of way. They will use a soil cement like material and the cost of construction will be almost entirely labor. We discuss the arrangement of the five benches – facing the street seems to be the consensus. Brad has some additional suggestions and would like to be consulted before final placement.

The fish sculpture by Joe Lupiani is currently being cast and should be installed early February. The Historic Crossroads sign is underway and should be installed in November, same for the lizard bench.

6. Committee Reports

(a) Downtown Links – Jacqueline Foxx attended the October 8 meeting and reports that the RTA would like to eliminate the deck park, but they said they may reconsider because of the public outcry. All of the management has changed and they don’t seem to know the history between the project and us. There is an upcoming meeting on October 24 and a hearing on November 29. It sounds like we will need to be active again in expressing our positions to the new management. Update: I received a flyer for a Pre-Construction Open House on October 30 at 5 pm at the University Services Annex. Is there also a meeting on October 24?

(b) Community Garden – The budget has been ok. Tierra y Libertad Organization and Green for All are interested in possibly using some of our unused plots. There have been some issues with people being at the garden all day. In particular, Brad’s sister in law does not feel comfortable taking her son there because there are adults hanging out in the playground as well as lots of smoking and drinking. The posted rules explicitly say no smoking or drinking and that adults must be accompanied by a child in the playground – everyone is encouraged to call the police department if they see people disrespecting these rules.

(c) Dunbar Coalition – The Grijalva fundraiser was a success. Insurance has been approved for the new charter school. Cabinets have been installed in the museum for the buffalo soldiers exhibit. Anthony Johnson is now working on a garden at River and Dodge.

7. Approval of Minutes from September – Lisa Scoblink moves to approve, Elizabeth Upham seconds. Motion carries unanimously.

8. Adjourn – Meeting adjourned at 8:40 pm.