Jordan Elects New Board Members!

The Jordan neighborhood held its annual meeting last night (10/22) and elected five new board members:

• Mike McCloskey, Catalyst Foundation employee
• Keith Reitman, property owner and incumbent board member
• Lynn Riskadel, resident
• Dan Rother, resident and incumbent board member
• Dennis Wagner, resident

Leaving the board are P.J. Hubbard, Deb Wager and Yulin Yin.  Michael “Kip” Browne leaves as an elected board member but remains as an ex officio member for the next year since he is the outgoing board chair.

Two people were selected as an elector and alternate for the Neighborhood Revitalization Program’s (NRP’s) annual election of four neighborhood residents to the NRP Policy Board.  Polly Peterson was selected as elector and Dottie Titus as alternate.  The elector will help select the Policy Board’s Revitalization representative (Minneapolis has 37 neighborhoods that identified themselves as Revitalization neighborhoods–Jordan is one of them) and the at-large representative.  That election happens on November 19 at the NRP location downtown.

The rest of the meeting…

ANNUAL MEETING ON THURSDAY, 10/22!!!

REMEMBER TO ATTEND THE ANNUAL MEETING ON THURSDAY, 10/22!

There’s dinner at 6 p.m.  Then you’ll hear from the Jordan neighborhood’s board of directors on what the past fiscal year (June 1, 2008 through May 31, 2009) was all about as well as where the organization stands today.  Committees will give brief reports on what they have accomplished.  Two special presentations:  (1) by Hennepin County on the proposed light rail transit routes through and around North Minneapolis, and (2) by BIKO and Associates on the design for the 26th Avenue Bike and Greenway.

Along the way, we’ll elect some new board members (5 candidates are running for the job) as well as a representative to vote on who will represent the 37 revitalization neighborhoods on the Neighborhood Revitalization Program’s Policy Board.

Please come out and join your neighbors for some social time and civic engagement!

It all begins at 6 p.m. at 3120 Washburn Avenue N at Parkway United Church.  This is the church that sits at the intersection of Lowry Avenue and Washburn Avenue.  Entrance is from the church parking lot, which can be reached from Vincent Avenue.

Nominating Committee Minutes – 9/28/09

The  minutes from the 9/21/09 meeting are still in work–our secretary was not at that meeting.  Will post as soon as available.  Here are the minutes from the 28th.

Nominating Committee Meeting Minutes

September 28, 2009

6:30 pm

JACC Office

Attendees: Dave Haddy, Todd Heintz, Tyrone Jaramillo, Dottie Titus

Absent:            Megan Goodmundson

The meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m.

Items discussed:

–        No minutes were provided for 9/21/09 (Megan absent).

–        Reviewed action items:

• Tyronne said Parkway United Church was flexible about our meeting times (will notify them we need the space by 5:30 p.m).  He will contact about how we get the key, lock up, etc.  Todd offered to pick up the key on 10/22 during his lunch break.
• Tyronne found the name tag ribbons and will order them.  They will identify board members, nominating committee members and candidates
• Dave, Todd and Tyronne all plan to help at the table for the Harvest Days celebration on October 10.  Megan will do flyer.  Dave offered his help if she needed it.
• Waiting for Megan to report:  e-mail elected officials to invite; pick up neon green name tags for voters; sign-in sheets; flyer for Harvest Days Festival

–        Candidate vetting is complete.  The official list of candidates is as follows:

• Mike McCloskey, CATALYST, employed in Jordan neighborhood
• Keith Reitman, owns property in Jordan neighborhood
• Lynn Riskedal, resident
• Daniel Rother, resident
• Dennis Wagner, resident

–        Ballot design is being done by Megan

–        Two of the three tellers have confirmed (Bob Cooper, Linda Higgins).

–        Reviewed the postcards to be sent to all eligible voters; committee approved unanimously.

–        Reviewed the agenda for the annual meeting.  There was some concern that more time may be needed for the forensic audit portion.  Dottie suggested that if that appears to be the case, we can recommend the audit be discussed at the next community forum where it could be given more time.  The agenda for the annual meeting was approved.

–        We have requested a small grant from General Mills for food for the annual meeting and some community meetings. There has not been a response yet.  Unofficial word is that we can use some JACC funds to buy food at Costco and prepare it ourselves for the meeting.  Menu to be decided at a future meeting, but we are looking at things like large pans of lasagne and salad.

Meeting adjourned at 7:08pm (moved by Dave, seconded by Todd).

Action Items/Tasks from 9-28-09 Nom Comm.

Who	Description	Deadline
Megan	Invite 2 electeds	10/5
Megan	Make a flyer for Harvest Festival	10/5
Tyrone	Get instructions from Parkway United on lockup	10/19
Megan/Dave	Design ballot with bio info	10/5
Megan/Dottie	Sign-in sheets for annual meeting	10/5
Megan	Pick up name tags (neon green)	10/19

Demolition was cancelled

The Delisi demolition community aspect was cancelled–too few participants.  Perhaps everyone was still recovering from the Cottage Park beautification project?  The work goes on, however.

Ever wanted to do demolition? Here’s your chance!

An important announcement received today:

Support the work of Catalyst Community Partners (CCP) by participating in a building demolition on West Broadway Avenue in North Minneapolis.

The former Delisi building on the corner of Penn Avenue North and West Broadway in North Minneapolis is being gutted and rehabbed to make room for the new home of KMOJ Radio and a potential restaurant. To save on construction costs, we are recruiting 20 volunteers a day for demolition work this coming Friday and Saturday, October 2 and 3 from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm.

Volunteers are needed to remove large amounts of trash, haul out old furniture and carpet, demolish walls and a couple of walk in coolers. All of the hazardous material has been removed and an air filter machine will run for 24 hours before crews arrive to freshen the interior air.

Food and beverages will be provided on the work site.

To sign up, please contact Terry Egge at tegge@pohladfamilygiving.org. In your email, please provide:
1. Day(s) you are able to work
2. Tools you may be able to bring
3. Whether or not you will need a pair of work gloves
We anticipate that volunteer slots will fill up quickly so please respond by Thursday, October 1st at 1pm.

Thank you for your interest. We promise it will be a fun and exhausting experience!

Terry Egge
Senior Program Officer
Pohlad Family Foundation
60 South Sixth Street, Suite 3900
Minneapolis, MN 55402
612-661-3922
tegge@pohladfamilygiving.org

Pohlad Family Foundation Gives and Gives

The Pohlad Family Foundation has been extremely generous to the Jordan neighborhood.  This past week, they orchestrated an event to improve the Cottage Park area of the neighborhood.  A while ago, they provided funding for home improvements in the form of forgivable loans.  This week, the organized a huge volunteer effort to beautify that area, primarily on James and Hillside Avenues.  Professional contractors were on hand to assist, and there were a large number of volunteers from both inside and outside the neighborhood.  The Pohlad businesses paid the airfare for their out-of-town employees who volunteered.  The Pohlad Family Foundation paid all other expenses associated with the project, including for those volunteers who were not employees of Pohlad-owned companies.

It began with a kickoff dinner Thursday evening.  The theme was that when you show people that you care about them, they begin to care more about themselves.  And so paint, flowers, shrubs, lawn mowers, mulch and all kinds of people showed up in Cottage Park on Friday and Saturday to beautify this formerly blighted part of the Jordan neighborhood.  Chain link fences were removed from front yards where people wanted to get rid of them.  This is huge, in my opinion, because nothing says “ghetto” or “blighted” like a chain link fence in the front yards.  So Cottage Park continues its amazing restoration with the efforts of the Ackerberg Group, the Pohlad Family Foundation, Catalyst and other organizations.

And then, on a more personal note, two volunteers from the beautification project did something enormous for me.  They had heard how hard it’s been for me to keep up with my housework while battling cancer over the past couple of years.  On Sunday afternoon, after working hard on Friday and Saturday and driving folks to the airport on Sunday, they showed up at my door armed with cleaning supplies.  They scrubbed my vinyl floors, vacuumed my carpet, dusted and cleaned.  I am so grateful to them for their kindness and generosity.  It was a huge gift to me, and it was my birthday.  What a terrific present I received.

The Jordan neighborhood has been blessed in many ways with all the good things that are happening to make it a beautiful place.  Many people and organizations are working hard to help.  Today, though, I want to thank the Pohlad Family Foundation and two very special women for all that they gave.

Nominating Committee Minutes 9/14/09

Nominating Committee Meeting Minutes

September 14, 2009

6:30 pm

JACC Office

Attendees: Megan Goodmundson, Dottie Titus, Todd Heintz, Tyrone Jaramillo, Dave Haddy

Absent:                  none

The meeting was called to order at 6:44 p.m.

Items discussed:

Nominating Committee Minutes 8/31/09

Nominating Committee Meeting Minutes

August 31, 2009

6:30 pm

JACC Office

NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE 8/31

ATTENDANCE: D Haddy, D Titus, T Jaramillo, T Heintz,

AGENDA

D Haddy motioned

2712/2714 Penn Ave Vacant for Past 1-2 Weeks – Quiet

What relief!  The duplex at 2712/2714 Penn Ave N has been empty for more than a week.  It’s been quiet.  For the first week, prostitution was noticeably less on the corner of 27th and Penn.  It’s been picking up a bit in the last couple of days, but then crime will always attempt to fill a vacuum.  Those who used to sell at 2700 Morgan need to find a new place to stand.  As I drove to church yesterday, I saw an older car with license number _CA-12_ (the last number was either 5 or 8  ) stop and pick  up one of the prettier gals that were out.  He was dressed really nice in a white dress shirt, too.  I think she was giving him a sample as I followed themnorth to Lowry.  His driving got kind of erratic for part of a block before they turned east on Lowry.

It’s still a good feeling to know that the city has taken action on 2712/2714.  Now if we can get something done about 2707 Penn, this part of Penn is gong to be really nice.

Nominating Committee Minutes 8/24/09

Nominating Committee Meeting Minutes

August 24, 2009

6:30 pm

JACC Office

Attendees: Megan Goodmundson, Dottie Titus, Todd Heintz

Absent:                  Tyrone Jaramillo, Vlad Monroe, Dave Haddy

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m.

There was a lack of quorum, and