CANA January 2021 Meeting Minutes | Call to order: 7:03pm
Attendance: Nicole Schroeder, George Heeren, Amy Hall-Haney, Denise Klemp, Ashley Vanorny
Attendance: Nicole Schroeder, George Heeren, Amy Hall-Haney, Denise Klemp, Ashley Vanorny
- CRPD - Lt. Welsh - NOT IN ATTENDANCE - Report by email includes his comments: From a law enforcement perspective, one of the major issues that we are dealing with is towing vehicles for street storage due to them not being moved since the snowstorm. We are working on getting vehicles moved, but it is time consuming. If you have any neighbors that have not moved their vehicles, please ask them to do so. If you have a vehicle that is causing an issue, please feel free to contact me. m.welsh@cedar-rapids.org 319-286-5543
- CRFD - Chief Smith - NOT IN ATTENDANCE - Report by email to review and distribute January Neighborhood News
- City Council - Councilwoman Vanorny - Review of ReLeaf program since derecho. The Linn County Sustainability Coordinator Tamara Marcus is interested in discussing relief efforts in our community. They have a grant program for individual residents as well as commercial properties. Ashley will be getting them in touch with us by email.
- City of CR - Jeff Wozencraft - NOT IN ATTENDANCE - Report by email includes his encouragement to review the Downtown CR Dollars program with the CR Metro Economic Alliance
- Treasurer’s Report - Amy Hall-Haney - $474.93 in account as of January 1, 2021. No incoming or outgoing payments currently. Nicole and Ashley will follow up on insurance and tax preparation expenses / reimbursement from the City.
- Review of FY22 Work Plan - George Heeren - Review of work plan. Discussion of flower garden or decorative shrubbery near the Cleveland Park sign on 1st Ave across from Central Church of Christ. May look at something other than butterfly garden, due to lack of water accessibility. Denise Klemp will research options for this area. Discussion of video marketing efforts on website and social media in 2021 and 2022. George would like to complete one video per month to share about community / city happenings.
- Alliant Energy Foundation Grant Program to develop the FY22 Work Plan / trees in the park - Nicole Schroeder - Would like to submit a $4,800 grant request for trees in and around Cleveland Park (8 trees at estimated cost to purchase + install of $600/each). Denise Klemp suggested talking to Scott Hock or Brent with the City of Cedar Rapids Parks & Recreation department before requesting the grant. They may have a better idea on what to request and why (i.e. recommended trees for our area) in the grant application. Denise and Nicole will coordinate on the tree quotes / expenses before applying for the grant. Grant information can be found online.
- Discussion of adding 3 “block” parties in the neighborhood directly vs. at the park. Post COVID-19, George would like to plan ahead for this type of event for FY23 if we cannot add it safely in FY22.
- Discussion of survey in neighborhood - and maybe encouraging all neighborhood associations to participate. Asking neighbors about how they like to be communicated with (email, text, mail) and what events they like to do (free community events, information nights, meals / fundraisers, etc.). Potential for bulk mailing rate if we can coordinate this with the city neighborhood initiative. Jeff Wozencraft would be the best resource to discuss this project with.
- Future Meeting Options (Live Stream on Facebook or Call-in Options) - Nicole Schroeder - Review of options, including Zoom private or Zoom public and FreeConferenceCall.com. Nicole is willing to set this service up if we can make a decision of what we want to do. Discussion of pros vs. cons and set up possibilities. Discussion of comment moderation in real-time vs. follow up. We will test the Zoom options at the next meeting in February.
- Light The Block by Doug & Mary Jo Elam - Nicole Schroeder reporting on behalf of Doug Elam (submitted by email): We had 12 out of 20 houses with Christmas lights on our block this year. Something for the Assn to promote next year. I’d be glad to head it up if the Assn would throw some bucks at it.
- Neighbors were very excited about this project / idea! Very thankful for Doug sharing this idea and information. We would like to revisit this in September to plan for winter 2021.
