FNA General Membership Meeting
01/22/2018 7:00 pm
Board Members in attendance: Geri Gotton – Public Safety, Melanie Dotzour – Finance, Deanna Stuart
– Membership, Sean Ford – Promotions, Susan Harper – Historic Preservation, Sara Karashin – President, Betty Spitzburg – Communications, Breinn Richter – Infrastructure, and Leah Suasnovar – Administration.
7:02 Call to order
New members welcomed
NPO Sergio Guadarrama sent electronic update: The recent burglary on Fairmount is being investigated, a suspect vehicle has been identified. In addition, a suspect has been named in the recent indecent exposure incident.
Code Compliance office, Eric Muhammed update: 1725 S Adams has a new owner. Owner states the junk vehicles located in the backyard should be removed soon. There is a junk motor vehicle hearing on the calendar regarding these vehicles already – so they should be removed one way or the other. Mr. Muhammed is spending some time in heavier blighted areas, and reminded us that calling the Service Center was the most efficient way to file a complaint. Code Telephone: 817-392-1234; email: codecares@fortworthtexas.gov; or submit complaint online here:
http://apps.fortworthtexas.gov/codecompliance/codeOps_Citizen/newcomplaint.asp
Jennifer Flynn with Meals on Wheels gave a brief presentation on the program. They serve the homebound and those unable to prepare meals on their own, with no income restrictions. Meals cooked daily during lunch time Monday through Friday, volunteers deliver one day a week. They can also use “handy man” type volunteers to help make minor repairs. Visit www.mealsonwheels.org to volunteer or learn more about the program.
Director Updates:
Melanie, Director of Finance: Checking account balance: $8028.39, $17,858 in savings, Community Garden balance: $3910.15. (Email Melanie at finance@historicfairmount.com with questions)
Betty, Director of Communications: There will be a monthly cover contest for the neighborhood school aged children, ages 18 and under. Each month will have a theme, GREEN is the theme for March. There will also be an “Artist Spotlight” feature in the newsletter. Email Betty at
communications@historicfairmount.com with suggestions or questions. You can also email Betty to sign up for the weekly informational emails that go out, or volunteer to write articles for newsletter, or to deliver newsletters. 14th of the month is the deadline for article submission for the newsletter. Reminder, the monthly edition of the newsletter only gets delivered to members, so join today so you don’t miss Betty’s great newsletter.
Susan, Director of Preservation: In regards to the Boswell Milk Sign at Fairmount and Allen. The insurance company for Arise Africa had a deadline for repairing sign of 12/31/17 to maintain liability coverage, because they did not have the funds Arise Africa went to the city for an alternative. The HP Office requested approval to remove the sign so long as it was displayed inside the building and visible to passers by. Now that the sign has been removed, it must be brought back up to Code before it can be put back. If you have questions about this sign, or what it would take to restore it call Janie Morales with the City of Fort Worth, 817-392-7810.
1725 S Adams has new owners, neighbors near there need to keep an eye on it, if anything starts happening at the property besides cleaning, please notify Susan.
If you would like to join the Preservation Committee, or if you see construction or demolition that seems out of place, contact Susan ASAP at preservation@historicfairmount.com.
Martin Dahl is hosting a monthly palaver at the Community Library. They will review the overlay ordinance, go over HCLC, – basically all things historical. Come with specific questions pertaining to your project if you need help. Always remind your neighbors to contact the Preservation Board if they have questions about remodeling projects in their home.
Geri, Director of Safety, 2/10 – next COPS class, will last four hours. Be careful at the railroad crossings! Trains hang over tracks 3 feet, and traveling at 35/45 mph, it can take them 2 miles to come to a complete stop. Leave your porch light on!
Deanna, Director of membership and Mel Strom, Social Chairman – Please sign up to be a member or renew your membership at any time. Based on survey results, Socials will now be quarterly. There will be adult only events and family centered events. 3/17 – Cookout at Fairmount Park. 4/13 – Adult event at Chimera and Sinaca. In October a neighborhood feast down the middle of Fairmount. November, outdoor movie night at Fairmount Park. Reminder, there will no longer be a charge for non-members to attend these events. The Membership committee is still seeking a volunteer to serve as a coordinator for Welcome Packets. Welcome Packets are full of useful information for new neighbors AND brownies from Stir Crazy. (Email Deanna at membership@historicfairmount.com)
Sean, Director of Promotions – All Holiday events deemed a success. The cooks Children Centennial is coming up in March, they want all households touched by Cooks Childrens to light a candle or light in blue or green to mark this occasion, 3/18 – 3/24. We will publish more information about this as it comes to us. BUY YOUR MOUNTI GRAS TICKETS. VOLUNTEER for EVENTS. Still looking for community liaison chairman.
Julie Mathis – Home Tour Chairman – Home Tour is 5/12-5/13. Houses are set. Will need lots of volunteers, a volunteer coordinator, and a Wine Down Coordinator. To volunteer for any of these positions, please email Julie at hometour@historicfairmount.com.
Brenda Howell – Cowtown is coming through Fairmount, there will be a cheer station at Fairmount Park. Participants will start coming through about 7:30, and will be coming through until about noon. There will be waffles and music! Contact Brenda Howell or Martin Dahl if you would like to volunteer to hang posters or cheer at the park. The Cowtown is a great benefit for Title I Schools in the area, benefitting students in need with running instruction and new shoes.
Kim Worley – Mounti Gras is 2/3 at 7:00 pm. As of today, Mounti Gras is 85% paid back to FNA. At Mardi Gras there will be selfie station, beer/wine available for consumption by donation, live music, casino fun, food, partying and prizes. Buy your tickets in advance, they will be $45 at the door. The Mounti Gras parade is 2/10. The Community Library will be hosting a kid event to make masks and noisemakers, will share more details as they come available.
Breinn Richter, Director of Infrastructure – Breinn now has a decibel reader, which can be used to measure noise output and determine if it is within code. The Fairmount neighborhood raised $1800 for the late Lana Gardner’s family. It was delivered to her children at a surprise Christmas party at the children’s school. FNA is sponsoring a $299 sponsorship to the Men of Fairmount who are raising money for instruments for the students at De Zavala. Breinn will also be delivering $1000 in general funds for their PTA. There will be a zoning meeting about the hotel going in at Henderson/Magnolia Thursday 1/25 at 1:00 pm. All proposed items are within the limits of items proposed to the neighborhood. Breinn could use a zoning volunteer to keep an eye on the Zoning meetings for items that would affect the neighborhood and attend the meetings as needed. Still looking at parking/loading issues on Magnolia, there are plans for a traffic study in the future – comment from audience – “with several thousand apartments being constructed, we need to pay close attention to how this will affect our parking situation.” Fairmount is slated for the next round of permit parking testing. Sue McLean has reported all street lights that are out. (Which any one can do through the City’s app). We have a $50,000 budget for improvements at Fairmont Park – plans include landscaping the area around the sign, water installation, electrical outlet installation, and dog waste stations.
Nancy Strickland, school liaison, She is now on the Site Based Management team for all our
neighborhood schools, and has visited with all the neighborhood schools. At Daggett Middle there are 100 students in ROTC, it is a “big deal” at the school. The principal and assistant principal are coordinating with Westwood Contractors and Pacheco Koch Consulting volunteering in the honor cadet program to revamp the entrance to the school, improve the grounds and install and obstacle course.
Richard Riccetti, with the Hemphill Task force – the tunnel connecting Hemphill to downtown should be complete in 2019. Hemphill is on the list to be “right sized”, have new stripes painted and bike lanes painted. Working towards adjusting the NEZ (Neighborhood Empowerment Zone) updated to remain so that businesses in Hemphill area can continue to be developed and take advantage of the tax waivers and other benefits of the NEZ program. Go check out the new Community Center at 3427 Hemphill Street – the Victory Forest Community Center.
Daniel – Firestation Community Center – Spring Catalog now available. There are many programs available to you at Firestation – fitness, personal training, Art, kayaking, fishing, woodworking, and functional fitness.
Joe Hyun – Fairmount 5k – to benefit the Fairmount Community Library and the Women’s Center of Tarrant County. The date is tentatively set for 5/5/18. He is estimating he has $2,000 from area sponsors. There will be prizes from area businesses. Goal of race is to promote Fairmount, promote local businesses, showcase our historic homes, hoping to draw interest from the large running crowd in Fairmount, plus outside runners.
Joe is requesting $2,000 in backing from FNA. Proposing to pay at least $1,000 back if they earn enough from the race. There was a motion from membership to that FNA just donate the $2k Joe is asking for as a straight donation to the race, without Joe repaying FNA anything back, which is approved unanimously from Membership.
There is a second motion that any revenue from the race be divided 50/50 among the two named beneficiaries, The Fairmount Community Library and the Women’s Center of Tarrant County, which was also unanimously approved.
Open Discussion:
Ann Zadeh, our City Council Rep, is in attendance tonight and introduces herself to FNA membership.
Richard Ricetti made an announcement that they will be taking a “sabbatical” from The Bastion and will pouring their energy into restoring their building. There will be two events of note at the Bastion you could try to attend: 2/11 – NOLA Brunch at 1:00 pm, 3/3 at 7:00 pm a Best of the Bastion 10 course meal!
Meeting adjourned 8:38 PM.
Minutes submitted 1/24, by Leah Suasnovar.