March 2017 – Board Meeting Minutes

FNA Board Minutes

March 6, 2016; 7:00 pm

Attending:  Geri Cotton, Public Safety; Carrie Carter, Membership; Alex Theiroff, Promotions; Kim Worley, Administration; Susan Harper, Historic Preservation; Melanie Dotzour, Finance; Pat Bradley, President

Ex Officio Board:  Mickey Bradley

Guest: Sara Karashin (not on agenda)

Directors’ Reports

 Communication –Betty Spitzberg

• Need articles for Home Tour edition of newsletter. All board members are requested to write something and submit it by April 1
• At Kim’s request, Betty will ask Stacy to change website tabs on home page to include a “prospective new neighbors” or “know before you buy” tab

 Membership: Carrie Carter

• About 135 “we glad you’re our neighbor” signs sold = about $516 donation to the library
• Sales will be re-opened to fulfill remaining demand
• Ann Zadeh has been invited to speak at March General Meeting

Promotions – Alex Thieroff

• Julie Mathis will serve again as this year’s Home Tour Director
• The Harpers are likely to host the March social

 Finance – Melanie Dotzour

• (Motion/seconded/passed) We will grant the Garden Club their own checking account however either the FNA President or Finance must counter-sign all checks
  • The City owns the land on which the Fairmount Garden resides
  • Garden Club pays for 50% of the insurance that FNA purchases each year
• Annual insurance rose from $250 to $900. If this is not an error, we will shop for a new insurer
  • Alex suggested Garden State may cover us for about $300

Historic Preservation – Susan Harper:

• Susan will visit with the City to understand how we can build an ordinance that will require that our historic guidelines be upheld by local contractors (and referring real estate agents)
  • This would work towards also require realtors to include information regarding the historic guidelines in their sales literature

 Infrastructure – David Thrapp

• Will be meeting with Ann Zedah to discuss parking at the Firehouse Park addition by 7-11
• General meetings will likely move to Preservation Hall on Mondays beginning in January. All storage items will be moved to the Hall, as well.

Public Safety – Geri Cotton

• The city is considering levying a tax for the use of the street in front of your home. We must oppose

 Administration – Kim Worley

• No report

Other

• Susan suggests we find someone who will be available to go to (or watch) all Zoning meetings in order to know what is actually going on. Fred Harper has been attending them regularly
• Susan – the City is about to present a new bond. We must monitor
• Kim suggests reducing the number of police patrol cars on at least Home Tour Parade down to one. Each car is $130, and the rules and regulations on the city website do not require a police presence for an event of this size
• Sara Karashin shared with Mike Bennett about a number of concerns she maintains regarding the building of the Dolabi Complex on Henderson siding Magnolia and Oleander. Sara will build a summary document for Fairmount residents once some final concerns are addressed
• Kim will create some type of fun event to heighten awareness of Fairmount’s needs for street improvements. We hope to follow this up with a grid of reported problems to send to the city
• Alex/Kim – in support of getting more residents up to speed with historic preservation guidelines, and educating more contractors on permitting and working with our limited stock of historic dwellings, perhaps we could consider a Saturday workshop with a couple of educational sessions and a “trade show” floor with approved vendors displays for windows, front porch materials, etc.
• Patty – Do we need to re-instate the currently discontinued “School Liaison” board position?
• Kim – The FairMounti Gras parade rocked! Once securing the Home Tour volunteers is done, Kim will explore costs for adding a flanker event to Mounti Gras that will raise money for the neighborhood (e.g., Costume Casino Night, crawfish boil, etc)
• Sara reviewed notes taken during a recent meeting that she had with Mike Bennett concerning various issues surrounding the Dolabi Complex.  She will prepare an FAQ or something similar during the next week to be shared on the neighborhood Facebook page.
• Susan reminded the board that each board member can build a committee to reduce the work on each individual member. 

General Membership Meeting:  March 27,  2017 @ 7:00 pm

 Adjourned 9:27 pm

Minutes submitted by K. Worley 3/27/17 (Spring has sprung … and so have the bunny ears at Fairmount & Park Place!)