Meeting Minutes: General Membership – September 25, 2023

November 13, 2023 Meeting Minutes, News

Call to order: 7:02 PM

Andrew Epps welcomed and called the meeting to order.

Officer Updates:

  • Code Compliance was not able to attend. If there are any questions, email or call code compliance. Andrew can provide the contact info, if anyone does not have it.
  • NPO and Deputy Constable were not in attendance.

Community Garden Updates: Suzanne Mabel

  • Garden looks sad but “Hope never dies in a true gardener’s heart.”
  • Garden workday is every second Saturday from 10 AM – 12 PM.
  • Suzanne is in contact with a home school group who may help with cleaning the garden.
  • The greenhouse is on hold, as it was too hot to build.
    • The current plan is to raise more money to buy a premade greenhouse.
    • The Garden will ask people to donate more money and potentially ask FNA for a donation.
    • The Garden has been in contact with a couple of companies already. The total cost will be around $2,900 – $4,000 for someone to prefabricate, transport from East Texas, and build on site. The Garden will just need to prep the ground. 
    • Kim Worly suggests the potential to raise money at Arts Goggle or the holiday social via a raffle.
    • There are Garden tee shirts that could be sold for greenhouse funds as well.

Infrastructure Update: Kristen Klade

  • The FNA has a sign proposal for the Fairmount green space off Allen from a company that Barbara Crotty has been in contact with.
    • The total cost of the sign would be $5,000, according to the company.
    • The company provided two design options – both with the sign out of aluminum, acrylic letters, and masonry below. 
    • The blue option includes lights, but the pink option does not.
    • The general membership consensus is leaning toward the pink design as it is more contrasting and noticeable.
    • Lights could be added later if we need to save money. These could be solar lights. 
    • Kristen to clarify with the company if the lights are included in the $5,000 quote, or if they would be additional. And, if so, how much more.
    • There has been discussion amongst the Board about the sign’s direction and which way it should face – if it should be where the current sign is parallel to the street, or perpendicular to the street.
      • Some people have said that the sign is difficult to read if it is parallel to the street.
      • With the way that the proposal shows the sign perpendicular to the street, with the way that Allen curves by the park, it would only be easier to read when coming west on Allen but more difficult to read coming east on Allen.
      • If the sign is perpendicular to the street, it would need to be double-sided.
        • Kristen to get a quote from the company on this. 
    • The Board will be including the cost of this sign in next year’s budget.
    • This same company has also proposed wayfinding pillars for the neighborhood. This could be considered on a main street in Fairmount in the future. 

National Night Out Announcement: Barbara Crotty

  • This will be held at Fire Station Community Center like last year and they are organizing food trucks, bounce houses, etc. 
  • FNA will have two tables – one for Citizens on Patrol/ Code Blue, plus a table for FNA.
  • Volunteers will be needed for the FNA table. 
  • This will be on October 3rd at 6PM. More information to come via social media later.
  • This event will also be considered the FNA October neighborhood social.

Arts Goggle and Fairmount: Kelcie Cox

  • FNA will be an official sponsor of Arts Goggle this year.
  • We got a booth for half price due to a deal between Kelcie and Ted with Sports Graphics. We could get the booth for free if we sell all the tee shirts we order.
  • Any neighborhood groups who want to be part of the booth should reach out to Kelcie. 
  • Volunteers will be needed to man the booth.
    • Fairmounties were there last year. 
    • These will likely be one-hour shifts. 
  • Arts Goggle is October 21st from noon – 10PM, but the booth will need people earlier than noon to set up also.
  • Kelcie is working to come up with a raffle idea. Reach out to her if you have any ideas.

Neighborhood Sponsored Fall Festival: Kelcie Cox

  • October 29th 6 – 8PM
  • Ideas: Trunk or treat, blow up screen with a movie, twinkly lights around for the vibe.
  • Reach out to Kelsie if you want to help.

Finance Previous Year Budget Audit: Lauren Wu

  • The Audit Committee met to review the 2023 finances and bank account to check that all FNA money is accounted for and concluded that everything is as it should be.
  • Lauren provided the general membership with the statement of activity, actual costs from last year, budget from last year, and new proposed budget for next year.
  • There is an extra line item at the bottom of the page for office supplies that should be crossed off.
  • The water bill for the green space got broken out in the budget as a separate line item and the cost was offset. This was not included in the past – probably because the sprinklers were not working and there was not a water bill.
  • The discretionary budget increased because we went over last year for the fair that was done as part of Home Tour. This is included in the budget for new ideas in the future.
  • The Board will meet October 9th (2nd Monday of October) to approve the 2024 budget.
  • The Board will send out the proposed budget ahead of the General Meeting for membership to review. This may be via email or on the website – TBD.
  • The General Membership will vote on the proposed 2024 budget on October 23rd (4th Monday of October).
  • Email Lauren if you have questions or suggested changes for the new budget before next month’s general meeting (finance@historicfairmount.com) – under “about us” on the website. Emails go to the correct people in Board positions, despite changing administrations.

Resident Book Promotion: Not present. 

Daggett PTA: Susan Harper

  • Susan proposed trash cans around the property to the school because a lot of people use the field or run the track and it would be useful, so people have somewhere to throw their trash away.
    • No one from the school has reached back out. 
    • Daggett ES trash cans were done by the PTA and another group. 
    • Per Daggett ES, the custodians take the trash out.
  • There are two ongoing projects at Daggett:
    • Track and field updates. This is being discussed at the FWISD level.
    • Librarian reading challenge list of 9 books. There is an Amazon wish list where you can contribute to this.
      • Daggett MS library page has a QR code to the Amazon wish list. 
      • Books will be delivered to the school via Amazon when you purchase. 
      • The Amazon list shows which books are a priority, based on curriculum. 
      • Cristina (Promotions) to include this information in the next newsletter and push on social media.
  • Kristen Klade is on the Daggett parent advisory committee and can field any questions. 
  • The next physical newsletter will be sent out before Festivus in December.

Fairmount Community Library: Carol Standerfer

  • Carol Stanford, retired FWISD librarian, on behalf of the Fairmount Community Library brought bookmarks showing where to access the library’s catalog of books.
  • The Library is working on determining their working hours in the next couple of weeks based on when people attend. Attend in the next couple of weeks at those times in order to influence the open hours. 
  • The Library has books, DVDs, audiobooks, and rentable space. Book clubs are open to meet at the Library for free. 
  • The Library will offer classes as well, including for: expecting mothers, new families, crafts, book club for teens, etc.
  • Potentially bringing back Martin Dahl’s Preservation class for new people to the neighborhood to get used to the historic guidelines, etc.
  • The Library is accepting book donations, but on a schedule. The largest gap in content is in Young Adult and children’s books.

Misc: 

  • Kim Worly:
    • There is an art installation in the park that is missing an address. The Fort Worth Art Commission is supposed to have a budget for this. This was something that fell through the crack with administration changes years ago. 
    • The next street bond to come up is in 2026.
      • These happen every 4 years, so the last one was in 2022. Fairmount missed out on getting the bond benefits last year. 
      • Last year, Ryan’s Place organized street captains and took pictures/ cataloged TPW issues and sent all the info to the city to get bond money to fix. Items included sidewalks, streets, and other TPW items. 
      • According to the city, the best way to catalog this information is to submit items on the MyFW App as you see them. The city will look at this info when they put the 2026 Bond numbers together. 
      • FNA Infrastructure (Kristen) and Communications (Cristina) to promote the MyFW App for this.

Adjourn: 8:01 PM

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