Meeting Notes: General Membership – September 22, 2025

Attendees: See sign in sheet

Minutes:

Call to order: 7:05 PM

Andrew Epps welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order.

Arts Fifth Avenue Update

• Gracie, the owner of A5A, introduces herself to the membership.
• A5A has been open now for 24 years, on September 11.
• A5A has been a consistent partner with FNA and welcome hosting our meetings.

Officer Updates:

• State Representative Ramiro’s Office
  • Celia Alonzo is in attendance. The deputy director has been in attendance at FNA meetings before.
  • Located on Main St toward the Stockyards (1800 N Main St). The office is open if you have needs.
  • The state rep’s office put up a good fight on redistricting and are preparing now for the upcoming redistricting trial.
  • Note that the state rep’s office can get you in for a license appointment earlier than the DPS could regularly. This may be necessary if your license is expiring.
• City Council District 9 Representative
  • Not in attendance.
• Neighborhood Police Officer (NPO)
  • Officer Karna is still filling in for Officer Moore, but Moore should be back as he has been cleared and will be likely back for the next FNA meeting.
  • Recently the biggest events have been consistent burglary of motor vehicles when people leave items in view.
  • Ryan Place has a different NPO from Fairmount now. With the redistricting, Fairmount’s beat is mainly just Fairmount and Magnolia.
  • 817-944-1316 is the phone number for the Fairmount NPO. This number remains the NPO’s number, even when the person changes.
  • Based on a Fairmount neighborhood Facebook post, someone on 1324 South Henderson has been allegedly allowing transients to camp out on the property. These people have been burglarizing in the neighborhood. NPO and code will look into this.
  • The Elizabeth Place apartment complex on Hemphill is being worked on with PD and Code on getting people out and the place boarded up.
• Code Compliance
  • Another code compliance officer is in attendance filling in for Terrica Orr.
  • This beat is B14.
  • There was an empty church bus parked on the curb at Lilac and Washington. Barbara reported this on the MyFW App as abandoned vehicle, but it got moved from code to PD and has been resolved. Note that if a vehicle is in the public right of way, this is a PD item. If it is on private property, this is a code item.
  • Substandard code could cite a house if there are temporary columns over a long period of time. This would identify any significant structural issues and require the owners to fix it.

Neighborhood Updates:

• Fall Fest Announcement
  • Jen Kindschi –
  • The e-newsletter sent out today has this information also
  • You can sign up for FNA email blasts by filling out the information at the bottom of our website.
  • FNA Fall Fest will be on Saturday, October 18 at Fairmount Park from 3 PM – 5 PM
  • Included: family friendly environment, trunk or treat, games, activities, face painting, vendors, and possible a movie in the park that evening
  • We will need volunteers for set up, take town, and trunk or treat vehicles – please sign up via the Sign Up Genius sent out in the email today.
  • FNA will provide candy and decorations for cars participating in the trunk or treat.
  • There is no cost to attend, other than buying food from food trucks/ buy items from vendors if you want, and is open to anyone.
• Festivus
  • December FNA event – More information coming soon
• National Night Out
  • Tuesday, October 7 at 6 PM – 8 PM at Firestation Park
  • Code Blue/ Citizens on Patrol will have a table
  • FNA will be providing hamburgers and condiments and Firestation Community Center will be providing hot dogs.
  • Open to anyone.

Fairmount Neighborhood Association vote for new board members

• FNA Board Nominating Committee (including Kelly and Gabe Moreno from general membership) slate of proposed board members:
  • President – Bryant Haertlein

A long-time volunteer across multiple roles, Bryant has provided major support for Home Tour and, since April, has assisted the Board broadly. He remains highly engaged in neighborhood and citywide initiatives.

• Communications (1 year term) – Taylor Staniforth

Taylor stepped in when the previous Communications Director resigned and has successfully carried the role since. She also volunteered for Home Tour and helps coordinate community efforts like Fairmount Bites.

• Promotions – Jen Kindschi
  Jen assumed the Promotions role last year when it became vacant. She has led promotional efforts and helped deliver one of our most successful Home Tours.
  • Administration – Jess Eppstein
    Jess participates in community events such as Fairmount Bites and will join the Board alongside her husband, Ben. She works as a research scientist and has many friends in the neighborhood.
  • Public Safety – Richard Schrade
    A regular General Meeting attendee and volunteer, Richard has been working closely with past Public Safety Directors Ray and Carol, who continue to support him as he steps into the elected role.
  • Infrastructure – Ben Eppstein
    An active neighbor and civil engineer, Ben understands the City processes critical to our infrastructure projects and routinely helps the Association navigate them.
  • Membership – Natalie Trimble
    Natalie has been helping Taylor on Communications, but it open to stepping in to fill in for Barbara as the Membership director now as Barabara will remain to help on her committee.
• This is the first year (at least since COVID) that the board was able to provide the nominating committee a full slate of proposed officers in lieu of having to scramble to fill positions.
• The floor was opened for additional nominations for any of these positions. None were mentioned.
• Andrew Epps motions to accept the slate of officers as proposed by the nominating committee. Ray Feyen seconds the motion.

The motion passes unanimously via voice vote.

FNA Upcoming

• The new and old boards will need to meet to discuss switch overs (should be on the second Tuesday of the month).
• Will need to iron out the budget for 2026. This has been discussed already in the background but will need to be finalized.
• Note that we voted a couple of months ago that the general membership meetings would move to the 4^th Tuesday of the month in lieu of the 4^th Monday of the month. The next general meeting (the last one of the year) will be on Tuesday, November 25^th.

Adjourn: 7:44 PM