The following are the approved minutes for the February 23, 2015 meeting of the North Winton Village Association Board. See additional minutes as they are posted.

NWVA Board Meeting
Febuary 23, 2015

Time meeting started: 7:35 PM

Members present: Peggy Michniewicz, Brian Halligan, Mary Coffey, Joe Polizzi, John Coraggioso, Marilyn Parchus, Bryce Miller, Bruce Brannon, Denise Speicher, Marilyn Schutte came during the last 5 minutes of the meeting—stuck in snow.

Was there a Quorum? Yes, 9 members constitute a quorum.

Guest: Matt McCarthy, Economic Development Specialist for the City of Rochester—talked about the neighbors and businesses of the NWV Association working together.

Matt talked with us about the possibility of NWV forming a separate business association. Presently, NWVA is residents and businesses working together. Currently the Neighborhood Association and the Business Association can apply for the same grants. Matt says typically, residents and businesses have separate neighborhood associations with some cross representation—because often their interests are separate. This is the case in the Neighborhood of the Arts, the South Wedge and the Monroe Avenue neighborhoods. Marilyn P. asks if grants can be applied to by either type of neighborhood associations, combined or separate. Park Av and The South Wedge have strong commercial identities. In 2016, certain grants may be available only available for residents’ associations and some may only be available to business associations. Matt says the stronger business associations get more grants for things like facades, capital improvement and operating expenses. The city provides money to the Greater Rochester Enterprise to attract businesses. When asked if we can depend on him to bring in prime businesses, Matt says let him know about available commercial real estate and if someone comes in, he will try to make it work.

Review and approve November and January Board meeting minutes. Approved.

New Board member: Patricia Bentley. Could not be here tonight, we will vote on her for a Board position when we meet her.

Marilyn P. presented the resume of Joe Jacobs who visited last month. He was voted onto the Board.

Committee presentations:

Finance:

Marilyn P. shared tax form and banking statements. They were circulated for review and Mary Coffey agreed to be on the Finance committee with Marilyn Parchus and our banker, Patricia Bentley. John will call Patricia at Chase Bank and arrange for Mary Coffey to get bank statements. She wants to know about money coming in for grants. Marilyn provided the tax 990 statement which will be kept in the notebook with this year’s records.

Arts Festival: Planning meeting March 12 with Patti from the past years’ festivals.

Elsie will again be designing the posters. Alan and Patti will be working together to arrange for high class music.

Grants & Funding: Marilyn P has been asked to be on the Finger Lakes R Economic Development Corporation on the Community Development Workshop Committee.

A $2500 grant has been applied for from the Rochester Community Foundation.

Marilyn reported that she participated in a Webinar as to reasons the Main Street grant that NWV applied for did not get approved. She learned that there were not enough bank approval, business involvement and statistics in our application.

There was discussion about other grants for the new street signs—there needs to be better communication with NEMNU.

Grants & Funding is not a standing committee according to the Bylaws, Article VII, Section 2. The Board voted to approve this as a standing committee.

Economic Development: After Matt McCarthy explained the advantages of forming a separate business association earlier in the meeting, the Board voted and approved a separate Business Association.

There was a discussion about whether the proposed Aldi should have a community liaison or a meeting between the developer and local residents. Instead, it was suggested that NWV Board meeting notes be put on the website with suggestion that residents who have questions contact the City Hall Zoning Dept.

Safety: Mary Coffey reports that police are paying special attention to activity at the plaza at the corner of N Winton and E Main. There was a meeting with Nancy Johns Price and a representative of the owner. There are no problems now that the weather is so cold.

Mary Coffey distributed a hand out detailing the Court Watch program which will be included with these minutes. Maplewood has had success with the Court Watch Program. NEMNU is setting up someone to do this for their neighborhood.

There are new laws regarding having live entertainment and they will be strict.

Zoning: Bryce reports that the new mattress store on E Main has illegal signs in the windows. The current law specified only ¼ window space can be covered by signs. John will follow up on this.

Beautification: (submitted by Marilyn Schutte, not in attendance).

Flower order for flower pots etc. $1400- $1500

In February there will be a meeting with city re: facades for the grant for architectural renderings of E. Main Street. When date established for sure will notify everyone.

Ideas: flower pots, hanging baskets, special boxes for E. Main street signs, volunteers for day of caring, city clean sweep, and church day, N.Winton Rd. construction to begin this spring—(asking help from carrie Andrews re: utility box. ) ideas for projects in memory of Marlin Schutte.

$1400 expenditure for flowers was approved by the Board.

Web site/Social Media: Minutes of the board meetings will be put up on the web site starting with January of 2015. Residents may come to NWV Board meetings. Brian is working on improvement of the web site and will include reporting on economic development. Guidelines for who can be a spokesperson for NWV on Social Media under consideration. There was a request for an Instagram site.

Membership: This is a standing committee as specified by the Bylaws. Secretary is responsible for seeing that there is a master list of Membership …up to date. Denise volunteers to head this committee.

The Annual meeting should be scheduled. It needs to be in a handicapped accessible location. East High School was suggested and a tentative date of April 23 suggested. It was reported that many people leave the meetings before the election of officers. It was decided to have the election at the beginning. Denise will work on scheduling the meeting.

For discussion: A professional (volunteer) facilitator to prevent interruptions and tangents. Committee people should report. Aldi is likely to be topic of discussion if a meeting with the developer has not taken place before then.

Other Business: John has requested that agenda item deadline be the Thursday before Board meeting. The Constitution states: Notice must be given either via mail or email, at least seven (7) days prior to the meeting, along with the agenda.

It was decided that 7 days prior to the meeting, there will be a request for agenda items. The deadline for turning in agenda items will be the Thursday before Monday Board meeting.

Mary Coffey reported that there will be a meeting with Neighborworks next Tuesday, March 3 at 6 PM. There is concern that Neighborworks has an Action Plan for NWV that NWV did not get an opportunity to provide input for. Elijah, who made presentation to the board a couple of months ago, has left. NWV wants to have say about what art is approved for the corner of Culver and E. Main St. All Board members are encouraged to attend the meeting.

John brought carpet samples. Sample was chosen. The Board approved $4000 to make the Safety Center look better.

Next meeting scheduled for March 23, 2015. Guest Matt Hurlbutt, EVP and COO Greater Rochester Enterprise

Time meeting ended: 9:35 PM

Minutes taken by Denise Speicher