Board Members Present: Bruce Treat, Heidi Kohne, Bing Wong, Tom Dolan, Nadine Fiedler, John Laursen, John McLaren, Tom Leiner

Board Members Absent: Nancy Norby, Paul Leistner, Cascade Anderson-Geller, Mark Bartlett, Jim Blackwood, Mike Shaver, Dawn Smallman/Greg Snider, Stephanie Stewart

Others Present: Barb Gamelgard, Gayle & Bunny Marechal, Mary Kinnick (Friends of Mt. Tabor Park), Tara West, John Oliphant & Steve Forland (Portland Police), Sally Erickson, Jennifer Mangnall (Oregon Action), Merry Larsen (Courtyard Plaza

The April and May minutes were reviewed, with a few minor changes. It was moved by Nadine Fiedler and seconded by Tom Leiner to accept the minutes; passed.

Announcements

Officer John Oliphant of the police bureau gave the police report. There are a lot of residential burglaries that are happening during the day east of 82nd Avenue; even though it’s not an issue in Mt. Tabor, please keep your eyes open. Mary Kinnick also alerted everyone about a couple of people who were lunging down slopes in the park and putting people at risk. Sally Erickson also brought to everyone’s attention, especially the policemen, the fact that there have been people smoking marijuana at the top of the park; if you see anything like that happen, call the police while it’s happening and they can take care of the issue.

Bruce presented Deb Scott’s report about the neighborhood cleanup in May. There weren’t as many vehicles as last year, due mostly to the bad weather. There were 147 vehicles (versus 250 last year). It was agreed to split the income 50/50. It’s looking like we will probably get around $1300 in net proceeds. Bruce reminded us that it was voted at the last meeting to donate half of our proceeds to Tabor Commons. It was moved by Tom Dolan, seconded by Heidi Kohne, to donate $50 to Mt. Tabor Middle School for using their parking lot. Bunny reported on the cleanup from her perspective. She mentioned that there was quite a bit more haggling over the price this year than in the past. She also said that a number of drivers arrived with things only for the resale area, expecting to be able to offload it for free and having been told that it would be free. Discussion ensued about scheduling and e-cycling.

Jennifer Mangnall of Oregon Action gave a presentation about Healthy Kids, a state bill that was approved to provide health care and health insurance for children. The state has partnered with different community groups to spread the word and answer questions. She wanted everyone to know that even if you have health insurance, you may know people who don’t, and that’s where Oregon Action and Healthy Kids come in. Brochures are available, in English and numerous other languages (please go to Healthy Kids website if you would like to order brochures, especially in non-English languages). Visit www.oregonhealthykids.gov or call 1-877-314-5678.

An update was given by Bryan Brumley about the Tabor2River Civic Ecology Project. He said that Natural Step is needing MTNA to sign a letter of intent. The Project is geared toward having developers and community groups collaborate in multiple areas of sustainability in the city. There are five areas in Oregon that are going through this process, and we are included in one of the two Portland areas. One goal is for all five areas to share ideas and results with each other. It was moved by Bryan Brumley, seconded by John Laursen, to write the letter to Natural Step Network saying that we will collaborate in this project; passed with one abstention.

Commiittees

Friends of Mt. Tabor Park

Mary Kinnick of the Friends of Mt. Tabor Park passed out the new brochures of the Concerts in the Park for this summer city-wide. Friends will be creating a new stewardship committee to focus specifically with the off-leash dog area; this group will be meeting next week. The Invasive Removal Saturday projects have been getting more and more popular; as a result, Friends is still looking for more crew leaders for these Saturday projects (please let Mary Kinnick know if you are interested); a new advisory group will begin in July to help lead this whole project. The Friends August newsletter deadline is July 19; send articles to Mary. The Friends Board will be considering alternatives to the annual picnic, an event that has not been very well attended recently. Also, Friends has started a new committee that is working with Parks regarding the off-road bike problem in the park.

This Saturday from 10am-noon at Mt. Tabor Theatre will be the public meeting about the disposition of public lands. This will include the City’s policies on selling land occupied by public schools.

Bruce reported on his communications with Commissioner Amanda Fritz. He has invited her to attend an MTNA meeting. Some discussion ensued about the idea of having city leaders attend our meetings, possibly including a Q&A.