Gannondale Neighborhood Meeting Minutes

Gannondale Neighborhood Meeting
Gannondale Neighborhood Association
November 12, 2008
Location: 7515 Gannon

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.

In attendance:

Nancy Baglan (7540 Cornell)
Bob Baglan (7540 Cornell)
Wayne Bass (7553 Cornell)
Paula Fanger (7501 Gannon)
Rob Fleischman (7607 Stanford)
Sue Fleischman (7607 Stanford)
Bob Friend (7630 Gannon)
Susan Furdek (7600 Gannon)
Aaron Geiger (7606 Gannon - Secretary – New 2008-09)
Amber Geiger (7606 Gannon – 7600 Gannon Block Captain – New 2008-09)
Robin Hattori (7508 Cornell)
Margaret Johnson (7509 Gannon) (7500 Gannon Block Captain)
Sue Kaiser (7515 Gannon) (Treasurer)
Greg Koob (7562 Cornell)
Beth Landers (7579 Stanford)
Mary Pini (7501 Gannon)
Chris Scheele (7529 Stanford)
Nick Scheele (7529 Stanford)
Therese Siegel (7631 Stanford) (7600 Stanford Block Captain)
Nigel Taylor (7552 Stanford) (Vice President)
Mari Ellen Brooks Taylor (7552 Stanford) (7500 Stanford Block Captain)
Kim Mulkey Young (7536 Cornell) (Pillar Post Editor)
Bryan Young (7536 Cornell) (President)

Treasurer Report: Sue Kaiser (Treasurer) reported that we currently have about $600.00 in the GNA checking account. The account is used to pay for the printing of the Pillar Post, handbills and fliers; the monthly electrical bill for the Cornell Ave. pillar lights and a monthly fee for hosting of the Gannondale WWW site.

Yard Sale: All who took part in the Gannondale Yard Sale (held on September 20th) agreed that is was a profitable event. One idea discussed was to centralize next year’s Yard Sale in one location, perhaps at Triangle Park. University City guidelines and ordinances regarding yard sales will be reviewed prior to next year’s Yard Sale. Councilwoman Lynn Ricci and University City Hall will also be brought into the planning process, especially if Gannondale streets need to be closed off during a more centralized Yard Sale. Other Yard Sale ideas included (1) collecting a list of big impact items from Yard Sale participants to help better advertise the event on Craig’s list, (2) scheduling future Yard Sales prior to bulk trash pick up and (3) contacting local charities
to pick up items that are not sold.

Luminaria Event: Gannondale’s Luminaria Night is scheduled for Sunday, December 14th beginning at 6:00 pm.  A flier will be dropped to households in late November or early December with the details. The Koobs (7562 Cornell) have again offered their garage as the luminaria kit assembly and pick up spot on Saturday, December 13th. Bob Friend will lead this year’s Luminaria Night assembly and sales team, which will include Don and Lori Adair (7558 Cornell), Bob and Nancy Baglan, Robin Hattori, and Chris Scheele. Bryan Young and Susan Furdek will collect the luminaria orders from Gannondale neighbors who wish to participate in the event. Bob Baglan suggested that the Gannondale Neighborhood Association purchase surplus candles, bags and sand fill in dark spots on some blocks during Luminaria Night. These additional luminaria kits could also be sold to those who wanted more lights but did not order them. Bryan Young will contact the local news media and see if Luminaria Night might be featured during the evening news, etc. Meri Ellen Brooks Taylor and Wayne Bass will investigate special music for the event (school choirs). Finally, there was some discussion on an award for the “most tastefully decorated house” in Gannondale.

New Ideas: A progressive dinner was discussed as a new Gannondale event for early in 2009. Nancy Baglan will make inquires of her contacts at the University Heights neighborhood association and find out more about their progressive dinners. Sue Kaiser and Susan Furdek will assist in the planning of a Gannondale progressive dinner.

Website/Blog: Bryan Young opened up the new Gannondale blog (weblog) and demonstrated its features. It was decided that paying Razorball (the current WWW site hosting company) $12.00 a month was not in the best interests of Gannondale when a “for free” blog would provide most of what the neighborhood needs in an Internet site (to share photos, etc.) Bryan will make sure that the “Testimonial” area of the current Gannondale WWW site is exported to the blog prior to canceling our arrangement with Razorball. Bryan and Aaron Geiger will work out the WWW to blog transition.

Crime in Gannondale: A committee to investigate a Gannondale response to the number of car break-ins that have occurred over the past few months. The members include: Susan Furdek, Margaret Johnson, Mary Pini, Meri Ellen Brooks Taylor, Nigel Taylor and Bryan Young. Bryan Young will call the UCITY Police and (1) request Gannondale crime statistics (including adjacent neighborhoods), and (2) invite a police officer to visit Gannondale and share information on UCITY Neighborhood Watch programs and other anti-crime initiatives. Important links will be added to the Gannondale blog. Therese Siegel will contact other Neighborhood Watch organizations to uncover some case studies and best practices. Ultimately, Gannondale Block Captains will share these findings with their neighbors and collect email addresses to create an email “blast” list for sharing information and better connecting Gannondale.

Elections: Here is a list of the GNA Board and Block Captains elected at the meeting to serve for the remainder of 2008 and during 2009.

Bryan Young - President
Nigel Taylor - Vice President
Aaron Geiger - Secretary
Sue Kaiser - Treasurer
Kim Mulkey Young - Pillar Post Editor
Lori Adair - 7500 Cornell Block Captain
John Tawzer - 7600 Cornell Block Captain
Margaret Johnson - 7500 Gannon Block Captain
Amber Geiger - 7600 Gannon Block Captain
Meri Ellen Brooks Taylor - 7500 Stanford Block Captain
Nick Scheele - Assistant 7500 Stanford Block Captain
Therese Siegel - 7600 Stanford Block Captain

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm (Recorded by Kim Mulkey Young and Aaron Geiger)

University City Police Department Community Meeting

The University City Police Department holds it's monthly meeting with UCITY Neighborhood Watch Units on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at the Heman Park Community Center (975 Pennsylvania) from 6:00 pm. until 8:00 pm. The purpose of this forum is to meet and discuss problems, share information, plan activities and coordinate efforts. With the recent car break-ins in Gannondale, a group from our neighborhood will attend this meeting. If you are curious about joining us, please contact Bryan S. Young (7536 Cornell) at 727-3579.

The 2008 Halloween Report (David Tyndall)

Gannondale retained its status as a destination neighborhood for Halloween 2008, with an unofficial record 120 trick-or-treaters counted at one house which had counted "only" 86 children in 2007. Not only were the crowds larger, but more of them arrived later in the evening than last year, as shown in the accompanying chart:

From Blogger Pictures

Weather was just about perfect both years -- sunny with highs in the 60's last year, sunny and 70+ this time around -- so the only apparent difference was Halloween falling on a weekend night this time around. Not sure what this means for 2009, when All Hallows Eve will fall on a Saturday. One guess: An earlier start, and an even larger number of ghoulish visitors!

David Tyndall (7540 Stanford)