Minutes, March 16, 2021
Minutes for March 16, 2021 Clarksville CDC Monthly Meeting
In support of citywide efforts to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the March 16, 2021 Monthly Meeting was held via Zoom.
Attendees: BJ Friedman, Malcolm Greenstein, Paula Hern, Mary Reed, Gregory Tran
Guest: Thomas Schiefer, tmschiefer@gmail.com - 512-547-9990
1. Since there was no quorum, approval of minutes from the January 19, 2021 monthly board meeting will need to approved at the April meeting.
Note: due to severe weather, the board did not meet on February 16, 2021.
2. BJ Friedman, Treasurer, presented the monthly financial reports for February. Income exceeded expenses, resulting in a net gain of $2,757. We ended the month with $22,397 in our checking account, and $168,775 in our savings account (note: only $33,448 of this total is not allocated to specific projects.)
The minutes from the March meeting of the Finance and Operations Committee are at the end of these minutes.
3. Rose Gabriel, Director of Property and Finance, presented her monthly report.
a. A second updated application for plan approvals for 1611 W 10th was sent to City of Austin after making changes. The inspector came back with two comments which have been addressed and we are waiting for a response.
b. Rose met with Red River Restorations and Kidd Roofing to get updated bids for the work on the Haskell House since so much time has passed since their initial bids. Rose worked with Ellen and Kim from COA and PARD to confirm specifications of materials and the scope of work. She is waiting on updated bids.
c. Aubrey provided drawings for egress/ingress work at 1011 Charlotte. Rose will initiate search for contractors to do the work. Drawings are needed for similar work at 1708 W 10th. Rose will set up a meeting with Aubrey to get drawings done. The door for 1721B Waterston was returned since Rose was not able to pick it up due to the weather event. She will order another door and have it installed.
d. The February Snowpocalypse resulted in broken pipes and damaged tankless water heaters. Water heaters at 1729A & B were replaced and those at 1007B, 1009B and 1011 B were repaired by volunteers for free.
Rose was reminded to add water bills to leases that will be renewed on the properties where the water meters are shared by 2 units and CCDC pays the water bills.
4. Property inspections have been done at 1011 A&B and 1009B Charlotte. Others are in progress. Rose shared a document showing the findings of the inspections. She, with BJ’s help, will create a spreadsheet to organize all inspection information.
5. Thomas Schiefer, who is a member of the Tenant Selection Committee discussed various possible initiatives to support CCDC tenants and to increase our outreach to potential tenants in the African American community. Thomas believes CCDC and the greater Clarksville community can do more to support our tenants. He asked the Board to consider his ideas and to propose other ideas and to provide information that he can use to address these issues:
· connecting with African American organizations in the city like KAZI and churches to encourage them to provide names for potential tenants,
· create a Resource guide since many of our tenants are unfamiliar with the neighborhood, (location of grocery stores, hospitals, transportation, etc.),
· collaborate with organizations for donations for things like inexpensive appliances, especially for refrigerators, washer/dryers,
· encourage others in the neighborhood to be sponsors of families who would be willing to help to provide connections for new tenants; could be a walk around the neighborhood, welcome package with basics, e.g., toilet paper, some cleaning supplies, etc. in a Fresh Plus canvas bag,
· suggested we partner with ATXFreeFridge (https://www.austinmonthly.com/atx-free-fridge-project-chooses-solidarity-over-charity/) to provide surplus fresh food for tenants or anyone in the neighborhood who might be food insecure. Mary suggested we could put a fridge on the porch of the Neighborhood Center and also have a place where dry goods and clothing could be collected and distributed to our tenants. ATXFreeFridge would maintain the refrigerator. Malcolm raised the issue of stigma attached to getting these foods/supplies. Thomas didn’t think this is an issue in the current environment where food insecurity is rampant. Malcolm wondered if Fresh Plus might be willing to donate foods that are about to expire.
Thomas thinks the time is right for engaging the neighborhood to enhance the mission of CCDC and would love Fresh Plus to participate. He is just asking the Board and TSC for ideas about how to proceed. He provided his notes for the board to review. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10M3QWVDvOqhwl3xHo7Ixu1PI-CMxHj8mFd7mw8dmu-M/edit?usp=sharing. He has a meeting set up with Free Fridge to get further information.
6. Mary asked the board if they have questions regarding the agreement between the City of Austin and CCDC regarding the Haskell House. Malcolm asked if Mary saw any problems with the agreement. She said we would have to do some upfront work, e.g., create a training guide for volunteers, Haskell House must be open and staffed for 4 hours/month, an annual report, visitor log (city provides one), and criminal background checks for volunteers. She noted that we would need to do some of these things anyway to comply with the Heritage grant agreement. She will ask for a Board vote by email since there was no quorum and she needs to sign the agreement as soon as possible.
7. Mary reminded the Board of the April 20, 2021, CCDC Annual Meeting and Board of Directors election. Current board members up for re-election are Aly Byatt, Aubrey Carter, BJ Friedman, and Gregory Tran. Current board members who are up for re-election will be asked if they are still willing to run. Kim wants to know if we want to do a membership drive through delivering flyers to each house, as we have done in the past, except during the COVID lockdown in 2020. Mary and BJ want to do this. Paula asked if we could email. The problem with email is we don’t have email addresses for all neighborhood residents. BJ suggested posting the info on NextDoor. Malcolm thinks door to door solicitation of new members isn’t worthwhile since it has historically not resulted in many new members. Mary said she would reach out to board members who weren’t in attendance for their input.
8. In Other Business, Mary informed the Board that $100 gift cards to Cipollina will be given to the 3 individuals who volunteered their labor to fix our water heaters: Ramesh Yerraballi, Ben Nippes, and Ingrid Ristroph. (After the meeting, we learned that Ron Weiss, Cipollina co-owner is donating one of the gift cards.)
Mary also informed that Board that the contributing house on Toyath has been sold to builders (Paradisa Homes) and they want to tear down the house. Gregory, Aubrey, and Mary met with the builders today. The meeting ended on a hopeful note – the builders said that keeping the front façade and sides and building behind the façade, as suggested by CCDC representatives, might work. Aubrey will meet with them with other ideas. It was also suggested that the builders meet with the City Preservation Office for ideas. The CCDC representatives also suggested remodeling the current house and building an ADU behind it instead of the swimming pool/spa proposed by the builders. Demolition of the house is scheduled for Monday, Mar 22.
9. Meeting was adjourned and the Board went into Executive Session.
Action taken via Electronic Vote:
Following the severe weather and power blackout of February 15-20, 2021, the board took several acti0ns to restore hot water to 4 CCDC units. This matter was time-sensitive and could not wait until the March meeting.
Minutes from Finance & Operations Committee Meeting on March 11, 2021
Attending: BJ Friedman, CCDC Treasurer, Paula Hern, Mary Reed, CCDC President, Chris Thomas, CCDC Vice President, and Rose Gabriel, CCDC Director Property and Finance.
BJ compared the CCDC’s February bank statement against deposit slips, debit
transactions and receipts for that month.
The financials for February were reviewed and Mary requested a few clarifications.
Rose provided updates on: 1611 West 10th Street, the ingress/egress projects at 1011 Charlotte and 1821B Waterston, and the Haskell House project. She also noted that because of the complications created by Covid, the City will offer Heritage Tourism grantees optional one-year contract term extensions. Both Rose and Mary expressed relief.
Rose reported on the progress of the property inspections.
Rose reported on the financial impact of the storm damage to the CCDC. She noted that we saved thousands of dollars because Gregory’s friends were able to repair nearly all of the damaged hot water tanks at our property.
Committee members had a brief discussion about steps the CCDC should do to better prepare its properties to withstand the effects of future severe weather events. Rose said that in the event of seriously cold weather, she thinks all we need to do to avoid future damage to our hot water tanks is turn the water off at the street and that draining them would not be necessary.