Island Home Park Neighborhood Association Board Meeting
Monday, March 12, 2018
Akin Gym Health Room – Tennessee School for the Deaf
Present: Nancy Campbell, Carolyn Williams, Jeanne Fair, Mary Wiginton, Angie Bataille, Cat Dziewulski, Bill Hahnemann, Steven Horton, Joe Hultquist, John-Michael Scott, Jim Staub Connie Vogt, Margaret Webb, Stephanie Welch-City Council member.
Unable to Attend: Casey Field, Michael Jordan, Joanna Pennoyer
President Nancy Campbell called the meeting to order at 7:02pm.
January Minutes: Corrections made to the January minutes. Approved (JH/CV)
August Minutes: Approved. (Hultquist/Williams)
Treasurers’ Report: Mary Wiginton presented the report. We have $25,020.16 in the bank. This includes dues, donations, past grant funds, 1st Neighborhood gifts and 202 funds, grants and column donations. The majority of this money will go towards the new pillars.
A copy of the budget and transactions as well as the IHPNA Entrance & Column project was given to board members.
Approved. (Staub/Hultquist)
Membership Campaign: Connie Vogt reported we have 68 households who have paid dues so far – 34%. Last year we had a total of 108/199 households so we are on track to match last year’s numbers. We will do the Neighborhood Canvas during the first two weeks of April ending on April 14th. This will be a door-to-door effort to try to get everyone to join our association. Mary will send out a list of members by district so representatives will know who we need to do a follow up request.
Angie volunteered to set-up a membership table at the Easter Egg Hunt to try and make contact with people who still may want to join. Nancy will provide her with the forms.
David and Gina Brace won the drawing for a gift card from Stanley’s Greenhouse. The names of all the people who had paid their dues by March 12th were eligible for the drawing.
KUB Sewer Project: Carolyn expressed her frustrations/concerns about the sewer project going on at the entrance to our neighborhood. She has also spoken to several neighbors along Spence Place to record their concerns as well.
Carolyn spoke to Tim Cox, the KUB support person for this project. He is new to the project – earlier it was Jason Meredith. She told him about the complaints and concerns of the IHP neighbors. One of her main questions was the status of the project and a timeline. He was cordial and seemed to want to be involved but said he had only received 1 complaint. Carolyn emailed him the list of concerns/complaints from IHP residents. Tim Cox sent an abbreviated reply of the status and timeline but did not really address the concerns. If Carolyn does not get satisfaction from their discussion, she plans to contact Kendell Styles who is over all the KUB project supervisors.
All board members received copies of the emails and a map showing the plans.
Stephanie Welch said she felt Carolyn was doing a great job in handling the situation through the chain of command but IF she “hits a wall” to let her know and she can try and talk with Mintha Roach or Bill Elmore at KUB.
Joe Hultquist made a motion that the IHP Board support and endorse Carolyn’s letter to KUB listing the concerns and her efforts to resolve the problems being caused by this project. Passed (Hultquist/Wiginton)
Fisher Place Column Project:Bill, Joe and Nancy updated us on the Fisher Place Column ProjectStephanie Welch submitted the plans to David Brace and Jim Hagerman at the city for approval. The city now wants to be involved which is a very positive thing for us. TN ONE CALL came to mark all the utilities. It did not match the KUB map. The Surveyor marked the property lines.
The contractors are ready to go as soon as we get the final approval from the city for the placement of the pillars.
Casey Fields wrote and registered the easements for the properties involved with the pillars – Island Home Baptist Church.
Joe talked about the fact that IHPNA is not a corporation and he wonders about us being sued if someone were hurt due to the pillars. He hopes the city will include the easement in the right-of-way which would eliminate his concerns.
Calendar Items:
Saturday, March 17th, Keep Knoxville Beautiful Clean-Up Day.
Saturday, March 24th, City of Knoxville Neighborhood Conference. This is a free event at the Marriott. There will be great sessions, great Door Prizes and a delicious lunch! We need people to attend to get new ideas for IHP.
Sunday, March 25th – Knoxville Marathon. Celeste Carruthers is looking for course volunteers. There will be bagels and coffee at IHB and Watson and a grill with sausages and burgers for the volunteers. We have a long time commitment in our neighborhood so we need many volunteers to take a shift.
March 30 – April 29th – Dogwood Arts Festival through IHP. Please keep your yards mowed so our trail continues to “shine”. We have a big challenge since our entrance will be a mess!!
Saturday, March 31st at 11:00am – Easter Egg Hunt at the park
Jeanne asked that all communication for any event supported by the IHPNA be sent via our list serve and not via “Island Home Girls”. The” Island Home Girls” group is a private group thus eliminating everyone in the neighborhood from having opportunities to be involved. Events supported through dues should be communicated via our list serve and website.
Tuesday, April 3rd at 6pm – Recode Knoxville Meeting at Woodlawn Christian Church. This is the time to see the proposed code changes for neighborhoods.
Tuesday, April 17th at 6pm. Knoxville SOUP at Dara’s Garden. This is an opportunity to support community projects and have a nice meal of soup and salad for $5.00. The proposals will be presented and voted on by the guests. All money raised will be given to the winning proposal.
IHPNA Workday – Due to the mess at our entrance, our workday will be postponed until a later date. We hope to plant flowers in the trolley circle.
General Meeting – It was suggested we have a General Meeting on Thursday, May 3rd or Thursday, April 19th at Island Home Baptist Church. It will be a Potluck supper and we will invite a speaker. It was suggested asking KUB and a Hurst representative. If they cannot attend, maybe someone from Recode Knoxville. It was also suggested to invite Carson Dailey since he donated to our pillar project and a strong supporter of neighborhood associations. We also asked Stephanie Welch to speak about happenings in the city.
New Business:
Stephanie Welch, our new City Council member, updated us on some things happening in our area:
Hillwood is on the city’s radar again! The former plans to reroute Hillwood will be evaluated to see how the redesign of Hillwood will fit into the new Gateway Project. This project will address many of the streets adjacent to James White Parkway to make the area leading to the Urban Wilderness safe for pedestrians and bicyclists. The city has money in the budget to initiate this study.
Aubrey’s is coming to South Knoxville. The owner of Aubrey’s grew up in South Knoxville and is committed to having the restaurant in South Knoxville. It will be located on the former Kern’s Bakery site as a freestanding building. The developers are working with the city to be sure it meets the Form-Based Codes for the area.
Chapman Highway – MPC has a design contract to improve the safety and aesthetics for pedestrians and bicyclists.
TDOT has 40 million dollars to invest in the Chapman Highway improvements. The traffic signals, which are now controlled by a dial-up modem, will be updated and controlled with new technology. This new technology will be ready to handle public transit and driverless cars as well as the traditional means of transportation. This project should be occurring in the next year.
The area from Henley to Lippencott is also an area that the city will be working with TDOT to make more pedestrian and bicyclist friendly.
Connie – asked about sidewalks from IHP to South Knoxville Elementary School. Stephanie said this would happen after the KUB sewer project has been completed. Stephanie also said the city has a grant to do a complete sidewalk inventory so they know which areas have/do not have sidewalks. This inventory will help the city to prioritize the awarding of new sidewalks.
Jeanne – asked about the Airbnb ordinance. Stephanie said it did pass and owners need to submit a permit that is available online. The city handles problems on a complaint basis. Currently the State Legislature is considering taking away cities authority to regulate Airbnb.
Jeanne – asked about blighted properties in Island Home. Several people tried to check on the outcome of the meeting but it was not available inline. One of the homes will be going up on a tax auction. Stephanie will follow up on this.
T-Shirts – Mary Wiginton asked if we had a problem with her taking in the checks for the shirts being made for/sold to IHP residents by Celeste Carruthers and then reissuing her a check. She also MAY need to give them some up-front money, which is no longer in our budget, but would be returned quickly. The board had no problem as long as Mary was willing to do the bookkeeping.
Documents – Nancy let us know she has signed the Grant Contract, the Easement document and the forms to reserve the park for the Easter Egg Hunt as the representative from IHPNA.
Next Meeting: Monday, May 14th, 2018. 7:00pm. TSD Akin Gym Health Room
Meeting Adjourned: 8:27pm (Bataille/Vogt)