April 17 – Carkeek Park storm drain painting – How did it go???

April 24 – Help Green CH:  Meet in the Petco Parking lot at 9:00 AM.  Trash detail, graffiti painting, exercise.

April 28 – Crown Hill Park Meeting from 6:30 to 8:00 PM at Crown Hill Center.  Update the park plan – the fire station will be moving out soon – let’s make a great park.  FINALLY!!

May 15 – Crown Hill Neighbors Annual Meeting.  Elections. Jim Diers, special guest.

Crown Hill Neighbors received a grant from Department of Neighbors to work on the Tree survey project!!  An arborist from the UW will help to create a map and interesting walk.

Next Meeting: May 9 (Mother’s Day) from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.  Potluck meal from 5:00 to 5:30 PM.  Break-out sessions from 5:30 to 7:00 PM – baking bread and drop spindle spinning.

New Business
1. Seattle Urban Farm Co-op – Group. A new group starting up in Seattle. From the Yahoo group:
“The Seattle Urban Farm Co-op is a community-based project to start a co-op to purchase supplies for urban farmers in the Seattle area.
Our focus will be on obtaining supplies such as animal feed, fertilizers, mulch, seeds, etc., from local & organic sources.  More information
Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seattleurbanfarmcoop/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50710252506&_fb_noscript=1
Future website: http://surfcoop.com/
2. Possible Sustainable CH ‘field trip’ to Raintree Nursery.  It is located in Morton, WA. 2 hours S of Seattle.
No date yet.
3. Chickens – Members have had good luck with Road Island Reds and/or Whites.

Old Business
1. Pruning for fruit trees that will later be gleaned.  So none have been identified for sure. Contact Lanae or Bert H.
2. Permaculture – neighborhood designs – beyond individual backyards.  East of 12th will be working with Bert, others welcome to join. No
date yet.
3. Green Acre Radio.  Five minute segment that airs several times a week on KBCS.  Martha Baskin does a great job.  There are now
podcasts availables too.  A recent show featured the “Farm Boys” – previous neighbors of Carol B.  More information on her blog:
http://greenacreradio.blogspot.com/
4. Seed sharing and group purchasing:
Next meeting bring seeds to share and a list of seeds you want to buy.  Swap seeds and combine orders to save $ and shipping costs
Next  Meeting Sunday February 14th.
5-7 PM Potluck 5:00 – 5:30.
Room 4 Crown Hill Center.
Danielle will facilitate the meeting.

Upcoming Events:

Thanksgiving Salmon Walk (3rd Annual)
Saturday 28 November 10 AM
Meet at the old oak on the Corner of 13th Ave and 95th Street NW. We will walk to Carkeek Park. Doug will provide information about restoration of the salmon habitat and Carkeek Park.

Holiday Card Making Party
In lieu of a December meeting, Danielle has proposed a holiday card making party. More information later.

Next Regular meeting

Celebration of 2009: a busy and successful year:

• Halloween Party
• Table at the November Arts Festival
• Crown Hill Center and Park Purchase
• Speed bumps on Mary and 14th Avenues
• Traffic circle at Mary and 92nd
• Fruit gleaning for food banks
• Permaculture workshops (2)
• Sheet Mulching workshop
• Native Plant Workshop
• Soap classes
• Kitchen party
• Movie nights
• Moving meetings in the CH Center
• And best of all many meetings with wonderful food and neighbors

Activities continuing into 2010 (and beyond)

Permaculture: Additional workshops to be planned for the winter. They will be in the Sunday Afternoon before the Sustainable meeting, as we did this Spring. More information will be forth coming. Actions:

• Bert to hold a couple more workshops that include background principles etc.
• Martin still planning on the solar workshop

Fruit Gleaning and Tree Pruning: There are many old fruit trees in CH where the fruit is not being used by the owners. These trees need pruning. Some Sustainable CH neighbors took a fruit tree pruning workshop a couple of years ago. The general plan is to identify potential fruit trees this fall (while they have leaves), leave a flyer at the door with information about the pruning and gleaning project. The trees can be pruned this winter and then harvest next summer and fall.

• Lanae to make a new flyer up in a PDF and distribute to the sustainable list.
• Lanae and Bert are the contacts for the project
• People available for pruning include: Dennis, Kit, Frank, Doug, Carol, Mira, Martin, Stephanie, and Eric (If I missed your name, let me know.)

Street Painting Project: The time to apply for a grant is in April 2009 for a summer project, so now is a good time to start talking with neighbors to lay the ground work. It is now possible to paint streets between intersections and not just the intersection!! One idea possible location is on 95th between 13th and 14th. The 12th Ave neighbors are interested in doing a street painting this year. More than one painting could be included in a single grant. Actions:

• Doug to take a lead to get things going for 12th Ave
• Frank to have a party to bring neighbors together for 12th Ave

Mary Dead End (north of 100th) Traffic Calming: In follow up to the Walkable Crown Hill Project, a group of Mary Avenue neighbors submitted a grant for traffic calming on Mary Ave and stairs on the 103rd right-of-way. At this time the group is working with the city on the details of the street calming. The stairs are on hold.

Community Garden: Lanae and Jason are converting some land on Journey Church property (92th and 11th) into a community garden. Volunteers welcome.

Park Planning: After the Fire Department has moved out the planning and construction of the park can take place. The fire department is scheduled to move out of their temporary quarters in August 2010. While there is the Levy money in place for building the park, proposed city cutbacks for the Parks Departments may delay the planning of the implementation. Discussed that since the initial park design sustainability is more in the forefront. Decided that proactively Sustainable CH could come up with sustainable ideas or concepts that we felt were important for including in the park. Various ideas (general and more specific) were put forward including, using recycled materials, solar and wind power for lighting, p-patch or community garden.

Mobile Pizza Oven: One neighbor is interested in building a mobile pizza oven in 2010!!

Updates, general announcements, and misc.

Rapid Ride: It is on Schedule for 2012. The proposed rapid ride line D will replace the 15 and and run North on 15th East on 100th and turn around near the QFC. More details as the come available.

Holman Median Project: People in both CHNA and Sustainable CH are working toward a plan having medians and turning lanes along 15th and Holman. This is to both make it safer for crossing the street and beautify the area.
Ryan McFarland of CHNA is leading this effort.

Power Pool and Traffic Light control boxes: Apparently Seattle city light as a process for painting the boxes that hold the controls for traffic lights. Crown Hill Business Association is looking into this as well has painting power poles along the pedestrian corridor.

Notes by Kit Galvin. Additions or corrections please email tehama@speakeasy.net

Announcements

Significant Tree Program

- grant has been submitted by CHNA to Seattle Dept of Neighborhoods

- Go to CrownHillNeighbors.org to  tell about your favorite CH tree or trees.

Sat Nov 7.  Crown Hill Arts festival  6:30 PM- Art Walk
- Find out about local community groups
- Dance performances including Irish, Flamenco, and Ballet
- Beer Garden and music
- Instant Beer Cellar Raffle
- Day Care

Missing mail
- some neighbors have had mail stolen
- locking mail boxes available at seattleluxe.com and Home Depot

Discussed High School reassignment plan
- The new boundary for Ballard High is now 85th.  North of that will be going to Ingram.
Speed bumps & traffic circles
- Speed bumps on Mary are working out
- City has a new arborist for the traffic circle
- Overall the traffic has slowed down with the traffic circle and speed bumps.

Planting with native plants.
- Doub G.  will be leading a 1 hour workshop at his house. It will include a tour of his the native plantings in his yard (took place in October)

Up coming Celebrations
Art Fair (see above)
>Dennis and Danielle: Info table information
>Lanae – Sustainable CH Flyer – Advertises successes including workshops
Halloween celebration – 24 October 6-8 PM at outside Crown Hill Center
Advertising needed
>Lanae – flyer, send out to sustainable list and CHN Newsnotes
>Dennis and Danielle work out how to have an RSVP for the email announcement

Future Activities
Fruit harvest

Discussed many different possiblities for CH and what other neighborhoods are doing.  Phinney has a grant to set up a program and pay for a coordinator.  They had a lot of success this year and looking for ways for the program to be self sustiaining.  Lanae is using the Lettuce Link flyer on her own and picking when people contacted her.  Bert brought up that we could identify a few (~3) trees that need pruning, provide the pruning in the winter and then come back to pick in the fall. To have a full program we would need to have a coordinator – either volunter or paid (through grants possibly?).  This is a big job. Decided that for now we would keep it small and informal in CH based on individuals identifying trees and contacting residents.  Several sustainable folks volunteered for the following
> Bert take the lead on 3 trees for pruning and harvesting
>Advertising: Dennis, Lanaie, Doug, and Michael.
>Look for trees: Danielle, Lanae, and Annie

Canning Workshop
Discussed holding a canning workshop.  King County Ag was teaching an canning class, a special event with Canning Across America (Check out their website http://www.canningacrossamerica.com/).  Discussed putting on a canning workshop.  We could bring in the King County Ag person. Possible locations with Kitchens, including Greenwood Senior Center and Whitman School.

Next Sustainable Meeting: Sunday 8 November 2009 at Crown Hill Center Room 4.
>Reserve room – key: Danielle
>Facilitator: Bert

Future Meetings will be held on the 2nd Sunday of the month at Crown Hill Center. Same format 5-5:30 potluck 5:30 – 7pm meeting.

Announcements

Significant neighborhood tree program being put together. Grant has been applied for. A walking tour is being planned.

Neighborhood News

Aug 4th Neighborhood Night Out parties very successful. Parties held on Mary Ave , 12th Ave, 9th Ave and 11th Ave.

Aug 16th Crown Hill Park dedication & Small Faces Head retirement combined party. Excitement growing for a community space.

Village concept for seniors staying in own homes. Are necessary services available in Crown Hill and can we support such a program? What can Sustainable do to be a part?

Gardening Support

Lasagna gardening demonstration held in Kit and Dennis Galvin’s yard taught helpful techniques that they and others have used to convert lawn into usable and healthy garden spaces

Gardening supplies available-Carol Kennedy has string and feathers fo those who want to add it to their compost.

The People Helping Horses Manure availability has ceased but the King County Manure Exchange is available at http://www.kingcd.org/programs-farm-manure.htm

Celebrations

Halloween Celebration-Date TBA. Being put together by Danielle Lavilla.

Mary Ave Walkable grant approved for planter boxes. Unfortunately it may not be as traffic calming as originally hoped but will beautify street.

Coming Events & Discussions

Workshops-Native plant workshop planned for the fall to be taught by Doug Gresham

Fruit Harvest-Seeking possibility of a matching grant from the city. Dennis is willing to help write a grant. Who would head the project? How can we be better organized?

Asked at meeting-Is Crown Hill Community Center available for Sustainable meetings? Do we have to pay for the space? Is it a way to gain a presence in the community?
Answered-Yes the space is available for Sustainable meetings for 2 hours once per month.

Next mtg. scheduled for October 11th 5-7pm at the community center. Facilitator will be Lanae Rhoads

July 26, 2009

I. Announcements

1. Feathers for composting: Carol Kennedy can get 50 pound bags of goose down feathers that can be used for composting; feathers are about 14% nitrogen.
2. 18 lb spools of 100% cotton cording/ string: Holly Nilson, who has been delivering the horse manure, has 2-3 spools left to be given away.
3. Horse manure compost: discussion about concerns that the manure compost from the horse rescue could toughen veggies, adds weeds, and takes away nitrogen from the soil due to the wood chips.  It was discussed that green beans are possibly toughened due to the intense sun, that the amount of weeds depends on the load of manure, and a lot of wood chips will pull nitrogen from the soil – so be sure to procure a highly composted load.
4. Deadline for Small and Simple Grant:  CHN is applying for tree survey grant for landmark and historic trees.  Deadline is August 31^st.  There is a meeting with the Dept of Neighborhoods on August 3^rd.
5. Block Parties on August 4^th
6. Celebrate the purchase of the Crown Hill School: August 16^th, 4 PM
7. KCBS, community based radio station is moving away from being community based
8. August 6^th, encouragement for people to attend the neighborhood planning meeting put on by the Seattle Planning Commission on August 6^th
9. Sheet composting workshop at Kit and Dennis’s house, lead by Danielle, Saturday, August 8^th, 9-12

II. AGENDA DISCUSSIONS

A. Meeting Location

Danielle called and suggested that we use the  new    Crown Hill community center as a meeting place for future meetings. Pros and Cons were discussed:

Pros:  More inviting for new people

Cons: Money needed to rent space; Hot in summer

Jean Davis said that she would follow up with the new building manager to find out if “in kind” volunteer work would satisfy the financial fees for room rental.

It was discussed that every other meeting could be at the community center and every other in someone’s home

B. Fruit Gleaning

1. Bert will call people that have been willing to donate fruit in the past and will set up days for possible fruit harvest
2. Workshops- schedules discussed
   1. August: Michael and Martin on Solar heat
   2. September: Solar Fruit Drying: Michael
   3. October/ November: Doug on Native Plants and appropriate trees for urban environment

Next Meeting:

September 13, 2009

Jean Davis

8744 21^st Ave. NW

Sustainable Crown Hill Meeting

July 26, 2009

I Announcements of Upcoming Events

1. June 13^th —Solar energy workshop on photovoltaic’s offered by SPU being held at Carkeek Park environmental education center.

2. June 13^th —Fundraising walkathon organized by Seattle Teen Challenge.

3. June 14^th —Game night and potluck at the Journey Church from 4-8 pm. Bring games to play and potluck dish.

4. June 15^th —7-8:30 PM Safety meeting at Journey Church to discuss crime, graffiti, and other problems in neighborhood.

5. July 18^th—Fruit tree pruning workshop sponsored by Seattle Fruit Tree Society from 11:30-3 being held at Carkeek Park environmental education center; there is a cost to this workshop

6. July 25^th—Crown Hill garage sale.

7. Every Sunday—Bike ride to Ballard farmers market organized by Carol Barber.

8. Free horse manure with truck delivery can be arranged from People Helping Horses. Carol Kennedy will be posting the contact information.

II Celebration Updates

1. June 28^th—Softball game at Crown Hill School little league field. Starts at 3pm with potluck afterward, organized by Danielle.

2. Sometime in August—Mary Avenue dead-enders will invite all to celebrate the first grant project to come out of Walkable Crown Hill’s Pedestrian Plan. This initial grant will cover planter boxes and improvements to the stairway at 103nd St. between Mary Ave. NW and 14^th Ave NW.

III Neighborhood News

1. Traffic circle being installed at 92^nd St. and Mary Avenue. The planting of traffic circle at 95^th St. and 13^th Avenue has been delayed until the fall.

2. Block parties can be arranged anytime between June 15 and September 30 without having to acquire and pay for a permit. Contacting the City (SDOT) at least one week in advance for a street closure.

3. Metro Rapid Ride program is coming to 15^th Avenue and 100^th St. soon, so there will be improvements to accommodate bus stops and pedestrian paths.

4. City of Seattle Pedestrian Plan has recently been updated and can be viewed on-line.

IV Permaculture Workshops

1. Sheet Composting workshop being taught by Danielle in July. This workshop will be combined with a work project to assist Kit and Dennis in preparing part of their back yard for more gardening/ landscaping.

2. Solar system workshop offered by Martin and Michael in early August.

3. Solar fruit drying workshop offered in September or October.

4. Native plant landscape design workshop offered by Doug in October or November.

Next meeting on July 26 :

Carol Kennedy’s and Doug Gresham’s.

937 NW 96^th St.

Seattle, WA 98117

206-781-4858

Facilitator to be determined

SCH Meeting Notes from 4-26-09

From this point forward, each meeting will have a host, facilitator and note taker. These jobs will rotate from month to month so that we all have the opportunity to be more active members of the group and to share the burden of responsibility more equitably.

Job Duties:

Host – emails the announcement that meeting is coming up, provides the meeting space

Facilitator – runs the meeting

Note Taker – takes notes and posts them or emails to someone else to post

Announcements:

May 9 – CHNA Annual Meeting, 10 am – 12 pm Community Groups and Parks and Rec will have presentations. Temporary firehouse is being constructed.

May 12 – New Park and Levy Green Space Meeting for North Seattle from 7:00 to 8:30 PM at Greenlake Community Center

Celebrations:

Mid-June – Michael and Danielle will plan a softball event for the group.

August – Mary Deadenders will plan a WCH charette wrap up event

Updates on CH News:

Crown Hill Park and Building – the City took possession of the park on March 20. Still waiting for building. Gilbert and Sullivan are gearing up to move in.

Walkable Crown Hill – SDOT has approved another traffic circle for 92^nd and Mary to be installed May or this upcoming fall. Also, 4 speed humps will be installed between 92^nd and 95^th – two on Mary, two on 14^th

Mary DeadEnd is planning a streetscape with planter boxes and a redo of the right-of-way from 14^th to Mary.

Dennis reported that small projects submitted to city may include repair of small section of foot path along 100^th. With planned Rapid Ride, there may be more upgrades.

Rapid Ride is coming to Crown Hill – The #15 bus will no longer meander through Blue Ridge, instead take 100^th down the hill to 7^th and turn around. 3 levels of stops will be created: 1) Terminal Stops with arrival times, 2) Transit Bulbs, 3) Signs. http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/transitnow/rapidride.stm

Education:

Permaculture – Bert will organize

Solar – Martin will organize solar heating, Michael will show PV

Gardening – Danielle will teach a composting class in July. Doug will teach native plants and invasive plant removal, dates TBD.

Work Party Garden – Lanae, Kit and Carol K will organize

June Meeting: June 6, Permaculture, part 2 (Bert)

Host: Bert

Facilitator: Carol K

Note Taker – TBD

Thank you Martin and Mira for hosting the our Sustainable Meeting 2 months in a row. Our meal had a few theme ingredients avocados, potatoes, and salad. Yumm.

Announcements:

>Kitchen Party at the Galvin’s 5 PM. Bring food, songs, poems, stories, Full announcement later.

Meeting

1. Reviewed and explored the the list of guilds, topics, and areas of interest from the last meeting. We focusd on the activities that people showed and interest in leading. There was a lot of interest in having workshops-sharing information lead by Sustainable folks or possibly others. Discussed how we can look at the neighborhood as a whole, and not just each individual property (for example energy systems.)

Built Environment:

Solar Energy: Martin (lead), Dennis, and Michael

>look at solar collectors for hot water – options for Crown Hill

Skills bank:

>Martin (lead) – Dennis and Martin to set up a Wiki on the website.

>Doug provided a consultation on native plants for gardens

Website:

suggestions were made for the following in addition to the skills bank Wiki

- recipe Wiki

- calendar for events

Urban Gardening:

Permaculture – Bert (lead)

Many people are interested in permaculture. The typical permaculture class can be 2 weeks long and include theory as well as designing a project, so Bert proposed to lead a couple of workshops on the design principles of permaculture this spring and then over the next couple of years people can offer workshops on different topics. These topics many that we have been talking about and include composting, planting food gardens and fruit trees, perennials, harvest preservation (drying etc), solar, water systems, and energy efficiency

The 2 design workshops will be before our next two sustainable meetings. Proposed was time 3-7 for the workshops, and 7-8 for the sustainable meeting.

Also discussed childcare options so parents of small kids could attend including, hiring someone to provide childcare and donating to the cost. Decided to leave it open, people can email Bert about childcare needs and what can be worked out.

Next steps

> Bert to put together an announcement regarding the workshops. The announce will include a brief description of permaculture and something about childcare.

>Dates April 26 and June 7. Location to be finalized.

>Bert to identify some reading in preparation for one/both meetings.

Sponsored by SDOT

Jan. 31, 2008

Presenters:

Erik Higbee: h_i_g_b_e_e@yahoo.com, community organizer behind street painting at 49^th and Burke discussed: 1. Process of involving community; 2. Process of designing paintint; 3. How to implement (paint) the design

Jane Rebelowski: jane.rebelowski@seattle.gov, SDOT civil engineer specialists discussed SDOT’s regulations, scope of assistance, and time frames

Brian Dougherty: brian.doughterty@seattle.gov discussed other funding

Jennifer Britton: Jennifer.britton@seattle.gov discussed Dept of Neighborhood funding

Crown Hill attendees: Carol Kennedy & Doug Gresham

There is no “one” way to build community, but Erik Higbee recommended Placemaking Guide Book by City Repair (Portland). He said it is about the process more than the end product.

May need to start with other activities, such as tree planting, block parties, to initiate getting neighbors together.

Usually there is a core group of people that gets things done.

1. Neighborhood Flier. Jane Rebeleowshi can provide the map of what neighbors need to be contacted for a particular intersection. When fliering, knock on doors and talk to people, get e-mail addresses. Include everyone, even if they don’t have an e-mail address or are opposed to the idea.
2. Neighborhood Design Charette: brainstorm ideas, create a “to scale” drawing of the intersection, have pens and markers for children and adults to draw out their ideas encouraging simple designs, straight lines, outline edges, solid bright colors. One person suggested using a stencil of street art for a simple pattern. Another suggested sponge painting. Have all of the drawings on a wall and give people three dots to vote for their favorites. (Someone with design/ graphic art skills can than develop it further into a final form.)
3. First SDOT Review: small sketch of design (it does not have to be the final form); they are reviewing it for cultural sensitivity and ensuring it does not extend to sidewalk, etc. takes about 1 week
4. SDOT puts the Petition Together for Neighborhood: Officially we need 60% approval with all 4 houses immediately at intersection approving; Jane believes they will be upping the approval necessary to at least 75% – 80%. In Wallingford they had 90% approval. Contact every single person. Need approval of home occupant, ie renter versus owner. Schools count as one vote. For apartment complexes, the manager or owner can count as one vote, or poll every resident. They are in process on how to count condo complexes. Keep the “no” people involved with the process.
5. SDOT Permit: If all of the concerns that SDOT raised after first review are addressed and there is adequate approval of neighbors, it costs $103 and takes about 10 days to get the permit.
6. Planning Date: Jane will determine if there are any projects for street repair in the area. Alternate routes need to be determined for police and fire. The city will close the street Saturday AM, but they only have one set of barricades for this use. If they are already reserved, we could rent barricades from National Barricade company for about $70, they deliver the barricades. Typically the neighbors will clean/ powerwash the street on Saturday, paint Sunday morning, and the street will be open by Sunday evening.

Notes regarding Neighborhood Approval:

Keep all naysayers involved with the process.

Reasons people were opposed in Wallingford: one person was afraid that it would draw more people into the neighborhood to hang out at the intersection; concern for property values; opposed to the “funky” aspect

SDOT’S REGULATIONS

1. It cannot be offensive to any particular group of people
2. Cannot extend up on curb, gutter or sidewalk
3. There is so much interest in painting around a traffic circle, SDOT is considering this; currently this is not officially approved.
4. Cannot have fluorescent, reflectors, or glass beads in paint
5. It cannot look like an official sign, ie no STOP signs painted, and no crosswalks painted.

IMPLEMENTATION OF PAINTING

1. Rodda Pain has approved paint for the streets and provide a 25% discount for these projects: waterbased, very fast drying, and have been formulated for road striping; coverage depends on age and type of street material: concrete coverage is about 80 sq feet per gallon; new asphalt is 150 sq feet / gallon; old asphalt will absorb more; Colors: white, orange, green, red, blue, yellow

Erik said the ladybug took 40 gallons, and cost about $800 to paint

1. Person with graphic skills has placed a grid template over the design; after street has been powerwashed, use chalk to lay out grid pattern on intersection so scale is uniform; use chalk to transfer design from paper to street, spray paint borders of each area and label the color
2. Delegate committees: ie 1. those involved with street closing; 2. those involved with getting paint and all supplies; 3. those involved with staging the paint and supplies – on a big tarp by side of road; 4. those who will actually paint, 5. those who will oversee the painting; 6. those involved with food. Wallingford had about 30 people involved
3. Design suggestions: Simple, Bold, solid bright colors, outline the borders

FUNDING

Dept. of Neighborhoods:

1. Small Sparks Grants: $300; will get a DON project manager; can be acquired any time

2. Small and Simple Neighborhood Matching Grants: $15,000 offered quarterly; matching funds can be done in labor, materials, professional contribution

SDOT

$1,000 available for improving walking routes to public elementary schools; I believe this is money that “reimburses” expenditures, versus money you get up front. This also funds “walking school buses”

MAINTENANCE

The street painting needs to be repainted every year. There is no funding source available for “maintenance”. Also, need to get another $103 permit from SDOT. Erik said that they had enough paint left over to repaint it the second year, but had to do fundraising for repainting it the 3^rd year.