April 7th, 2020Category: Meeting Minutes
Meeting Date
Thursday, February 6, 2020 8:00-9:30pm
Call to order 8:03pm
Beer Fest — Josh Silverstein
The board debated whether to try and do a winter or spring event like last year’s Beer Fest. It was decided that without someone willing to take the job on immediately it was too late to try for something that elaborate this year. Perhaps something in late August or September. However, the board agreed on a simpler event: a s’mores night on the civic green. Joe agreed to head this project, much more ad hoc, where the RCA will provide the ingredients for s’mores and firewood and possibly hot chocolate. The date for this is to be determined. There was a brief digression into discussing the upcoming meeting about the stop sign at Beach and Wexford, with several board members planning to attend.
Musicfest
RCA needs to set a date in May. Last year it was May 18, so perhaps May 16 this year. The board will approach people who have helped with this activity and performed in previous years. This year we will have a tent to go on the stage, which will be helpful for performers.
Pickford Property Mural — Ken Kopczyk
Ken spoke with Nicole Bourgea, the mural artist who attended the December RCA meeting. He connected her with the property management company that handles the property adjacent to the Randolph Hills Shopping Center concerning the long triangular piece of concrete by the bus stop. They have agreed to Nicole’s price and a contract has been drawn up. She’s currently sketching designs. If all goes well, work might begin at the end of February.
Civic Green Mural — Brian Hooker
RCF wants to take this on as a beautification project. Nell has been applying for grants. We can get a letter of support from Friends of White Flint and the Pike District for future grant applications, but they aren’t offering us any money. If it’s going to happen, RCF and RCA need to work together. Brian will contact the shopper center management to see if we can make progress.
Membership Blast Email — Josh
Josh plans to send the email out soon, now that we have some upcoming events to talk about. He’ll mention Music Fest and the s’mores night, plus maybe the possibility of County Councilmember Evan Glass speaking at a future meeting. RCA needs a list of businesses and government officials who need to get an electronic copy of the Echo so that we know exactly who to send it to each time.
Upcoming Meetings — Josh
The board discussed meeting schedules and decided that March should be a general meeting, April an executive meeting, and May a general meeting. Then June will be the annual spaghetti dinner, with no meetings in July or August. Meetings will start again in September with an executive meeting.
Josh will contact Evan Glass’ scheduler and offer either the March or May meetings as a time for him to speak.
Other Business
The board unanimously approved prior meeting minutes by voice vote.
There are a lot of meetings coming up soon, too many for RCA to have representation at all (or even most). One on pedestrian safety, the Wexford stop sign, a Board of Education meeting.
Safety — Diane LaGrega Bertocchi
Diane contacted the police liaison, who reports no news about the assault back in November. In addition, the advisory board hasn’t met since December, so there’s no real news there. There is concern in the neighborhood about big trucks such as mowing trucks and work vans parking on the street. Some of those are legal and unavoidable, like the people
parking in order to go to the MARC station in Garrett Park. However, abandoned vehicles can be reported to 311; for example, vehicles with a flat tire or expired tags. It was suggested that the cars, trucks, and vans in the neighborhood could be allowed to park at the shopping center for a fee, but there was general agreement that people wouldn’t want to pay.
Environment — Matt Tifford
The tree requests have been submitted to the county. We sent about 40-50 requests. We haven’t heard back from the county yet, but Councilmember Navarro’s office is checking on the status of the requests.
In addition, the repair of the bridge in the park has been pushed back to 2025, even though we were told it was in danger of falling down. The board hopes that it gets replaced before that happens.
Membership — Brian
We’ve had some offers to volunteer and RCA board members will contact them. Perhaps they would be interested in helping out with the s’more’s event.