Meeting Tonight! Different location: Corner of Josiah and Howth Avenues, 7-8:30pm (April 9)

Our monthly meeting is tonight 7-8:30pm, planned to be held on the corner of Josiah and Howth Avenues right on Ridge Lane!

If weather takes a turn for the worse we’ll move to the home of Patricia Ris nearby at 24 Josiah.

MINUTES FROM MEETING APRIL 9

Attending: Sandra Zuniga (DPW), Robert Muehlbauer, Moneka Urbanske, Warren Longmire, Fayaz Rajani,

Mary Beth d’Alonzo, Scott Kauffman, John and Debora Cornejo and son, Patricia Ris

1/ Sandra reports from DPW:

– Mohammed recommends transferring our $100,000 to SFPA, before it becomes unavailable to RLN.

– He also stated that this will be sufficient for the first two segments of our improvement plans.

– Sandra recommends holding back $3,000-$10,000 for the drafting of the construction plans

(Patricia will contact Sandra and Julia to proceed with this transfer).

– She will get an estimate from DPW’s Kathleen O’Day for the technical plans, drafted from Nahal’s design. These will be used for the bids.

– The recommendation is to get three estimates for the construction/landscaping phase.

One company that has been used in the past on two SFPA parks is Bauman Landscape Architecture, which is a company that works well DPW draftings and has

done the works on the Athens/Avalon street parks. We could check in with Pamela Axelson from Avalon Street Park for more information.

– Sandra shares a photo of a sign, which is one of the things we requested at our last meeting, and is intended as an explanation of RLN beautification project,

to be posted on Ridge Lane. There are two possible options: one temporary sign explaining the work being done (city agencies/departments involved) followed by one

permanent sign about the area, the neighbors, Columbia Heights, San Miguel, etc.

2/ Timeline (thank you Scott for asking this question!)

In order to proceed with the construction drawings (possibly to be done by DPW’s Kathleen O’Day), we will need the updated drawings from Nahal/Heather.

These drawings will include the requests and suggestions we made during our last steering committee meeting.

Patricia will send an e-mail to Heather at SFAAU to find out when to expect these.

Once the drawings are back to us, we will regroup and make the final decisions (trees/no trees, expenses/choices, etc) for the final design.

Then it will go through the next (technical/cost analysis) drafting phase and after that’s completed we can send it our for bids.

We hope to break ground in September, depending in the time it takes to complete the phases described above.

3/ Plans for a flyer for our neighbors in the adjacent homes and streets of Ridge Lane

We decided to create 500 flyers to distribute in the neighborhood, and include an insert with a meeting or clean up announcement.

Mary Beth has a colleague who’s a graphic designer who can help with the design of this flyer. She will contact Eric Maier for photos and other items

to be included on the flyer. We will also need the final designs from Nahal to include details of our plans, which are not ready yet.

Warren’s narrative about Ridge Lane contains a blurb/language that can also be used. (Most of this material is available on our website).

Questions arose about inclusion of logos of supporting city agencies (DWP, SFPA, SFAAU), which will make it look more official.

All printed, ‘official’, promotional material has to be presented to our FS!

Sandra Zuniga has offered to print the flyer at DPW. Once the final design phase is completed, we can proceed with this plan.

The tentative plan is to have a neighborhood meeting/presentation/clean up on Saturday May 23 at 10:30am, depending on the progress with

the plans.

4/ Moving forward

– Patricia will email Heather Clendenin and find out when Nahal’s second drafts are ready. Answer: no reply for Nahal to date (4/25/15).

– Patricia will inquire if a logo from SFAAU is desired on the flyer. Answer: logo cannot be used without sending the prototype to Heather/SFAAU for

approval (HC).

5/ Patricia will prepare the application for the Community Garden Irrigation Meter Grant, with the estimate of

approximately 400 square feet of irrigated land of the first stretch of Ridge Lane. Included in the grant application

will be answers about plants and estimated water usage, which will become available after Nahal and Alex’s

drawings are approved by us.

(See also my previous notes on this:

– Grants are available for this year (we already knew this, but there was some confusion about the language used).

– The water meter will be installed on the sidewalk, not on someone’s property

– The meter will be read monthly and billed to our nonprofit/ fiscal sponsor

– The cost is between $8,000 and $10,000 and will be covered by the grant, excluding the back flow (approx. $1,275)

– It’s not likely we’ll be able to receive grants for all stretches of Ridge Lane (but we can raise funds for this ourselves

and have other meters installed by PUC)

–  We need to build the infrastructure/pipes/irrigation system from the meter

–  We need to supply the square footage of the parcel in question, the needed annual water budget, the irrigation management system

and the planting methods in order to submit the application.)

6/ Next meeting: Thursday May 14, same place and time.

Patricia