SMILE – Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League

The Board of the Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League met on Wednesday, February 18, 2009. This is an unofficial summary of what happened at that meeting. 

 Topics included the Moreland Farmer’s Market, the Spokane Bike Boulevard effort, SMILE Bylaws adjustments to bring them into conformance with Southeast Uplift bylaws, Portland Parks Budget cuts, the sellwood.org website, and consideration of a Holgate Channel no-wake zone.

Laura Wendell of the Moreland Farmer’s Market stopped in with former SMILE board member Julie Wallace of Wallace Books. They requested SMILE sponsorship of the Market for 2009. Opening Day of the Moreland Farmer’s Market is, by the way, set for May 13, 2009 from 3:30PM-7:30PM.

Paul Notti gave an update on the Spokane Bike Boulevard Project. There’s an excellent summary of the project on Jonathan Maus’ Bike Portland Blog.

Part of the Bike Boulevard project might include a 20MPH Speed limit on SE 13th Ave. Other aspects include a pedestrian island at SE 13th and SE Spokane, along with barriers preventing East-West progress across 13th at Spokane.  To reduce traffic moving onto Spokane from 17th, there’s a possibility that some diversions may go in at Spokane and 16th, instead of at Spokane and 17th, to minimize parking loss for the merchants at SE 17th and SE Spokane.

The intersection of  SE Spokane at SE 7th is a particularly difficult intersection. A “Pinch Point” would allow a single lane of car traffic at a time in the center of the street. Eric Norberg refers to this as “The Tenino Effect” due to the particularly narrow conditions on SE Tenino.

There was active and extended discussion about the project as a whole. Board opinions were not necessarily unified in support of this project as the highest neighborhood priority. Board member and cyclist Mike Pucik highlighted the parallel need to finish “The Sellwood Gap” of the Springwater Corridor.

Southeast Uplift has mentioned that some of the SMILE Bylaws needed adjustment to conform to the standards of the Office of Neighborhood involvement.  Board member Phil Krain took the lead to look into the bylaw updates. Separately from the suggested changes from Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement and Southeast Uplift, one of the things he’s hoping for is to be able to adjust the quorum and membership requirements such that SMILE Board participation would be less time-intensive on the part of individual board members.

There was a discussion about the cuts to Portland Parks. It was suggested to drum up support among the schools and parents groups to contact their city representatives to limit the cuts.

There was an extremely brief discussion regarding the sellwood.org website. The recent move to Wordpress Multi-user 2.7 should make it easy-to-manage and easy for SMILE members to update the community on upcoming events, city projects and other news of interest. SMILE board members will all be designated authors by the end of February.

Board members discussed the proposed 5mph no-wake zone in the Holgate Channel. Board members voted in favor of a 5mph motorized no-wake zone in the Holgate Channel specifically. This endorsement does not necessarily imply a similar endorsement of a similar speed in the Ross Island lagoon.

Paul Notti brought up a neighborhood organization endorsement request for a swing dance festival at the Moreland Masonic Lodge (something similar to this). There followed a discussion of the extent to which SMILE should get directly involved in community events such as these. Treasurer Pat Hainley pointed out that when people come to the board for these sort of things it’s most helpful when they’re detailed, specific and can explain their purposes, motivations and background to the SMILE board.

Revenue generation ideas were discussed to fund SMILE efforts such as Sellwood Baseball, Sundae in the Park and the operation of the SMILE Station. Pat Hainley pointed out the implication that ongoing efforts may be seen as unrelated business expenses for the organization and subject to the appropriate level of income tax.

Jim Lovell is creating a book with Oregon University press on the historic paintings on the Oaks Park Carousel. He’s looking for more information and photos on the Carousel in order to create his very specific book. If you have pictures or information that might be pertinent to his book, please contact him via his website at http://www.lommassonpictures.com/

Beth Funsch has proposed a grant for a greenhouse at Sellwood Middle School. The Sellwood Middle School Greenhouse Project is a grant from the Office of Neighborhood Involvement via Southeast Uplift. It is designed to enhance the science curriculum at Sellwood Middle School. They’re hosting a fair at the school where they’d like participation from the neighborhood. They’re asking for a second grant from the City of Portland Vision into Action program, Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) and Portland State University. They’re insured via Portland Public Schools. They’d like a letter of non-financial endorsement and support, as well as co-signature on the grant application from SMILE and community members to feel more comfortable in the school. They’d love to see more neighbors, including those without children in the school, to offer their interaction with the students.

The meeting adjourned bright and early at 10:01pm. My, what a busy night.