October 2021 Minutes

JHA MINUTES:  OCTOBER 14, 2021

Welcome (Bridget Curd)

• Alicia from Councilor Flaherty’s office introduced herself in the chat and provided contact information:617-635-4205; Alicia.Payne@Boston.gov
• Joe Mceachern with Councilor Baker’s office: Joseph.mceachern@boston.gov

Treasurer’s Report  (Stacey Cordeiro)

• Our FY starts July 1
• Donations came in of $515 this year
• Expenditures, net income, balance

• Stacey ran through the new software consideration: JoinIT
• Other proposed change: rolling memberships so that instead of all memberships ending at end of fiscal year, all memberships good for 365 days from when you sign up and members will be automatically reminded of when to re-join. Board will make a decision at end of next meeting. 
• Link for members to explore and we welcome feedback about the software: https://www.joinit.org/o/jones-hill-association; everyone is also welcome to reach out to Stacey with feedback as well. 

Police Report (Officer George Downing)

• Officer Downing is our new CSO Officer and provided contact information 617-343-4524 or George.Downing@pd.Boston.gov 
• We can also visit BPD Twitter page at CSOC11 
• Officer Downing provided information on the break-ins in the neighborhood
• If neighbors find someone sleeping in Downer Ave Playground, please call 911
• Officer Downing provided crime report 

Committee Reports

•  Social Committee (Steve Farrell)
  • Ideated around events for this year based on previous years events and additional events as well: Winter Hot Toddy Stroll, Love your weekends and your closet, Jones Hill Yard Sale, Neighborhood Tour and this year, add the cemetery. Also a block party, meet and greet at Harp + Bard, a Juneteenth event. 
  • If anyone would like to help, please reach out to Steve Farrell
  • Halloween Events: 
    • https://www.joneshill.com/event/jones-hill-home-decorating-contest/ 
    • Kids costume contest at Downer Ave Park

• Governance (Kathleen Rogers)
  • Formed last April after a proposal to change the bylaws to expand the board of directors from 4 to 9 members
  • May 4 Governance Committee was established as a standing committee
  • Kathleen provided background on what the Governance Committee does and its role
  • Committee will share opportunity for feedback next week, for everyone’s review and comment before it goes to a vote

• Uphams Corner WAG Update (Kathleen Rogers)
  • RFP was sent, open houses for developer proposals
  • Public meeting in late October
  • This includes the library and the Strands new management and the parking lot off Dudley Street

• Outreach Committee
  • Meetings are on the 4th Wednesday of the month
  • Have been working on the draft mission statement for the committee
  • If you’d like to join the committee, please let Stacey know
  • Recent discussions have centered around how to make the JHA a welcoming and inclusive space and how to do another door hanger campaign, as well as developing a street team. If you’d like to serve a function like this on the street team, please let Stacey know if you’d like to volunteer. 

Dorchester Bay City (Catherine O’ Neil, Kevin Galvin, Jill Lacey Griffin)

• Representing the Dorchester Bay City project
• Provided Brief Update:
  • Since filings last year, have been reviewing public comments about how to make the project better such as putting together transportation and resiliency working groups to ensure what is proposed in next filing is through a coordinated effort
  • After filings, there will be another round of public comment
  • Goals: File document by end of October, public meetings into Feb 2022, several review processes and then finalize mitigation proposals.

Food Forest (Kit Binns)

• • This is moving forward
  • Open House to be scheduled

New Business: Discussion about the recent uptick in Traffic and recent accidents. (Kathleen Rogers)

• Recent accidents on Stoughton Street and recent increase in traffic
• Multiple car accident (9/25), Roll-over on Cushing (August), Minivan hit with such force, it was pushed up on sidewalk (November 2020), speeding on Jones Hill streets
• Mike Rudolph brought up the history of having a traffic committee and asked if there has been any initiatives that have worked in the past. 
• Joe Mceachern with Councilor Baker’s office discussed possibilities discussed in the past such as lowering speed limit and working with traffic enforcement
• In 2012 or 2013, there was a initiative around addressing one way streets, including eliminating through traffic, which included a traffic study (found a very high # of cars went through a certain hours in the morning). Discussed street by street coupling, to alternate one way streets), but in the midst of this, the city changed the rules for # of signatures needed to make a change. If speed clocks work, that is one option that was introduced. 
• Joe Mceachern with Councilor Baker’s office offered to bring ideas and information to Councilor Baker
• Enforce speed limits
• We might also try to connect with our neighbors at Hancock Street association to see how they got their plan in place: https://www.boston.gov/departments/transportation/neighborhood-slow-streets/hancock-street-triangle
• Kathleen Rogers moved that the traffic committee be reformed in order to look at the traffic and speeding issues in the neighborhood. Paul betz seconded the motion. A few people offered to volunteer including Chris Vella and Stephen McBride
• BOD will ID people to chair and at the next meeting, will try to organize paperwork and next steps

Update on approval schedule, upcoming meetings, and to introduce a new member of the team. 

• There is a vacancy in the at-large seat. The nominations/ vote will be during the November meeting. 
• We are accepting nominations until November 7th. On November 8th, we will notify who the nominees are and on the 10th, we will vote. Nominations will also be accepted during the meeting on the 10th. 
• This vacancy is the result of someone who resigned, which happened because they did not feel welcome on the board, as their eligibility was questioned.