Dickens of a Dinner—Ann Carson reported the Dickens dinner was a big success and made $2,500, not including the cost of house plaques ($250) for the featured houses. First- and second- and third-place winners of the lighting contest were Lee and Penny Spittler, Dave and Audra Carrillo, and Annabelle and Josie Candelaria.

Tree Project—The deadline for signing up for a tree is past, and the number of respondents has been deemed satisfactory, thanks to the outreach efforts of Amy and Ben, Mary, Fernando, and Salley. David Day and Fernando were on hand to report progress thus far. The grant of $50,000 will go to the company contracted by the City. Planting

Dickens of a Dinner—Ann reported a surplus of volunteers for Dickens this year.

Email notices of miscellaneous neighborhood and City goings-on—Bonnie agreed to collate said notices and proposed that once a month she send them to the board.

Crime report—Officer Seidel reported a big jump in auto burglary in our neighborhood, from two in October to seven in November. He advised to take valuables out of the car and put anything tempting, such as loose change, out of sight, and above all to lock up. He said 70 percent of all burglaries happened to unlocked cars.

Tree project—The City will contract out the work of planting; it’s up to the neighborhood to submit signed agreements from property own

Filling Board vacancies—It was unanimously agreed that Sam Kochansky will fill Greg and Joni Neutra’s position and that Ben Sturge will fill that held by Jackie Smee.

Update on Dickens—Ann Carson let us know she succeeded in getting the required number of houses for the annual Dickens event. She passed around a volunteer sheet and “ordered” us all to sign up. We complied.

Review of July support letter for BRT—Bonnie Anderson re-read the letter she wrote in July on behalf of the board to Mayor Berry in support of Option

Board vacancy—Due to the resignation of Greg and Joni Neutra who moved to Santa Fe recently, we have an opening on the Board.  We will fill that vacancy at the November meeting.

Park Renovation—The LUCC will hear the plans for the renovation of our park at their Nov. 12^th meeting.

DiGregory Development on Arno—Vince DiGregory thanked the neighborhood association for support of their project in front of the zoning commission.  Ann discussed options for the relocation of the historic home that will not be part of this project.

 Underpass on Central at the Railroad Tracks—The City is proposing an expensive project to change the pedestrian walkway at the railroad tracks on Central from the current underpass to an at-grade walkway.  The intention is to solve the problems of poor lighting

Election results—All six candidates were re-elected. All officers agreed to serve again. A motion was made and seconded that the current officers serve for another year.

Tree project—Project leader David Day will attend in October to give an update. What we know at the moment is that planting will be this fall, and that the City will do the digging. Volunteers will be in charge of keeping the trees alive and growing.

Highland Park—Ben Sturge, who has been attending meetings, reported on the twists and turns of park renovation plans. A resolution is almost finalized

Since out last annual meeting/block party on August 18, 2013, the Board has worked on the following major activities.

1. Ongoing input to the government (city, county, etc.) regarding the impact of various development projects on the neighborhood ( Pop ‘n’ Taco site; Complete Streets; Project Innovate; Bus Rapid Transit); no expenses were charged for this activity since all of the participation was volunteered
2. The HHHDA newsletter was created and distributed to the neighborhood in November 2013, April 2014, and July 2014; cost was $370.  Advertising revenues were $200
3. Dickens of a Dinner was held December 7, 2013; dozens of volunteers planned and executed this event which draws about 100 guests to the neighborhood for a five-course meal at five historic homes decorated for the holida

Block Party/Annual Meeting—Mary Karafonda updated the board on party planning progress. She’s already procured the band Pawn Drive, and still needs a keg donation. Moisés stepped up once again to provide the keg(s) this year. The newsletter will be printed by July 11 to satisfy a month’s public notice of an annual meeting, per bylaws for neighborhood associations. The newsletter will contain at least the annual report and a sample ballot. Karla’s and Moisés’ son Paco will distribute door-to-door. The board voted in favor to pay him $50.

Walkable Cities—Moisés reported that Jeff Speck will be back in town and is doing a talk on walkability. He said he would write a short announcement

Bonnie Anderson read a summary of the special meeting on May 7 re the proposed BBQ restaurant. The meeting gave concerned neighbors the opportunity to share their concerns with Bo Barnwell, a businessman who wants to convert the old fire station site to a restaurant.

The board will have two vacancies. Zoey Fink and Greg Bloom are not able to continue as board members. Mary Karafonda has agreed to replace Greg Bloom. Mary introduced herself as an 11-year neighbor, owning her house on High St. She has

This was a special meeting to receive input from neighbors about the proposed BBQ restaurant at the old fire station.  After a brief introduction to the assembled neighbors (about 30) about the regular meeting schedule of the HHHDA and the issue on the agenda, Bo Barnwell (the restaurant owner) gave a summary of his proposal.  Then, in two-minute segments, neighbors shared their concerns about the proposed BBQ restaurant at the old fire station site:

Mayor’s Spring Clean Up—Ann said anyone interested in participating could get trash bags at the station and leave them there for pickup by Solid Waste.

Tree Project—For our re-treeing project, the neighborhood should expect to receive $25,000 this fall and the second $25,000 in the spring of 2015. Neighborhood leaders will be named, who will endeavor to get promises to water and care for the trees.

Park Renovation—After a long period of inactivity re plans to renovate Highland Park, Councilor Isaac Benton had a m

Public Restrooms—EDO is planning to add one or two public restrooms in the Central neighborhood area and we discussed the need in our area.  It was agreed that public restrooms were needed, but we think it would be smart to build them in a way they cannot be easily vandalized or toppled.  The park service has created a small but sturdy version.  Perhaps we could put some in the parking strip (near the bus stops) on Lead and Coal.  They would only take up the place of one car.  No decisions were made. 

Advertising – Website and Newsletter—We discussed whether businesses not located in the neighborhood should be allowed to buy ads in our newsletter and on our website.  Although no vote was taken, it was the feeling of those present that generatin

Easter Egg Hunt—Ann Carson announced that a neighborhood realtor, Lauren Austin, has offered to sponsor the annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt in the amount of $400.  The event will be held on Saturday morning, April 19, and Jackie Smee and Tom Coe volunteered to help Lauren and her daughter, Marina, with preparations.

Re-Tree Project—David Day and Fernando Delgado gave us a status report on the project to re-tree our neighborhood.  This all-volunteer project