2009
MEETING OF DEC. 9, 2009
Present: Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Helen Friedman, Violet Smith, Jack Ullman.
I. Minutes: The minutes of the preceding meeting were accepted as read.
II. Treasurers’s Report: in the absence Inge Otto, Eleanor reported that we have $1939.59 in our bank account.
III. Reports:
A. Article for Bronx Times: Helen Friedman has written the article but can not print it out because her printer is not working. Violet Smith volunteered to type it for her.
B. Meeting with John Doyle (Senator Klein’s assistant), Nov. 13, 2009: Eleanor Rae reports that Senator Klein might be able to get some financial support for us.
C. Citizens’ Committee Grant: Eleanor and Giles Rae were able, on very short notice, to write and submit a proposal for this. They had first proposed doing a presentation at Co-Op City, but were told to ask for money for equipment. So they then wrote up a budget to buy $500 worth of equipment for our proposed cleanup of the Thomas Pell Wildlife Refuge.
D. Meeting at the South Bronx Development Corporation (SOBRO) on the Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) program in Eastchester, Bronx, on 12/1/09 : Jack Ullman attended this meeting. SOBRO is a nonprofit organization with a $12 million annual budget that gets most of its funding from local governments but a significant portion from contributions. The BOA program is funded by a state grant to do planning for development in the Bronx.
The presentation was mostly done by Shira Giddings of SOBRO. It covered projects throughout the Bronx, mostly in the South Bronx in the Port Morris area along the Harlem River. This was of interest, because these projects are in a late stage of development where specific parcels of unused land have been chosen and plans made for their use. What is exciting is that they have even purchased some of this land and real progress is being made towards developing it for residential, commercial or recreational use.
Of more direct interest to us is the area along the Hutchinson River, where PASCAP has its scrap metal recycling plant and near the area in Pelham, now developed into a shopping mall, where the infamous Con Ed dumping and its questionable cleanup took place. Eleanor Rae, Helen Freidman and I explored the area and there is a large empty lot fronting on the river and adjacent to the PASCAP operation. A representative of PASCAP was at the meeting. The speaker praised PASCAP for being in a basically environmentally helpful business, but did say the intention of the whole project was to get businesses to do things in such as way as not to harm the local environment. There was also a representative of the Mount Vernon Department of Planning, Hernan Guerrero, who gave us his card and took the address of our website. He said Mount Vernon is applying for a similar state grant to plan development of their part of the area, and in particular to extend the greenway that now exists for a short distance north of the industrial area along the river.
Among the people at the meeting were Carmen Rosa of Community Board 12 and Linda Cox.
The first stage is to map the area, finding what use is being made of each property and who owns it, and doing environmental testing. They want to meet about twice a year and say they will keep in touch with us.
E. Revised HRRP brochure: Toby Liedeman was doing this but could not be present at this meeting to report on progress.
F. Con Ed remediation site visit: Eleanor, Helen and Jack looked at this site when we were looking at the area mentioned in the Brownfield Development Program as described in (D) above. We saw the steel barrier that has been put in on the Hutchinson River shoreline. No evidence of pollution was visible, since everything has been buried under a fresh level of new earth.
IV. Action Items:
A. Cleanup of floatables in the Thomas Pell Wildlife Sanctuary. This will have to be scheduled for the Fall of 2010 because of birds nesting in Spring and Summer. Giles has done much research on this, getting information from the Appalachian Mountain Club and American Rivers.org on how river cleanups are done. We will have to reconnoiter the area in Spring, on boats or on foot, to see just what debris is there an what the condition of the waterfront is, to make realistic plans. But it seems likely that the bulk of the work will have to be done by people walking or wading on shore, not from boats.
V. Date and time of next meeting: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 7 PM, at the Rae’s 7 Leeward Lane, at the Eastern end of Caroll St. on City Island.
Meeting of Nov. 12, 2009
Present: Eleanor Rae, Helen Friedman, Jack Ullman
I. Minutes. The minutes of the preceding meeting were approved, with the one change that the company our informant on the situation at the Con Edison cleanup worked for was not to be mentioned in the final version on the website.
II. Treasurer’s report: Eleanor Rae reported for Inge Otto that we now have $1939.59 in our account.
III. Reports:
A. Reception for new board of Friends of Pelham Bay Park, Oct. 22, 2009. Eleanor Rae was invited to this event by Marianne Anderson. About 25 persons were present. Eleanor brought brochures and talked to the president and vice-president of the organization. They were very supportive of our plans to clean up debris in the Thomas Pell Wildlife Sanctuary.
B. Article in Bronx Times: Helen Friedman submitted an article on our organization to the Bronx Times. It describes the state of the river and the activities of our group, telling of grants received, participation in fairs and cleanups, and our website.
IV. Action items:
A. Remediation action at Con Edison. Our informant on this gave us a CD-ROM containing pictures and other information which has been read by Giles Rae. Items from this disc were printed out and given to John Doyle, District Manager for Senator Jeff Klein. Eleanor will meet with John Doyle on Nov. 13 to discuss this further. We would like to get a copy of the final report on this project.
B. Citizens’ Committee Grant: Eleanor Rae was encouraged to submit a proposal for a $500 grant from the Citizens’ Committee for a Greater New York for our proposed Thomas Pell cleanup. Jack Ullman said that other commitments made it very difficult for him to do anything in the short time available.
C. South Bronx Economic Development Corporation meeting, 3PM, Dec. 1, 2009. Linda Cox gave these people Eleanor’s name as an interested party and she was invited to the meeting, but will be out of town. Jack Ullman is able to go. The meeting is about a plan to develop the area along the Hutchinson River in the vicinity of the Con Ed cleanup.
D. Meeting with Don Riepe on the Thomas Pell Wildlife Sanctuary cleanup. He can meet with us in his office on Dec. 8 or Dec. 15. Giles and Jack Ullman hope to go.
E. Revised HRRP brochure. Toby Liederman volunteered to edit our brochure, to eliminate typos and errors in grammar and punctuation. A corrected version was shown to us, and those present approved of the corrections.
V. Date and time of next meeting: Wednesday, Dec. 9,at 7pm at Eleanor Rae’s, 7 Leeward Lane, at the east end of Carroll St. on City Island.
Meeting of Oct. 8, 2009
Present: Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Helen Friedman, Toby Liederman, Violet Smith, and Jack Ullman.
Following the order of Eleanor Rae’s agenda:
I. Minutes: The minutes of the preceding meeting were accepted as distributed.
II. Treasurer’s report: Inge Otto not being present at the meeting, no report was given,
but Eleanor reported that money collected at the City Island Fair was given to the
treasurer.
III. Reports:
A. HEP proposal. Eleanor reported that she heard from Gabrielle Munoz that if they had more money they probably would have funded our proposal and given us help in carrying it out.
B. Canoe launch site on the Hutchinson River: Neither Dotti Poggi nor Mel Rodriguez being present, no report was given.
C. Anne Hutchinson River Trail map: Eleanor found this. It had been sent to her in 2006 by Linda G. Cooper, Yorktown town supervisor, its author. The trail is supposed to be a bridle path as well as a walking trail. The map is beautiful, but any greenway along the river is in a very bad state, at least at its southern end. Eleanor reports hearing that people in Pelham and Mount Vernon avoid the river.
D. Water Testing. Jack Ullman reports no progress but hopes to make some this month.
E. American Littoral Society cleanup. Helen Friedman and Violet Smith took part in this, on Sept. 19. They worked mostly around and under the City Island Bridge. They found it in better condition than it has been in the past.
F. City Island Fair, Sept. 12-13. Eleanor did most of the work of representing us. She reports that it was raining Saturday so nobody came and finally she left early. But on Sunday, several visitors took material and made contributions totaling about $50, and one signed up to be a member. She was aided on Sunday by Toby Liederman and Giles. Also, Skip Giacco, owner of Lickety Split and Violet were of great help with the tables and set-up.
G. Media relations. Helen said she would contact the City Island Current: She has written for them. Violet volunteered to do something with the Bronx Times. Toby suggested sending any contribution directly to the editor, and not just to their post office box. Giles will put any contributions to these papers on our website.
H. Con Edison dumping. Toby Liederman reported that she had heard from a City Island resident who works for a company, that is supposed to overseeing a cleanup of a Con Edison property near the Hutchinson River, that Con Edison was dumping large amounts of oil that was running into the river. Toby gave the raw notes she had taken from her telephone conversation with this woman to Dotti Poggi, who transcribed them with some errors and sent them, unedited, to members of our group. In this form it was hard to get a connected idea of what had happened, where, and when. Toby says she later gave an edited and corrected version to Dotti.
Eleanor and Giles went to inspect the site and found that nothing was visible any more. The woman, who is apparently nervous about having her name appear in an email, took pictures, which we would like to see and copy. She told Toby she had tried to complain to DEC and others but got nowhere, and the DEC man on the site was doing nothing. Eleanor called her to ask for more information but she did not return the call.
It was decided that the best thing for us to do about this was contact the office of Senator Klein, in whose district the suspected dumping took place. Eleanor will do this.
IV. New business:
A. Cleanup of floatables in Thomas Pell Wildlife Sanctuary: It was suggested that we should explore the situation there, in boats and on foot, and get someone experienced in such cleanups of tidal marshes (such as Don Riepe) to look at it and give us advice. That would give us a sound basis for writing another proposal to HEP.
V. Date and time of next meeting: Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7 PM at Eleanor Rae’s.
Meeting, Sept. 2, 2009
Present: Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Tina DeWitt, Bob Zervas, Violet Smith, Toby Liederman, Inge Otto, David Burg (of WildMetro), Jack Ullman.
Following the items in the agenda:
I. Minutes of the August 6 meeting were emailed to us by Mel Rodriguez.
II. Treasurer’s Report: Eleanor Rae and Inge Otto report that our account now contains $1858.28.
III. Reports:
A. HEP Proposal: Eleanor Rae reports that we were not funded for our Harbor and Estuary proposal. Their report on our proposal was generally encouraging, but various deficiencies were pointed out. Lack of insurance and water safety training for the proposed water-borne assault on debris was one of them. The complete report will be filed with our copy of the proposal for guidance in case we plan to resubmit next year.
B. Grant from Citizens’ Committee for NYC: Eleanor reports that the check for $800 has arrived and has been deposited in our account.
C. Canoe launch site on Hutchinson River: Marianne Anderson objected to our use of the very convenient canoe launch site on City Island Road near the bridge across the Hutchinson River because using it interferes with traffic. We are now searching for an alternative site for any canoe events, including our proposed cleanup in the HEP proposal. Various sites on City Island were suggested, but they are far from the entrance of the river and nearly all access to the water on the island is private, or claimed to be, even in some cases where the end of a street might belong to the city and therefore legally open to anybody.
D. WildMetro. David Burg of WildMetro was present and gave a long presentation about his organization. They are concerned with protecting nature in the city. That includes plants and animals in all the city parks and open spaces. They are entirely a volunteer organization but they get grants for researchers. A main concern is the eradication of invasive species that destroy the native plant life, such as chinaberry and Japanese knotweed. They also do a lot of work with animals. One can look them up at Wildmetro.Org.
E. Anne Hutchinson River trails map: Toby Liederman reports she found it but forgot to bring it.
F. Water testing. Jack Ullman reported that he had not actually done anything about buying the equipment yet. Violet Smith has provided information on how to order it, and he will hope to have done something before the next meeting. Various people suggested that the water has already been tested and could be looked up somewhere, but Jack, after a lifetime of doing science would like to play scientist in a new field and make his own investigation. He expects to buy the equipment with his own money,
G. American Littoral Society cleanup: Dotti Poggi was to give a report on this but was not present.
IV. A. City Island Fair, Sept. 12 and 13. Without Dotti Poggi, who contributed so much to our presence at the last fair, it was feared we could not do it this time but various members came up with enough in the way of tables, etc. to make it possible. However, among those present there was still a lack of enough people to staff the table over the whole period of the Fair. Eleanor will try to contact people to fill the gaps.
B. Cleanup of floatables in Thomas Pell Wildlife Sanctuary. Damien Griffin and Mel Rodriguez wanted to investigate this situation further in kayaks, but have not been able to yet.
C. Other agenda items:
1. We should look into the possibility of applying for a Royal Bank of Canada Blue Water Project grant.
2. The next meeting will be held on Oct. 8, 2009, at Eleanor Rae’s, 7 Leeward Lane (East end of Caroll St.) on City Island.
Meeting 8/6/09
In attendance: Eleanor Rae, Dorothea Poggi, Toby Liederman, Violet Smith, Mel Rodriguez, Damian Griffin.
After a review of the minutes to the previous meeting, Toby Liederman pointed out that one of the reasons for having the present meeting was due to the HEP grant timeline and that further discussion of future plans was necessary.
The Treasures was not present but it was reported that there has been no change in the present treasury: $1058.28
Eleanor reported that a check was being cut for $800 by the Citizen Committee for NYC for their grant to HRRP and would be in hand at 2 o’clock on Friday after the submission of a report on past brochure publishing. The grant timeline is from May to November after which time a final report will be needed.
Mel reported on the original plan for a possible canoe trip on the Hutchinson River with support from the Bronx River Alliance for 8/30 but that the conflict with Wild Metro’s Pedal to Preserve Pelham Bay Park event and an issue with official NYC Parks put in points made that date be postponed. The objective for the paddle is to get people on the water and attract interest to the river as an inaccessible resource. There was discussion about where putting in is allowed and that there had been a canoe launch originally planned for the landfill area and that there was money for such a project from the Croton waterfront fund. Several members agreed to ask around for possible launch sites on the mainland as well as from City Island. Once a launch site is found, a concerted effort will be made to get the community involved in the paddle.
Both Dotti and Violet attended an Oliver Koppel meeting where possible ferry landings in the Bronx were discussed, one of which was Co-op City. The idea was roundly supported as long as certain condition could be included such as low wake and other environmental issues in that would directly affect the river around Coop City.
A short discussion raised the possibility and viability of an East Bronx Environmental Coalition to pool the resources and message of the various groups in the area. Damian will share the idea with the Bronx River Alliance as a possible participant in the coalition.
Members of Wild Metro are interested in attending HRRP meetings and it is hoped that the relationship will have mutually beneficial results.
Dotti reported that HRRP is scheduled to hold a beach cleanup in an undetermined area on 9/20 for the Annual American Littoral Society Beach Clean Up. The day was accepted due to lack of other choices, but Toby did protest the date since it is the second day of Rosh Hashanah and would prohibit observers from participating. Dotti is the Beach Capitan.
The HEP proposal will be determined on or around August 13th. The focus of the proposal is to clean up floatables in the bird sanctuary and various methods of removing the material were discussed, including the use of canoes for the cleanup, a rubber raft to carry the floatables, and possibly involving youth on the shore for separating and recycling. The date would be in late fall to avoid any issue with birds before migration, with an initial cleanup to occur the week of October 12th . Damian will look into ways that the Bronx River Alliance can support the effort, including contacting Robert Gans who runs the DEP Floatables Monitoring Program and Audubon NYC.
Mel reported that he had walked parts of the future Hutchinson River Greenway with Maggie Greenfield of the Bronx River Alliance and Mike Oliva of East Coast Greenway on separate occasions and that both viewed the project as very feasible. In a Co-op city meeting the idea was roundly supported by residents.
The Anne Hutchinson Trail came into the conversation, but lack of specific information made it a better topic for a future meeting.
The next meeting will be held on September 2nd, 2009 at 7 pm
MEETING, JULY 22, 2009
Present: Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Violet Smith, Toby Liederman, Jack Ullman.
I. Minutes: Toby Liederman suggested we add the names of the people who were at the booths for the City Island fair and at the beach clean up. They will be added to the minutes on the website.
II. Treasurer’s Report: Eleanor Rae reported for Inge Otto, who could not attend. We paid $250 for the canoe trip up the river, after which we still have $1058.28. The $800 we were presumably granted by the Citizens’ Committee for NYC has not yet arrived. Since the grant period ends on Nov. 23, this is surprising. Eleanor is looking into this.
111. Reports:
A. Hutchinson River Cleanup. A picture of this, identifying our group, was in the Bronx Times of 7/2/09.
B. Proposal to HEP: Eleanor and Giles Rae, Dotti Poggi, and Jack Ullman completed a Stewardship Grant proposal which was submitted to the New York, New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program on Friday last. It proposed a canoe-and kayak-borne cleanup activity to be done in September, and included the article mentioned above and a supporting letter from Marianne Anderson of Pelham Bay Park. We should find out whether we received the funds on August 13. There was a long discussion of the details of how the stewardship of the wildlife refuge on the banks of the Hutchinson River in Pelham Bay Park should be carried out and with what outside advice, and no agreement was arrived at. Further discussion will follow after we know whether or not this proposal has been funded.
C. Bronx River Alliance water testing training, July 22. This was attended by Violet Smith and Jack Ullman. Testing methods demonstrated, and carried out by participants, included measurements of temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. Jack Ullman expressed enthusiasm for learning more about this, acquiring the necessary apparatus and carrying out such testing on the Hutchinson River.
D. Canoeing on the Hutchinson, August 1: Eleanor was trying to participate in this advertised, Parks Department event, and found that as soon as registration for it was opened, it was announced that it was filled. She will look into this.
The next meeting is to be held on Tuesday August 4 at 7 PM at the Raes, 7 Leeward Lane, in the Boatyard Condominium, Carroll St. City Island. (This was subsequently changed to Thursday, August 6)
MEETING, JUNE 24, 2009
Present: Eleanor and Giles Rae, Violet Smith, Helen Freidman, Dotti Poggi, Bob Zervas, Jorge Santiago, Jack Ullman and Marianne Anderson, Administrator of Pelham Bay Park.
In the absence of our treasurer, Eleanor gave the report on our finances. We have $1308.28 in our checking account and $50 in cash, collected at the City Island Fair. The cash will not be deposited but kept for petty cash expenses.
I. REPORTS
I. REPORTS
A. Violet Smith reported on the City Island Fair of June 6-7. Violet Smith, Dotti Poggi, Rose Zervas, Janie Blanks, Toby Liederman and Eleanor Rae handled Saturday's operation. With most of our membership being involved in the canoe excursion up the Hutchinson River on Sunday Janie , Rose and Giles Rae handled the booth .In addition to the money collected, brochures were handed out and questions answered.
B. Eleanor reported on the Hutchinson River cleanup on Bronx Environmental Day, June 14. Ten people, Janie Blanks, Jack, Carol and Easter Ulman, Eleanor Rae, Violet Smith, Pat Grondahl, Susan Strazeroand and her daughter and Toby Liederman turned up to pick up rubbish, a banner was provided by Dotti and a reporter from the Bronx Times photographed us.
C. Violet reported on the Hutchinson River Bridge Celebration, which took place on June 17. Toby Liederman was also present. It was a pleasant ceremony but few people were present, since it was held in the middle of a workday.
D. Bob Zervas reported that he and Rose had not yet gotten into the EPA materials that they were going to report on.
E. Dorothea Poggi and others reported on the June 7 Hutchinson River canoe trip. Most of us took part in it. We explored well into Westchester County, through the industrial area, until we were in sight of the Hutchinson Park ball field in Mount Vernon. It was noticed that many industrial facilities, including the MTA bus depot, were sloped so that runoff from them would flow into the river. The tide was high, so it was difficult to locate combined sewer and other outlets. There was a huge amount of floating debris deposited at high tide, including bottles and tires, particularly on the part of Pelham Bay Park that is a wildlife refuge. Jorge and Dotti recall that it used to be much worse, with industrial development in places now wild and with junked cars and similar debris in the water.
F. Eleanor reported on the June 15 meeting of the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program. This EPA-related program will be funding just two grants for stewardship of a particular part of the estuary. She suggested it is appropriate for us to think of requesting one of these grants. The request is due July 17 and must be no more than 10 pages long.
We discussed the feasibility of doing this in the limited time available. Dotti was for doing so, with the limited aim of attacking the floatable debris problem on the part of the river near us. She suggested that we use the money to hire professionals to do much of the work. Giles Rae thought we might do better to ask for money to look into ways of getting rid of the debris before actually proposing a plan to do it. It was agreed that all interested persons would meet at the Rae’s house on Monday June 29 at 1 PM to discuss this further and get started on writing a proposal.
II. DATE OF NEXT MEETING. The next meeting was set for Wednesday July 22, 7PM at the Raes’, 7 Leeward Lane, in the Boatyard Condominium on Carroll St., City Island.
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Minutes Meeting May 18, 2009
Present: Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Inge Otto, Janie
Blanks, Helen Friedman, Dotti Poggi, Violet Smith and Bob Zervas.
Minutes. Dotti distributed her Minutes from the April meeting. They will be sent out by Eleanor to those present at the April meeting for additions/corrections and then posted on the web site by Giles. In the absence of Jack Ullman, Violet agreed to take the Minutes.
Meeting with Council Member James Vacca: Eleanor opened the meeting at 7:00pm and discussed the meeting to be held on May 22 with Jimmy Vacca re: our group. Inge has offered to go with Eleanor and Bob may go too.
City Island Fair, June 6 and 7: Janie will contact Paul Klein re: space for our table. Dotti will make stickers to stick on map of Pelham Bay showing where the river is. The map will be handed out to visitors. A schedule was set up for manning the table for both days from 11am-7pm. Helen, Dotti and Eleanor will meet on Friday (May 21) to complete work on the HRRP brochure so that it will be ready to be given out at the Fair. We will ask people to become members of HRRP and to make a monetary contribution, which is tax deductible.
Canoeing the Hutchinson River, June 7: Mel Rodriguez was not in attendance to give a report on the trip. Bob agreed to contact Mel and work with him on the details for this trip which will include photographing CSO’s, etc.
Hutchinson River cleanup on Bronx Environmental Day, June 14: Eleanor reported that we are to be the official main event of the day. The Bronx Borough President, Ruben Diaz, Jr., will be on hand to meet us. His office will produce flyers for this event and provide us the needed equipment such as gloves, trash bags and tools.
EPA packet: Janie obtained an additional packet for HRRP from the EPA on proper procedures for reporting shore debris to them. The packet was given to Bob for his review.
HRRP website: Giles has registered for one year the domain name for HRRP. It is www.hutchinsonriverrestorationproject.org. He is in the process of developing this website.
Other issues brought up for discussion included: the work of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Hutchinson River greenways, and Westchester Creek pollution.
The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 27 at 7pm at Eleanor’s Condo.
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Minutes Meeting April 15,2009
Present: Helen.Friedman, Toby Liederman, Inge Otto, Dotti Poggi, Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Mel Rodriguez and Violet Smith
Minutes: Eleanor pointed out that we are obligated by our 501(c)(3) status to keep Minutes as the source of our activities. In the absence of our Secretary, Jack Ullman, Dotti agreed to take the Minutes with input from other members. The Minutes from the March meeting were read by Mel and approved by the members present.
Treasurer's report: Inge reported that we have 1236.53 in our checking account.
Membership letter: Eleanor gave Dotti a corrected version of the membership letter for her further input with Inge.
Membership lists: Inge will contact Lorraine Nicoletti re: the status of this list.
Grant Application to the Citizens Committee for New York City: Eleanor reported that Jack Ullman wrote and sent in the grant application in time to meet the deadline of March 14,2OO9)
Contact with Council Member James Vacca's Office: Bret Collazzi, Director of Communications for Councilperson Vacca, has informed Eleanor that he will set up a meeting for her with Councilperson Vacca rather than with the water issues intern as previously suggested.
Access to Hutchinson River from Coop City: The thin natural areas on both sides of the ball field were mentioned as a possibility for this access. Dotti asked if this area is, under coastal zone protection. There are conflicting answers as to who owns the property; Parks & Recreation or River Bay, the management corporation for Coop City. Mel, Dotti and Eleanor will meet with Ken Kearns, District Manager for Community Board 10, on April 16 in regard to this issue.
Brochure: Helen, Dotti and Eleanor will meet on April 22 to execute the Hutchinson River Restoration Project brochure.
Date and time of next meeting: May 18, 7 PM at Eleanor's.
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Minutes, meeting of March 5,2009
Present: Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Inge Otto, Lorraine Nicoletti, Violet Smith, Helen Friedman, Jack Ullman, Bob Zervas and Melvin Rodriguez.
We welcomed two new people who have experience that could be very valuable to our effort. Bob Zervas is a licensed captain who has much knowledge of the sound and the Hutchinson River, and of water pollution problems. Mel Rodriguez is a community activist who lives in Co-op City, has started a bicycle club and a traffic safety advocacy group, and knows the Hutchinson River shoreline well in his neighborhood.
Reporting on items as they appeared on the agenda:
Treasurer’s report. Inge Otto reported we have $1236.53.
Membership lists. Lorraine Nicolitti has been adding new names as new people come in.
501(c)(3) status: Eleanor Rae reports that our our application was approved in a letter dated 2/2/09 and we now have tax-exempt status. She will electronically file our annual 990N return each Feb. 15, which is the oddly-derived date on which it is due. She also reports that, for an organization as small as ours, our checkbook is sufficient as a financial record.
Bronx Parks speak up meeting: Violet and Lorraine attended, with important results. They met Mel Rodriguez, and they found out about a program sponsored by the Citizens’ Committee for New York that offered small grants to organizations like our. They brought back application information and Jack Ullman will attempt to put something together in time for the next deadline, which is March 14.
Hutchinson River Greenway Project. This is a Parks Department project to make a walking and cycling path along the west shore of the Hutchinson River. Mel Rodriguez is familiar with details of the project and brought material on it to the meeting. He has met with people involved in planning it, including Marianne Anderson, the administrator of Pelham Bay Park. He finds the present plan to be impractical in many ways, particularly in requiring users to cross the access roads to major highways where drivers go very fast. He also said the Co-Op City management is very difficult to deal with on this and other matters, and has its own plans for the use of space fronting on the river, which at present is inaccessible and mostly wasted. He suggested we work with the Parks people on this.
Letter from Jorge Santiago in Bronx Times, Feb. 28: Eleanor read to us the letter, which mentions our efforts .
Dotti Poggi being absent, there was no report on the membership letter, the proposed boat trip on the Island Current or the brochures. Toby Liederman will not pursue her project on writing to politicians due to pressure of other commitments.
Other agenda items: Eleanor Rae expressed the opinion that outreach should be our main effort in the near future. Jack Ullman agrees and expects to write a grant proposal with the brochure and its distribution, particularly in Westchester County, as the main project.
Eleanor also suggested that water testing could be carried on by a group of us who were interested in that subject. Bob Zervas knows a good deal about this and says that some Westchester communities find it cheaper to pay the fines for putting raw sewage in the Sound than to treat the sewage. We will need to explore the banks of the river and get solid evidence of pollution from shoreside businesses and communities.
Date and time of next meeting: April 15, 7PM, at Eleanor Rae’s.
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Minutes, meeting of February 4,2009
Present—Eleanor Rae, Giles Rae, Inge Otto, Dotti Poggi, Lorraine Nicoletti, and Violet Smith
Eleanor opened the meeting and talked about her presentation to the City Island Civic Association on January 27, 2009, which was well received. Several people expressed an interest in getting involved with the group. She spoke with John Doyle, the local representative of Senator Jeff Klein and Bret Collazzi, the Director of Communications for Councilman James Vacca.
She then told us she received acknowledgement that our 501(c)( 3) proposal had been received and was being reviewed. There was then a discussion about getting funds from our local politicians.
Inge read the Treasurer’s report. As of Dec. 31, 2008 there is a balance of $1,221.53
Eleanor read Toby's letter to the politicians, which is still in the process of being sent out. Dotti asked to include a sentence or two of how our goals would work in tangent with the sewer project.
The letter to people interested in our group was read by Dotti and edited by the group.
Inge talked about the grant writing workshop she, Dotti and Jack attended and said it was interesting and informative but a lot of work. They seemed to stress grants for education. It was noted that Jack has some experience in grant writing.
Eleanor talked about the input from Environmental Consultant Chris Carpentieri at last month’s meeting. It was informative but we are not in a position to act on it at the present.
The brochure was discussed and all agreed that the smaller one was best for us at this time
Dotti, Loraine, and Violet will attend the Bronx Parks Speak Up at Lehman College on Feb. 28, 2009. Dotti will supply a banner, map, and copies of the flyer supplied by Eleanor to hand out at the Speak Up.
The next meeting will be at Eleanor's home on 7 Leeward Lane, Wed. March 4, 2009, 7-9pm
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Minutes, January 2009 meeting (awaiting publication)
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2/10/2010