The SoHo Community Association met on February 17th, 2016 at the London Roundhouse.
Present:
Bursch | Laurie |
Hamm | Nancy |
Innes | Ellen |
Edwards | Jamie |
Lukach | Angela |
Kress | Maria |
McCaw | Tracy |
Landowski | Beth (Guest) |
O’Hagan | Britt (Guest) |
- Angela called the meeting to order at 7:07
- MOTION: Jamie made a motion to approve the previous minutes, seconded by Nancy, the motion passed.
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Britt O’Hagan joined us from the city to talk about the Four Corners project
- The city is still in the RFP process for the adjoining lands
- The city is developing the streets to prepare for revitalization
- Last year, Colborne St. was rebuilt
- The corner of Colborne/South is called the “Four Corners”
- Mixed residential/commercial use
- South street to Wellington will be the “South Street Promenade”, with enhanced pavement pattern, similar to the treatment on Colborne.
- The city will be building some unique lampposts with banner arms and possibly banners
- Downtown and Hyde Park have similar banners
- The project is going out for tender within a couple of weeks
- Jamie suggested putting out a survey to the members, forwarding the results to the city
- MOTION: Jamie made a motion to create a survey and send it out to our mailing list, providing four options (Black, Gold, Deep Green, Blue, from the provided handout), seconded by Laurie, the motion passed
- Jamie will provide details of the infrastructure renewal project to Maria
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The Great Lakes Blues society has applied for a $5000 sparks grant for the shindig
- Looking at the sunday following rock the park – July 17th
- Volunteers are needed, please contact louise at louiseneighbourhood@gmail.com
- First meeting was last week on Monday
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Pathways are going ahead with a mural project on the side of a building in the neighbourhood that they have acquired
- They are applying for a SPARKS grant to fund the project
- Volunteers are needed to paint it
- The building is located on Horton st across from the Boys and Girls club
- The mural will be located on the west wall of the building
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Jamie gave an update on the SoHo Market
- Change of day to Tuesdays
- Change of location, hoping to find space at Horton/Waterloo
- Jamie spoke to Jeff Preston, who teaches a nonprofit marketing course at Fanshawe. He may be able to get students to help us with a marketing plan.
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Cheri’s going away party
- Thursday the 18th at 7:30 at the restored Victoria Tavern (at South/Maitland)
- Jamie has spoken to the urban league to get the discussion going on possibly working together to purchase Directors and Board insurance to reduce costs.
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Angela introduced an idea – “SoHo Day”
- The idea was brought forward to have a neighbourhood wide yard sale
- There would be a map with all of the sales
- In the afternoon there would be a community event
- Can’t do June 4th – OEV is then
- We need to also consider Old South, we don’t want to conflict with Gathering on the Green.
- There’s the opportunity to work with Ryan Craven on his book launch
- Pictures at day, movie at night – Beth from the city can help with reserving the screen, etc.
- We could sell hot dogs, hamburgers
- Volunteers for the subcommittee – Laurie, Nancy
- We can solicit more volunteers via email
- First meeting will be March 21 at 7pm at Nancy’s house (354 Hill)
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Nancy and Angela went to a presentation by Libro on the prosperity fund
- They have grants available to food security initiatives
- The money wouldn’t be available until next year, but we could use it for the market in 2017
- The money could be used as seed funds to expand our operations
- There is also potential funding available through Padre Frank Mantz, who is a trustee for an organization with an endowment of $300k who are seeking organizations to make donations to. The market subcommittee will explore this further.
- We discussed additional possible sources of grants to get funding for the market and other projects
- Angela introduced the 100 houses project. The Salvation Army is undertaking a project to find permanent homes for 100 of their emergency shelter bed users. http://www.lfpress.com/2015/10/16/salvation-army-centre-of-hope-executive-director-nancy-powers-stands-outside-of-the-wellington-street-help-centre-in-london for more details. Those who wish to participate should contact the Salvation Army.
- Laurie noted that Nancy makes damn good squares and requested that it be entered in the minutes
- MOTION: Jamie made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Nancy, the motion passed