ANA Meeting Minutes

Albemarle Neighborhood Association Meeting Minutes - May 15, 2008
By-laws: Copies of the by-laws were distributed. Written in 1973, they have not been revised since 1980. The street boundaries of ANA have never been changed, but they can be so that people currently living outside of the boundaries will be able to join ANA. A By-laws Committee is needed to amend the by-laws. The committee would work during the summer and make recommendations to the membership at the September meeting.

Elections: The Vice President and the Treasurer want to retire from the Board. The Treasurer described the job’s duties. Elections will be held at the September meeting.

Financial report: The Treasurer’s Financial Report for 2007 was distributed. It includes information on the balance in ANA’s checking account at Astoria Federal Savings as of December 31, 2007 ($4,861.99), deposits ($1,715) and disbursements ($932.50) made in 2007, and the proposed budget for 2008, including proposed income ($900) and proposed expenses ($900). Dues collected in 2007 totaled $215; proposed dues collected in 2008 total $900, reflecting ANA’s desire to increase the size of its membership.

Publicizing meetings: It is illegal to post meeting announcements on street lights. From now on, announcements of upcoming meetings might be limited to being mailed, left in apartment buildings and the bank lobby, and placed in store windows.

Communications Committee: Scott Allinson reported on the discussions held at the committee’s first meeting, including revamping the newsletter, letters, flyers, and logo and creating an online presence for ANA. Larry Jayson said that a column for e-mail addresses will be added to the attendance sheet.

Increasing membership: In the past, an individual living in an apartment building could not be a member unless her or his building had both a floor captain and a building representative. This requirement can be dropped so that an individual living in an apartment building can become a member. Also, each block had to have a block captain. The floor and block captains collected dues by going door-to-door on their blocks or in their buildings. Kensington is a diverse neighborhood, and new members can be brought in by setting a common goal.

ANA meets in a synagogue because the meeting room is large enough and the fee is low. However, some neighbors might hesitate to enter a synagogue.

Business membership might be reinstituted at a cost of $25 per year. Business members are entitled to a free ad in ANA’s newsletter. Stores that had been members gave discounts to ANA members.

Kensington Post Office: Larry received a phone call and e-mail from the office of Kensington’s Congresswoman, Yvette Clarke. He also got a call from a representative of the USPS. Larry is not able to go to a USPS meeting that will be held at the Cadman Plaza Post Office on Wednesday, May 21st, at 11 a.m., so someone at the meeting volunteered to go in his place. Larry will monitor the results. Someone else at the meeting reported that she got a piece of mail from the USPS inviting her to participate in a confidential national volunteer panel. The volunteers are sent three to six test pieces of mail every day by the USPS to measure the reliability of mail delivery in various neighborhoods.

Foodtown: The manager says that the renovations will be completed by the end of June. New floors will be installed.

Astoria Federal Savings: Larry has been seeing more tellers in the bank. The bank’s regional representative will speak at our June meeting.

MTA elevator: Andy Inglesby of the MTA told Larry on May 12th that the elevator on McDonald Ave. near Church Ave. will be finished and operational by June 30th.

Graffiti: The city cleaned off the graffiti that was on the computer store at Church Ave. and E. 4th Street.

Speeding cars: Some streets need traffic lights or stop signs. It might be easier to get speed bumps.

Buses: People are confused about which of the former Command Bus Company’s lines (B1, B2, B3, and B4) are still in service and which stops they make (Command was a private company that merged with the MTA in December 2005, but people in the neighborhood still call it Command). The bus provides local service within Brooklyn and express service to Manhattan. People said that the buses seem to be bypassing Ocean Parkway. Larry will contact our elected officials and find out if that is the case.

Meeting schedule: ANA does not meet in July or August. The Executive Committee does meet, especially if an emergency arises that it needs to deal with.

Next meeting date: The next meeting will be held on Thursday, June 12th. We will meet outdoors on Albemarle Road between E. 4th and E. 5th streets, weather permitting. Bring a chair to sit on.

Greenwood Playground Events

Upcoming Free events at Greenwood Playground:
1. This Saturday, May 24th at 10:00 MUSIC FOR TODDLERS Get ready to jump, sing and dance with Playground of Sound Music teacher Michael Harren. (birth to 4)
2. Saturday, May 31, 2:00 SPLASH, a dance performance presented by Cynthia King
3. June 24th, 10:00 COLOR CONUNDRUM, a Prospect Park Zoo puppet show. (ages 3-6)
4. Weekly beginning in July (day to be decided) 10:00-2:00 ART IN THE PARK Art programming in the playground
5. MEETING with Friends of Greenwood Playground Wednesday May 28th, Crossroads Cafe 7:00

FYI: we need new members. This will be the last season of free parkprogramming unless new members step up. Next year we will have all theoverflow of Vanderbilt playground when that closes for renovation. Itwould be great to have a playground committee still in existance.

Update on Church Ave. Petition

Dear Neighbors,
It was announced to your moderator on 16MAY08 that cleaning to the end of Church Ave will start immediately with no loss on the OP side on Church Ave.
Thanks,
Tom Gray
District Director
City Council Member Bill de Blasio

Need more Friends...

The Friends of Greenwood Playground are looking for new members to help us continue to make the playground a safe and fun place for families in our community. The Friends raise money, organize events, and raise awareness about issues facing the playground. Involvement is minimal – we generally correspond through email and work quickly and efficiently. We’ve got lots of fun stuff planned this summer for the playground, which is located on East 5th Street between Fort Hamilton Parkway and Greenwood Avenue.
If you’d like to become more involved with the playground, meet other concerned neighbors, and do some good for our community, please join us on Wednesday, May 28th at 7:00 p.m. for a brief introductory meeting at Crossroads Cafe (1241A Prospect Avenue @ Reeve Place).

Many thanks,
The Friends of Greenwood Playground

Old Estelle = New Sushi?

We heard a rumour that the old space where Estelle was will be a sushi joint... is it true?

Sign the Petition!

Sign the Petition!
New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio, who represents Brooklyn's 39th Council District (including the neighborhoods of Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington and Borough Park), has been taking steps to improve our wonderful neighborhoods. Recently he applied for, and received, a grant in the sum of $25,000 to have Ready, Willing and Able cleanup Church Ave between Coney Island Avenue and Dahill Road. Many members of our community in Kensington think that this effort stops short of its goal because it excludes the clean-up of the last three blocks of Church Ave between Dahill Road and 36th street. These 3 blocks are perhaps the dirtiest and most neglected part of Church Avenue by the F train. We seek to have members of our communities in Kensington and Borough Park to sign this petition to urge Council member de Blasio to clean-up Church Avenue's worst parts south of Dahill Road-- especially the 3 blocks from 36th street to Dahill here in Kensington.

Kensington Blog - The Future

The future of the K-blog is for now unknown. We haven't had any time to post as our real life has taken over... we hope to be back at it "regularly" soon (maybe over the summer?). Is there anyone in the meantime that wants to take over? We can give you a direct link here?

ANA Meeting

The next ANA meeting is Thursday, May 15th, 7PM @Shaare Torah on E5th street.

New Trees!

One small step for Brooklyn one large step for Kensington! On the north corner of Church Ave b/w Ocean Pkwy and East 5th.

ANA Meeting

THIS THURSDAY! Come one come all for the Spring membership drive!
At Shaare Torah (corner of East 5th & Church Ave).
General Meeting begins - 7 pm

KWT resident Daniel Radosh will be doing a reading from his new book
"Rapture Ready: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture"
at 7:30 p.m. on April 17, 2008, at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble - 267 7th Avenue.

WT Library In Need

From the Friends of WT Library:
The toy sale is this Saturday, April 12, for the Windsor Terrace library. Rumor has it that NY 1 might show up to film the children's concert by Alex and the Kaleidoscope band. This is great except that we need more toys! We also need some volunteers to help us sort toys on Friday, April 11, between noon and 6 p.m. as well as help out during the sale anytime between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

If you're able to drop off some toys this week at the library that would be great! We'll be there on Friday from 12 noon to 6 p.m. to sort toys. The library is located on the corner of E.5th and Ft. Hamilton Parkway .

The toy sale runs from noon to 3 p.m.
The children's concert is from 1 to 2 p.m