HVRA Board Minutes

January 15, 2008

Kensington Gardens

Present:  Gus Sinclair, David Booz, Sue Dexter , Wendy Duff, Tim Grant, Katrina McHugh, Jane Perdue, Bachir Rabbat, Samiha Sayed,; Stuart Schoenfeld, Leslie Thompson,

 Eva Janecek-Rucker

Guest: Michael Kerman

Regrets: Margaret Beare, Richard Gilbert , Colin Furness, 

• 1. Chair's Welcome: The meeting commenced at 7:10 p.m. with introductions around the table for the new Board members. Gus welcomed a HVRA member, Michael Kerman

• 2. Agenda: The agenda was approved with additions: 5. c. Farmers' Market and

      5.d. Treasurer's suggestion     Moved by Tim Grant    Seconded by Jane Perdue

• 3. Approval of Minutes: The minutes of December 11, 2007 were approved

      Moved by Stuart Schoenfeld and seconded by Sue Dexter. 

4.    HVRA Community Dance Proposal

       Michael Kerman outlines his involvement in and experience with Contra dances and            presented a proposal for the Board's consideration (see attached)

            After a brief discussion of issues such as location, cost, insurance, equipment,                sponsorship, etc, Board members enthusiastically supported the idea. Gus and    Michael will discus how to make it happen.

5.    Committee Reports:

•a.      Environment

• i. Trees

The Board congratulated Tim on receiving the Toronto Parks and           Recreation Foundation grant.

Tim reported that they received confirmation that their $25,000 project proposal was                                                       accepted.  As part of a $51,000 project, they promised them that they would:

1/ On a first-come, first-served basis, provide 200 to 350 residents with a subsidized tree for planting in backyards on the last weekend in April. Public meetings will be organized and a special outreach effort will be made to make Italian, Portuguese and Chinese-speaking residents aware of this opportunity.  Over ninety percent of the project funds would be dedicated towards backyard tree planting.

2/ Another 4 trees would be planted on a 4m x 30m grassy strip of City property along Robert Street by local residents, who have also agreed to contribute 25% of the cost of the trees. This project will only proceed if Urban Forestry staff from the City approve the location and native tree species that are selected.   Rainwater from adjacent tennis courts flows onto this grassy strip and then onto a sidewalk.  Trees in this location would make use of the extra rainwater.

3/ Encourage businesses on main streets in our neighbourhood to "Adopt a Street Tree", and commit to watering "their" tree twice weekly (if needed) throughout the Spring and Summer of 2008.

4/ Hire an arborist to train local residents to prune and maintain existing trees in two training sessions.

5/ Solicit bids from 10-20 arborists to become our neighbourhood arborist, charged with the responsibility of doing cyclic pruning of the trees in backyards of all the participating households.

In addition, there was a discussion whether to use federal summer employment monies from Service Canada to hire two U of T forestry grad students to complete the tree inventory that began last Summer.

•                                                ii.      Solar   

David & Tim will be meeting with Solar and there is a plan to convene another community meeting with vendors' presentations and owners testimonials

•                                              iii.      Graffiti     

No report

b.    Membership

       Electronic reminders to membership who did not pay their 2008 dues will be                 followed by a letter from Gus.     Action: Gus

c    Community Liaison

      No report

    
d    College St.   

      No report

e    Zoning   

      No report

f.    Communications

      Jane Auster will remain the editor of the Newsletter. The next one is due            before the May General meeting

g.   U of T Liaison

      Sue reported on the problems with noise in the Philosopher's Walk resulting      from the ROM renovations.

•h.      Community Police

      No report

6.  New Business:

     a. Proposed Recreation Policy Changes on Rec Centres

Sue summarized the status of fee increase proposal and imposition of means testing and loss of priority centres:

It is presently at community development recreation committee, which is considering the staff report.

On  January 16, 7-9 p.m. there will be Public consultations at Wellesley Community Centre, 495 Sherbourne St.. Everyone is invited to attend and make their views known.

On January  23, 7-9 p.m. Deputations from the public will take place at the City Hall.

Staff will then revise its report to reflect community inputs.

On February  13 the report will be sent back to community dvt and recreation committee.

Then report out to Council March 3.

The questions break into

1. means test

2. retention of priority centres.

Estimate of revenue generated based on the staff report recommendations:

2008, $5 million

2014, $30 million... which would be applied to swimming lessons etc.

There was a discussion among the Board members which culminated in a motion by Wendy Duff:

Wendy moved that:

The committee believes that Rec Centres are a public good and should be funded out of public revenue. Therefore we are vehemently opposed to the extension of the mean test as recommended by the current "Staff Report".

Carried unanimously

Furthermore, we support the continuation of the current Priority Centres.

Carried unanimously

     b. Farmers Market

     Gus updated the Board on the progress in planning for a Farmers Market.

On January 14h,  Gus met with Bob Chorney  and several farmers interested in direct marketing at "our" Market. He gave them a tour of the neighborhood and they looked at potential sites for the Market. The preferred location at this time is the parking lot between Lippincott and Borden.

Bob will organize the farmers to bring the right mix of produce and guarantees that everything brought to the Market is grown by the farmers selling it.

Gus also mentioned that the owner of Organics on Bloor was at the meeting and even though she is concerned about the Market being a competition, she supports it. She can even see mutual benefits by being able to purchase produce from the farmers for her store.

Gus concluded his report with confirming that those present at the meeting enthusiastically supported the idea of Farmers Market.

A committee  consisting of 2 members from the participating community organizations, Bob and a couple farmers will be established to bring the idea to fruition in early May 2008. Samiha Sayed volunteered to be one of the representatives .

The Board members are very supportive of this endeavor. Sue Dexter moved that we proceed with organizing Farmers Market. Seconded by Bachir Rabbat . Carried unanimously.

c Treasure's suggestion                                                                                                                                                                                     

Leslie noted that the HVRA account is a non-interest bearing account. Using the principle to preserve the capital but keep money available when needed, she suggested keeping $1000 in the account and investing the rest in 30day money making account.  Leslie's proposal attached. Proposal was supported.

d Fire Safety

Gus will inform members by e-mail

Next meeting  February 19th,  2008, same time, same place.

Adjourned 9:10 p.m.