March 2023 Meeting Minutes

At 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday March 14, 2023 the Bemis Park Neighborhood Association meeting was attended by 14 people at Augustana Lutheran Church.

In attendance were:

Patty French, Fred Brich, Mel Beckman, Mary Ann Beckman, Vicky Parks, Mark Peters, Arlene Cosgrove, Mary Minturn, Joe Pittack, Dave Brown, Jeff Ulrich, Marla Hannah, Josh Moore and Patrick Garmoe

BPNA budget and membership updates

Treasurer Dave Brown reported we had $4844.33, including a $40 deposit. We spent $25 to renew our Midtown Neighborhood Alliance membership, and $100 for flowers for the funeral of local resident resident Eddie Kellogg of 3402 Lafayette Ave. passed away Feb. 9, 2023.

The club is still considering doing a fundraising postcard to boost club memberships from the current 23 closer to what it was at this time a year ago – 40.

Brown also mentioned he might knock on doors of previous subscribers who did not renew this year.

Mary Minturn has applied for three grants so far so the Walnut Hill baseball field will flourish this year

• ●  A College World Series for $5000

• ●  The Omaha mayor's neighborhood grant for $5000

• ●  The Omaha Community Grant Foundation grant for $5000

  She also intends to apply for the Midtown Neighborhood Alliance grant for $1,500.

  The estimate she’s received puts the price tag of fully upgrading the field at $16,000, but some of that work might end up getting done by volunteers.

  She said the Metropolitan Utilities District and City of Omaha have both formally supported our applications, and inCOMMON and the Salvation Army and City Sprouts have supplied letters of support, as they would potentially use the field as well.

  Don’t think the money means you won’t be asked to pitch in though. MInturn said the first step for the baseball field would be to have volunteers rake it up to help break it up. We’re doing that from 9 a.m. to noon on April 15. Call Mary at (402) 699-9226 to volunteer.

  Your chance to also love your neighbor

  The day the owner on a home on the 3300 block of Lafayette Ave. moved in, a fire burned down her garage between LaFayette Ave. and Hamilton Street.

President Joe Pittack personally paid $2,100 so take Out the Junk could remove the mess. They hauled away four trailers full, he said. It would have been more, but some stuff was too water-logged and frozen to ground to move.

That brings us to you dear neighbor.

While some neighbors have chipped in to help him defray some of that cost, mostly he said he hopes we can get a lot of neighbors to help finish the job and clean up debris in an area by a tree at 33rd and Myrtle in conjunction with the Omaha Cleanup Day, which should be either in late April some time in May. We’ll let you know the exact day, once the club hears back from the city.

Don’t hold the Hemlock

Due to poisonous Hemlock and Poison Ivy growing in the overgrown bushes around the stairs in the northwest corner of Bemis Park, club members pondered several ideas of how to go about getting the area cleaned up.

In addition to organizing an event where volunteers can help:

• ●  Omaha provides gloves and a dumpster it can bring and haul away, as long as the neighborhood volunteers to do the work.

• ●  The Douglas County Extension office could come out potentially to help clean the area.

• ●  The club might pay to have a local landscaping business like Whelans or Mulhall’s come

  in as the area is so overgrown.

• ●  Arlene will check into the club’s supply of tools as well.

  In other news

  Minturn is calling MUD because members noticed some of the southeast corner of the reservoir’s roof is coming off, roughly a 10-foot by 10-foot chunk of what looks like some insulation.

  The fire-damaged house across from Walnut Hill at 1315 N. 38th St. was sold. So far the new owners haven’t begun any work on the property.

  Patrick Garmoe volunteered to pitch in more with the website Bemis Park Neighborhood Association BemisPark.org, Facebook page and our database of members, after Pittack asked for help.

Just a reminder we are now publishing the minutes on Bemis Park Neighborhood Association and will also try and publish announcements on our Facebook group at Bemis Park Neighborhood | Facebook.

The meeting concluded at 8 p.m.

Join us next month, same BPNA time, same BPNA location

Please join us for our next meeting at 6:30 p.m. April 11, at Augustana Church.

Meeting notes submitted by BPNA Secretary Patrick Garmoe