October Meeting Minutes
At 6:30 p.m. October 11, 2022 14 people attended the Bemis Park Neighborhood Association meeting at Augustana Lutheran Church at 3647 Lafayette Ave.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Dave Brown reported $5,027.41 is current in the club’s account, having donated $75 for Diana (Dee-Dee) Riggleman to buy more second-hand toys to leave in the park for kids. She sent the club a card in thanks for the gift.
Copper conundrums
Bemis Park has been darker than normal lately. People have been stealing the copper out of the light poles. Association members considered asking if when the city fixed the lights, they’d consider switching to solar lighting, or help secure the covers so the copper can’t be ripped out. There was also discussion of potentially putting up cameras to catch whomever is stealing the copper.
Going granting hunting!
Whether it’s the overgrown bushes and weeds on the west end of Bemis Park, the broken metal benches that keep moving around and need welding or the sprucing up of the baseball diamond so teams can practice and neighbors can play pickup games of cricket, the BPNA is going after some grants.
While they welcome ideas, here are some that were discussed during the meeting:
HIring a subcontractor to trim back bushes that get overgrown at the entrance.
Brown volunteered to ask Metropolitan Community College if some of their welding students might make a project out of welding our benches back in place as well and potentially putting up a wrought Iron fence into the park, to make it a nicer looking entrance.
Better days likely ahead in 2023 for the ball field.
The baseball diamond remained overgrown for a good chunk of this spring and summer, due largely to teams not being scheduled to play on the field, but Mary Miniturn said she’s on the list to be called when the College World Series hands out the form for applying for grants, to cover the cost of getting the field in playing shape.
The association is interested in making sure the field is nice not just for organized sports teams, but also for all the Afghan immigrants who have been playing cricket in the warm summer evenings.Members said they just wanted the parks to remain active, to bring a little life in the neighborhood.
Garbage and Gab Hour?
Association members liked the idea that’s being discussed on the Facebook group page about a new walking group that would pick up garbage.
Pot luck coming in January
With Covid-19 finally in the rear-view mirror, the club is planning to return to its tradition of hosting a community pot-luck event during the election meeting on Jan. 10 – always the second Tuesday of January. There was lots of talk of holding a chili cookoff in January instead, but that event – traditionally held every couple years by the Citizen’s Patrol will instead likely be happening in early fall of October 2023.
Triumphing over trash
The fall cleanup was held October 1st again at 34th and Lincoln Boulevard. Though not as busy as in the spring, there still seemed to be plenty of junk to go around, and the dozen or so volunteers from both Bemis Park and Montclair kept pretty busy tossing garbage, drinking coffee and chatting.
You want to be part of the BPNA. You just don’t know it yet
BPNA memberships are coming due on January 1. If you pay between now and the new year, you get all the benefits of being a club member for the remainder of 2022 tossed in for free! The club decided to send everyone a letter reminding them to get on board.
