West Norwalk Association Board Meeting
May 5, 2014
MINUTES OF THE WEST NORWALK ASSOCIATION
May 5, 2014
Board Members present were: Gay Mac Leod, Linda Forcellina, Ken D’Arinzo, Galen Wells, Anthony Carrano, Ron Paladino, Lucy Arecco and Candide Valadares. Rebecca Oresman and Brian Forschino were absent. Reverend Holly Adams was a guest. Co-President Gay Mac Loud called the meeting to order at 7:35.
Ten members of the public attended the meeting to discuss a possible plan on the part of Habitat for Humanity to build houses in a wooded buffer zone between NCC and houses on West Cedar Street. The members of the Board introduced themselves to the visitors.
Gigi Schmidt said she called Senator Bob Duff about this issue and was referred back to the city. Adam Bovilsky, the housing officer, said the United Way approached him on behalf of Habitat for Humanity. He said he recognized that this City land was talked about as a buffer zone in 1984 when NCC was built. They searched the records and found nothing in writing. The property was surveyed by Habitat for Humanity without the permission of the City. The property is in an AA Zone and Habitat for Humanity is thinking of houses on 1/3 acre. However, all of this is in the very preliminary stages. Gay Mac Loud said that the Mayor assured her that nothing had been agreed to as of yet when she spoke to him at the clean up. This issue will be discussed at a Land Use Committee meeting on Wednesday and interested persons are encouraged to attend. We will place a notice of the meeting on our Facebook page. Linda Forcellina said that she would attend as a representative of our Board.
Gay presented the Minutes. Candide moved acceptance of the Minutes. Ken seconded the motion and the Minutes were accepted as presented.
Ken then presented the Treasurer’s Report. We have $5,827.75 in the treasury. Ron moved acceptance of the Treasurer’s Report. Anthony seconded the motion and the Treasurer’s Report was accepted as presented.
Linda and Gay discussed the Scholarships which will be awarded this year. We had 6 applications. Scholarships were awarded to two students who are outstanding. They are Stephen Galyas and Sara Van Der Els. A discussion took place on how much to give them. The Board decided that each Scholarship would be $600.00. Next year we will revisit whether to award one scholarship or two. At the Awards ceremony on Wednesday, June 4, at 5:50 PM, Linda will present the checks and Gay will take photos.
The Board decided that the $1.00 per ride collected at Family Fun Day will go to the scholarship program. Gay said that she would contact the Fire Department, DPW, face painters, K-Nine Rescue and the man who volunteered to sign up children for official police identification.
Spring Cleanup review- we had about 60 people show up. The Congregational Church members and their Reverend Holly Adams showed up to help and she checked in her group with gifts of a T-shirt promoting their nursery school. We collected about 70 bags of trash. As usual, we passed out free garden gloves to keep, along with trash bags/coffee/water/donuts. We lent out clippers and directed people where to collect trash and the hot spots (very dirty areas.) We had a few BuildOn volunteers who cleaned up the landsite. The chapel was not cleaned up this year because no one from the chapel offered to be on site. We received very positive response from the community for this event.
Our new WNA banner was hung and all agreed that the sign was good and visible from the road.
The Board agreed that the new Copper Beech tree planted at Fox Run during last winter will have a sign donated by the WNA in the fall.
Candide announced that he needed to resign from the Board due the demands of work and travel that he had planned. Everyone said they would miss Candide. He said he would still help with the “adopt a spot” maintenance. Lucy Arecco said she would take over the administration of the Facebook page.
Candide moved to adjourn. Ken seconded the motion and the meeting was adjourned at 8:50PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Galen Wells, Secretary