General Meeting Notes -- Oct. 8, 2009

Notes from General Meeting: Oct. 8, 2009
West 55 Street Block Association
28 people attended

The meeting began at 7 PM and adjourned at 8:03 PM. Christine G moderated.

1. Treasurer’s Report (Jack H.):
$4891.59 – amount in bank
$3650.21 – amount raised since Sept. 23, 2009
$ 75.33 – petty cash
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$8617.13 – total

The donations so far are just over 18% of our $20,000 goal. We are going to do another solicitation wave in the hopes they pick up.

We also talked about transferring the Association bank account to Chase or Capitol One. The consensus was in favor of Capitol One.

2. Tree Lights – Nov. 16
Carl B. reported that we received the permit for hanging the lights and we have a proposal from SavATree with pricing for 18, 20 and 36 trees. 36 trees is probably too expensive.The idea behind lighting 20 trees is to be able to light both trees at either entrance to the block.

3. Hounds of Hells Kitchen Pet Parade. Jen and Mitch talked about plans for the Pet Parade on Oct. 29. Festivities start at 6:30 PM. They are planning for 45 pet contestants.
A couple of people had ideas for celebrity judges.
One person offered to lend some electrical equipment.
Jena and Mitch are still looking for a stage and volunteers to help.
They will make flyers available to building captains to put up in buildings.
Also, they invited the Block Association to have a table at the event.
Mitch wondered if maybe next year we might turn the HKK Halloween pet parade into a block party.

4. We gave Christy R a certificate of appreciation and a round of applause for all her work in filing for 501c(3) non profit status. The application has been filed with the IRS and we’re just waiting to hear back from them.

5. The general consensus was that we needed more information before weighing in on the issue 1291 B and B at 337 West 55th. The question was raised whether the building was certified for furnished rooms and if that allowed it to operate as a B and B.

6. We reviewed the latest developments about the MTA site at W 54th and Ninth. [See September 25 post on CB4 meeting for more detail or click on "MTA site" tag for all postsl.] The basic message from our 9/21 meeting with Community Board 4 members and others was that we may have more input on the type of building that gets put there but if we hold out for a park, we will get nothing. In response to this overview, residents said there were two things we should insist on: the building should be faced with Clinton red brick and not white brick or glass. The consensus was that there were already enough supermarkets in the area. Declan O, Steve L, Charlie K, Christy R all volunteered to help attend official meetings to keep us informed on this issue.

7. Christy R. met Borough President Scott Stringer, who said he would be happy to come to the tree lighting ceremony. Everyone agreed that was a good idea but we should also reach out to other elected officials and/or their representatives to come to meetings, e.g. Council member Gale Brewer, Speaker Christine Quinn, Sen. Tom Duane and Assembly member Linda Rosenthal.

8. Excessive honking on Ninth Avenue in spite of $350 fine. We will bring this up at the next meeting of the Midtown North Community Affairs meeting (every third Tuesday of the month) at Fountain House, 425 W 47th.

9. Jen J. and Stephanie S. volunteered to lead efforts to plan the holiday party on Dec. 9. We will also have non-religious caroling beforehand. Antonio C has the songbooks that were used in past years.

10. Andrew S. reported on the business flyers that he is developing. Steve L agreed to help with the layout and Carol P will provide feedback as a business owner. We might also consider having some events at local restaurants. If everyone has a special relationship with any of the businesses in the neighborhood, please let us know at west55ba@gmail.com if you would be willing to contact those businesses about possible donations.