ONA Board Elections and Community Meeting Minutes 11.2.22

General Meeting Minutes

November 2, 2022 6pm @ French Broad Brewery

In attendance: 16 total; 4 board members present

Michael Stratton: Introduction

• ONA has been functioning for about approx. 1.5 years

• We have by-laws, voted on our boundaries and submitted a Plan-on-a-Page to the city

• It’s time to pass the baton to new people

• Please nominate yourself for an open position if you have interest

• We will have a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, communications chief and 4 at-large board members who will go and sit in on city council meetings/Buncombe county board of commissioners meetings and keep us informed

Gina Smith (coordinator@ Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council)

• The council received a grant for $5000 for outdoor pantries and community refrigerators

• Community refrigerators are just like outdoor pantries, just for refrigerated items

• There is already one on S. French Broad

• The council would like to put one in Oakley

• It could be electric or solar

• Timeline: council is hoping to have it in by June

• Where would be a good place to put it? At the Garden, Community center/fire station, maybe WNCAP?

• Comment: there is already a composting collection site at community center

• This is part of the Neighborhood Food Preparedness Emergency Plan

• Outdoor pantries are available as well

• Comment: county will be sponsoring a food drive drop-off at the library November 15th-19th

Meredith Friedheim (City of Asheville Neighborhood Services Specialist)

• Her job is to be a liaison between us and the city

• Updates are planned to the Murphy-Oakley playground

Committee Updates

River Link- Deb

• Oakley was bequeathed ¼ acre on Thompson Street that leads right down to the Swannanoa River

• Feasibility of usage studies are still being completed, but it seems like an exciting opportunity for the neighborhood

• Location: near Glendale Bridge and Ruff Life

• Jack at RiverLink is contact person

Tree Keepers- Alison

• Tree Keepers Mission: to help landowners preserve existing trees and to plant new ones

• We did a tree give away at Open Streets

• We promote Asheville Greenworks Treasure Tree program

• Had a big event at WNCAP for their tree which is estimated to be about 210 years old

• Oakley has a lot of those large oaks

• We did not get approved for the second grant

• A main goal of ours is education

Fairview Road Resilience Garden- Michael

• The garden came out of the unknowns from Covid

• First year it produced approx. 800 lbs of produce

• Second year it produced more than that

• Third year produced more than the second year

• Trying to impact food insecurity and Oakley’s food desert

• It’s a lot of work, but man power has decreased

• Michael is leaving the country for a few years but neighbors are welcome to keep up the garden

Transportation- Elizabeth/Michael

• GAP program- stands for greenways, ADA, Pedestrian

• COA (city of Asheville) is behind in this sort of infrastructure

• City council voted to adopt a plan and Oakley was highly prioritized partly because of our greenway frontage

• Next step is Swannanoa portion and the state is going to fund that

• Also looking at intra-neighborhood greenways that would potentially be a path for neighbors to get to the greenways

• The city really wants our input

Events- Michael

• Does anyone have any ideas for events?

Neighborhood Advisory Committee- Elizabeth

• The GAP plan (greenways, ADA, pedestrian) being approved is a big deal and Oakley was prioritized

• MMTC (Multimodal Transportation Committee) working on how Asheville is going to expand transportation- Asheville currently has approx 25 buses

• NAC (Neighborhood Transportation Committee) is in charge of volunteer spotlight of the year and our very own Michael Stratton was chosen (3 total were chosen)

Nominations for open board positions- Michael Stratton

• 3 Open seats- president, vice president, communications chief, plus 3 at-large seats

• Will take office between now and January 25th (next meeting)

• President: nomination- Elizabeth Wallace (not in attendance)

Result: by show of hands- Elizabeth gets majority vote

• Vice President seat: no nominations- seat is left open

• Communications Chief: self-nomination Kylie Ryan

Result: by show of hands unanimous vote yes

• At-large seat: Michael Romanello (result by show of hands- unanimous yes)

• At-large seat: Ross Pritchard (result by show of hands- unanimous yes)

• At-large seat: Erin Hunt (result by show of hands- unanimous yes)

Michael Stratton: Feel free to email the ONA with anything you’d like to see on the agenda