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June 20, 2007
– Committee members present: Dick Shockley, Siobhan Peters, Diane
Volkersz, Dick DeBernardis, Kerri Payne, John Baden, Jerry Kawasaki,
Doug Marshall, Margaret Jarrett, (Warren Vaughan).
Community members present:
Rob Gilmore, John Vincent, Curtis Dassonville, Katy Nygard, Jill
Allen, Walter Nixon, Trever & Marie McSpadden.
Dick S. opened the meeting
at 7:05 p.m. Laurie Campbell from Headstart gave a quick overview
of their program. They are a federally funded group that provides
family support and enrolls 3-5 yr. old children into a pre-school
program. She stated that they are recruiting 10-12 eligible
children in the Gateway area. She posted information and left some
behind for distribution to interested parties.
Warm-up:
Rob Gilmore stated that he
is interested in our group and was attending because he saw the
recent article about our cause in the Bozeman Chronicle. On the
list of large landowners, Dick D. had spoken with Ron Bos and
said that Ron was very supportive of our group and thought that
approaching zoning at the local level was much better than leaving
it in the hands of county commissioners.
Old business:
Dick S. asked for a motion
to accept the meeting minutes from June 6th – Dick
D. motioned, Diane seconded; motion carried. Doug Marshall stated
that the Articles of Incorporation were completed, but that
he needed another person to sign and notarize the final copy. Dick
S. will stop by Doug’s office to do that. It will take
approximately 2 weeks to be filed and accepted. Copies of the
Bylaws and Articles will be distributed after they are signed.
Website: Warren & Kerri will condense the survey results
they have gathered, so that they can be posted in a more concise
form. Survey results (written): Warren distributed
transcriptions of the essay questions for the first 63 returned
surveys. We are getting good direction for setting our future
goals. All committee members should read over the document and
highlight common and different issues to be discussed later. To
date, we have received 110 surveys, but we are still hoping to
receive more. Transportation Committee: Warren distributed
Fact Sheet #1 on Traffic (stats of total traffic in our area between
1994-2005). Reminder to Transportation Committee (and all others
interested) to attend Gallatin Valley Transportation Planning forum
on Wednesday, July 25th, at Monforton School (5:30
p.m.). We should be gathering information pertinent to our area
(need for stop signs, signal lights, street improvements, turning
lanes, speed control, etc.) that can be presented as input from our
group. John Vincent suggested inviting Jim Lynch (director of MDoT)
and Jeff Ebert to speak to our group in the near future. Jill Allen
suggested taking a drive through our focus area with these
representatives to get their suggestions for improvements, as well
as to point out problem areas (our problems, their solutions).
Someone wanted to post a question regarding transportation in our
area on our webpage, have a focused meeting, and publish that
meeting content ahead of time, so that people with a specific
interest could attend. Water & Sewer Committee: Rob Gilmore
offered to be on this committee, along with Terry Threlkeld and
Warren. It will be imperative to get the input of the people of
“downtown” Gateway and the adjacent areas, since they will be
impacted most directly.
New Business:
We discussed the potential
for a “Downtown” Gateway event, with specific emphasis on the
water & sewer issues. We will try to hold a focused meeting,
possibly on August 1st. It will be touted as an
educational, as well as information-gathering, type of event.
Downtown people will need to be fired-up! Kerri offered to go
door-to-door in order to get as many downtowners as is possible to
be aware of our process and to be present at the meeting(s). We
will provide plenty of signage with respect to the water and sewer
focus. Kerri may also draft a letter to downtowners, before
approaching them one on one. Turner Lot: The Turner lot,
just east & north of the first bridge on Mill Street (closest to
Gateway proper), is for sale. It is a vacant lot with some trees
and foliage. An informal letter is being penned by Dick S. and
Christie to ask if Mr. Turner would consider donating the property
as a community park. Should our request be granted, a separate
committee will be formed to deal with this project specifically.
Curtis Dassonville offered to find out if the Breakfast Optimist
Club could possibly provide some funding for playground equipment,
etc. if we receive the property.
Vaughan Advisory:
Warren distributed his memo,
“Structure of the DRAFT Plan”. This memo was based on
information gathered by our surveys, meetings, and public input to
date. This draft, or vision, is the nuts and bolts of our policy
direction. It provides background information, potential policies,
and rationale for those policies. Hopefully, this is the outline
and structure which will lead to our final community plan.
Kick-Off Part II: It was suggested that we have a “you spoke,
we listened” meeting sometime at the end of August. We would put up
these drafted policies for public perusal and feed back. Our
intention is something along these lines: synthesis of information,
policy drafts, back to the community for fine-tuning, then on to
county planning, and finally on to the County Commission.
Focused meetings: We decided that as much as possible, our
future meetings will be specific to particular issues (property
assessment, traffic/roads, sewer & water, zoning, schools, natural
resources, ranch/farm lands, emergency services, etc.) and that we
will try to alert the public to the focus of each meeting. By doing
this, we hope to engage a diverse group of people that may not have
attended general meetings in the past.
Misc.:
Finance report:
Kerri stated that we have $1,181.61 in our account. GAP proposal:
Warren warned that their group is interested in a citizen-driven
project that is not likely to be funded by the county. Dick S. is
drafting the proposal and will keep that in mind. Incorporating
Gateway?: Dick D. suggested that we should discuss the
pros/cons of this issue in the future.
Public comments:
John Vincent stated that we
cannot do too much to solicit public comment. We must feel
confident that we’ve exhausted every avenue in order to educate the
public in our focus group and to solicit their input, ideas, and
concerns . . . before we ever make any presentation to the
county planners or commissioners.
At 8:50 p.m., Siobhan made a
motion to adjourn the meeting; Kerri seconded, and the motion was
carried.
** In light of the
fact that our next meeting date should be the 4th of
July, but that we will all be off celebrating the holiday, our
next regular meeting will be held on Wed., July 11th,
in the Gateway School cafeteria, at 7 p.m.** |
