St. Mark’s Area Civic Association
Minutes of the March 29, 2016 Meeting
The meeting was called to order began at 7:05. There were 48 souls present.
Jenn Cartee from the Greater Ashmont (Former Saint Mark’s Area) Main Streets to give an update on the organization. She explained that the name was changed to make it more transit oriented name. There was confusion with Saint Mark’s Church and she explained that they would get calls about baptisms, mass hours, etc. The group has $25,000 to rebrand, which includes new signs, banners, and designing a new logo. Planters and murals are being added to Dot Ave to beautify the stretch and wi-fi will be added as well. A fundraiser is being held on April third at which Father Dan Finn will get an award, hopefully presented by the mayor. [Note: Fr. Finn ended up with a scheduling conflict and will be presented with the award at a later date].
Officer Burns and Lilly gave the police report, since Office Keaney was unable to attend. There was a lengthy Q&A about problems in the area. A member mentioned that Allston Street is getting out of hand.
Lieutenant Robert Linahan of the MBTA talked about changes at the T. The department is being restructured from 4 districts into 3. Lt. Linahan is working the evening shift, which is why he is attending the meeting. Lt. Fleming who used to attend our meetings is now on the day shift. Lt. Linahan said to contact him (617-722-4209) if you have any questions about crime.
District 4 City Councilor Andrea Campbell introduced herself to the group and spoke about her new job. She introduced her reps Sean and Caroline who will be attending meetings if she is unable to. She noted that there are 70,000 voters in District 4 and only 10,000 came out to vote. Her office is in Fields Corner and her website has City Council notes and a newsletter. Andrea is working on a body camera pilot and is going to host meetings around the city for input. She spoke on the CPA (Community Preservation Act) which she supports. It would be a 1% additional tax on real estate to help pay for projects to preserve the community. The 1% tax would be on the real estate bill, and the first $100,000 of the valuation would be exempt. She estimated that the increase would be about $23 city-wide, perhaps in Dorchester it may be lower.
President Doug Hurley presented the Executive Board’s request to increase the annual dues from $7 to $10 per person for individuals and from $10 to $15 for businesses. Treasurer Jim Rodenmacher ran down a list of the civic associations expenses and noted that dues have not been increased since our inception in the 1990’s. We have introduces cost saving measures of the years, the biggest of which was switching from snail mail to email for about 90% of our members that have email. The vote to increase dues was unanimous.
Nominations were made for officers for next year. The nominations were President: Doug Hurley, Vice President: Maddie Ribble and Mike Oliver, Treasurer: Jim Rodenmacher, and Secretary: Douglas Shaheen. [Note: Mike Oliver does not live within SMACA’s boundaries, so is unable to serve. Mike Folan who is a current VP accepted in Mike place].
The meeting adjourned at 8:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Doug Shaheen
Secretary, SMACA
