St. Mark’s Area Civic Association

Minutes of the April 28, 2015 Meeting

The meeting was called to order began at 7:08.  There were 48 souls present.

Officer Mike Keaney gave his police report.   Crime was down 44% thanks to the snow this winter.  On June 20 the police are hosting a bike rodeo to teach bike safety to kids in the Florian Hall parking lot.  The police will give away excess gifts left from Christmas and are hoping to get bike helmets donated to give away as well.  The event is from 10:00 to 1:00.

Corwin Gaines of 23 Nixon Street presented his request for a zoning variance to change his house from a one-family to a two-family.  After a discussion vote was taken.  The community vote was 33Yes and 0 No.  The membership vote was 18 Yes and 0 No.

Tri Pham and his attorney Khong Nguyen presend his request to have indoor seating for 16 and obtain a takeout license for his new restaurant at 1616 Dorchester Ave.  He expects his volume to be more than 50% take out.  After a discussion a vote was taken.  The community vote was 30 Yes and 0 No.  The membership vote was 20 Yes and 0 No.

David Quach, the new owner of the Rosement building across from the Dot to Dot gave us an update of his progress.  He owns most of the building from the dry cleaners to the African dry goods store.  The hairdresser and Charlie’s Pizza are not part of his ownership.  He is seeking a grant from Main Streets to remodel the building and hopes to bring the hairdresseer and Charlie’s on board with the upgrades.  He plans to remove the grates (like the Dot2Dot did) to make the area more attractive.  His goal is to have the building look similar to the one across from the Blarney Stone in Fields Corner.  David said he’d like to bring in better businesses, not more nail salons.

An election was held for SMACA officers for the 2015-2016 year.  The existing officers were nominated at the last meeting with no additional entries.  The officers elected are:

President:  Doug Hurley

Vice-President:  Mike Folan and Ken Donovan

Secretary:  Doug Shaheen

Treasurer:  Jim Rodenmacher.

President Doug said he’d like to have a group of volunteers to help clean up Dorchester Avenue from Centre Street to Welles Avenue during Boston Shines on Saturday, May 2.

Respectfully submitted,

Doug Shaheen

Secretary, SMACA