General meeting minutes March 27, 2024

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Valentine Neighborhood Association Annual Meeting Minutes 

March 27, 2024

Submitted by Mary Jo Draper, secretary 

Call to Order – Travis called the meeting to order

KCPD Update: Charmainne Sanders

  • Property crime is down. 
  • Two or three stolen vehicles were reported in Valentine in the past month. 
  • The police have KIA locks, which are now available to anyone. 
  • Police are investigating the shooting at the Shell station.
  • The summer Westport plan will begin on Memorial Day and last through October.

Roanoke Conservancy: Chris DeLong

  • Chris DeLong of the Roanoke Park conservancy talked about the ecological restoration of the park. 
  • A Rebuild KC grant allowed the conservancy to hire workers to cut bush honeysuckle. 
  • The park volunteers will participate in the spring cleanup on April 20. You can sign up on the city website. Meet at the community center at 9 a.m. and work until noon.
  • (See additional information at the end of this report for links Chris sent)

Committee Updates

  • Community Garden: Travis Gaddis
    • The garden committee held a cleanup. There are five plots left. The water has been turned on and will be locked.
  • 38th Street Task For4ce: Cheryl Baird
    • The task force held its first meeting of 2024 on March 20. Officer Chase Moraczewski attended and gave an update on the homicide at 38th and Wyandotte (a suspect is in custody); things are better at the Smoke Shop on Broadway; there was an arrest that may alleviate some drug problems. The task force will meet the second Tuesday of each month at Midtown KC Now. Cheryl asked whether Valentine neighbors would rather do our first Clean and Seen cleanup on our regular Monday, April 22, or join Old Hyde Park in the Great American Cleanup on April 20. 
  • Safety: David Snodgrass
    • We will vote on building a new jail on August 6.
    • The police now recommend calling 911 when there is a problem with a houseless person. 
    • The police are still working on the street racing problem.
  • Neighborhood Environment Committee: Jim Martin
    • The police recommend putting up no trespassing signs at the south end of Washington.
  • Development: Chris Jordan 
    • Melrose Abbey (the former Swedish Church on Washington) is asking the city to renew its special use permit to operate four hotel rooms. The SUP was granted two years ago but the venue has not opened and is not expected to start operating before May. The city staff has recommended a five-year renewal. Therefore the Valentine board will ask the Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Adjustment (both of which must approved the renewal) to extend to permit for only two years to give us a chance to gauge its impact on the neighborhood. The Westport Regional Business League will also take this position.

Other Issues

  • Travis spoke with our codes enforcement officer, Leslie Flowers, who asked what codes-related issues are most important to the neighborhood
  • Mary Jo mentioned the upcoming MidtownKC Now luncheon would focus on the future of Broadway
  • Chris spoke about the Valentine sign that was knocked down at the corner of Valentine and Pennsylvania and suggested we put in a PIAC request to replace it. She will get an estimate. The group indicated they favored this.
  • We have bought another CD. We now have 4. They mature every 3 months. 

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Addendum: Links provided by Chris DeLong to Roanoke Park resources and other things he mentioned in his talk. Reach him at [email protected]

How to help: 

Be alerted to Roanoke Park work days by signing up for our email list on roanokeparkkc.org and selecting “I especially like hearing about:  Work Days (weeding / seeding / planting)” 

And here’s the volunteers CalTopo map of the designated “best 6 acres:” https://caltopo.com/m/0LKCH

Contact Chris DeLong at [email protected]

Social media: https://www.facebook.com/RoanokeParkKC and https://www.instagram.com/roanokeparkkc/

Donations to Roanoke Park Conservancy accepted via our website Donate button to write a check, or Venmo:

https://venmo.com/u/roanokeparkkc

Our direct to paypal url needs fixing so see the attached QR instead.

Here’s the page from which you can download the Ecological Restoration Master Plan.

https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/master-plan/171-restoration-plan

And a direct link to the pdf. The Ecological Restoration Plan is pages 9-21 here (it includes a report on the 2012 tree inventory at the end).

https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/RP-MasterPlan-Progress082013.pdf

Roanoke Park Biodiversity Project. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/roanoke-park-biodiversity

The iNaturalist app helps you ID plants you find in the wild, with confirmation from the iNat community, some of whom are leading experts in their fields.

Trees and Trails Map. This article tells all about it with links to the map and a video explainer.

https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/trails/230-roanoke-park-trees-and-trails

RP YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RoanokeParkKC

See the “Resources mentioned in video” link in the description of my seeding video for a list of species used.

For this past year’s seeding, find the list on posts about the Super Seeding Saturday event:

In comments here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C23BFSrRVL3/ or discussion tab here: https://www.facebook.com/events/388134647148627/?active_tab=discussion

Our pages on the scourge of bush honeysuckle:

https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/park-challenges/174-stop-honeysuckle and https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/park-challenges/64-bush-honeysuckle

And the scourge of wintercreeper:

https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/park-challenges/175-wintercreeper

We’re also fighting buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). 

Doug Tallamy books: “Bringing Nature Home” and “Nature’s Best Hope” – I neglected to mention it but his current environmental effort is Homegrown National Park: https://homegrownnationalpark.org The idea that if we all allotted part of our yards to environmental function it would be the largest National Park in the US by far. 

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Valentine Neighborhood Association

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