West Garland Neighborhood Association
Minutes of October 24th 2013 Meeting
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 in the usual meeting site of the First Christian Church by President Ricardo Rocha. He led us in a Pledge of Allegiance and then called role of officers attending. Secretary Lesley Helms and Treasurer Robert Vera were absent.
Ricardo then introduced the speaker for the evening, Jim Griffin, Executive Director of the Good Samaritan Organization. Jim discussed at length the services offered by the Good Samaritan group, the main purpose being feeding the needy. He estimates they use approximately 35000 pounds of food per month in their pantry. They get their supplies from supermarkets in the area (Wal-Mart is a major supplier of perishable foods, Mrs Bairds for bread) Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays. Jim’s main duty is rounding up funds and supplies. He discussed food drives and how quickly they can distribute even large amounts donated by hooking up to other food sources in the North Texas Area. There is a coordinating web site that allows quick communication of who has had a large amount of food resulting from a successful food drive. The charities try very hard NOT to duplicate efforts and tend to concentrate in one area and let another group handle something else, TDOT and GPL work on utility shortages in the winter exclusively. The charities are anticipating a cut in federal funding of about 30 billion dollars and the need for their services growing. Jim talked about the need for volunteers (3 hours a week) and the need to get a higher profile for the pantry. He passed out flyers, bags, and business cards to those who wanted them, and the response was good. He noted they anticipated feeding 400 people at Thanksgiving and offered details of a package that could be put together to help with that. President Ricardo Rocha thanked him for the information and noted that if any members forgot their donations, he would be happy to collect anything for the Good Samaritan at his home and take it in to them.
The minutes of the last meeting, being on line, were approved in a voice vote.
Treasurer Robert Vera being absent Ken Agee reported the change of personnel for treasurer was now complete. Robert gave Ken the figure of $550.97 as currently in the Treasury.
Old Business: Ricardo reported an estimation of 92 people attending the Neighborhood Night Out event on October 1st. The location being in a park, it was difficult, as was last year, to tell who was there for the NNO and who was going through the park, but all agreed the park was a perfect place for the event and the response a good one. Ricardo felt that next year would need more coordination in the planning to go smoother.
New Business: The annual clean-up efforts for WGNA will be in spring. The City of Garland is planning a clean up on November 2nd, but it was too short a time for WGNA to organize much of an effort. The best effort will be in the spring at the same location as before off Jupiter and Buckingham.
A new software program called Next Door for Neighborhood has been appearing on people’s computers. It has great possibilities if limited to city projects and what is going on it WGNA area and not advertisements of business and garage sale items.
The Neighborhood Vitality Meeting is this Saturday. Organized by Alicia Connor, it offers a good survey of the services and organizations in the city that can be used to help the neighborhoods be more active in organizing their locations for best use of city services. Ken Myers mentioned that Doris Lafayette had completed the Neighborhood Management Academy Course offered by the city and received her certificate.
Ken also wanted everyone to be aware that he would be out this holiday season looking for the best decorated homes to feature in the WGNA web site, so please let him know if you see anything special as the holidays pick up.
The meeting ended with open questions on code enforcement directed mainly to our President as Lori Dodson wasn’t present. Code violations on number of cars and occupancy of residences, and uncollected grocery carts were noted again. Suggestion from the floor mentioned being sure to get and keep the ticket number after you report a violation, trying to find out how many bedrooms are in a house (increase the taxes if there are more than the original number). The suggestion was made to see what the association can do to work with these problems.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 PM.
Respectfully prepared by
Dorothy McAllister (acting for Lesley Henry, Secretary)