Welcome to the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association website
NEWS FLASH: SNA MEETINGS MOVE TO NEW LOCATION STARTING MARCH, 2010
SNA meetings will move to the Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition office at 3534 SE Main Street. Beginning Monday, March 8, our Sustainability Committee will meet from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by our Land Use and Transportation Committee from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. These two meetings will happen on the second Monday of the month going forward. Our General, Board and Crime Prevention Committee meetings will keep their current second Thursday of the month time slots, with the next Crime Prevention meeting at 6:30 p.m. on March 11, followed by the General meeting at 7 p.m. and the Board meeting at 8 p.m. As always, generous neighborhood restaurants provide tasty treats at our General meetings.
Coming in March
When is a sewer line a party line? Do I have to replace my sewer line? Can I do the work myself? Will granting an easement to my neighbor help? If these questions have been coming to mind lately, you'll not want to miss the SNA general meeting this month. Matt Hickey from the Bureau of Environmental Services will be there to educate us on the current state of sewer lines in the neighborhood. Please join us to hear the rules from BES and for an opportunity to ask questions. Many neighbors have received notice that they must disconnect party sewer lines, but have no direct option for connecting to the sewer system. Others have no idea about the condition of their sewer lines or if they share a party line with neighbors. This can be a very costly project, and if caught unaware, can have a devastating impact on livability and your home. Join the discussion on Thursday, March 11, at 7 p.m. AT OUR NEW LOCATION: 3534 SE Main Street.
February Meeting Item
The Audubon Society of Portland and Three Rivers Land Conservancy have joined forces to created the Backyard Habitat Certification Program. Gaylen Beatty, the Director of the program, joined Sunnyside Neighbors at our February general meeting to explain how it works. This new collaborative effort provides technical assistance to small lot, private property owners to restore native wildlife habitat in their backyards. The focus is on removal of aggressive weeds, landscaping with native plants, stormwater management and wildlife stewardship. The first step of certification is having a knowledgeable backyard certification staff person come to your backyard for a site visit. They provide technical assistance and a site plan and will also provide discounts and incentives for native plants and other materials to help you on your way. A fee of $25 is due prior to your site visit. A certification sign from Audubon and Three Rivers will identify your yard as certified wildlife habitat. Please call 503-699-9825 or go to their website to get more information http://trlc.org.
PGE Returns: Construction coming and landscape subcommittee formed
PGE provided an update on their plans for their substation at Belmont and 32nd Avenue at our January 14 meeting. A SNA subcommittee has been formed to address landscaping and exterior treatment of the substation site. Construction work started in late February; a temporary facility will be installed to provide power while the work is underway. Neighbors will remember the battle last year when PGE proposed to tear down 3 historic neighborhood homes but eventually backed down and agreed to use new technologies to upgrade the substation and save the homes. SNA took the offensive when plans were developed to remove homes and expand the substation without any prior neighborhood contact. PGE is now working on addressing the list of other requests made by SNA as last year's negotiations were wrapping up. These include soil testing (completed, no PCBs detected), retaining an outside EMF expert to review and ensure EMFs are minimized, and setting up a construction notice and information network.
A Great Fall Clean-up! Watch for Changes Next Year
Thank you to everyone who turned out for Sunnyside’s Fall Clean-up on Saturday, November 14! We had a great turnout. We took in 42 loads and hauled almost 4 tons of yard debris and 2 1/2 tons of mixed waste. We also were able to help out at five senior households.
We’d like to thank first and foremost our longtime event organizer Gary Ballou for another great year! Also, a thank you to all of the dedicated volunteers who pitched in at the clean-up and on Senior Volunteer Weekend: Ginny and Michael Benware, Bonita Davis, Reuben Deumling, Mimi Doukas, Mary Glenn, Lisa Miles, Tom and Tara Roidt, Rhonda Vander Sluis, Bill and Martha Wheeler. A special thank you to Bonita Davis for leading the recycling effort of reusable household discards to Useful Goods Exchange, Far West Fibers, and Goodwill. We’re always grateful to St. Stephen’s Catholic Church for allowing us to hold the event at their facility. Thank you to Metro Sustainability Center and Southeast Uplift for helping organize and reimbursing our costs. Cloudburst Recycling gave us great service hauling away our dumpsters. The Rebuilding Center also helped out by picking up reusable construction materials. A special thank you to Total Reclaim, who stepped in at the last minute to recycle our block Styrofoam, packing peanuts, and household electronics.
Please note that future SNA clean-ups will be affected by tightened budget restrictions. Because of high recycling costs, we will no longer be able to accept block Styrofoam, packing peanuts, or electronics. Also note that as of January 1, 2010, Metro will no longer accept computers, monitors, or televisions for disposal. For more information about where you can go, visit www.deq.state.or.us/lq/ecycle/index.
We’ll know more about Metro Sustainability Center’s support programs for next year after January, but for now we’ve tentatively set Saturday, April 17, for our spring clean-up. In addition, we’ll try to hold our additional day of volunteer work on the Saturday before the clean-up (April 11) for senior citizens or disabled neighbors. Stay tuned for more information in future issues of the newsletter or give our hotline a call at 503-295-1699. See you next year!
A Great Day in the Neighborhood - the 2009 Belmont Street Fair
Belmont Street between SE 33 and SE 35 Avenues was closed to vehicle traffic again this year, and SNA created a neighborhood green at the intersection of 34th and Belmont. As soon as the circle of grass, trees and shrubs was finished, families and friends moved in! There were four stages of music, an international food court, alternate transportation expo, a kids play and crafts area and day care, and more than 150 craft fair vendors. Sunnyside Neighborhood teamed up with about 15 students from the Sunnyside Environmental School on a "farmer's market" booth, and the students raised more than $125 to support the school's gardens.
Thanks for local business support!
Congratulations and thank you to the newly renovated Hawthorne Fred Meyer, planned as the first LEED certified grocery retailer in Oregon. Fred’s celebrated its grand re-opening on July 31 and awarded SNA $1,000 for our support and positive mediating role in helping neighbors and Fred’s find solutions to a series of safety, access, and environmental concerns.
Thank you also to all the neighbors who turned out for the Pizzicato fundraising event on August 18. Pizzicato donated about $375 to SNA. Thank you, Pizzicato!
Historic Homes Saved!
New technology advocated by SNA allows PGE substation expansion without removal of the three threatened homes
PGE took the SNA membership concerns to heart and has backed down from plans to tear down three homes located next the the substation at 32nd and Yamhill. PGE confirmed today (February 26) that they will move forward with the newer Gas Insulated Switchgear technology that the SNA membership had raised as an alternative last fall. This technology is much more space efficient and would allow them to add a transformer while saving the homes and reducing the overall profile of the existing facility.
PGE representatives sent a letter to SNA President Tim Brooks providing the news and responding to the four points Tim raised at the close of the January 13 special meeting. Please click here for to view the letter: Response and update to SNA 02 26 09.pdf Thank you to all of you who have participated in this process.
Sunnyside has been in the news a fair bit this past year. Examples include Sunnyside school is focus of neighborhood energy plan and http://tinyurl.com/38yxsj. Sunnyside’s on-street bike racks and several resident bicyclists made the cover of the New York Times National Report. To read the story, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/us/05bike.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin Be sure to watch the video for faces you might recognize!
We welcome input on this new email group. If you have any suggestions or comments or need help getting started, please do not hesitate to contact the list owner at SunnysideNeighborhood-owner@yahoogroups.com.
To join the list, simply send an email to SunnysideNeighborhood-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Once you have joined the list you will receive a welcome message that will describe how to manage your membership to get the most out of the list. Once you are a member you can send an email to the list by emailing to SunnysideNeighborhood@yahoogroups.com. You may also visit the Yahoo Groups website at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SunnysideNeighborhood/. At the website you can manage your membership and select whether you want to see the groups email one at a time or in a condensed digest format. You may also decide to be a member of the group but not receive emails and come to the website to view the activity on-line.
Sunnyside Swap Shop
Interested families can log on to www.sunnysideswapshop.org and find out about the newly forming Sunnyside Family Swap Shop and Indoor Playground, the first permanent location of the Sunnyside Swap Shop which has been hosting Back-to-School and Useful Goods exchanges in the neighborhood.
To read related articles, click on "Newsletter" on menu bar to the left.
For problem solving resource numbers in the Portland area, click on: Resource Numbers.pdf
Remember, the best way to contact the board and get involved is by email. Send any questions or comments to: board [at] sunnysideneighborhood [dot] com. You can also call the hotline at 503 295-1699 (checked less frequently).
Local food resources (SNA meeting follow up):
· http://pacsac.org – A list of Portland area CSAs.
· www.edibleportland.com – A free quarterly magazine on this topic.
· www.portlandonline.com/osd – A great list of online resources. Check out their list of gardening resources as well.
· www.localharvest.org – A completely searchable listing of farms and markets.
