Minutes from the December 5th, 1999 meeting

Meeting was held at the home of Bill Malloy.      

In attendance was:  Belle Rita Novak, Pat Triggs, Karen Thomes, Bob Triggs, Don Evans, Allen Agnitti, Sandra Collins, Sharon Marshall, Liz Bramson, Maureen Posner and Bill Malloy.

Minutes from the November meeting were submitted for approval pending corrections.  The building mentioned as the proposed site for the Café Saigon is the Chapin Building.

Motion was made to accept, seconded, voted and approved.

 Treasurer’s report was distributed, motion made to accept, seconded, voted and approved.

64 people made contributions for the Belmont Laundry lawsuit.  The Springfield Preservation Trust will donate $100.00 to the lawsuit fund.  All the contributions collected make the Association eligible for the matching contribution of $2500.00 from an anonymous donor. The house tour that was held today was a terrific success.  The preliminary reports indicate that over 575 tickets were sold. 

Regarding the Belmont Laundry lawsuit, the appeal was filed and a request was made for the transcript.  There has not been a request from Belmont Laundry for a bond as of yet.

Maureen Posner was present to discuss the pending issue regarding Forest Park Middle School.  Recent reports in the newspaper indicate that the school may be relocated to a site where the current Brookings Elementary school is located which would result in the Forest Park neighbor losing a middle school.  Maureen also reported that the Maple High Six Corners community was not pleased with the new plan for a middle school in their community.  Maureen has already had conversations with Kenneth Shea of the Springfield School Committee.  The major concern for the City in approving any plan focuses on the 90% reimbursement issue.  The decision was made for the FPCA to further investigate the topic i.e. regulations regarding the 90% reimbursement issue, plans for the existing building, regulations regarding the education reform monies, the possibility of the current middle school being a historic building and what the City should do if it is historical.  It was agreed that this topic is an important one and that the FPCA needs to study the issue before making any major decisions.

A discussion was held regarding Café Saigon.  The liquor commission met on November 18, 1999 and voted in favor of a full liquor license for the Café.  The X Main Street Corp. has filed an appeal in Boston.  The appeal was filed on the basis that there was a lot of resistance from the neighborhood.  While the appeal is being heard the Café cannot proceed with their plans for operation with the full license.  It was reported that the business has already lost the proposed manager and some of the cooking staff.

A discussion regarding aligning with other neighborhood associations resulted in an overwhelming response that this was important topic to discuss at future meetings.  Future discussions will focus on plans to develop this alignment.

Bravo Enterprises won the bid for the Bing Theater project.  Bravo has 6 months to develop a plan and present it to the City.  They are currently developing fund raising projects and writing grants.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:55pm.

REMINDER the JANUARY meeting will be held on SUNDAY, JANUARY 9^th at the home of JANE HETZEL 47 BELLEVUE AVENUE at 7:00pm.