Woodburn Commission

Woodburn School Redevelopment Commission Minutes of Thursday September 27, 2018 Members present: Chris Haddox, Marti Shamberger, Ron Dulaney, Kate Levine-Freeman. The meeting was called to order by Chair Chris Haddox at 6:03 p.m. at Woodburn School. The minutes were accepted as presented. Guests: Danielle Trumble, Woodburn Neighbor and Robyn Hess City of Morgantown Grant Writer. Members of the Commission and guests introduced themselves. There are 3 vacancies on the Woodburn Commission with the resignations of Kerry Lilly, Kevin Cross and Bob Merrow. Members were encouraged to contact community members who may be interested and have them apply thru the City Website. If potential members had questions they could contact Chair Chris Haddox. Chris also discussed that he had met with the Landscape Architecture class who is looking at the Woodburn site for a class planning project. The Homeschool Association is no longer interested in the space in the building, citing poor communication with the city as the reason. Discussion was held to engage the current property stakeholders to get their views on where they are and their future plans. The following members agreed to contact FDOC-Chris; MT Pockets- Ron; Pop Shop-Kate: Boys/Girls Club-Marti. We will share our discussions at the next meeting. Chris and Ron met with Phil Weiser from March Westin. They discussed items in the Mills Plan and asked if they could give a budget to how much it would cost to implement the priorities the Commission had previously discussed. The Woodburn Mission Statement would be discussed at the next meeting. Robyn Hess discussed grant possibilities for the building, including WV SHIPO which looks at funding of issues involving the exterior, and looking at applying to be on the National Register. Other opportunities may exist with the Kresge and/or the Heinz Foundation; or FDA for a green building. Robyn would be in contact with the SHIPO to since the Oct 1 deadline wouldn’t be met, and see if they could look at the building. Robyn advised it would be important to stress the school building for funding and not the auxiliary buildings. Marti volunteered to contact Chris Fletcher, the City Planner, regarding any Community Block Development Grant funding for the site. Discussion was held about establishing a “Friends of Woodburn Community” 501 3(c) group similar to what is being done with other city entities like the Met Theater, BOPARC and the Museum. Danielle Trumble is interested in helping with establishing the group. It was noted to be specific in the vision and mission statement to be clear what and how the money raised would be used. Discussion included contacting the City Attorney with legal questions. Everyone was reminded of the Woodburn Community Festival October 7 in Whitemore Park. The next meeting will be October 17 @ 6 at Woodburn School due to member’s having conflicts on October 25. The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 p.m.