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Board Meeting Monday, April 21

The regular GPNA Board of Directors meeting is this Monday, April 21st. The meeting will be held at our center, 1094 E. Kentucky Street and will start at 6 PM. This will be a very busy meeting with 16 items on the agenda. Included will be updates on recent zoning votes taken by city government, a report on the first Railway Corridor meeting held and a report on the Road Diet plans being developed for E. Breckenridge and E. Kentucky streets by city Public Works. The meeting is open to the public and everyone is invited.

 

New Life in GermanParistown- 125 Trees Planted

Thanks to the lead of  a young lady who grew up in the neighborhood, one Valerie Magnuson, we have many new trees growing now. Our neighborhood is spruced up literally and the trees and plants are looking forward to spring. There were more than 100 new trees planted on March 30th. A large number of  volunteer foresters and residents gave of their Sunday to do the plantings. The process was well organized and relatively quick. The job was to plant the trees to all who had ealier signed to receive them. The challenge of course was to make sure each tree was planted in its space correctly. Thus the need for  those many knowledgeable foresters. Some of the trees were planted on public right of ways, but most were placed onto privately owned properties.  We offer great thanks to the organization where Valerie works, Louisville Grows. We appreciate their choosing our neighborhood. We were so impressed with  the dedication of of their staff and volunteers going door to door in extremely cold weather to make the offer and gain the sign ups. And some final kudos are in order. Jim Gravatte helped us implement an effective Plan B in the St. Therese Gym parking lot. He took charge and kept the home made soup warm and ready to be served. In addition Arby's at Blankenbaker gave us a price on a fine meat platter that saved the association on our anticipated food cost. Thank you Bruce Ewing. Louisville Grows did its part too in providing the soup and an early morning bagel breakfast. It was a great day, blue skies with fun meaningful work performed by all! Thanks to everyone who gave of their time.

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- Keep Up with What's Happening and Spread the Word-

Our Facebook Page can be found at this web address/link-

http://www.Facebook.com/GermanParistownNeighborhoodAssociation.

Board members Jeff Cross, Tomy Molloy and Amanda Keeton also produce a quarterly GPNA E-Newsletter that we will advertise and email blast out.

We also place all our  updates via Danny Mac's okay to his Germantown-Schnitzelburg Facebook page.

Membership to GPNA-

The annual membership fee is by donation amount of your choice. The recommended amount is $5, but ANY amount chosen is accepted. While they last we will be given at no cost to those signing up the booklet "A Short History of Germantown and Paristown".  The paperback contains a a well researched description of GPNA's 40 years of activities. It also contains unique color photos. There is also a section that details the process so you can follow to research your home, and thus learn the history of your residence. The little blue book is chalk full of interesting facts including explanations about shotgun houses, the history of our many mills and our many churches.

All that is needed to join is filling out a form that list your name, residential address and email address. If you prefer to sign up by email here is how you do it. Forward this same information to our volunteer administrator by email and send to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Steve will hand deliver a notice of your 2014 membership and the booklet. You can provide your chosen donation by mailing it in or bringing it to one of our sponsored functions or to one of our public meetings. In fact the more common option is for residents to join at the time they are attending one of our many functions. At every event there is a membership table. Please note that we will take cash if the new member is joining at an event, but that is the ONLY TIME. If forwarding payment for membership by mail then we ask you to make the your check out for the amount you choose to "GPNA". The address to mail to is GPNA Center, 1094 E Kentucky Street, Louisville, Ky. 40202-1936. You can also choose to not mail and simply drop the check through the slot that is in the middle of our front door. Again, no cash if dropping off.  And most important please make sure the check is in a sealed envelope marked "Membership".

Status at 3-29-14 of all 2014 GPNA Approved Work Items

1. Website- Mark Muse, a VOA-Ky. volunteer has provided a plan for social media options for our considering including some changes to our website. The E-newsletter Committee will be reviewing Mark's report.

2. Shotgun Festival- The committee concluded why mess with a proven formula. Our plan is to replicate last year's event at the same place and involve a number of the same bands. The date for the festival has not been finalized but most likely will stay on the last Saturday in September.

3. Monday Bingo has started a new raffle and it appears to be helping attendance. We do see business advertising for the event as an option to pursue to help create more income. Business Committee to meet and discuss a recommendation to make to the board before June 1.

4. Rain Garden monitoring- Of course the nature of any Rain Garden is it not needing a whole lot of maintenance. John helps oversee the overgrowth and works to set up the garden for the start of the season and works to shut it down for the winter. Bill is the person who cuts the lawn at our center and also cuts the grass edge area of the Rain Garden. These two persons helping us the way they do will continue. A number of board members are willing to work at the Rain Garden if for some reason that is needed. With warmer weather now we are keeping a closer eye on how well the plants are doing.

5. We are proud of GPNA connection with the Center For Neighborhood' Neighborhood Institute. Board Members Amanda Keeton and Mary Hardesty are representing GPNA in the 2014 class. Thank you ladies!

6. GPNA is in the first phase of developing a plan that will generate fund raising support for  Germantown Mission Inc. for he purpose of supporting preservation causes. Our intention is to convert this added financial support in a way that we will become more active in protecting our neighborhood's historic shotgun houses, our mills and our many other historic buildings/churches. The goal is to see the plan shared in late 2014. These efforts will be tied to the associations involvement with the federal grant being implemented now by the city. This grant will make recommendations on the Railway Corridor and include suggestions on how to improve Beargrass Creek appearance and access in our area.

7. GPNA is participating jointly SACC on the Goss Avenue Beautification Project. This too is currently in the planning phase. Thanks to Councilman Jim King we have an advocate that will be assisting us in finding the money needed to implement a final plan.  The goal is to see work started on this in mid-year 2014. We thank Mike Morris, President of SACC, who is the true point person on this project.

8. The most immediate project that has already received the board's approval via a special meeting is that of seeing 100 trees planted in our neighborhood.  The organization that is leading this cause is Louisville Grows and we have their staff person Valerie Magnuson to thank. March 30th is the day all the plantings will take place. Our center will be a beehive of activity come that day. I can report this is now a completed with all goals met.

9. Two other events we are working to see happen are Canning Classes at our Center and a late Spring Farmer's Feast. Both are in early planning stages. The success of last fall's event at Hope Mills was overwhelming. The goal is to replicate the last event.

10. The association continues to work with 4th District Police to help monitor with those frequently share crime activity stats.  Officer Hagan is available to you and will help implement community policing strategies that our police want to see advertised and supported.

11. A project we are looking at is to build a ramp to allow handicap access within all the rooms of the first floor at our center. We will be working with Beacon House on this project and hope to see this build before August of 2014.

Come Out an Play

We have the best neighborhood association bingo in the state-

Our Monday Bingo is in its 28th year of continual operation. Doors open at 9 AM and games start at 10:15 AM. The last game is normally played out by 12:15 PM. Our gaming license number is 00058 and posted. This long running weekly event offers residents a unique and fun experience. It certainly allows new and regulars attending to get to know each other and learn about the neighborhood. Bingo is held at our GPNA center, 1094 E. Kentucky Street. The location is just west of St. Therese Catholic Church. We can lay claim to this "best" title because we know of no other neighborhood association with a state gaming license approved to operate bingo sessions. The money raised has been so helpful in meeting our budget projections.

Posting Tied to Our Compliance Status- GPNA keeps on file its approval letter from the IRS. This letter stipulates that GPNA is a 501 (C4) non-profit organization. To stay in good standing we file an IRS-990 each calendar year. We also file with Kentucky to maintain legal recognition with the Commonwealth. The overall reporting to the state requires our forwarding an Annual Report and we must provide quarterly to the Department of Charitable Gaming detailed gaming activity reports.  We are required to complete annually a gaming license application.  GPNA is currently in full compliance and in good standing with the federal, state and city governments and all the reports listed have been filed on time.

A final reminder- The various updates here are shared for two reasons. In laying out these details please know we want you to think out how what you are good at might and enjoy doing can help us as we move towards the future. We are not shy in asking if you see opportunities to become involved. We would love to tap into your talents and commitment. If interested the easiest and best way to do so is to contact our volunteer administrator, Steve Magre. His phone number of 502-855-0223. You can call or text him at this number. You can also send him an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You may also want to click on the category to the right titled Board of Directors and see if any of the members listed are people you know. Any board member would welcome your call and would help you become a new member and become involved.