The Annual Meeting of the Schenley Farms Civis Associaion was held Thursday, June 25, 2020, as a “ZOOM app” meeting. All Schenley Farms neighbors were notified by email with two invitations 2 weeks before and 3 days before, and were sent a link to participate remotely by joining the virtual meeting. This was due to an ongoing Worldwide Pandemic due to Covid-19 and there are current public health restrictions in place (e.g. no meetings of more than 20 persons in any place; recommendation for mask wearing ans social distancing of minimum six feet, etc). The meeting was organized and hosted by president Janet Squires, a nd begun at 7:00 p.m. Mention was made that this was the 100th anniversary of SFCA, which was begun in 1920, and that the pandemic was would likely alter almost all the planned events and activities of the next year. Attached below are the powerpoint slides used for organizaiton. First part of meeting was update on SFCA and neighborhood actiities. These included: • Elections: Two nominations were placed, for Jose Morales ( 4321 Parkman) and Ursula MacKenzie (203 Lytton). Janet asked for a vote of acclamation , and vote was unamimous without dissent. Janet thanked two recent board members, Carroll Quinn who completed a three-year board term, and Lynn Sisto who had moved away. • Report by board members (areas of focused on slide 3 below). o Shirley gave a treasurer report, mentioning expenses (mainly meetings and website). Dues remain $50, and have been paid by fewere than typical and she encouraged payments. Treasury has approximately $16,000. Shirley introduced the new neighbors of the past year. o Norm mentioned little activity with UPMC and Pitt, as public health concerns have put most non-essential plans on hold. Norm mentioned some recent events considered by HRC. o Laura mentioned hope for October ‘history education’ event as a virtual presentation, and solicited ideas. o Liz mentioned her activities with City of Pgh Oakland steering committee. She also thanked participants of a recent Children’s Hospital fundraising walk, where ‘Schenley Farms Walkers’ were a team. o Mary gave a brief police update and review o David mentioned his photography efforts to be used on the website. • Janet mentioned that the planned three activities likely will not be held. A first-time summer street party had been planned (in past, hosted by active neighbors Caddie, Kimo and Lynn) with possible foot trucks. The 3rd annual Educational event will likely need to be held by virtual presentation, if at all. • Janet mentioned the ongoing website work. The History section will be a focus over the next year. The October 2019 Educational event had been about doing a house history, and Laura/David will be heading this effort to fill out the history section. The second part of the meeting involved other agencies. Speakers included the following: • District 8 chairperson Erika Strassburger: She mentioned the strain on local businesses from the shut-down and mentioned an ongoing effort with 412-food-rescue whereby donations could help restaurants as well as food shortages for impacted citizens. Erika gave a brief overview of city responses to the Viral threat. • U Pitt Vice-chancellor Paul Supowitz gave some updates. He mentioned the ongoing street re-design in front of Cathedral of Learning/Student Union ongoing and should be finished in fall. He mentioned that exact details of Univeristy opening/teaching have yet to be decided, altho there is a current plan for students to return on site. Bigelow One project is completely on hold at present, as is most of components of Master Plan. • OPCD CEO Wanda Wilson gave a very short update of their activities, including lots of efforts for family home-ownership in south Oakland. • Hersh Merelstein offered to put udpates from Mayor Peduto’s office on website. Then topic switch to major focus … the problem of migrant crows entering into the neighbor each Fall. A meeting had been organized by Councilperson Strassburger on Feb 20, attended by Janet, Laura and Liz. Present were representatives from the City, U Pitt, other neighborhoods and two wildlife experts from USDA, Craig Hicks and Amy Hess. The gist was that any effots should be considered an attempt to re-locate the crows to another less-burdensome area, and the main idea is to make it unpleasant for the birds when they first start to settle into a roosting pattern in mid-October. Possible interventions include noise, noise, noise, use of dead bird effigies, dimming lights, trimming leafy trees, lasers., etc. Noise could include pytotechnics, slammed boards, professional noise makers, wildbird predator squawk boxes. This topic was mainly introduced, and neighbors encouraged to get involved once specific tactics chosen. Laura offered to head up recruitment of volunteers. The meeting was ended at 8:30 p.m.
