By Amanda Rhoads
The new Montavilla Neighborhood Association board (MNA) continues to gain steam as we reactivate long-dormant committees, start new ones (hello, accessibility) and re-create our online presence. Our Safety Committee, led by John Rotter, is facilitating neighbors setting up neighborhood watch programs for their block.
Our Land Use and Transportation Committee, headed by Amanda Rhoads, continues to learn about the City’s long-range and current planning processes and forwarded our first letter to the board in response to a land use review, which the board adopted and sent to the City.
Our Secretary Briar Rose Schreiber has jumped in to head up planning for our annual neighborhood clean-up event this spring as a project of the Outreach and Communications Committee. SE Uplift Liaison Olive Alsept-Ellis is actively participating in an effort to rewrite SEUL’s mission statement, and has been sharing information back to our members about SEUL projects and opportunities.
Treasurer Johnnie Shaver has been actively engaged with running the Montavilla Emergency Warming Shelter. This independent project, hosted at Saints Peter & Paul Episcopal Church, provides an emergency shelter anytime Multnomah County declares a severe weather emergency. The all-volunteer shelter has been a huge success, not only in providing a warm place to sleep to a full house almost every night they’ve been open, but in bringing neighbors together to donate supplies and food, and to volunteer to help others through the coldest nights.
The MNA is proud to have endorsed this project, and thanks the board members who have taken an active role in making it happen. We welcome any and all “Montavillains” to get involved and help us out, with these and the many other projects we are excited about.
We meet the second Monday of each month for a general membership meeting and board meeting at the Montavilla United Methodist Church. Check out our website for more information: montavillapdx.org.
