Those present at the UHA Annual Meeting on January 31 were neighborhood residents, including five first-time participants. We were also joined by City Councilor Isaac Benton, Joyce Pullen of the mayor’s office, and Maggie Seeley, who again facilitated the meeting.

A special thank you to Councilor Benton, who spoke and answered neighborhood related questions, to Joyce Pullen, and to Maggie Seeley for helping make the meeting interesting and informative.

You can read the complete report of the Annual Meeting at http://www.uhanm.org/resources/Annual-meeting013110.pdf

Highlights of the meeting included: The Lead-Coal improvement project which should be advertised for bids in February and the contractor selected in March.  Actual construction should begin soon thereafter and go on for 18 to 24 months. The UHA board will continue to provide more information about the project as it progresses.

Councilor Benton expressed his  continued support for more communication between UNM, CNM, and the neighborhood.  The neighborhood will participate in a new transportation study of the area that was approved by the City Council on February 1.

Those present at the meeting participated in identification and initial discussion of four major concerns for action in 2010:
  1. Improve safety – additional police patrols, enforcement of speeding;
  2. Silver traffic and signage – better signs and education about the Silver Bicycle Boulevard speed limit and better enforcement;
  3. Gilchrist House (southeast corner of Silver and Cornell) – better communication with the current owner (Build New Mexico) and meetings with City officials to help get renovations started.
  4. Promoting home ownership – looking into what other neighborhoods, including Sawmill and La Mesa have done.
  5. Other major activities that were acknowledged are the ongoing Lead and Coal improvement project and the proposed 1300 new student housing units on the UNM Main campus.

As always we would like to recognize the ongoing volunteer efforts of our board of directors. The newly elected board for 2010 is:  Sherry Smith (President), Lanny Heinlen (Vice President), Don Hancock (Secretary-Treasurer), Joseph Aguirre, Marlene Brown, Greg Gould, and Augustine Grace who have previously served on the board.  Three new board members were elected: Ethan Brown, Jennifer Simpson, and Brian Stinar.  A special welcome to the new members!