September JWN General Meeting – New Location!
JWN September General Meeting
September 9. 6:30-8:30PM
New Location: Lane County History Museum
740 W. 13th Ave.
Draft Agenda
- Welcome and Museum Updates with Museum Executive Director Keith Lohse
- Public Safety Updates and Q&A with EPD CSO Janina Rager
- Lane Events Center Visioning Work Group: Recap and Q&A with JWN Chair and group member Ted M. Coopman
- TBD
Keith Lohse, the Museum’s Executive Director, has generously offered to host JWN monthly meetings free of charge in the Robert L. Hart Reading Room. The JWN Executive Board signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a three-month pilot this fall. As a public group, the JWN had always had a desire to meet in a publicly-owned space, but the neighborhood has no-publicly owned meeting facilities. We also had discussed a meeting space with Lane Events Center, but the cost was prohibitive.
The JWN has met at the First United Methodist Church for over a decade. Prior to COVID we used the space for free. Post COVID the cost went up to $50 a meeting, and last year it doubled to $100 (negotiated down from $165). While we appreciated the space and had great relations with staff, we shared the building with other groups and the space was noisy with poor acoustics. Some neighbors also had expressed discomfort with meeting in a church.
With ongoing city budget constraints, the JWN Board feels an obligation to save limited funding whenever possible. We are really excited about a new era of cooperation with the Museum, especially considering the neighborhood’s ongoing Historic Preservation Project.