The South Perry Business and Neighborhood Association decided to start a boot, sock, hats, mitten and scarf drive to benefit students at Grant Elementary School. The blog agreed to help out setting this up.

About 90 percent of kids at Grant qualify for free or reduced lunch, and there is a huge need for winter clothing – especially boots, socks, mittens and hats. Watch for collection bins to appear at Perry businesses soon – contact the blog at piah@spokesman.com if you have larger donations of new or slightly used winter boots, socks/tights, hats, mittens and scarves.
There was a long discussion about the need to update bylaws for the South Perry Business and Neighbor Association. A membership fee hasn't been charged for four or five years.

Many businesses don't attend on a regular basis, and the SPBNA doesn't have any representation at the city's business center meetings. Those meetings are the first Friday every month at 7 a.m. Krista from South Perry Pizza agreed to take contact to the city and try to make the meetings, so she can report back to the group. A work group of three people will look at the bylaws and propose updates to the group as soon as possible.

The officers remain mostly the same for another year, in order to secure that bylaws are updated and structure of SPBNA is solidified. Only changes are that Spencer Grainger agreed to help secretary Heidi Hash – she is very active with Grant Elementary and may miss a meeting once in a while - and Marshall Powell is the new vice president.

The next big event on South Perry is the tree lighting event on December 14 – at 5:30 p.m. – outside the Perry Street Cafe. Bring an ornament you are willing to part with for the tree, and there will be hot cider, chocolate and coffee inside the Perry Street Cafe.One question was what happened to the ornament from last years – no one was certain.
The time of the event was moved up one hour so parents and kids can make the the Christmas concert at Grant at 6:30 on the same night.
Beginning organizing projects: Marshall Powell would like to tackle getting some signs and some bike racks installed as soon as possible. SPBNA would have to pay for signs and racks – though some block grant money may be available to pay for the racks. Powell would also like for volunteers to help him put on a concert series next summer. He can be reached at marshallp24@yahoo.com

The South Perry Farmers' Market is out in the cold again, see story in Voices on Thursday. Brian Estes said the market is committed to staying at the heart of the South Perry neighborhood – this week the market will be open, outside The Shop, from 3-6 p.m.

The Library Board has indicated that it is likely to close the Eastside library. Neighbors are encouraged to show up at the City Council meetings the next four Mondays and testify in support of the library.

And finally, there is a Neighborhood matters meeting on food issues, on Tuesday Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. at East Central Community Center. That meeting is followed by the East Central Neighborhood council meeting at 6:45 in the same location. Neighbors and business owners are encouraged to attend. The South Perry Business and Neighborhood Association is not a neighborhood council – it belongs to the East Central Neighborhood. The SPBNA decided to focus on maintaining strong ties with East Central.

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