Meeting Minutes

Present: Dottie Corning, Kumi Anzalone, Jon Miller, Mike Woika, Jessica Conard, Lynn Hand, Dave Callender, Maria Cho, Jim Polo, John Phaup (ex officio member)

Absent: Kelley Hudgins, Bob Kingsbury, Mark Ulrey

Call to Order: Dottie called the meeting to order at 5:30pm.

Approval of Minutes: Jessica made a motion to approve the minutes from the November BOD meeting, Lynn
seconded. Approved unanimously with no changes.

Treasurer’s Report: Jessica Conard gave an update: There is a current balance of $9760.93 in the Trust account. The budget has been updated to reflect the Hollister House event. Based on feedback from members, it was a very successful event; well attended by the membership and it was a beautiful day. Huge thanks to our hosts, Rachel Hall and Bill Cobb. Also thanks to Savi’s and Brewery 99.

Committee Reports:
Government Outreach: Maria sent a letter to the Director of Development Services, Jessica
Rhue, on behalf of the ad-hoc committee asking to meet regarding the HPC. Maria listened to
the recorded session of the MSD meeting, she will request a copy of the finances for the
purpose of not only determining how much funds the MSD has, but if they are billing
appropriately according to their enacting legislation. Once received, Maria will send a copy of
the finances to Kumi to include in the minutes for our membership.

Discussion amongst the HDRA BOD of RE-NEW New Bern Land Use Ordinance (LUO) should be brought before the HDRA membership for informational purposes. Jim and Maria feel like the consulting team
CodeWright, working on the ordinance, might be willing to speak to HDRA at a general
membership meeting. The new LUO will specifically address the conversion of the Downtown
local historic overlay district into a new historic based zoning district divided into sub-districts.
Mike volunteered to get someone from the City to explain the project to our membership at the
Jan 6 General Membership meeting. Update: Jessica Rhue will be there to speak.

There is an HPC meeting scheduled for Jan 15, 2025, re: the Sudan Temple property.
Maria recommends that within the new HDRA BOD there is a person dedicated to handle HPC
liaison for the government relations committee.

Appearance Committee: Mike advised there will be a Clean Sweep scheduled in January after
the holidays.

The Questers have not yet been able to confirm a date for an event with HDRA.
Planning for a training presentation from the NC State office on Preservation re: preservation
credits, possibly in April. They are doing training for the HPC and will also speak to HDRA or
other homeowners while here.
Mike is also talking to someone about doing a presentation on how to find out the history of
historic properties.

Membership Committee: Reminder notices for membership renewal should go out in early
January.

Nominating Committee: Several candidate names have come up for discussion. We need a
minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 new board members. Team is requesting bios from anyone
who would like to serve. Mike will be contacting the possible candidates and compiling the
bios and photos into a single document that will be sent to all general members. New members
will be presented and voted on at the January General Membership Meeting at the Session
House.

Newsletter: John Phaup gave an update. The next newsletter is currently in draft form. Curtis Krumel
is now taking over publishing for the December issue. Leslie and Jay Manning are the lead
article. Additional articles of interest include: a piece on the water tower on Queen Street,
photos from all events since September, the King Solomon lodge Open House on Sat. January
11, the grant writer who is joining the Duffyfield Phoenix project. Target date for publication is
December 15.

​

Old Business:
General Membership Meeting is scheduled for January 6, 2025 at the Session House at First
Presbyterian Church. Meeting is scheduled to begin at 6pm.

New Business:
Mike commented on our year in review and many of our accomplishments for 2024:

• Formalized the budget process;

• updated the Membership lists;

• revamped our HDRA social

• media sites and created a new social media policy;

• circulated the membership survey results;

• posted BOD minutes as part of transparency goal.

​

Additionally we had well-attended social events for the membership including the Annual Picnic, the Hollister House event, the Garden Party at the Polo’s, and 3 General Membership meetings.

We also held a couple of Clean Sweep events, initiated a Porch Decorating event at Halloween and provided quarterly newsletters to our membership.

Our Government Outreach team (Maria) put out a lot of great information to our members from the city, county and various committees.

Everyone thanked Dottie for her leadership this year in making this a successful year for HDRA.

Jim gave an update on information he has gathered regarding the MSD fund. A review of the
legislation show the City is collecting the MSD tax inaccurately. Jim sent a message to the City
Manager and Ward 1 Alderman asking that the tax rate to be set to zero since there is no
project. Jim believes that this is an opportunity to do the right thing. There is currently a
significant amount of funds in the existing balance. The legislation regarding the MSD fund and
the collection of an MSD tax is very clear: identify a project, bring it before the Aldermen, and
THEN levy the tax. According to Jim, the City Manager indicated he was considering lowering
the tax but not eliminating it. Jim’s opinion is that this is not how the MSD fund is legally set up
to be handled and the tax could easily be set to zero without any impact on the general city
budget. There is time for public comment at Board of Aldermen meeting if members are
interested in making their voices heard.

Next Board Meeting: The next HDRA BOD meeting is scheduled for 5:30pm January 13, 2025 at Dottie’s River
House. This will be the first meeting of the new 2025 HDRA Board.

Motion to adjourn: Lynn made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Dave seconded. Dottie adjourned the meeting at 6:20pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Kumi Anzalone, HDRA Secretary