Thank you to all who attended SNA’s annual meeting and election. It was a remarkable evening with a record-setting turnout. Democracy in action! Congratulations to Sunnyside's newly elected and re-elected board members Paul Loney, Reuben Deumling, Bill Stites, Gina Binole, and Heather Wilson. We want to thank Jonathan Noel for his many years of service to the neighborhood on the board, as a liaison to other organizations, and as dedicated volunteer for so many of our events. A special thank you to Resolutions Northwest for facilitating the meeting and to Southeast Uplift for overseeing the election process and vote count. We also want to recognize Hoda’s Middle Eastern Cuisine, Oasis Café, and Hot Lips Pizza for food donations, as well as several cooks on our board who brought homemade treats for the event. We are very happy to have Gina joining us and look forward to great new year.

PGE Substation: Landscape Subcommittee

PGE is developing landscape plans for their substation improvements at Belmont and 32nd Avenue. A SNA subcommittee has been meeting to address landscaping and exterior treatment of the substation site. Construction work started in late February; a temporary facility will be installed to provide power while the work is underway. Neighbors will remember the battle last year when PGE proposed to tear down 3 historic neighborhood homes but eventually backed down and agreed to use new technologies to upgrade the substation and save the homes. SNA took the offensive when plans were developed to remove homes and expand the substation without any prior neighborhood contact. PGE is now working on addressing the list of other requests made by SNA as last year's negotiations were wrapping up. These include soil testing (completed, no PCBs detected), retaining an outside EMF expert to review and ensure EMFs are minimized, and setting up a construction notice and information network.

The Audubon Society of Portland and Three Rivers Land Conservancy have joined forces to created the Backyard Habitat Certification Program. Gaylen Beatty, the Director of the program, joined Sunnyside Neighbors at our February general meeting to explain how it works. This new collaborative effort provides technical assistance to small lot, private property owners to restore native wildlife habitat in their backyards. The focus is on removal of aggressive weeds, landscaping with native plants, stormwater management and wildlife stewardship. The first step of certification is having a knowledgeable backyard certification staff person come to your backyard for a site visit. They provide technical assistance and a site plan and will also provide discounts and incentives for native plants and other materials to help you on your way. A fee of $25 is due prior to your site visit. A certification sign from Audubon and Three Rivers will identify your yard as certified wildlife habitat. Please call 503-699-9825 or go to their website to get more information http://trlc.org.