After going half a year without holding a board of directors meeting, the Cortez Hill Active Residents Group (CHARG) has put together a full board slate and resumed meetings.
CHARG was still active over the last half year, said board member Nancy Wilson-Ramón. The organization recently held a community meeting with guest speaker San Diego County Supervisor Palomar Aguirre, at which time four attendees volunteered to serve on the board, bringing the number to eight.
At the next CHARG meeting on May 28, new board members to be sworn in will include: Rich Stevens, Kari Faugner, Chris Dragman and Barb Chandler.
“Our last meeting was a very free-form one, with conversation and ideas for us to get back up to speed,” Wilson-Ramón said.
FROM THE DOCUMENTERS: This story came in part from notes taken by Brisa Karow, a San Diego Documenter, at a CHARG meeting in April. The Documenters program trains and pays community members to document what happens at public meetings. It’s run by inewsource, a nonpartisan nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigative and accountability journalism. Read more about the program here. BECOME A DOCUMENTER
CHARG finds itself in a budget crunch, with city funding from parking meter revenue being pulled.
Nonetheless, Wilson-Ramón led a discussion at the last meeting about potential upcoming priorities, which include:
- Fixing or replacing walking path medallions around Cortez Hill that have worn down.
- Implementing bike racks.
- Funding sleep-deterrent benches along Beech Street for better walking accessibility between surrounding neighborhoods.
- Cleaning or replacing defaced pedestrian street signs.
- Putting in big-bellied trashcans that homeless individuals cannot access.
With a full board soon to be in place, Wilson-Ramón hopes monthly meetings will again complement community meetings with local officials as guest speakers, and the 4 to 5 community cleanups that are aided by the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s Clean & Safe Program.
CHARG meetings are regularly held at 6 p.m. on the fourth Monday of the month, on the second floor of the Discovery condo building. Due to the Labor Day holiday, the next meeting will be Thursday, May 28. SDSun
