South Capitol Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes
Weds, Feb 11, 2026 6:30 – 8 pm
Lincoln Elementary School library
Note: On February 15, 2026, Gerry Apple made a motion to approve the February 11, 2026 board minutes via email vote. Blake Melancon seconded. Nine board members voted in favor, and the motion passed.
Introductions and Call Meeting to Order
Members of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association (SCNA) Board in attendance:
John Saunders, President
Gerry Apple, Vice President
Sue Hedrick, Secretary
Blake Melancon, Gordon White, Eric Seder, Tyler Graber, Lorie Hewitt, Kelley Dolan, Nora Hawkins and Valerie Hammett, At Large members
John called the meeting to order.
Approval of Today’s Draft Agenda
One additional item – Potential Speakers – was added to the agenda.
Treasurer’s Report – John Saunders
Morgan previously sent the January treasurer’s report to the board members, which is under Written Reports at the end of the minutes. John asked if there were any questions concerning them. There were none.
Report on the Sat, Jan 24th Community Priorities Forum – Eric Seder
Eric said he and Gerry attended a Community Priorities Forum at Olympia City Hall on Sat, Jan 24, 2026. The event, sponsored by the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA), was held to determine issues most important to Olympia residents and gather ideas on how to address them.
These ideas, along with the results of a Community Priorities Survey, were then discussed by representatives of Olympia neighborhood associations at the CNA’s Jan 9, 2026 monthly meeting. They will be useful when applying for City of Olympia neighborhood matching grants, and for future neighborhood organizing.
Eric said about 150 residents attended the forum. At the start of the meeting, they held a moment of silence in support of the people of Minneapolis.
They then broke into small groups to come up with ideas for community projects and succeeded in creating a big list of diverse items. Some of these included improving food access, strengthening community resilience, improving pedestrian safety, creating “third spaces” for people to gather, and sharing resources like tool libraries
Eric said that community preparedness was by far the dominant focus – which meant preparing for actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents more than preparing for natural disasters.
The survey received 143 responses. Food Access & Basic Needs and Emergency Preparedness & Community Resilience emerged as the most consistently high priorities, with over 60% of respondents ranking each in their Top 3.
Affordability & Access and Safety & Livability followed closely behind, with specific concerns about housing costs, sidewalks, street crossings, and transportation.
A summary of the forum, along with a link to survey documents, are on the CNA website: https://cnaolympia.org/2026/01/28/the-community-priorities-forum-survey-results-are-in/
Review items on our Parking Lot List/Create Priorities for 2026 – John Saunders
Previously, at the December 10, 2025 meeting, board members reviewed and discussed a list of proposed activities/topics captured in responses to a recent neighborhood engagement survey. These were:
- Holiday party
- Grant funds for picnic – do it or not
- Candidate forum
- Invite city planners to a forum on middle housing
- How to move forward in engaging with the city or legislators on issues, if there are varying opinions on issues
- Low-flying aircraft
- Connect with Lincoln on the Winter Market or Flea Market
- Do things at the Coach House
- Develop a true dog park/off-leash area
- Host or organize community projects or community events
- Invite Fish & Wildlife to talk about urban wildlife (e.g. bird feeders, peanuts for squirrels)
- Olympia Airport expansion
And then narrowed the list down to six items:
- Host or organize community projects or community events
- Low-flying aircraft
- Future of St. John’s Episcopal Church
- Candidate forum
- Dog Park
- Middle Housing Forum
Board members then voted on the six items. Receiving the most votes was Host or organize community projects or community events. Second highest was holding another Middle Housing forum.
At our January meeting, board members re-reviewed the second list of six items and again narrowed it down to the two the board felt able to effectively do: Host or Organize Community Projects or Community Events and Sponsor a Middle Housing Forum.
John proposed that the board meet every other month instead and, for those months without a board meeting, hold a community forum with a variety of speakers on different topics.
This was met with support from those at the meeting, and John, Nora, Sue and Kelley agreed to work on organizing the community forums. Valerie suggested that one topic be historic preservation, blended with middle housing.
2026 Neighborhood Grant – Gerry Apple, Eric Seder
Morgan, Gerry and Eric previously volunteered to work on the board’s 2026 neighborhood grant application. Eric summarized recent changes that have been made to the grant program. A description of them is posted on the city’s website.
This year, the City has expanded grant eligibility to include opportunities for informal neighborhood groups to access neighborhood matching grant funds. In addition to the eligibility changes, this grant cycle has two funding timelines to better fit a wider variety of project types.
Recognized neighborhood associations (RNAs) may request between $500 and $5,000 for one or more projects. Informal neighborhood groups may request up to $600 for one project and must have a sponsoring RNA. Applications are due by March 9, 2026.
John summarized a list of projects that other neighborhoods have said they may do this year. They include: mailings to all residents in a neighborhood (to better reach renters), annual picnics, creating a zine about emergency preparedness, block parties, music on the porch fest, neighborhood walking maps, garden boxes, printing paper materials and toner for making copies of documents, radar guns and demonstrations to combat speeding, working with artists for the Joy Food Forest in Northeast Olympia and parties in the pocket park, partnering on a bigger Porch Fest music event, and repairing the mural and mosaic at the artesian well in downtown Olympia.
John also mentioned some of the grant projects the South Capitol neighborhood association has done in the past such as artwork along Capitol Way and annual picnics.
Lorie suggested mapping and labeling trees in the neighborhood – with possibly designing a walking tour. She also suggested using grant dollars to add community gardens or landscaping to the gravel parking lot at 23rd Ave and Washington St, but it was pointed out that others had had this idea some years ago and ran into obstacles.
Tyler suggested organizing fruit tree gleaning and also purchasing a cider press that could be used to press apples or other fruit from gleanings. Valerie suggested doing a progressive dinner or tea in the neighborhood.
Nora suggested spending less on the BBQ picnic and doing more mailings to publicize other things like community forums. Tyler agreed on the idea to cut back costs on the picnic and possibly have two smaller gatherings instead. Lorie suggested providing items for emergency kits.
Board members also discussed holding another annual neighborhood BBQ picnic since this has proven to be popular the past three years.
John said the board is required, per our bylaws, to notify all residents in the neighborhood about our annual meeting in June, and sending out a mailing (rather than delivering it by hand) reaches many more people in the neighborhood.
Nora moved to direct the grant application committee to prepare a matching grant application for three mailings and a BBQ picnic for 2026. The mailings will be invitations to the neighborhood association’s annual meeting in June (required by our bylaws), the BBQ picnic, and a community forum on a topic to be determined. As in recent years, the invitations will be delivered to all residences in the neighborhood to better reach renters as well as home and business owners.
Gordon seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.
The grant application committee will request $5,000 to cover the three mailings (about $900 each). The remainder will be used for the BBQ picnic to pay for food and the cost of using Lincoln Elementary’s playshed, gym and restrooms (about $650). The neighborhood association will contribute its half of the matching grant through volunteer hours and donations.
SCNA Annual Meeting and Election/Re-election of Board Members in June – John Saunders
John said that, at our annual meeting in June, the following board members terms will be up: Gerry Apple (VP), Morgan Montes (Treasurer), and At Large members Kevin Rutherford, Gordon White, Scott Freeman, Nora Hawkins, Kelley Dolan and Tim Davis.
These members should let John know if they would like to run for re-election to their current position or another open position.
The board will also need to decide on a date for the annual meeting (our bylaws only specify that it must be held in June). An invitation will be sent out to every resident in the South Capitol prior to the event.
Report on the Feb 9th Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Meeting – Sue Hedrick, Gerry Apple
Sue and Gerry briefly summarized their report in the interest of time. Peter Guttchen (Northeast neighborhood) was elected as the new chair of the CNA. Karen Sweeney (Eastside) is continuing in her role as vice-chair. Daniel Garcia (Downtown) was elected Communications Coordinator and Grace Fletcher (Southwest Olympia) was elected Programs and Events Coordinator at the January meeting.
Olympia Councilmember Clark Gilman mentioned two items that will be on the city’s workplan for this year – sidewalk improvements and home occupations/small scale commercial use of residences in neighborhoods.
Grace went over the responses to the Community Priorities Survey.
Neighborhood association representatives shared their ideas for projects using 2026 matching grants from the city. Daniel said they will do a follow-up presentation on the Jan 24th Community Priorities Forum at one of the Olympia city council meetings in March. He said he believes it will be the March 3rd meeting, but he’ll confirm this in the near future. He also said they would love a large turnout for the meeting, and encouraged residents to sign up for public comment in support of the ideas that came out of the forum.
Speaker at March 11, 2026 board meeting – John Saunders
John said that Port Commissioner Jasmine Vasavada will attend our March 11th board meeting to talk about the Port’s role in our community. John encouraged residents of the South Capitol neighborhood to attend. We will do a blog post and send out an email to the neighborhood distribution list about this prior to the meeting.
Motion to adjourn
Gordon moved to adjourn the meeting, Nora seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously. The meeting ended at 8:27 pm.
Next SCNA board meeting – Weds, March 11, 2026 6:30 pm, Lincoln Elementary School library
Written Reports
January 2026 Treasurer’s Report
Period: 1/01/25 – 1/31/26
Business Priming Savings $25.00
Innovator Checking Ending Balance $2,472.76
Innovator Checking Beginning Balance $2,607.99
Difference $(135.23)
Recent Income:
Grant Reimbursement $644.50
Total $644.50
Recent Expenses:
Google Suite $ 9.23
Check #1605 Olympia School District $644.50
Check #1604 U.S. Postal Service $126.00
Total $779.73
Difference $135.23
January Transactions:
We paid Olympia School District for the rental of the shed, gym, and janitorial services during the fall BBQ social. A grant reimbursement was submitted and received for the entire $644.50 expense.
We also renewed our postal box service for 2026 for $126.
Transactions in process:
Our annual Washington Secretary of State Corporate filing was completed on February 1st. A renewal fee of $20 was accepted along with our annual report.
South Capitol Neighborhood Association 