Our Guest Speaker at this meeting was Wiley Jones, Resident Engineer with DOT, and project manager on the Glenwood bridge replacement project. He provided an informative update on the work plans and project timeline for the bridge replacement. Key points include:

• Due to the historic area designation, special provisions have been made for the design of the bridge. Specifically in terms of rail detail and stone on the new retaining walls, which will match the stone on the old Masonic Temple.
  
  
• There are lane changes upcoming in the very near future, the first of which will direct all traffic onto the northbound lanes of Glenwood Avenue, with one lane in each direction.
  
• Nash Street is being widened to 2 lanes for merging onto northbound Glenwood. This is to keep traffic from backing up onto Wade
• A temporary traffic light will be installed at the junction of Nash and northbound Glenwood to allow alternate traffic progression from Nash onto Glenwood.
  
• Targeting end of February to complete the widening of Nash, with work taking place on weekends.
• Once the lane change is complete directing all traffic onto the current northbound lanes of Glenwood, the west side of the bridge will be closed, and the bridge cut in half. The west side of the bridge will be removed, and then the new half of the bridge constructed.
  
• When the west side of the bridge is completed, the traffic will be directed onto the new half, and then the east side of the bridge will be removed and reconstructed.
  

Overall key points:

• Speed limit has been reduced to 25 mph and will remain at 25 mph until the end of the project
  
• Project timeline is 480 days
  
• There will be no on-street parking on Glenwood from Cole Street to approximately Harvey Street during the project
  
• A traffic light will be installed at Glenwood and Cole Street within approximately the next 3-4 weeks
  
• The ramp off of westbound Wade onto Southbound Glenwood will be closed for the duration of the project. Alternate routes/detours will be marked for southbound Glenwood traffic off of westbound Wade.
  
• Pedestrian traffic access will remain open during construction.
  
• You may direct questions or concerns to the e-mail address noted on our HGBNA website.

After Wiley's presentation we had our business meeting. The first order of business was a discussion on the Vision and Mission statements for the Historic Glenwood-Brooklyn Neighborhood Association.

The "story" of the neighborhood that Chris Ernst wrote was distributed to everyone in attendance. Everyone was asked to read the story, review the map of the historic neighborhoods in Raleigh, which shows that Glenwood-Brooklyn lies at the center of the "circle" of the neighborhoods, and then write down their thoughts on three questions:

1. What do we have in common with these neighborhoods (Oakwood, Boylan Heights, Cameron Park, Hayes Barton, Five Points, Mordecai)? How are we unique?

2. What are your highest aspirations of what our neighborhood can become?

3. What is the purpose of the Association in bringing about these aspirations.

Attendees took about 10 minutes to jot down their thoughts on these questions, which were then collected to be reviewed by a sub-committee to develop a final draft of the Mission and Vision statements to vote on at our March meeting. Marcea Barringer volunteered to chair this sub-committee, with the help of committe members Mary Ann Turner, Jan Johnston, and Elizabeth Stephenson.

The next order of business was a discussion of the purpose of our monthly meetings. Discussion revolved around the question of whether the meetings as currently designed are really trying to meet conflicting purposes: attracting more people vs. getting things done?

A suggestion was made that we divide monthly "meetings" into Social vs. Business purposes. In conjunction with this, an attempt to attract neighbors who have a desire to be more involved would take place with personal invitations, etc., and a push to link people with committees that they may have interest in. The March meeting will be a hybrid of social and business, as a wine & cheese social and voting on the Mission and Vision statements, as we move to the separation of social and business meetings.

Finally, we discussed the Spring Block Party. The Block Party had been tentatively planned for April 19th, but as this is Easter weekend, it will be moved to a later date. We talked about possibly combining the Block Party with the June Fundraiser event. We ran out of time before fully flushing out details on this idea, so stay tuned to the website and e-mails for additional information about the Block Party.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 5th - Wine & Cheese Party. Location TBD.