Fall Mixer ­ 10/26 2015

The Cherryhill Neighborhood Fall Mixer was held Oct 26, 2015. The agenda:

7:00 ​Welcome
7:05 ​Holiday Pot Luck
7:30 ​Introductions – Derek Wagner
7:40 ​Disaster B.I.N.G.O. ­ Cindy Spencer / Joann Rieke
7:55 ​Cherryhill Neighborhood Grant ­ K. Besser/K. Welch
8:15 ​Elections for 2016 Cherryhill Neighborhood BoD
8:30 ​Wrap up

We had a nice selection of pot luck plates and goodies before the start of the meeting, including pumpkin mochi and Halloween inspired cupcakes ­ yum.

Derek kicked off the main agenda with an introduction of our Board of Directors and Members-at-Large. Sunil Priyadarshi was announced as a new Member-at-Large.

We had several members of the Sunnyvale City Council in attendance, including Mayor Jim Griffith, Councilmember Gustav Larsson, and Councilmember Glenn Hendricks. We are very pleased to welcome them to our meeting.

Disaster BINGO: Following the Welcome and Introductions, Joann Reike took us through a fun and informative game of Disaster BINGO. Joann and Cindy Spencer head up our SNAP Committee.

There were several winners! The prizes Joann handed out included gloves, tarp, flashlights, glow sticks, whistle, bottled water, etc. All of these items should be in our home disaster kits!

Joann indicated the next Cherryhill PEP class is scheduled for 2/13/2016 (a Saturday) from 2:00-4:30pm in the De Anza Park building. The class covers what you and your family can and should do to prepare for a disaster.

Sunnyvale PEP classes are offered on the first Sunday of each month at the police station, across from the library.

The next Sunnyvale SNAP class starts up on January 14th (a Thursday) and finishes at the end of February. If you are interested, visit the city website for details. Joann will send information to the association about this next SNAP class. At the last SNAP class we had 5 (!) residents from the Cherryhill Neighborhood attending!

SNAP2 is the third part of Sunnyvale’s emergency preparation program. The goal of SNAP2 is to bring the knowledge learned in the classroom back into the neighborhood. SNAP2 is usually led by a SNAP graduate.

Neighborhood Grant: Kathy Besser (with Kyle Welch) provided an update on our Cherryhill Neighborhood Grant. Our team (Kyle Welch, Kim Parnell, and Kathy Besser) applied for and received a Sunnyvale grant for the full amount offered, $1000! Our application was titled: “Water Conservation Works!”

This year’s project is focussed on a topic that neighbors, when polled via our Yahoo Group, felt should have the highest priority – water conservation. A grant application was submitted to the city last May centered around this theme. A copy of the Cherryhill Neighborhood Grant presentation is included below:

Thank you very much for considering our request and we hope to be overwhelmed with entries!

Elections: Following the grant discussion, Wayne Amacher kicked off a session to elect members to the 2016 Cherryhill Neighborhood Association Board of Directors. The elected positions are: Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, and Treasurer. The current slate of Officers and Members-at Large is:

Derek Wagner​, Chairperson
Doris Tan​, Vice Chairperson
Kyle Welch​, Secretary
Jim Sturtevant​, Treasurer
Wayne Amacher​, Webmaster and 1st Past Chairperson
Kathryn Besser​, (ex officio ) Newsletter Editor
Jennifer Lung​, Member at Large
Kim Parnell​, Member at Large
Hendrick Lee​, Member at Large
Sunil Priyadarshi​, Member at Large
Sabrina Kahn, Member-at-Large

Sabrina Kahn volunteered at the meeting and was appointed as a new Member-at-Large. Congratulations Sabrina!

Election results: (No changes) Congratulations to all winners and thank you for your service to the neighborhood!

Chairperson — Derek Wagner
Vice Chairperson — Doris Tan
Secretary — Kyle Welch
Treasurer — Jim Sturtevant

Want to be more active? Following the elections Derek pointed out special ways neighbors can be active in the neighborhood association by joining the board as Members-at-Large and/or by forming/joining committees.

Members-at-Large: This is important! We will be happy to add Members-at-Large at any time. Feel free to volunteer yourself or others. Members-at-Large are voting members of the board and contribute to activities and to their planning. This is a good way to get active in our association without without committing to an officer position. Anyone who would like to participate actively is welcome to volunteer as a Member-at-Large. Contact any board member. Curent Members-at-Large are:

Jennifer Lung​
Kim Parnell​
Hendrick Lee​
Sunil Priyadarshi​
Sabrina Kahn

Committees: Committees can be formed by anyone with the approval of the board. You are welcome to form a committee and get involved. You can also contact existing committee chairs to join in with them and get involved. Current Committees are:

SNAP Committee, Joann Rieke and Cindy Spencer
Traffic Calming Committee, Peter Bodsky (position to be open soon)
Steven Creek Trail Committee, Meghan Stawitcke
Dumpster Day Committee, Virginia Shea
I-85 Ramp Cleanup Committee, soon to be open
Welcome Committee, Minoti Merchant

Update on the Cherryhill Neighborhood Welcome Bag​ program. We have a new administrator ­ Minoti Merchant from Syracuse Drive. If you have a new neighbor on your street, the association would like to welcome them to the neighborhood with a resuable Cherryhill Neighborhood bag filled with information about life in Sunnyvale, the neighborhood association, recommended service providers, coupons, etc. Please reach out to Minoti if you have a new neighbor who should receive a welcome bag. These bags can be dropped off by you (the neighbor), a Block Rep, a member of the Board of Directors or Minoti. If you have ideas or suggestions (or content) to include in the bags, or other questions about the program, please send email to Kyle Welch: kyle_welch@comcast.net or Minoti Merchant: mmerchant@apr.com

There was a request to have the city look into removing the excessive amount of weeds and overgrowth on the HWY 85 off­ramps to Fremont Ave. Sabrina Kahn took the action to contact the city to see what can be done to address the concern.

Holiday Walkabout Our next neighborhood event will be the Holiday Walkabout on Sunday December 13th.​

2015-03-16 Spring Mixer

The Cherry Hill Neighborhood Association Spring Mixer was a held at the De Anza Park Building on Monday, March 16, 2015 at 7PM. Board Members and Officers present were Derek Wagner, Doris Tan, Kathy Besser. Absent Board Members, Officers and Members at Large were Kyle Welch, Wayne Amacher, Hendrick Lee, Kim Parnell and Jennifer Lung.

The event was a huge success! A healthy number of people attended, 35-40, many of them new faces and some who haven’t visited in years. There was plenty of food, and many green treats to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Derek welcomed the group, and introduced City Officials, Mayor Jim Griffith, Vice Mayor Jim Davis, and Council Member Gustav Larsson.

Dale Tibilis of Zanotto’s spoke about the opening of their store on April 10th. Everyone was very happy to see the vacant building revived, and Zanotto’s is excited about being part of the neighborhood as well. Dale gave an overview of the freshness, quality and care that Zanotto’s puts into their product, and we are looking forward to all of the good food that will soon be on our tables and neighborhood meetings! Zannottos.com, Hours are M-F 8-9PM, Sat/Sun 8:30-8PM

Gene Ganzalo, Captain Program Manager of VT spoke about the SR-85 Express Lane project. He gave a good snapshot of what is being planned for the highway development, and how it works. It was a lively discussion as neighbors can see the pluses and minuses of express lanes in our area. The purpose is to relieve congestion by allowing all drivers to use all lanes (single drivers will have to pay), but currently the 85 expressway stretch near our neighborhood will not be directly accessible .You would have to drive a bit before you can get on. Direct impact our community is that if you a car that can normally use the carpool lane today, if this design stays as is, then you will no longer be able to enter the express lane at Fremont. More planning is being done to make this manageable. The express lane project will probably not be finished for another 3-5 years. Residents will have an opportunity to share concerns again during the design phase of the project (dates were still TBD)

Kathy Besser summarized the Prepare and Be Aware project. Each home in our association received a Prepare and Be Aware flyer, CNA Newsletter, gallon of water (purchased at complimentary low rates from Zanotto), and keychain flashlight with the Cherryhill Prepare and Be Aware theme. Volunteers from the neighborhood helped deliver to 524 homes. The project was written up in the Sunnyvale Sun, and online Mercury News Article. Thank you Kathy and Kyle for working on this great idea, and especially to Kathy for doing the art work, and getting everything completed. As Kathy mentioned, this is something that hasn’t been done by any neighborhood groups in the area, and it was well received by everyone!

Jim Sturtevant talked about the Adopt a Highway Intersection Cleaning that was done on Saturday, March 14th. Peter Bodsky, Julie Bodsky, Rachel Bodsky, Jim Sturtevant and Doris Tan cleaned the litter on the 4 exit/entrance ramps on Hwy 85 in Sunnyvale for 1.5 hours. Three bags of debris and other large parts of cars (bumpers, tire treads) were collected. A Cherryhill Neighborhood Sign is on the northbound ramp coming into Sunnyvale, and a Memorial Sign for Peter Bodsky’s father is on another ramp. It was a great way to give back to the community, and there will be more clean up opportunities during the year.
Cherryhill PEP Class

We held our second successful PEP (Personal Emergency Preparedness) class for Cherryhill neighbors last weekend on July 19th. There were 18 attendees, which was a good class size. Combined with our first PEP class in January, 41 neighbors have now taken the class. If you were one of the attendees, thank you for taking time out of your weekend, and we hope you are already putting some of the suggestions into use. (Storing water is the most important thing!!!)

We will have a SNAP informational table at National Night Out at De Anza Park on August 5th. We hope to see you there, and we hope you will take a moment to participate in a brief survey about what your interests are related to emergency preparedness, and when future PEP classes should be given. These programs are for you, and your input is greatly appreciated! See you August 5th.

Joann Rieke,
Cindy Spencer,
CNA SNAP Committee/Liaisons Joann and Cindy
2010-09-11 Harvest Walkabout

The Harvest Walkabout, held 11 September 2010 was a resounding success! There was even an article in the 17 September 2010 Sunnyvale SUN about the event (Since removed from their website). A longer report and dexcription is at 2010-09-11 Harvest Walkabout.
2010-03-01 General Meeting

We held a general meeting 1 March 2010 in the De Anza Park Building. The meeting was highlighted by a presentation by Doug Moretto, Captain, Special Operations, Sunnyvale Public Safety. He spoke about youth at risk and gangs in Sunnyvale. Yes, there are gangs in Sunnyvale! What is being done about it? The Sunnyvale Challenge Team has been formed to redirect and mentor youth at risk. For those of you who missed the meeting, and by popular request, Here is the meeting presentation including Doug Moretto’s slides .

An anonymous tip site has been set up where you can report gang and other suspicious activity.

2009-12-13 Holiday Walkabout

The walkabout was a resounding success! It started at Westmoor Shopping Center, proceeded along Mandarin Drive, Yorktown, Valley Forge, Lime, Ticonderoga, Elderberry, Syracuse, Cranberry, and Rockefeller. Some of us walked all the way; others joined in and walked part of the way. There were seven stations set up along the way with with refreshments ranging from cake and cookies to mulled wine! About 100 neighbors joined in at one time or another. There were about 80 neighbors at the final stop at Crandano Court off Rockefeller.

2009-09 General Meeting

Our 2009 September Meeting A presentation on the Sunnyvale Neighborhood Preservation Program was made by Steve Frias of the City of Sunnyvale. We approved a change to the bylaws to define the Board of Officers. The Board of Officers now consists of the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary, First Past Chairperson, Second Past Chairperson, and Member at Large. Candidates for Sunnyvale City Council were invited. Two attended: Pat Meyering and Penny M. Kelly. They made short presentations and we discussed issues with them after the meeting. We elected new officers who begin their terms on January 1, 2010. The new officers are:

Chairperson: Wayne Amacher
Vice Chairperson: Kyle Welch
Treasurer: Jim Sturtevant
Secretary: Doris Tan
Member at Large: Amy McFarland

2009-08-04 Second Annual National Night Out (NNO)

Our Second National Night Out™ celebration was held 4 August 2009 at De Anza Park. Neighbors joined forces with thousands of communities nationwide for the 26th annual National Night Out™ crime and drug prevention event. At the event we met city officials, Council Members, our City Manager, and police and fire officers. We got to see and hear about the new Sunnyvale armored search and rescue vehicle which is essentially immune to bombs.

2009-06-13 Second Annual Cherryhill Neighborhood Association Block Party

Our Second annual Cherryhill Neighborhood Association Block Party was held on 13 June 2009. We had over 100 attendees and everyone had a good time.

2009-03-27 General Meeting

Our 2009 Spring Meeting was held on 27 April 2009, at De Anza Park. At the meeting we met our new Sunnyvale City Manager, Gary Luebbers; recieved an update on the Stevens Creek Trail from Garth Williams; and discussed traffic control in our neighborhood with Officer Jim Davis.

2009-08-29 Neighborhood Watch Meeting

A was held Friday, 29 August 2008, at the DeAnza Park Bldg. We were given a presentation on SNAP (Sunnyvale Neighborhoods Actively Prepare) by Lt. John Gienger. SNAP is a unique residential emergency preparedness program presented by the Sunnyvale Office of Emergency Services. SNAP assists- you, your family, and your neighborhood – to function independently of outside services for the first 72 hours following a disaster. Our July 2008 Newsletter contains a report.

2008-08-05 2008 First Annual National Night Out™ (NNO)

Our 2008 National Night Out™ Potluck Party was held at De Anza Park on 5 August 2008. The event is designed to assist neighborhoods in crime and drug prevention. Our August Newsletter contains a report and pictures. Click on “Newsletters” for more details.

2008-06-38 Organizational Meeting

An Organizational Meeting to get our neighborhood association started was held 28 June 2008. A report including photos is included in the July 2008 Newsletter. Click on “Newsletters” for more details.

2008-06 We Became Official

Approximately June 2008 we filed the paper work and became an official Sunnyvale Neighborhood Association.