May Meeting Minutes

Bemis Park Neighborhood Monthly Meeting

                                        May 14 2024 at 6:30 pm at Augustana Church

Meeting called to order by President Joe Pittack at 6:40 pm. 15 people were in attendance.

 Tonight’s Speaker

    Matt Kalevich, City of Omaha City Park’s Director spoke to the group this night about the City’s Comprehensive Plan, different projects within the city, took questions about the neighborhood wanting to turn part of the tennis court into a pickle ball court, the Walnut Hill reservoir and the city’s program to identify sick trees.

 About the Comprehensive Plan Matt is involved and will assist with the outreach to the neighborhoods though a date was not stated.

 Projects going on are in Tranquility Park for the soccer and ball fields. The budget is $54 million for Tranquility. Levi Carter Park, $45 million is budgeted there for an indoor facility. For the eleven other projects, $12 million has been set aside. 

 For the Pickle ball court at Bemis the city has no plans as of now though he responded to a question about a private/public partnership to bring this about. There are a couple of neighbors who will donate money to the project and Matt is aware of the this adding that this is not impossible but keeping him in the loop and “talking to us” (the City) is important as communication between the parties is important.

 The situation with the Reservoir is on the “cities radar” and he took questions about development once the land is available for development. 

 The City has an arborist who will respond to calls that identify sick trees for removal. 

ReTree in Bemis Park

 Tress will be planted in Bemis Park soon. Volunteers are needed to plant between 7 to 10 trees but the date and time is yet to be set. Mary Minturn will be the point of contact on the project. Once she knows of the date and time she will inform Joe who will send out an email asking for volunteers.

 Submitted by,

 Dave Brown, Secretary for Bemis Park Neighborhood Association