Horner Park Advisory Council
Minutes
January 15, 2015
Meeting called to order 7:11pm
Reports
Treasurer’s Report
Checking $17,428.31
Saving $14,877.93
PayPal $5,450.99
Total $37,757.23
Signatories to set up MB Financial app to deposit checks if possible. Kevin setting up committees in PayPal to simplify bookkeeping.
Dog Friendly Area
Progress report: nothing new has come up. They got a check from Midnight Circus for $4200. Tom had $7,500 in his notes; Tom and Erica will follow up with this. The DFA committee ran a campaign for the last 2 weeks of December, and made some money on that. Rough total is $50k so far.
Concert Committee
– Request for a movie to Tom.
– Tentative schedule is in place. Friday July 10 (other choices are Saturday July 11) – Band and movie at Horner? Tom will ask Deb Mell to sponsor the Horner movie and concert for that night.
– June: Old Town School sponsorship possibility?
– Mini-Manor bash (Sat. June 27th) 4-9pm. Working with RMIA to do this. Need insurance for this ($100 total last year).
– John O. likes to have concerts all on Fridays.
– Working on marketing materials (meeting next Thursday January 15th).
– Checkbox for “send me electronic communication” when people sign up
Park Briefs
Horner Park
Riverfront Restoration Progress
– Still planting plugs until a week ago, now ground is frozen. Tom to reach out to Carlos regarding security of the gated area on the south side of the field.
– Under-bridge connector: waiting on getting funding. Original designs were done before riverbank initiative, they need to be changed. Bob Foster is aware of this. HPAC will be part of the discussion when this initiative moves forward.
– They are posting for Mike’s position. This usually takes 6-8 weeks to hire. Most of his classes have been cancelled except kids’ soccer.
– Once elections are over, they will have another meeting for the baseball portable batting cages. $7,200/cage, $28,500 for everything (4 cages, extra screen, etc.). We will revisit at the March meeting.
– Valentine’s Day Dance: Friday, Feburary 13th. Families come out to this (preschool to 8-9year olds). Horner Park Jazz band plays. $5-10/couple. It’s in the small gym. HPAC will donate $150 to this event. Amy to post this on the website.
– If Friends of the Parks doesn’t have an earth day celebration, maybe Horner could have their own event.
– General update on park programming from Tom. Open Basketball on Monday nights: 6:30, 7:20, 8pm. Free for 5th and 6th graders. Sponsored by the Mustangs (local traveling basketball program). It’s filled now, but will be continued into the spring.
– Exercise room: now funded for 2015, we’re on the list to get started. No date yet. Funding covers mats, electrical outlets.
– Feeding the squirrels issue: can we put signs up? Tom: park doesn’t want signs put up.
– Tennis court lights timing: they’re often on late. They should be off at 7:30.
– Missing backboard; hoop is there. “Looks like a toilet in the sky.” This will go up in the spring.
– Park bench by bus stop was fixed.
– John: Is there a need for a playlot on the south end of Horner? General consensus is no. Table for a couple more years. California is probably going to be redone as part of Chicago Plays, so there won’t be a need.
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Farmer’s Market
– Dates are selected; June 6 – Oct. 3. 18 full markets. 4th of July is tricky; the park isn’t open that day, so staffing is going to be an issue.
– Vendors and patrons want to start the market even earlier, at 8:30am. This means the park needs to be open at 7:45am. Can the park open earlier to accommodate this? This depends on staffing. Tom will see if it’s possible and will work with us. Vendor applications will say 9-1; marketing to the general public may say 8:30am.
– Application has been sent in to the park district.
– Breast cancer walk is the end of May and won’t conflict
Ravenswood Manor Park
– Lights out. Tom: this was fixed, he’s going to look into this.
– Ash tree: not much can be done until the weather breaks.
– Playground Equipment. They most likely won’t hear until the spring. The design chosen by the public was the one chosen to implement. Brooks Park is complete; Tom thinks it looks terrific.
Jacob Playlot
Park Expansion Progress:
Cottonwood tree was chopped down. They had looked to see what trees could be saved and what ones couldn’t. That big cottonwood had a completely hollow back. The tree expert determined that it would come down one way or another, and if it came down on its own, it wouldn’t be where we want it. There should have been information given, but they made a determination. HPAC wasn’t informed about the plans for the project – we had one rough blueprint design. Just do an update to this project. AJ to send Tom an email asking to get an update by January 7, 2015 – and post an update on the website.
Sunken Garden: No report
Buffalo Park: No report
Stewardship Committee
– Sunken and Jacob might do something for river cleaning, HPAC would like to do something for Earth Day. Target date is April 18th (or some time around April)
– Always looking for help in tending gardens, etc.
Website Committee
Article about the river project was posted.
New Business
Announcements
– Date for Valentine’s Day Dance (Friday, Feb. 13th)
– 33rd Ward Aldermanic Forum
– June 6th, first farmer’s market
Meeting adjourned 8:41pm.
Attendance:
Schlo9ssman – President, John Friedman – Vice President, Kevin Anderson – Treasurer, Amy Jahnke – Co-Secretary, Tom McManamon – Park Supervisor, John O’Connell – Chair, Concert Committee, Erica Beutler – Chair, DFA, Gretchen Helmreich – Chair, Farmer’s Market. Larry Hodak – Neighbor, Carol Maher – Neighbor.
