Horner Park Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes
Larry Brown, as President, presiding, called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Kevin Anderson acted as Secretary for this meeting. Introductions were made.
Previous Minutes: The minutes of the February 5, 2007 meeting were distributed and approved.
Treasurer’s Report: John Lyman, acting as Treasurer, presented the on-line bank statement from Chase showing a current balance of $1,691.89 in checking and $27,313.69 in savings. He also brought provisional versions of both a Balance Sheet and a Profit & Loss generated by QuickBooks for last year, and noted that the amounts match. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing funds balance remains at $664. How this should be categorized remains to be determined. The conversion to QuickBooks is 90% done, but remains a work in progress. John Lyman is ready to hand this over to a new treasurer. John Lyman’s research uncovered that the IRS for 990 is required when the average exceeds $25,000, so we do not have to file for now. Susie Novak received her 1099, and has signed-on to her QuickBooks Online account.
Announcements: John O’Connell announced the Ground Up Theatre’s 365 Fest is coming to the Horner Park banquet hall on March 17 at 2pm, with any donations from passing the hat going to HPAC. The 4th annual Egg Hunt for Dogs will be held on Saturday April 7. A Battle of the Bands sponsored by the School of Rock will take place in the big gym on April 14. Kitty accepted the offer of a School of Rock outdoor event featuring some of their talent to be held this summer, but details are not available. Horner Park will host a movie to-be-determined on Saturday night, July 21. The scheduled concert events for that weekend will flip-flop, so the July 22 concert will be at Horner Park and the July 29 concert with be in Manor Park. Michael Holm will explore the possibility of presenting 30-minute Midwest Film Fest program before the feature movie. Earth Day Clean Up events will take place in both Manor Park and Horner Park on Saturday April 21 in conjunction with Friends of the Parks. River Day clean-up is still set for Saturday May 12.
Concert Committee: John O’Connell reported that the fundraising letters are ready to go out and will be divided among HPAC members to distribute. A Basecamp project for the Concert Committee has been setup. John O’Connell will coordinate porta-potty scheduling with Tom via email.
Garden Committee: Susie submitted an application for work and is waiting to hear back from the Park District; she expects approval. There is no need for cleanup day Horner Park’s fieldhouse front garden this year. Susie is working on a GreenNet grant with John O’Connell. Dean volunteered to help recruit youth volunteers for the River Day clean-up.
Web Site: The file uploading has been fixed. Some kind of private storage will be needed for internal business documents like forms. Basecamp might a suitable service to use for this.
Volunteer Committee: Michael Holm will resend to Larry and Kevin the recruitment flyer he came up with to be distributed to the school service learning coordinators.
Flagpole: Kevin outlined some options available for the flagpole and memorial. Kitty will pursue the requirements and options for Park District involvement.
Park Briefs:
Horner Park: Most of the on-going programs are filled. Tom is pleased with the new bitty basketball program and the job Mike is doing with it. Tennis lessons and a summer league are coming. Tom said the ballfield renovation work will resume as soon as the weather permits it. The light towers are on the ground and ready to go. He reassured that they will be on only for game nights, and they will be switched off at 10pm. Planning is underway for a dedication event to be held after the weather turns nice, rather than on the May 12 opening day. Kitty has talked to Chris Gent about the plans for the current comfort station. John Lyman wants to hand-walk it through to assure a satisfactory result, and is already helping them with the accounting. Issues about air horn noise litter and parking lot flooding problems were discussed. The flooding has been long-standing problem and was attributed to sloping that allows water from the fields to drain into the parking lot. Kitty touched on the Irving Park underbridge connector. The idea of adding new comfort station on the eastern side of the park was raised – Larry would like to see it be the “greenest” in the Park District. Kitty mentioned one park already has a “green” comfort station.
Jacob Park: There has been no change in the status of the adjacent parcel of land that the CTA has been using staging their station renovations.
Buffalo Park: John O’Connell is working with Mike Emerson on plans. The Park District wants to see that funding is in place before reviewing and approving any plans.
Ravenswood Manor Park: John O’Connell and Susie will work on no-cost twig fencing options for the native garden in Manor Park. Susie is looking for prickly plants. Larry Brown would like to see progress on this project soon. Paschen Construction is open to making a donation and would like some kind of proposal. Kitty will work on getting a price for three benches and pads. Larry and John O’Connell would like to see the kiosk relocated to closer to the point.
Old Business: None.
New Business: None
No other business, the meeting adjourned at 8:48 PM.
The next meeting will be at Horner Park fieldhouse on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 PM. The one-day deferment for the traditional meeting date was made to better accommodate the board members’ schedules.
Respectfully submitted: Kevin Anderson
Roster of those in Attendance: Larry Brown, President, John Lyman, Vice President, John O’Connell, Co-Secretary, Kevin Anderson, Co-Secretary, Kitty C. Gale, Dean Hansen, Michael Holm, Tom McManamon, Alan Mueller, Peter Schlossman, Julie Peterson, Susie Novak
