Horner Park Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes
Anne Rozmin, as president, called the meeting to order at 7:35p.m. Larry Brown acted as secretary for this meeting.
Previous Month’s Minutes: Alan Mueller moved to accept the minutes as presented. The motion was seconded by Elaine Taylor and was passed unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report: Elaine Taylor delivered the Treasurer’s report. The balances are as follows:
- Checking Account: $ 1435.50
- Savings Account: 1914.18
- Buffalo Park Mon. CD’s 2094.14
- Totals $ 5443.82
Announcements: An invitation was extended to all advisory council members to attend a tour of the new Millennium Park. The Lill Street Art Center will be holding their annual Holiday Show November 17th through December 31st. The Garfield Park Conservatory will be holding Chihuly In The Park: A Garden Of Glass, from November 23-May of 2002. This event features famed artist Dale Chihuly’s world renowned glass sculptures. This is a free and worthwhile event. A brief description of the Green Deeds Program was given. This great program provides memorial trees for any person or occasion. Along with an actual tree the recipients receive a dedication in the form of an official Green Deed. The $ 500.00 fee will soon being going up to $ 1,500.00 per tree.
Horner Park Advisory Council Business: The annual landscape maintenance budget will have a surplus balance of $ 500.00. This balance was accrued from July 2000-July 2001. With this surplus a new Linden tree will be purchased and planted near the Henry Horner Monument in front of the field house. After tallying up the total costs expended on the new Manor Park Wildlife Garden it was decided that Alan Mueller will request a $ 220.00 donation from the RMIA. It was noted that the Manor Garden Club had contributed $ 220.00 last month. Larry Hodak has volunteered to draw a preliminary plan for the proposed council ring at Buffalo Park. All HPAC newsletters have been distributed.
Garden Committee: Presented by Susie Novak. All gardens have been readied for winter. An a
additional 100 flower bulbs were planted in the four new round planters at Manor and Buffalo Parks.
Concert Committee: With the subsequent rescheduling of the Talent show, a well attended presentation of nine acts was held on Sunday November 4th at the Horner Park Field House. Thanks to the events producer, Alan Mueller, a total of $ 112.37 was raised for the American Red Cross in memory of the September 11 victims.
Park Briefs: Mark Hebert was in attendance representing the Horner Park Staff.
Horner Park: The graffiti around Horner Park was recently removed. Registration for the winter programs is scheduled for December 1st. Horner Park will be holding their 4th annual Turkey Bowl and 2nd annual Turkey Shoot for the Thanksgiving week. There is a Winter Concert being planned for the second or third week of December. This years Holiday Show will be held on December 7th.
Ravenswood Manor Park: The Ravenswood Manor Improvement Association (RMIA) will be providing holiday decorations in and around Manor Park.
Buffalo Park: A recent storm has blown down a Bradford pear tree. We will discuss this at a later time. Anne reported that she is still waiting for an arborist from Gethsemane Gardens to come out pronounce the Beech tree in Buffalo Park dead. Anne requested volunteers to help in the removal of the dead tree and planting of a new live specimen.
Horner Park Riverbank Initiative: Report was presented by Mike Emerson of VOA Associates. Presented were a series of three category boards of the river walk. The three categories reviewed were Grading – Landscaping – Site Furnishings and Photometric Plan. Each of these had their own design board which visually enhanced the scope of project. This presentation has narrowed down, the different elements of this project, to what the final project will look like. The Army Corp. of Engineers has given us some new guidelines to increase the prism of the riverbank, which creates more cutbacks into the bank than originally planned. This will allow for additional aquatic plants at the rivers edge and increase the oxygen level in the river. This also will allow for more marsh and possible fen areas to be increased to enhance the water filtration aspect of the project. An alternative to pole lighting was introduced that would be more ecologically sensitive to the flora and fauna. A guide wire system, similar to the in-home track lighting, was shown. All of these design boards will be available for public viewing at the Horner Park Field House. There has been no progress reported from any of the governmental agencies reviewing the HPRI. A request by Larry Hodak, as to what can be done before the project commences, was answered by Jamie Clark of VOA. He suggested wrapping any vulnerable tree trunks in fencing to protect them from beaver damage.
Adjournment: Anne Rozmin thanked all those in attendance and the meeting was adjourned at 9:00p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Larry Brown
Roster of those in attendance: Anne Rozmin, President; Larry Hodak; Elaine Taylor, Treasurer; Jake Peters; Larry Brown, Co-Secretary (on duty); Mike Emerson; Jerry Geise, Co-Secretary (off duty); Anne Sylvan; Susie Novak; Mike Loganbill (VOA); John O’Connell; Jamie Clark (VOA); Alan Mueller; Dan York (VOA); Mark Hebert (Horner Park Staff).
