October 2017 Meeting Minutes

Horner Park Advisory Council
Monthly Meeting
Monday, Oct. 2, 2017 – 7:00 p.m.
Horner Park Fieldhouse

Attendees

• John Friedmann, Vice President
• Kevin Anderson
• Amy Jahnke, Secretary
• Stacey Anti, Chicago Park District Area Manager
• John O’Connell
• John Friedmann
• Daniel Honigman
• Deb Groh, Park Supervisor
• Jennifer Thornton, PEAP
• Diane Sutliff, Treasurer
• Cynthia Fox
• Erica Beutler
• Fawn Pochel, American Indian Center

Meeting called to order 7:08 pm

Approval of the Minutes – Sept. 2017: Minutes approved

Reports

• Treasurer’s Report (see attached)
  • Sales tax exemption; still under discussion; finance sub-committee will discuss offline.

• Farmer’s Market
  • Two markets remain; last market is October 14.
  • Market has been going well

• Dog Friendly Area
  • $280 raised at Sit Social fundraiser
  • ~$4500 raised at online auction
  • STAY Dog Hotel hosting fundraising event October 28 from 10-12; need volunteers and attendees
  • Did not get North Center grant
  • Report on meeting w/ 33^rd Ward & CPD: John F. had informal discussion with Pat Lavar about the DFA and what happened in Osterman’s ward. Pat seemed willing to negotiate to complete the dog park and tennis court if ward provided a certain amount of funds; he was going to talk to Deb Mell about this. John and Erica met with Deb Mell and Jason Hernandez about this; talks are still in the works. The issue is how much money is needed. Deb Mell has asked everyone to be patient.
  • Current project, per specs, would be about $300,000 with canine grass
  • Discussion regarding the historical funding of dog parks and how they had different sources of funding that are not available to Horner Park DFA. Perhaps developers could be incentivized to give to the DFA?
  • State budget impasse has impacted overall park funding

• Nominating Committee
  • Introducing Cynthia Fox; we need to check bylaws regarding voting privileges; John O. has nominated her for co-secretary position. Cynthia is elected Co-Secretary.

Park Briefs

• Horner Park
  • Art Room air conditioning: waiting on the debit card to order these
  • Tennis courts: Discussion of funding in DFA area; hoping that this can be bundled.
  • Walking Museum / Horner Ring concept (see link below) – Fawn Pochel.
    • History of the project and its funding; the project is projected to go through 7 neighborhoods and 5 wards. Have aldermanic support, looking for community support.
    • Two native prairie gardens and two art installations are being proposed, one in Horner Park. Educational initiative and encouraging tourism
    • CPD and Cook County Forest Preserve have letters of support
    • They’re working on advisory council outreach
    • Concern about plans taking up Army Corps project space that would need to be paid back, and how this recently done area shouldn’t be touched.
    • Discussion of project aspects that may touch Horner Park
    • Invitation to have HPAC member at a steering meeting this November, date TBD. Fawn to send email with that date and will come as often as possible to HPAC group.
    • Discussion of American Indian Center, which has moved to Kimball/Ainslie in Albany Park.
  • Turkey Trot
    • November 18, 9:30am. Deb doesn’t need help from HPAC the day of the event, as she has volunteers lined up. Deb requests turkeys and pies from HPAC. Asking for a max of $300. Motion passes to give the money for this event. Hoping for 300 people.
• Ravenswood Manor Park
  • Grass: seeding is scheduled to occur this fall (along with Farmers Market area)
  • Planter is going to be moved once machine is fixed
• Jacob Playlot
  • No report
• Sunken Garden
  • No report
• Buffalo Park
  • Deb spoke with them about moving the planter; the machine they’d use to move it is in the shop.

• Concert Committee
  • All but one payment has been collected
  • 70 household subscribers, 83 paid ads: $14,784 revenue on $14,000 budget
  • Committee meeting in November

• Website Committee
  • Kevin has access to account and has started setting up transition to Google Email; need to coordinate with everyone who has email
  • New shot of Jacob Park to be added to the site

• Stewardship Committee
  • Online discussions with people who have expressed interest in getting involved in stewardship at Horner Park
  • John has been trying to water planters/trees at Buffalo and Ravenswood Manor
  • Discussion of funds for planters next spring
  • Deb: maybe having a Mother’s day event? Friends of the River has one, maybe something can be done in other parks.
  • Would like to revisit the fenced area outside of the fieldhouse. For discussion next time.

·      New Business

• Gift for Hanna Morfogen – yoga instructor. Move to give both Hanna and Jennifer Visa gift cards of $100 and $50 respectively.
• 33^rd Ward TAC committee –Dan and Jennifer reported that the committee is asking for a blitz of the 33^rd ward; asking every group to start calling 311 or using app to report potholes, crosswalks that need to be repainted, damaged ADA ramps, etc.
• Discussion about the art community in the area; is there an opportunity to host an art event at the fieldhouse? There’s a meeting tomorrow, 7pm at NRC offices (Lawrence and Kimball) for how to bring more art to these communities. Amy and Diane to try and attend.
• Takeaways from Budget Hearing:
  • Tree Walk with Open Lands in November, date TBD
  • TreeKeepers asking to host their meeting next fall
  • Surprise visit from Mayor a couple weeks ago to see how the restoration is going; it showed very well. Nice that it’s on the Mayor’s radar. Sept. 1, 2018; maybe there will be a ribbon-cutting event for this? Maybe there could be a push for programming for kids along the river, promoting recreational activities and river safety. Mike Kelly liked this idea a lot, is contacting Friends of the River to see what the possibilities are. Horner may be a pilot program for this?

• Announcements
  • Volunteer Appreciation Day – Oct. 7 – Northerly Island, 11am-2pm. Boat rides, bouncy houses, fun stuff. Request to register. Free parking, food.
  • North Region Park Advisory Council Roundtable – Oct. 25 – Horner Park (6:30-9:30). Dinner will be provided.

·      Attachments

• Minutes from Sept. 2017 Monthly Meeting (under separate cover)
• https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170920/portage-park/portage-walking-museum-perkins-will-portage-park-neighborhood-association-chicago-architecture-biennial

Meeting adjourned 8:37pm

Next Monthly Meeting

Nov. 6 @ 7:00 pm – Horner Park Fieldhouse