Horner Park Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes
Anne Rozmin, as president, called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m. Larry Brown acted as secretary for this meeting.
Previous Minutes: Alan Mueller moved to accept the August minutes with minor changes. The motion was seconded by Larry Hodak and was passed.
Treasurer’s Report: Elaine Taylor delivered the Treasurer’s report. The balances are as follows:
- Checking Account: 2,159.40
- Savings Account: 1,921.75
- Buffalo Park Mon. CD’s 2,204.63
- Totals $ 6,285.78
The CD’s will not be renewed to free up funds for the completion of the Buffalo Park Council Ring. Elaine reported that there was an additional $ 238.21 raised through cash donations at Manorbash.
Announcements: Horner Park’s Fall classes will begin the week of September 23, 2002. The CPD Fall Schedule was passed out. Dog Friendly Areas, a CPD guide on to how establish a dog area within the CPD parks was passed out. A letter regarding the Spring 2002 Green Deed tree planting was received. Barbara Wood, Chief Landscape Architect of the CPD Green Deeds program, apologized for the lateness of the planting of the Green Deed trees on order. She also included site maps of where the trees were planted. Elaine is to include this site map with the invoice to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. James Clarke provided the council a copy of the 1999 Chicago River Corridor Development Plan.
Garden Committee: Susie Novak reported that regular watering had been in place up until the recent rains. Susie has been actively cutting back the plants in the Horner Park Monument Garden. Susie reported finding a large amount of refuse in the garden, particularly at the monument end. Susie formally requested trash cans to be placed at the end of the garden at Montrose and California.
Concert Committee: Larry Brown reported that the season had ended with great success. Alan Mueller was thanked for his production of the Ravenswood Manor Park Talent Show. This years event went without a hitch and was a great show. He also reported that the concert committee will also be working with Tom Bracy of the CPD in hopes of expanding our resources to procure acts for future concerts.
Park Briefs: Terry Sweeney, Horner Park Supervisor, and Dale Marie Grandys, Area Supervisor, were in attendance representing the Horner Park Staff and CPD.
Ravenswood Manor Park: Dale Marie Grandys approved to have the Council submit plans for a new bulletin board. Larry Brown offered to have a carpenter who is a neighbor submit a plan.
Buffalo Park: Dale Marie Grandys reported that the CPD has received the plans for the council ring. The CPD will provide a landscape architect to work with the Council to bring this plan to completion.
Jacob Park: Barry Fidlow, a new council member and park user, reported the conditions at the park are a problem. Barry will put together a detailed list of needs for our next meeting. A request for a work order on the water fountain was made. Dale Marie Grandys has arranged for a CPD gardener to work at the park starting September 6th through the end of that week to begin the clean up effort. Dale will put in a request for new wood chips. Terry Sweeney has a report due which will detail his needs for new plants in all of the parks. The council agreed to use these new plants primarily at this park. Jerry Giese recommended native species for these new plants.
Sunken Garden Park: Jerry Giese will work with neighbors in the Ravenswood Gardens to assemble a master plan for the park.
Horner Park: The benches near the monument have been repaired. The drinking fountain located by diamond #6 has been fixed. The electrical hook ups for the new lights for the Montrose tennis courts are in and only the poles and fixtures remain to be installed. The junction box for these lights will be located in the field house. A survey to evaluate the under ground water system, performed earlier this year, concluded that the system is in poor shape and needs to be slowly improved as more problems arise. For now a three-phase plan has commenced starting with the two worst areas. The first was started on the east side of the hill. The entire pathway has been removed and will be replaced when the work is completed. Also, there will be section of pathway removed near the center baseball diamonds on the California side. These are hopefully going to be replaced by the end of the fall. Dale Marie Grandys is working to get the replacement labels for the Nature Garden. There is still no word from the CPD on a replacement for Mark Hebert. They are hopeful that a person will be assigned before the fall session begins. This is a top priority for Dale and Terry. Liz O’Callaghan and Anne Miller from the CPD’s Department of Natural Resources proposed a new program that would be implemented in the park. This new plan, called tentatively, The Mini Arboretum Program, has designated Horner Park along with Garfield and Washington Parks to be used as arboretums. This would include labeling some species of trees in the park. Also, additional trees and plants would be planted to enhance some of the park’s existing plantings. Brochures would be printed and available in the field house. There would also be a kiosk located in the new picnic area describing the program and the species located in the park. Liz and Anne asked the council for input as to what areas in the park would be unavailable to start this program. The council recommended that anywhere east of the pathway, due to future HPRI construction would be one, also on the north side of the hill which is a proposed sledding area. And finally in the southeast corner of the park where a new bathroom facility is to be located were all discussed. Liz and Anne also elaborated on the program’s hazard evaluation procedures regarding any invader or diseased plants. Their initial focus will be on trees that lie on the interior of the pathways. This program is scheduled to start as early as spring 2003. Larry Brown motioned to have the council approve a plan to have the CPD install a new picnic area to be located north of the landscape building, west of the pathway and east of the parking lot, which would run next to and south of the California tennis courts. Jerry Giese seconded the motion and the motion was passed unanimously.
Horner Park Riverbank Initiative: Anne Rozmin reported that she had talked with Bob Foster from the CPD regarding the letter that needs to be sent to the US Army Corp. of Engineers (USACE). Bob reported that the letter is going to be sent soon. Also it was reported that the HPRI is the second priority behind the Ping Tom Park Phase Two project. State Representative John Fritchey has been contacted by the Council to work on getting HPRI a higher priority. The project time line now looks to have the USACE’s Ecological Restoration Report (ERR) plan completed in 2003 along with any other preparation work. The ground breaking then would be in 2004. Elaine Taylor then went over what the USACE’s ERR is and how the cost benefit indexing could effect any work initiated before the report is conducted. Laurene von Klan, (FOCR), reported that her effort to have the CPD send a letter to the MWRD for access permission for the river bank was waiting for David Doig to sign. She also said at this point it is getting too late in the year to really start any planting on the proposed area at the northwest end of the HPRI site. Also the volunteers needed to proceed with the new plantings will not be available as the universities had a small number of students sign up. Laurene feels that with her continued effort that all these steps will be ready by spring. At that point she may continue with her plans working on the northwest area of the HPRI.
Adjournment: Anne Rozmin thanked all those in attendance and the meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Larry Brown
Roster of those in attendance: Anne Rozmin, President; Alan Mueller; Jerry Giese, Co-secretary; Laurene von Klan, FOCR; Larry Brown, Co-Secretary; Larry Hodak; Elaine Taylor, Tresurer; Barry Fidlow; Terry Sweeney, Park Supervisor, CPD; James Clarke; Dale Marie Grandys, Area Supervisor, CPD; Anne Miller, DNR, CPD.
