Horner Park Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2015
Meeting called to order 7:08pm
Minutes from June 2015 approved. Request to include roster of attendees in future minutes was made.
Attendees:
Peter Schlossman
John Friedmann
Kevin Anderson
Amy Jahnke
John O’Connell
Deb Groh
Max Lombardi
Gretchen Helmreich (and Emmett)
Sue Davenport
Treasurer’s report
Account balances:
MB chkg 29,018.64
MB savings 14,727.12
Paypal 9292.34
total 53,038.10
All online accounts reconcile with Quickbooks. Request for non-profit edition of Quickbooks for $55 with a 3-user license (sold by Tech Soup), as Kevin has been using his personal copy. John O. moves to approve $75, John F. seconds. Motion passes. Kevin will file annual report to Secretary of State by the end of the month.
PayPal service upgrade email; discussion about PayPal emails to the stewardship account and perhaps an upgrade to terms of service that may need to be made. Kevin to look into this.
Concert Committee
John O. presented profit/loss statement, bottom line is that we raised $15,426.00 in gross revenue. Expenses were $14,029.65 (question about where printing costs for flyer and letterhead are categorized) – net income is $1,591.35. ~90 households donated. $800 of new lights made a big difference this year.
Next year, Kevin to break out expenses into artists, capital, and promotion (printing, ads). Had received money in the spring for a sound system from the Park Foundation; we can allocate these funds towards the lights. Or, we could get monitors to complete the system (but do we want to drag these payments out?).
Peter and Amy brought up the issue of attendance, there was some discussion about maybe trying different days/times next year to increase attendance? Next year we can consider options for timing and marketing. Decisions need to be made by March to get info in the park brochures.
We may want to consider purchasing our own equipment (inflatable screen and DVD player) for movies, since to rent for one movie is $1250. Deb believes the cost was around $3400 without a sound system. We need to see what we have here and will investigate this further. This would open up the possibility of winter movies; we could do concessions/suggested donations?
Lots of new ads, sponsors, lots of half evening sponsors. Great job to John for organizing and all of the committee members!
Dog Friendly Area
The total commitment from Alderman Mell is $38,300. Ald. Pawar may also commit funds. Committee has requested a meeting with CPD r.e. the size of the park. They are currently selling calendars; these have a very nice design with dogs of the month. Go Albany Park this past Saturday helped to get people aware of the dog park with tours, but rain kept attendance down (about 30 people). Self-guided tour had two drawbacks: it was difficult to count the number of people, and it was difficult for tour-goers to know where to start and end. Having the tent where the DFA would be was a good thing. There weren’t balloons at the animal hospital so people didn’t know where it was. Max Lombardi walked the route, and many people had questions about it. Are naming rights off the table? Pretty much; it’s park district policy not to put names on things, we may want to check with the fundraising policy.
Midnight Circus in the Parks is at Welles Park on Oct. 16-17-18: Peter and Erica will try and gather some volunteers for this event, don’t expect it to be much more than last year. Need people for ticket sales, concessions, and ushers. Need about 30 people. Perhaps WMS could help here?
Park Briefs
Horner Park
– Fitness Center is open! Deb is hoping for “we’re open” signage. Fee is $17/month or $150/year. A couple ellipticals, bikes, treadmills and various weight machines and free weights. No TV there (yet). They’re working on getting fans in there. Amy J. to bring in an extra fan. Discussion about possibility of TVs.
– Fall classes started today
– Banquet hall has been cleaned
– Deaf & hard of hearing room has been set up, it’s come a long way!
– Requested again to be on email list for herbicide spraying
– Riverfront Project: Have requested September tours for the Riverfront, but there are key USAC people who won’t be there. They are asking for October. Suggestion to give them a table at the Farmers Market for people to check in at; online signup worked well last time but people need more notice. Maybe use event signup forms with an automatic cut-off, reminders, etc. Ongoing, maybe train HPAC people to lead these?
– Farmers Market: Going to extend to October 24th (had planned on October 3rd). Commitments from all farmers to come and most other vendors. Market balance is $6,158.07. We’re killing the grass with so many rainy days. Maybe plant more durable grass or ground cover? It wasn’t replanted after last season, so perhaps after last market on the 24th. The baker (Beurrage) has gone out of business, the committee is looking for leads on other bakers.
– Bleachers on the east side have been fixed multiple times and continue to be vandalized. John F. – is it possible to fix? Home Depot has offered supplies. This might be a liability thing; Deb to check to see if it’s ok. There is a service request in to have them removed.
– Divvy bikes: can we move those closer to bus and fieldhouse, because they’re far away from the bus stop? People are in favor of moving these. Divvy does have a complaint form on their site, this might be something to look into. Deb and John F. to work together on this.
– Homeless people living in the park in Wendell’s garden; they’re recognizing it’s a safe place to be. People were camping out under the pine trees, and people didn’t know they were there. After the trees were trimmed, they moved to Wendell’s Garden. Deb submitted a request to have the garden cleaned up (tree trimming and clearing out). Deb has spoken with Deb Mell about this. The garden is no longer run by a community group and the tree trimmers can do this. Deb encourages people to call 911 when they witness unsavory behavior. Landscape can throw possessions away, but security needs to be with them when this happens. Max: Could Kedzie Center help with this? There is concern about cutting down too many trees.
– Rats: Concerned about them in the park, they don’t bait outside in the park. Coyotes used to live under the Irving Park bridge and may have helped keep them under control.
– WMS would like to bring 20-30 people to help with the park to volunteer. What could they do? They are coming Friday, October 9th for 3 hours. Need shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows. Have some piles of mulch to move. They will need security.
Ravenswood Manor Park
Ribbon cutting for new playground was on August 23. Eric brought build a robot kit and it was a hit! Amy to take John’s FB photos and put on website.
Park Condition: Liz O’Callahan with the CPD had a complaint that Manor Park was not taken care of, so she and John pulled weeds/plants the day before the ribbon cutting. The branch fence is often broken by kids. The planter at the point has new annuals. History:
1. HPAC removed Eastwood and doubled the size of RMP.
2. Once that was done, neighbors did the garden; the person in charge of this has moved away.
3. CPD did have a part-time landscaper to maintain the park at one time.
4. Nothing grows under Norway Maples.
5. CPD is ultimately responsible for this park.
6. Grass isn’t growing on Eastwood and it turns into a mud pit. Snow fence next year?
7. Sue Davenport is in attendance tonight; she is in charge of Buffalo Park stewardship.
8. Erica and Sara Zimmerman met at the park with Anne Rozmin to review original plans for the park. Anne had some ideas about what to do with the Norway Maple plan. Maybe adding shrubs/larger plantings?
9. John O. – HPAC needs to share in the solution with CPD.
10. Park District does a bad job trimming around the trees; Liz was going to put a work order in for mulch (trees are getting girdled).
Net: let’s draw up a plan for maintaining the park going forward. Facilitating the improvement, not doing it.
Sue: Buffalo Park wouldn’t have any planings if she weren’t the steward of the park now. Every year there is a neighbor who will help. They have a work day in April, work day in May, people do some watering and clipping, they do a fall thing on the 26th (to coincide with plant giveaway day from community gardens). Need to find new volunteers to work on this for Ravenswood Manor Park.
Suggestions:
? 2 sandboxes are in bad shape, new plan for these
? Take this into a committee for additional suggestions
Peter: Ravenswood Manor needs to be rethought in terms of what is planted there, because it’s not working (lots of shade, water, Norway Maples). Suggestion to take this to a committee.
Jacob Playlot
Park expansion report: fence came down ~3 weeks ago, it looks great.
Sunken Garden
Last night of the concert series was held there and about 100 people were in attendance. They loved it and want to do it again.
Stewardship
Ann Williams – volunteer team offered help, perhaps contact for future cleanup activity. They will need a couple weeks lead time.
Website committee
Nothing to report
New Business
? CPD Fundraising Seminar @ Mozart Park this Saturday
? OpenLands: John, Anne R. and Peter are being interviewed in Lurie Gardens
? October 10th 9am-12pm, Phase 2 tree planting in Ravenswood Manor on North side of Wilson
? Korean-American community services: Sen. Mark Kirk’s staff there from 10-12pm tomorrow a.m.
? Next Monday night, Sept 21, 3-7pm, Deb Mell is having an open house (3010 W Irving).
Meeting Adjourned 8:57pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Amy Jahnke
