Keep League City Beautiful Citizen Committee

Keep League City Beautiful Citizen Committee Meeting Minutes February 7, 2023 The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Jackie Liddell. Present were Jackie Liddell, Jason Makepeace, Nina Makepeace, Richard Williams, Frank Zgonc, Beth Sears, and Dave Bowman. Also present for the meeting were League City Executive Director Sarah Osborne, Parks Coordinator John Orsag, and citizens Mary Jo Zawalski (arrived at 6:04), Aidan Bowman, Mike Stone, and Lloyd Thornton. Around 6:20 p.m., Councilman Tom Crews and his son showed up to the meeting. Citizens Mike Stone and Lloyd Thornton addressed the group and talked about the upcoming Clear Creek Cleanup on February 13. The two commended KLCB member Dave Bowman for his help with the event along with City employee John Orsag. The two men asked to be able to present at a council meeting next year. Osborne agreed that this was a good idea and instructed John Orsag to coordinate for next year. Citizen Mary Jo Zawalski addressed the board and made some suggestions for the upcoming efforts of the Patrons of the Parks and Arts Foundation to include a Meet and Greet at the Ghirardi House. A motion to approve the minutes from the January 3 meeting was made by Rick Williams and seconded by Jason Makepeace. All present agreed to approve the minutes. Jackie Liddell discussed the recent request and form from the Sunset Commission that she was asked to fill out regarding the purpose and efforts of the group. She stated she had some questions as to the reasoning behind the survey and the need for it since the group makes a presentation to council every year regarding its efforts. She requested someone from the sunset commission attend an upcoming meeting to explain. Osborne provided a staff update on projects including the upcoming Savoring League City photography exhibit which will be installed Monday, Feb 13. Anyone interested in helping was asked to come at 1p.m. to the civic center. The deadline to drop off a photo is Friday, Feb 10 at noon. An artist reception will most likely be held in March. Osborne updated the group on the new art at Hometown Heroes Park as part of the new eastside dog park, including two new metal scrap dog statues by Terry Jones and a new tree carving statue by Jimmy Phillips featuring a police k-9 dog. Osborne announced the date for the upcoming White Linen Night Art Crawl—Saturday, June 10—and invited everyone to come to a planning meeting on Wednesday, Feb 8 at 4:30 p.m. at Butler’s Courtyard. At 6:25 p.m., Councilman Tom Crews and his son Phillip arrived at the meeting. KLCB members and Patron members Jackie Liddell, Rick Williams, and Frank Zgonc discussed the success of the first Patrons of the Parks and Arts Foundation quarterly meeting on Feb 4. The members of the board met after the group meeting and plan to have their first official board meeting on Feb 25 at 1 p.m at Ange Mertens home. The KLCB committee then participated in a white board exercise led by Osborne to discuss the parameters for turning the Ghirardi house into an “artist in resident” space starting with three artists. Several members of the KLCB committee were able to tour the building and gave suggestions and ideas for improvements and additions that would need to be made in order to make the concept work. Requirements for the artist and rules for the artist to follow were discussed as well as what the city would receive from the artist as part of the agreement—including three hours of classes a month and two open house/demo/artist talk events twice over a six-month period. The group agreed a 6-month lease agreement period would be best to start with and discussed some parameters for the artist application, and what the city would and would not provide including any supplies or equipment. A legal clause would need to be added in that the artist would be held liable for any damage to the building and the city would have to have a hold harmless agreement for anything that was damaged stolen, etc. The group discussed next steps which included meeting with the city attorney to discuss insurance and other requirements and other legal clauses. The group agreed that the earliest something might happen is the fall. Osborne agreed that she would set up a meeting with facilities and parks to discuss the required improvements and additions to the building and a meeting with legal to discuss the standard agreement and request for artist proposals. The group then switched the topic to a possible spring cleanup, but everyone felt there was not enough time to make that happen. John Orsag updated the group on a recent meeting with the Galveston Bay Foundation and the possibility of having a native plant sale with them at our September EcoFest event. Dave Bowman reminded John to be sure to enter the information from this year’s Clear Creek Cleanup for next years Keep Texas Beautiful application. The meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.