Keep League City Beautiful Citizen Committee

Meeting Minutes November 7, 2023 Keep League City Beautiful Citizen Committee 6:00 PM The meeting was called to order at 6:01 PM by Jackie Liddell. Present were Frank Zgonc (via Zoom), Beth Sears, Jackie Liddell, Lisette McClung, Richard Williams, Jill Reason, and Dave Bowman. Also present for the meeting was Director of Communications and Community Engagement Sarah Osborne, Convention and Visitors’ Bureau Manager Stephanie Polk, and Parks Coordinator John Orsag. The next item of business was welcoming visitors to the meeting. Jamie Hart, Stacy Mills, and Patty McElhany attended the meeting as representatives of the League City Garden Club. Jamie spoke to the group and mentioned that the Garden Club would love to continue working with the City on future projects related to pollinators, gardens, and conservation. A motion to approve the minutes from the October 4 meeting was made by Dave Bowman and seconded by Beth Sears. All present agreed to approve the minutes. Osborne gave an update about the FeatherFest Art Event that will be held in League City during the upcoming 2024 Galveston FeatherFest. This event will feature 100 bird paintings to be created by local artists and installed at the Civic Center’s Public Art Gallery in April during Spring Migration. The official name of the event will be the ‘Aviary Art Show, featuring 100 Birds of Galveston County’. A special open house with the artists and the public will take place on Thursday, April 18, from 7 PM - 9 PM. All 100 12” x 12” canvasses will be on display during the event. Individuals can purchase these works of art for $100 each. The first day to pick up a blank 12” x 12” canvas will be on November 27 at the Civic Center. After that time, they may be picked up from the 600 West Walker Street office. The completed bird paintings must be turned in by April 1, 2024. Osborne then led a discussion about Saturday Jazz Nights in 2024. The event will include both a lecture series and a live Jazz concert series on the same night. These events will take place February 24, March 23, and April 27, from 7 PM - 10 PM. The lecture series/class will take place in the Blue Building earlier in the afternoon, and then the live Jazz concert will take place in League Park that night. Osborne next talked about the upcoming Art Gallery - “Professors and Proteges”. This will feature artwork from both professors and students from the University of Houston-Clear Lake Art Department. The Gallery will run from January to March 2024. Osborne then gave an update on the building mural that will be painted on the side of the shopping center at the corner of I-45 and FM 518. This project will begin in early 2024. Some changes to the mural were discussed. This included the following: Instead of using a Brown Pelican the group thought it would be better to use a Great Blue Heron or White Egret, and instead of using a Lab in the canoe the group thought it would be good to have a boy and dog looking out over the horizon from the banks of Clear Creek. Osborne and Orsag discussed the Music Friendly Texas Community Certification Program. This is a program that is run through the Texas Music Office. Having this certification provides a network for fostering music. This would be important since we now have the Folk Art Association performing in League Park, the creation of Jazz Nights, and the growth of the White Linen Night Event. Orsag next gave the group an update about nature and conservation projects and events. On November 1 there was a conservation event with the Galveston Bay Area Texas Master Naturalists Group at the Dick Benoit Prairie Preserve. The event focused on the removal of invasive species, native seed collection, and plant identification. Then on November 3, we celebrated Texas Arbor Day by handing out 200 free tree seedlings to the public at Helen Hall Library. Looking ahead we have a couple of exciting events coming up. The first one will be the Big Sweep Clean-Up Event along Magnolia Creek and Rustic Oaks Park on November 11. We have over 40 people signed up so far. The other event will be a Planting Event with the Galveston Bay Foundation at the Dr. Ned and Fay Dudney Clear Creek Nature Center on December 9. We will use 30 volunteers to plant over 500 prairie grass plants that were donated to us by GBF. Orsag then mentioned that he is currently working on Certification Renewals for the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, Tree City USA, and Keep Texas Beautiful Programs. Osborne gave an update on city art projects. There have been 45 art submissions for the traffic box wrap contest. The winners of the contest will be announced in early 2024 when the group meets to select the artists for the 10 traffic boxes. Patrons of the Parks and Arts Foundation will hold its next Quarterly Meeting in January 2024. The City is in the process of selecting the new City Flag. The new City Flag will be voted on by the public up until January 31, 2024. The meeting was adjourned at 7:33 PM.