Keep League City Beautiful Citizen Committee

Meeting Minutes February 6, 2024 Keep League City Beautiful Citizen Committee 6:00 PM The meeting was called to order at 6:00 PM by Jackie Liddell. Present were Frank Zgonc, Beth Sears, Jackie Liddell, Lisette McClung, Richard Williams, Dave Bowman, Todd Parker, and Casey Richard. Also present for the meeting was Director of Communications and Community Engagement Sarah Osborne and Parks and Cultural Services Coordinator John Orsag. A motion to approve the minutes from the January 2 meeting was made by Beth Sears and seconded by Dave Bowman. All present agreed to approve the minutes. The next item on the agenda was the election of officers. A motion was made by Jackie Liddell to nominate Beth Sears as Chairman and seconded by Dave Bowman. All present agreed to approve the nomination. Another motion was made by Richard Williams to nominate Todd Parker as Vice Chairman and seconded by Frank Zgonc. All present agreed to approve the nomination. A final motion was made by Jackie Liddell to nominate Lisette McClung as Secretary and seconded by Richard Williams. All present agreed to approve the nomination. Osborne then 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. There have been 109 artists that have picked up a canvas and 9 have been completed and returned to the office. Some other important items that were discussed were the following: - Rick mentioned that all display panels have been prepared for the show - Todd said that he is willing to photograph the finished birds - Another email will go out to get ‘live bird’ artists for April 18 - Rick discussed the idea of a quilt being made for public display of all the bird paintings  - Jimmy Phillips has a bird sculpture and Liz Hornik has a mosaic art piece for the silent auction - Sarah said that she has a lead from Pearson-Haas Winery to provide wine for the event - Galveston Bay Brewing Company has agreed to provide and serve beer Osborne then led a discussion about Saturday Jazz Nights in 2024. Galveston Bay Brewing is the title sponsor and will be selling beer, wine, and other beverages at each concert at League Park. Food trucks and Soul Freak Café will be serving hot beverages and pastries. The concerts will take place at League Park on February 24, March 23, and April 27. The lecture series will be held before the concerts on those same dates at the Blue Building in Suite 400. So far 30 individuals have signed up for the lecture series. The topics for each month will go as follows: February - Female Jazz Artists, March - The Golden Era of Jazz, and April - Fusion Jazz. Also mentioned was that the advertisement banner for Jazz Nights will go up tomorrow over Main Street. Osborne next talked about the Traffic Box Art Contest. The 10 winners have been selected and notified. All of them will be featured in the upcoming issue of City Matters. The first traffic signal box has already been wrapped. It’s located on the corner of FM 518 and Meadow Parkway. The artist and box will be on the cover of City Matters. All the other traffic signal boxes will be wrapped in the Spring and early Summer. We still need to get 3 or more price quotes to wrap the remaining 9 boxes. Osborne then discussed a new art project at Hometown Heroes Park. A proposed mural has been designed to be painted on the walls outside in the Community Garden area. Artist Anat Ronin has come up with a colorful design that features flowers, vegetables, butterflies, hummingbirds, and a large set of hands holding a plant in dirt. Osborne gave an update on the building mural at the shopping center located on the corner of I-45 and FM 518. Adam is behind on the design of the mural due to a death in the family. The mural can’t be painted until the completion of the asphalt paving project in the shopping center parking lot. Orsag next gave the group an update about nature and conservation projects and events. There was a Prairie Planting Event at the Nature Center back in December 2023. This was a team event with the Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF). GBF provided over 500 prairie plants to the City as part of the ongoing prairie restoration project at the Nature Center. The Clear Creek Environmental Foundation held the annual Clear Creek Cleanup Event on February 3. Over 75 volunteers showed up in the rain on the final day of the event. More than 8 tons of trash was picked up and removed from Clear Creek during the 4+ weekends the event was held. Orsag then mentioned the following upcoming events: - Great American Cleanup: Saturday, March 2, we will host a volunteer cleanup event at the Kilgore/Davis undeveloped park property - Benoit Prairie Preserve Workday: Wednesday, April 3, we will work with volunteers from the local Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists to remove invasive species on the property - Earth Day: Monday, April 22, we will hand out native tree and plant seedlings to the public at the Library. - Keep Texas Waterways Clean: Saturday, May 11, we will host a volunteer cleanup event at the Nature Center along Clear Creek Some other nature and conservation items of interest that were discussed were the following: - Monarch Butterfly Grant through the Native Plant Society of Texas was completed and submitted - Tree City USA recertification application was completed and submitted - Keep Texas Beautiful recertification application has been completed and will be submitted next week after review - Scenic City recertification application is being worked on - Bay Area Plant Exchange Plant Swap will be held on Saturday, April 13, in the Civic Center parking lot - Eagle Scout candidates are working on some proposed nature/conservation Eagle Scout Projects: one is for a Chimney Swift Bird Tower and another is for recycled fishing line containers Osborne then led a discussion on the Ghirardi House Artist in Residence Program. She gave a quick history of the entire project to the new members. This item will be discussed in detail over the next few months and several meetings will be needed to cover all the aspects of the program. It was decided that a sub- committee was needed to take on the parameters of the Artist in Residence Program. Members of the sub-committee will be Sarah Osborne, Casey Richard, and Frank Zgonc. Several members of the group then had comments to share. Dave told everyone about the neighborhood survey he completed for Bayridge Park. This survey was asking what residents wanted to see in place of the recently removed water storage tank. He received responses from over 1/3 of the residents. Residents wanted to see a splash pad, trees/shrubs, etc. Far down the list was a parking lot. Richard told the group about possibly having a Veterans Art Show later in the year. Veterans who are artists could contribute artwork to the gallery. This Art Show would be led by the Veterans. It was also discussed that this could all be held in November during Veterans Day. The meeting was adjourned at 7:44 PM.