Beautification Committee

CITY OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS DOMINICK PANGALLO MAYOR APPROVED MINUTES Salem Beautification Committee: Chair: Henry Gulergun Vice Chair: Ariana Lema-Driscoll Secretary: Kim Parkinson City Liaison: Janelle Rolke 3/12/24 – Hybrid Meeting Present: Kim Parkinson, Henry Gulergun, Janelle Rolke (City Liaison), Charlene Bailey, Brooke Nagle, Jason Lang, Ariana Lema-Driscoll, Jeremy Baker, Zachary Schaad, Mary Ellen Halliwell, Sam Fiore Absent: Laurie Biel Guests: Brian Donnelly, Sandra Power, Maria Connell The meeting was called to order at 7:02PM. Agenda: 1. Call to Order 7PM 2. Mission Statement 3. Approval of February 2024 Minutes 4. Old Business: - Artbox Sponsorship Art Review - Great Salem Cleanup - Community Meetings - Sandwich Board Sign Design 5. Sub-Committee Reports: - Lady of Salem (Mary Ellen) - Traffic Island (Charlene & Sam) - Monthly Cleanups (Kim & Zach) 6. New Business: - Volunteers for seeking new traffic island sponsors 7. Adjournment Mission Statement: The mission of the Salem Beautification Committee is to assist the City in developing and pursuing initiatives that promote the beautification of the City. The goal of the Committee is to create civic pride and to motivate the City's diverse population to participate in the beautification process. The Committee will identify areas in need of improvement, will create programs, recruit volunteers and will secure the funding resources to achieve its goals. Brooke made a motion to approve the February meeting’s minutes and Mary Ellen seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously. Old business: Artbox Sponsorship Art Review The formal proposal has been submitted to the Public Arts Commission. Kim and Brian will be joining their next meeting on 3/19 - the agenda will come out tomorrow. Brian shared mockups of the proposal with the committee and Janelle will share the full proposal including Brian’s other works of art after the meeting. The panels will include Jenny (Lady of Salem) and her cat with text, a trellis with several native plants surrounding it, monarch butterflies with pollinators, and text that says “Create Beautification” with a butterfly flying through all 4. We will figure out where to add Brian’s name and the Salem Beautification Committee (if that’s an option). Brian is going to try and use paint that was made but never used which aligns with our waste goals. Next Steps: ● Janelle to share the full proposal with the committee ● Sam to talk to Darrall over at Home Depot to try and get Brian some samples to help with the smaller items. The color of the Behr paint is "Cracked Pepper" which we’ve used to cover graffiti in the past ● Kim to update the committee post-PAC meeting Great Salem Cleanup We have all the locations and captains finalized for April 20th. 68 people are signed up and the form has been out there for less than a week! We designated Gallows Hill as a kid zone. The Change is Simple mobile lab will be set up at the Church Street lot with hands-on activities and we can try and get them to do the Church Street lot and YMCA lot. We have not been able to find anyone to sponsor food after trying the Chamber and Salem Main Streets. We are asking the committee for an undisclosed amount of money, likely around $300 to split with Keep Salem Beautiful for the after-cleanup event. There were no concerns from the committee at this time and it will be voted on officially next month. Maria has been talking to Jess at A&J King who would like to get more involved in community events (maybe a gift card or a voucher if they show up to the cleanup?) Next Steps: ● Maria to introduce Kim to Jess at A&J if we want to ask them about donating for this event ● Henry to call Super Slice to see if they want to sponsor Community Meetings 3/19 - Kim and Brian join Public Arts Commission meeting to discuss the electrical box 3/25 - Zach and Jason join Point Neighborhood Association (Janelle shared the deck during the meeting which looks amazing!). 3/25 - Licensing board meeting will be discussing the nip ban. Next steps: 2  ● Brooke going to work on the site to get some of the information from the presentation uploaded (esp around volunteering opportunities and events) Sandwich Board Sign Design Jason created several images for the sandwich boards. Janelle has 2 heavy duty sandwich boards that we can use. The consensus from the group is to use the 3rd option and add “Volunteers Keep Salem Blooming”. Next steps: ● Jason to make updates based on the feedback and send it around to the group for final approval Sub-Committee Reports: Lady of Salem (Mary Ellen) On Feb 22nd, Mary Ellen, Sam, and Kenneth Glover went down to see how the ladies were doing and refurbished them. They got grey paint and rollers to get rid of the graffiti on 5-6 ladies and made some fixes where needed. Sam saw the need to get replacement name tags because they are getting a bit hard to read so they will be ordering about 15 replacements. Brooke and Mary Ellen are working on the website and making great progress! Mary Ellen is finalizing the date that the Ladies will be put up - likely the week before Labor Day (and there are currently 33 Ladies). On August 3rd, the Maritime Festival is happening on Derby Wharf. Would we like to have a BComm booth? If so, Mary Ellen can make a call. Traffic Island (Charlene/Sam) (Addendum 1 - Full report) Bulbs are starting to bloom that were planted last year and spring work has officially begun! Sam started working on the Washington Street Strip to remove the items in the winter urns and clean up some of the trash. Now that the sun has started to come out, we need to think about volunteer opportunities and have discussed setting a schedule further in advance in the past. 2024 MOUs were sent out to all 2023 sponsors last week and they need to be returned by April 5th. Charlene raised a motion to add the finalized MOUs to the minutes and it was seconded by Henry and approved unanimously (see addendum 2). Charlene proposes that if we notice things throughout the year that we think should be updated to the MOUs, we make note of it throughout the year to make it easier to review in 2025. Thank you to all who helped revamp the MOUs, they look great! We should add them to the website too. Driving through Peabody, Charlene noticed the electrical boxes are all covered in art, most of them with flowers. It’s great that Brian is going to incorporate flowers into his box but there are likely other ways to bring awareness to the community. On the website, could we set something up to brainstorm ideas. Charlene asked Jason about the signs (which will be big and great) but could we also think about something smaller for a place like the strip to let the public know what types of plants are planted there and people understand the thought that goes into it and promote them further? Brian can also add specific native plants to the art box if the committee sends him their favorites. For volunteers that want to join our meetings, they can sign up on the city’s website and they’ll receive an agenda and the Zoom link prior to every meeting. In the past, we’ve had bright shirts for returning volunteers to make sure they’re visible to people driving by, could we consider ordering more for the future? It seems like vests may be a better option so we can reuse them more often. Next Steps: 3  ● Get the MOUs up on the website ● Finalize a schedule to pilot that is further in advance ● Consider setting up a place on the website to brainstorm ideas to bring awareness to the community ● Look into vests for volunteers Monthly cleanups (Kim/Zach) Our Feb cleanup was a success - around 20-25 people cleaned up about 220 lbs of trash in the Point including the Mayor and several city councilors. Our next cleanup is March 24th in Gallows Hill as a part of zero waste week which already has 46 people signed up. New Business: Volunteers for Seeking new Traffic Island Sponsors Last year, Henry and Janelle walked around into businesses to “cold call” and try to get more sponsors. Janelle needs to adjust 1 line and then we can distribute them to everyone that isn’t a sponsor already. Next steps: ● Henry to make a spreadsheet of the businesses, share with the committee, and then people can sign up to go either with Janelle or on their own with a copy of the MOUs ● Need to get an updated list of all of the islands to make sure they’re all accounted for - seems like several are missing ● Maria to check in with Chris Burke to see if Salem Native Nursery wants the one close to them Zach made a motion to adjourn at 8:20PM. Brooke seconded the motion and it was a unanimous vote. Addendum 1: Full Traffic Island Report Traffic Island Report Charlene Bailey Tuesday, March 12, 2024 4  1. Flowers from bulbs are on their way! In the month of November 2023, there were 1100+ bulbs planted by Traffic Island Volunteers in traffic-island gardens in Salem. After the last day of that November planting, we were all saying, “think SPRING and FLOWERS popping up around Salem!” Well, Sam and I can say that. . . yes. . . many of them are starting to work their way out of their winter rest . . . we were inspecting some of the locations downtown today. 2. Start of 2024 Garden work in Salem: Today, March 12, we, thanks to Sam, started our 2024 Spring work on the traffic island, Washington Street Strip. The two of us removed the items in the winter urns and cleaned up trash on the Strip . . . making way for the Spring choices for the seven (7) urns. Sandi plans to call out the group to work the clean up of Lafayette Park in another week. So, March garden work has begun. 3. Plans for Days of Working in Gardens: There was talk at the January meeting that, for this year, the B-Comm wants to set up scheduled times (in advance) for calling in volunteers for garden work to be done this year (dates/days and time). I believe that this is in place of calling out different days each week. This needs a discussion/plan. 4. Concerns from Climate Change on Gardening/Plants and How we can each help: During 2023 there were a few conversations at our monthly meetings about encouraging planting of Native American plants that attract Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Pollinators, etc. On the 2024 MOU we mentioned it to future sponsors to consider when purchasing plants. I am suggesting that we make it a goal of B-Comm this year that we move that topic from a talk at our meetings to our community. There are many ideas that come to mind, and I can only imagine the ideas of how to do this if we all brainstorm together. It seems that the words: Recycling, Salem Cleanups, Gardening, Pollinators, Climate Change all seem to have connecting points. 5. Notice of Meetings: Can Traffic Island Volunteers receive notice of monthly meetings, along with zoom contact and access to agenda and minutes? Concerns: Volunteers for the Gardens 2024. Signs for Traffic Islands (sandwich-board style or other): Info that the island is maintained by Volunteers. Temporary Sign or it is only there when we are working? Phone number to volunteer and/or website contact. Are there going to be Volunteer Garden Shirts? Addendum 2: 2024 MOUs Beautification Committee 5 March 2024 [Sponsor] [Address] Subject: 2024 Traffic Island Sponsorship Program Dear [Sponsor]: Public spaces in Salem continue to become more beautiful each year. We are thankful and attribute these improvements to the partnership in the City of Salem’s Traffic Island Sponsorship Program. This public/private collaboration has positively impacted the aesthetics along our city streets. As we begin our 2024 season, we hope you will renew your sponsorship commitment to beautify Salem. Enclosed please find and read the 2024 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) thoroughly to understand the commitment and mutual obligations outlined in our partnership. Next, please sign and return, no later than Friday, April 5, the enclosed sponsorship agreement, page 3, along with a check at desired sponsorship level. Members of the Beautification Committee are happy to help you with planning, as well as with selections of drought-tolerant native plants to encourage pollinators known to be rapidly disappearing due to Climate Change. Please contact me if you would like a committee member’s advice. Also enclosed are helpful planting tips and a list of suggested plants for gardens in hostile (hot and dry) surroundings. The sponsor’s creativity is encouraged, as is early planting and mulching well-hydrated plants before the end of May to beat the heat of summer. We very much look forward to your participation in the 2024 season. Sincerely yours, Janelle Rolke Beautification Committee City Liaison Enclosures (3): 2024 Memorandum of Understanding, pg. 2 Sponsorship Agreement, pg. 3 Planting Tips/Plants, pgs. 4-5 6  City of Salem 2024 Traffic Island Beautification Program MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) Sponsorship Categories: $300 (City waters and maintains) $150 (Sponsor waters and maintains) $100* (Neighborhood Garden rate–first year $100 sponsor’s fee; sign is included – Sponsor waters and maintains) (*$25 each succeeding year) The City's Obligations: 1. Provide and place the Sponsor’s sign on the Island after planting and mulching has been completed by May 31. ● Additional Signs or Replacement: ○ If a second sign is desired, sponsor shall be charged $100. ○ Additional Sponsor signs requested shall be paid for by the sponsor. ○ City will replace damaged or missing signs. ● Signs shall be uniform (same information and font for all islands). ● Signs shall display the name of sponsor only (no telephone numbers, websites or logos, etc.) No additional signs (permanent or temporary) may be placed on your island. ● Place sponsor’s logo, name, address, telephone number, website link and picture of sponsor’s island on City of Salem’s website on the Beautification Committee’s home page. 2. Maintain regularly and water twice a week all $300 sponsored islands not presently irrigated. (Significant rain could eliminate a watering.) 3. Remove Sponsor signs no later than October 18. The City may: ● Remove or rectify inappropriate, unsafe or otherwise problematic plantings or materials upon notification to sponsor. ● If not planted, mulched and maintained according to Sponsor’s Obligations within this document, the city may notify the sponsor and re-assign the island. The Sponsor’s Obligation: 1. When planting, water generously and then regularly as needed. 2. Plant and mulch your assigned island with black bark mulch for uniformity. (Please do not use red mulch, chemically-treated mulch, or peat moss.) The planting and mulching deadline date is May 31; signs shall be placed only when planting and mulching are completed. 3. Evenly mulch islands to a minimum depth of 2 inches and replace mulch during the season as needed. 4. Limit your island design to shrubs, annuals, perennials and native plants/pollinators. Please use natural material only. (ex. stone, or wood) 5. Obtain approval of the Salem Beautification Committee for non-compliant materials by calling 978-619- 5672. 6. Remove dead or damaged plants in a timely manner. Deadhead regularly to encourage repeat blooming and the best visual effect. 7. Do not impede the view of pedestrians or drivers. 7  The City of Salem 2024 Traffic Island Sponsorship Agreement (Please Return this Page with Your Sponsorship Check) Sponsor will participate in the 2024 City of Salem's Traffic Island Beautification Program in accordance with the enclosed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and we will plant and maintain the traffic island at the traffic on location designated. Authorize signature: _______________________________ Authorize date: ____________________________________ With your signature and the payment of your sponsorship fee, you are agreeing to plant, mulch and replenish mulch, as needed, to a minimum of 2 inches, the above specific island. You agree to use natural materials and keep the height safe for pedestrian and vehicle traffic. We thank you for your contribution to the City’s beautification, and we look forward to working with you. Contact person:__________________________________ Telephone number:________________________________ Address:__________________________________________ Email address:_________________________ Landscape company, if used: for Original Planting:______________________________ for Maintaining through Summer:____________________ For new sponsors: please indicate how sponsor name should read for your Traffic Island sign:____________________________________________ Sponsorship fee is enclosed (please indicate your sponsor level by checking below): ____ $300 (City waters and maintains) ____ $150 (Sponsor waters and maintains) ____ $100* (Neighborhood Garden rate–first year $100 sponsor’s fee; sign is included – Sponsor waters and maintains) (*$25 each succeeding year) Please sign and return this page, with your check written out to: The City of Salem. To: City of Salem Engineering Department Attn: Janelle Rolke 98 Washington Street, 2𝑛𝑑 Floor Salem, MA 01970 If you have any questions, please contact Janelle Rolke at 978-619-5672. 8  PLANTING TIPS - 2024 Resources and Information for Plants: talking with friends/neighbors, visiting local garden centers, talking with experienced gardeners and landscapers, searching for information on the Internet and checking the many garden catalogs that are published (their companies have websites). Colors are easy: Mix and match annuals and perennials -- textures and color from leafy perennials (shorter blooming season but provide interesting textures and greens all summer and fall), and they return the following year; the annuals provide the all-season color! Drought-resistant Plants: In selecting plants, think of plants known to be survivors (drought- resistant); it is very hot out in the middle of asphalt. Tip: To help avoid some of the asphalt/curb heat, plant your plants 8 – 12 inches into the garden from the curb. 1. Enhancing the Soil in Island Beds: As you are planting, liberally replenishing the soil in the gardens will enhance the growth of your plants. We strive to give the plants good soil, ideally at least eight inches, and then two plus inches of high-quality mulch. Tip: For every plant pot brought to the island, put in a pot of good soil (loam) – more loam, better water retention. 2. Mulching: High-quality black bark mulch helps finish your beautiful garden, making it stand out; and your plants are loving you because they are getting a better survival chance with the mulch helping to keep them cool and moist, discouraging weeds and making removal of weeds easier. A WIN- WIN! Tip: When working on your garden, work around your island inside the curbstone by lifting the mulch and soil up into the garden to create a trough between the soil and the curb to retain water in that space and help keep soil and mulch from running into the street with heavy rains. 3. Soil Treatment for Best Results: Consider the following: a. Vermiculite is a great water-retention additive to traffic-island soil. b. Rotted cow manure and rotted peat enrich the soil, also help to hold water. c. Lime and gypsum counteract winter salt. ADDITIONAL REMINDERS - 2024 1. Safety Before Beauty: Plants or other materials must not impede view of vehicles or pedestrian traffic. 2. Mulch is required: It provides shade to cool and to foster moisture retention in the soil and plant root system, and to discourage weeds, greatly improving the appearance of your garden. Peat moss or chemically treated wood mulch is to be avoided. 3. When to Plant: We recommend planting no sooner than mid May, lessening the chance of damage from a late spring frost, and not later than May 31, allowing your plants to become better established before hot weather. In addition, a newly planted garden requires liberal watering immediately to establish its roots into the soil–the hardy, initial watering right away is essential to making this happen. Please note: City irrigation does not begin until May 30, and signs are not placed until planting and mulching have been completed. 4. Drought-resistant Plants: We encourage drought-resistant plants for both perennials and annuals plus adding Native American Plants and shrubs (where possible) in your garden plan. 5. Renewing Your Garden: We encourage you to renew your island garden in the fall to reflect the season and to leave it tidy when the season is over. 6. Looking for Assistance: Need a landscaper or a consult with a member of the Beautification Committee to assist you with your planting selections, please contact Janelle Rolke at 978-619- 5672. 9  Beautification Committee Traffic Island Suggested Plants List – Revised 2/18/24 (This is not a definitive list. You will find lots of ideas at our local nurseries.) Perennials: alyssum - early spring, yellow, low spreading grasses - many varieties, short and tall, annual and perennial daylilies - dwarf reverb looming and the taller, old-fashioned kind yarrow (achillea) - yellows, but also whites and pinks, drought resistant catmint - lovely blue, Walkers stays compact. coreopsis - mostly yellow, some readily reseed dahlias (tubers) - bring in to save over winter, all heights, colors echinacea - daisy type, tall, great colors, very drought resistant phlox - whites and pinks, spreads readily ornamental sage - lovely bright blues Russian sage - large, blue, definitely background, very drought resistant sedums - tall and ground docs black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) - daisy, dwarf or tall, yellow, white, very drought resistant Shrubs: roses - so many kinds and colors, some very drought and salt hardy potentilla (cinquefoil) - usually yellow, very hardy and drought resistant spirea - interesting leaf colors, some with bright reds or limes in spring junipers - low and spreading - beautiful planted simply with white petunias (road salt can turn some branches brown) Annuals: alyssum - 6”, white ageratum - bright blue, short and tall cleome - 2’ to 3’ tall, white, pink, lavender chrysanthemums - fall, many colors, many return following year, can be divided. helichrysum - (licorice plant) low and silvery leaves, looks like small flowers at a distance marigolds - different heights, yellow, orange, and white, very tough, drought resistant, can last longer than mums in the fall petunias - one of the toughest of plants, the wave petunia has a surprising spread portulaca - spreading and very drought tolerant groundcover flower with a brilliant array of colors statice - doesn’t seem to notice if there is no rain (great dried flower) sage - the annual kind, blue or white sweet potato vine - lime green, wine, other colors - a rampant spreader, great for planters zinnia - gorgeous colors, short to tall, grows well from early direct-sown seed Native Plants/Pollinators: Such as goldenrod, perennial sunflowers, asters, high-nectar native plants that attract butterflies and bees; use native plants wherever you can. FINDING INFO ON NATIVE PLANTS Visit the local nurseries/garden centers; they have many native plants and can help you in your selection. On the Internet, you can search the name of plants to check if they are native, and search topics such as what plants attract Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Pollinators and so much more! 10