Beautification and Improvement Commission

Village of Skokie Beautification and Improvement Commission Meeting Minutes December 1, 2022 Commissioners Present: Sherwin Ditlove, George Hubchak, Chuck Levine, Frederick Lisiewicz, Bob Quane (Chair), Rachel Rosenberg, Mitchell Sandler (Vice Chair), Valerie Shuman, Brooke Sprague, Anne VanOsdol Commissioners Absent: Vernell Ellison-Smith, Ann Goldshaft, Joseph Hasten, Dalya Horowitz, Bahram Khazni, Edward Potash, Joshua Shpayer, Staff Present: Cathy Stevens, Staff Liaison Staff Absent: James Johnson, Trustee Liaison I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chair Quane called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. Commissioner Hasten motioned to approve the meeting minutes of the Beautification & Improvement Commission from November 3, 2022, and Commissioner Levine seconded the motion. All Commissioners in attendance voted in favor of approving the minutes, and the November 3, 2022 minutes were approved as drafted. II. REPORT, BEAUTIFICATION EDUCATION SUB-COMMITTEE: CHAIR, RACHEL ROSENBERG AND BROOKE SPRAGUE Liaison Stevens requested that she be provided with the meeting minutes for the subcommittee meetings after they’re held. Commissioner Rosenberg reported on the most recent education subcommittee meeting, stating that the group reviewed a PowerPoint comparing sustainable gardening resources provided by neighboring municipalities and that Commissioner Sprague would share a couple of slides from that PPT. The subcommittee also reviewed the commission’s current home page and how to update and improve the paragraph on the mission and purpose. Commissioner Rosenberg informed the commission that there had been a discussion about removing the language about hanging banners and designing parkway landscapes since that does not seem to be in the commission’s purview. Liaison Stevens confirmed the parkway language could be removed. Commissioner Rosenberg explained that the goal for the new website would be to create a robust one-stop site for property improvement in Skokie, and existing resources could be moved to this page as a holistic way of promoting sustainable landscaping. Liaison Stevens said that it may be that the village creates a page on overall sustainability and landscaping could be a part of that, with a link on the page that goes to the commission’s site. A request was made for an email listserv coming from the village, using names collected from the beautification awards nomination forms, to keep people apprised of updates; there would be an option to unsubscribe. For example, the listserv could be used to bring together a “green thumb crew” promoting gardening and community engagement and to let village members know about commission events. An additional goal would be to drive people to the website to let them know about the information available there. Liaison Stevens shared that the email addresses were on the individual collected forms but not in a list. Chair Quane, Commissioner Hubchak, and Commissioner Lisiewicz volunteered to put together an Excel list. Chair Quane shared that he would be reaching out to Emily Oaks Nature Center to possibly join in on their plant sale to do a plant giveaway (buy four plants, get one free, etc.). He raised the possibility of handing out tree kits as well. Commissioner VanOsdol raised the concern that tree kits provide delayed gratification. Liaison Stevens mentioned she also has a large quantity of seed pots and seeds left over from previous purchases. The possibility of a farmer’s market seed- planting event for kids was mentioned. Commissioner Ditlove mentioned the flea market as another potential event site. Commissioner Sprague presented a couple of PPT slides that included potential content sections for the website redevelopment. Commissioner Shuman suggested that the commission’s website should cater to a range of audience and five categories, from garden maniacs to people who don’t know anything. Commissioner Rosenberg said that the group would like to write the whole front page up and ask for comments from the group. Vice Chair Sandler said he would like to see a sample of recommended native plants, and Commissioner VanOsdol advocated for having information in a variety of different languages. III. REPORT: BEAUTIFICATION NISC: CHAIR, VALERIE SHUMAN Commissioner Shuman presented the updated scoring categories and tuned balances for the percentages allotted to each category of the Beautification Awards that the NISC had worked on at the previous meeting. She requested feedback on slides via email and said she would follow up the meeting with an email to all commission members that included the slides. Liaison Stevens mentioned that the village has already assembled a team of people for the sustainability plan, and the village manager wants to have a one-year plan on January 1. A concern was raised about whether some commission members would know whether or not yards included native plants and perennials. Commissioner Rosenberg suggested putting questions in the awards form relating to native plants so that the commission would have this information; e.g., “list some of your perennials,” “tell us more about your garden,” etc. The commission agreed that this would be a helpful addition. Commissioner Shuman said that the NISC would review the nomination form and suggest some edits back to the commission. The awards timeline was discussed, with Liaison Stevens mentioning that the logistics would be tricky, and perhaps the timeline could be altered the previous year. It was suggested that it would make more sense to do the ceremony in the fall of the year the award is given out. Vice Chair Sandler explained that it used to be done that way many years ago, but the Skokie Board changed it to the winter. It was suggested that perhaps the ceremony and board meeting could be separated, but Vice Chair Sandler explained that it was an opportunity for winners to meet the mayor and have their picture taken, which both the board and the award winners liked. Chair Quane and Liaison Stevens agreed that it was feasible to move the meeting to fall, but not to hold it as a separate event from the board meeting. IV. 2022 BEAUTIFICATION AWARDS 2ND TIER - RESULTS OF ALL JUDGING, GEORGE HUBCHAK The commission viewed several of the Beautification Awards property winners. V. SKOKIE WEED CONTROL ORDINANCE – INITIAL REVIEW Chair Quane shared the current Skokie weed ordinance as well as the one in Evanston for comparison, requesting feedback and suggesting that the commission could take the lead on revising the ordinance since several discussions have been held about potential changes. Liaison Stevens said that the weed ordinance change was a high priority for the village staff. She said that the staff was working on it and that it should be a staff initiative. She added that the ordinance revision process takes a long time because there are many legal hoops to go through (public readings and revisions, etc.). But she said that hopefully the staff would get the ordinance done and the commission could review it. Chair Quane said that he would like the commission to take a more active role in its advisory capacity and present initial suggestions for revisions since it had already begun considering revisions. Commissioner Lisiewicz said that the website where the ordinance can be found mentions native grasses as an exception to the rule on grass length, but this needs to be integrated into the ordinance itself. It was noted that the Evanston ordinance sites Illinois Noxious Weed Law and specific weeds. Vice Chair Sandler suggested a pilot program for people who would be an exception to the weed ordinance by registering their native lawns. The commission decided to revisit the ordinance at the next meeting and provide general recommendations to staff, with Chair Quane and Commissioner Lisiewicz considering potential revisions in advance of the meeting. VI. ADJOURNMENT Chair Quane said that he would circulate the budget breakdowns to digest and comment on at the next meeting. Liaison Stevens asked about list of things the commission wanted to do. Commissioner Shuman responded that the NISC has a list of items the subcommittee is interested in. Liaison Stevens said that the staff would add the commission as a resource on greenspace items from the ESP. It was reiterated that after each of the subcommittee meetings, the minutes should be shared with Liaison Stevens. Meeting adjourned at 8:00.