Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everybody. I would like to welcome you to the Appleton Public Arts Committee that I'm going to call to order now for Monday, July 13th at 8ish AM. So welcome. All right, first task, we're going to stand up and do the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation,

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, so we'll do roll call. I am Elise Christomichie, the chair of the committee. Laura Hoekstra.

Jake Bauer. And Jane Lasty.

And then excused today, we have Kim Reister and Luis Fernandez. All right. Can I get a motion to approve our minutes from last meeting? That was from, wow, back in April, right? Yeah, April.

Motion to approve. And I'll second.

All right. All in favor?

Aye.

All right. Perfect. Public hearing, right? Is that what we're on to? Yes. I move so fast. Okay. Also, this is new. The screen, the little screen. Oh, prompting me. Yeah.

Okay.

Oliver, do you want to get up now or should we just pop you into the action item? We can just pop you into the action item. I don't think we have any other public appearances. So we'll move on to our action item and then Oliver can debut. So we have our request to approve the installation of a peace pole to be located within Ellen Court Peace Park on West Water Street. And then we've got our packet, if everyone's taking a look at that. But Oliver, would you like to please divulge

My name is Oliver Zorno. I'm the chair of the World Service Committee for the Rotary Club of Appleton. And we've been talking for a number of years now about the potential bringing a peace pole to Appleton. There are over 200,000 peace poles in the world. And the beginning development of the Ellen Court Peace Park seems like a perfect location and reason for us to bring a peace pole. sponsored by the Rotary Club of Appleton. A peace pole indicates a very simple phrase, may peace prevail on earth, and has really kind of took off in the 80s, but has its origins back at the end of World War II. But the opportunity for us to share this message in the Peace Park in eight languages that are prevalent in our community and important in our community is an opportunity that we want to support. We're very flexible in working with the Parks Department on location and everything like that. And the Bolt Company has generously offered to install the Peace Pole for us. And so this should come at very little if no cost to taxpayers and an opportunity to enhance the park further. Open to any questions you have.

And I'll just add to that that Tom Flick with our Parks and Recreation Department, he has approved the locations of both action items today.

OK. Just curious, how tall is the Peace Pole? Does that say on here?

The Peace Pole is approximately eight feet tall.

Lovely. Thank you. Do they weather well?

It's made out of aluminum, so yes.

Beautiful. OK. All right. Any other questions for Oliver to bop back up? I have seen these in all sorts of places all over when I go hiking and traveling. And I think it's a really lovely idea. I think that the languages that were selected are meaningful for our area and make sense. Looks like you got all the logistics squared away, so I would be happy to recommend a motion to approve the installation of the Peace Pole at the Helen Court Peace Park.

Yeah, I'll second that motion.

Okay. All in favor?

Aye.

All right, great. Thank you, Oliver. Very nice. So great. Yeah, I think that's going to be wonderful to have. I like it. All right, our next action item is back to the park. Request to approve the installation of kinetic wind sculptures to be located within Ellen Court Peace Park on West Water Street. And I believe these used to be downtown right here outside the city center.

Yep, yep, yep. So when the city center renovation was taking place, the sculptures that were in front of there were donated to the person who owned that property, and then they were donated to Sculpture Valley. Sculpture Valley had them for a number of years, and now they're being donated to be put into Ellen Court Peace Park. So the locations and the planning of this were kind of coordinated with the former action item. So kind of going along the same area, and as I mentioned previously, the locations have been approved by Tom Flick from Park and Rec.

There's that eight-foot pace pole noted on the map. Well, I do enjoy the layout of them. I think that that was very mindful in how they staggered it to get short to tall. That's kind of cool. Any questions or comments on the... Is everyone familiar with these?

Yeah, I like them a lot. I'm glad to see they're still around.

Right? Yeah, I'm glad to see they're still around, too.

All right. Well, motion to approve the installation of the kinetic wind sculptures?

I'd be happy to second. All right. All right. And all in favor? Aye. Aye. And we have then approved the request to install the kinetic wind sculptures. So thank you. I think that is the end. No, we are not at the end. I am sorry. This is a very important one that I'm very excited about, actually. So we have the election of our vice chair. That space is open because we had the resignation of another chairman for a little while ago that was the vice. But I would love to nominate Kim, who is not here, but she does know that I was going to nominate her. So it won't be a surprise. But she's been on the committee with me since kind of the beginning as well. And so I think she's very familiar with the process. And I'm happy to, if anyone else is interested in that position, or if anyone else has a nomination, I'm happy to talk about that too.

I think Kim would be a great choice. She seems to really know what's going on.

OK. All right, so I would like to motion to elect Kim Reescher as our vice chair. Is that what we do?

You nominate. Nominate, nominate, sorry, nominate.

Do you want to do a second? Or we just vote?

All right, so I vote yes for Kim.

Yeah, I'll also vote yes for Kim. Agreed, yes. Yes for Kim. Okay.

All right, Kim, I hope you're ready. All right, beautiful. And then the next step is to set our meeting date and time. Is that something that can stay the same, or do we need to change it?

Yeah, if you're all happy with the meeting time as it is now, obviously not today's time specifically, but the regular frequency and the timing, we can absolutely continue that.

Yep, we will be keeping the meeting time of the first Wednesday of the month at 8 a.m. the same. All right. Perfect. And then the contact person, that's you. Yeah. Or is it you? Yeah. I think it is me. I think it is.

But I'm happy to be that person.

All right. Well, fare thee well, Oliver. All right. All right, I think that's the end. Do we have any other information items or anything like that? Nope. No? Okay, perfect. Well, then I would love to motion to adjourn this meeting, if I could get a second.

I'll second it.

All right, all in favor, aye.

Aye.

All right, beautiful. Thank you all. Have a wonderful rest of your day.