Arts Commission - Bylaws Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Alright. I'd like to call to order the Arts Commission meeting for Wednesday, 03/19/2025. Roll call, please.

Deborah Falado, absent. Donna Franks Tapley, Vince Logan?

Here. Ron Romero? Here. John Simpson? Here. Peg Stoeber?

Here.

Deborah Summers?

Here.

Okay. We have a quorum. It's brought to my attention just before the meeting. This is staff liaison, Ray Heitner, that the term for the commission chair has expired since that is not formally on the agenda. We will be requesting an interim chair for the remainder of this meeting and then next meeting we will have a vote on a permanent chair for the next year. So is there a motion to have a temporary chair to run this meeting? I nominate Ron Romero. I'll second that. Motion and a second for Ron Romero to act as temporary chair.

Logan.

Aye. Romero. Aye. Simpson. Aye. Steuber? Aye. Summers?

Aye. Motion carries. Ron, you're the temporary chair.

Congratulations. Yay. First on the agenda is approval of minutes from our previous meeting dated 11/20/2024. So we would, were there any questions about the meeting minutes that were presented? If not, we'd need a motion and a second.

Motion, Logan.

Second.

Motion by Logan, second by Stoeber. Romero?

Aye. Simpson? Aye. Stoeber? Aye. Summers?

Aye. Logan?

Aye. Motion carries.

Next up is citizens to be heard on the agenda. Let the record show there's nobody in the audience tonight. And following that is new business. Update on the 2026 Illinois Arts Council general operating support grant application.

Yeah. I can take this.

Tornado warning.

Mine's off. Mine's off too.

Yeah. It's tornado warning. It says to take Take shelter. Take shelter. Lower area.

We are going if you'd like, we can pause this meeting and go downstairs.

That's probably a good idea. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. We're gonna pause the meeting due to a weather event, and we will resume hopefully soon.

Okay,

testing. I'm gonna get the backup here. Okay, I think we're back on. Just resuming the City of Joliet Arts Commission meeting for Wednesday, 03/19/2025 after a twenty minute break due to a severe weather event. And we are on item four, new business, I believe.

And that item is update on the 2026 Illinois Arts Council General Operating Support Grant application. So this is Ray Heitner, Staff Liaison to the City of Joliet Arts Commission. That grant application was due or is due this evening. I went ahead and applied for that. It's the second year of a three year cycle that the commission approved a year ago.

So we currently have a $20,450 grant for this year 2025. And so this item was to apply for year two of that cycle for 2026. We don't know what we'll get in 2026. I believe the awards will be announced by August year. So we'll probably know in August. And then that grant cycle year will go from September 2025 through August 2026.

Thank you, Ray.

Sure. Quick question for you on that. I know that the arts Illinois Arts Council grant general operating was linked semi linked to a intern summer intern program. Yeah. Was there any consideration to applying for that part of the grant? And if so where would the intrudents go? Is it something that we can

Yeah, we did not apply for it for this cycle. If there's interest with either this commission or the logical landing spot for that would probably be Bicentennial Park. If there's interest from Bicentennial Park perhaps for the third year cycle, we can certainly do that. But we did not apply for that option for 2025 or 2026.

Okay, thank you for the update. Sure. Any other questions on arts grant? Into then old business, Discussion of potential items for expenditures in the 2025 arts grant budget.

Yes. So I think Tom Gratowski asked me to itemize this at our last meeting. So basically, I just wanted to provide an overview of kind of where we are with finances here. This item and the next item are probably gonna meld together in terms of discussion. I think that's fine.

So as I just mentioned, we have this $20,450 ICGOS grant for 2025. We also have about $15,000 in art maintenance that we typically get as a part of the city budget every year. So there's a couple of payments that we will need to make for sure from the grant budget. One is our second payment to our poet laureate for $1,500 that'll be due in June year. We also have an outstanding, city square sculpture finalist payment for and the name is escaping me right now, but our, finalist who is from Spain, we could we didn't get his payment in in 2024 because he had to fill out some additional paperwork, as an international recipient.

So we have that now. We're ready to furnish that payment. But that could come from the grant or it could come from art maintenance. It's you know, I can I I'll leave that up to the commission? You know, if if there's an interest in making sure the grant money is spent, we can certainly take that out of the grant and attribute it as an artist payment.

So if we we we did that, the leftover budget for I I think I put on the spreadsheet murals or art fest, but it could be for any project or projects you really want, would be about $16,950 that would have to be spent by the August this year. And practically speaking, it would probably have to be spent by the August, just so that we could get our council approved payment paperwork in order. So that's really the thing I think I'd like to discuss here with this commission the most tonight is, you know, if there's anything specifically that you would like to do with that 16 ish grand from the grant this year. Going down to that that blue box there at the bottom for the art maintenance, you know, I penciled in finalist payment. We could also take it out of that.

We don't have to.

Would that raise any red flags? That's because it's not maintenance As far as the people are

I don't think it would. No. Red flags? Yeah. I mean, the grant would probably be the more appropriate place to take it from.

And and because it's due by the end of this month, do we need to decide that today?

It's not it's not necessarily due by the end of the month, but I would like to, you know, get him his $2,000. So that's that's really all that, you know, I don't wanna delay him further. There's no real due date on it. But But

are we are we in a position to make a motion to pay that and on it?

You could if you'd like to. Yeah.

Go ahead. I'll second it.

Alright. I'd like to make a motion that we pay the City Square Sculpture finalist payment of $2,000 and I'd like to see that taken out of the grant.

I'll second that.

As soon as possible.

Motion and a second.

Second by Logan.

Payments. Okay. I'll call the roll

on that. Simpson? Aye. Steuber? Aye. Summers? Aye. Logan? Aye. Romero? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.

Okay. So we'll take that out of the grants. And then Oxmar's $1,500 payment is due in June.

That's already been voted on. Right? I mean

Yeah. The the payment structure was voted on. It's every six months from the beginning of his acceptance of the

position. I only bring that up because as often as we have meetings, you might have.

Yeah. Hopefully, hopefully hopefully we can get on a monthly schedule here. But know what I'm saying?

I don't know if we need to bring it up again just

You're welcome to if you'd like. Yeah. If you wanna Do you want to make a motion for his payment in June?

Do you want to be in the minute? Sure. I would like to make

a motion to do that.

By June. By June, right? Yeah.

Okay. Motion by Steuvers or second?

Second Logan.

Okay. Uxmar payment by June. I'll call the roll. Steuber?

Aye. Summers? Aye. Logan? Aye. Romero? Aye. Simpson? Aye. Motion carries.

Okay. So the blue black box down there for art maintenance, Dante Di Bartolo, who normally does our art maintenance work, is currently he said he'll get back to me within a week on any repairs he thinks are urgent or necessary for this calendar year. You know, usually that has amounted to somewhere between like 3 and $5,000. I know last year we did talk a little bit about relocating the George Mikan statue. It's not in the most pedestrian accessible area right now at Broadway And Ingalls.

And there is some maintenance that needs to be done to affix the sculpture or the concrete base. There's some water seeping in there. So there's it would probably be good to get Dante in here to kind of describe it in more detail, but, he's expressed some concern about, that may be compromising the integrity of the structure itself, and it may be, like, tipping over at some point. So I think as a staff level, what we were thinking is, you know, at some point and maybe it doesn't have to be this year, but probably soon, if not this year, maybe next year, we'd like to, have Dante or someone work on affixing that, sculpture to the base and then, possibly moving the sculpture to, a more visible location. Right now, it kinda just people kinda just drive past it quickly there on on Broadway.

You know, it's we we had a proposal to move it to Saint Mary Nativity last year, and then, I don't know if some of you might remember the diocese sort of, wouldn't allow it us to locate it there. I haven't heard anything on that. I I assume that that's still their position. At a staff level, we've talked about maybe relocating it to Route 66 Park, with, some other artwork that we have there. In that location, it's still sort of in the North Broadway area that he, kinda grew up in.

There's also some discussion maybe like near the old Joliet Catholic High School building somewhere since he went to school there. But that's just another thing I threw in here as somewhat of a placeholder. We don't necessarily have to do this this year, but, it's something we could. And and that's also another item that could be taken out of the grant, to our artists' services or payments. We did use the grant last year on the community and policing sculpture repair and relocation as artist fees.

We wouldn't repair it location until we decide where the new location is. Right? Probably. Yeah. I guess, in my opinion, just throwing it out there, the foundation isn't part of the artwork. Right? I would think that would be something that the city could get one of their contractors to do, and our money could go further if it just

If the artist subcontracts it out, we could cash it as an artist fee. But

Thinking that it would go further, our money would go further.

Yeah. Definitely. I know where you're getting at.

Yeah. You know, one sonotube foundation could, you know, cost that you know, to me, that's

Yeah. It's it's a bulk of the cost, honestly. Yeah. So, yeah, I I don't know if, what the appetite for that is right now. You know, some other options for the $16, I know we've talked about murals. We could probably do one mural for $16, I would think somewhere. I know there was some sort of sporadic talk about putting on an arts fest. You know, it might be tough to coordinate that by the fall at this juncture. I'm certainly open to like discussion on that. But

Especially with downtown the way it

Yeah.

We're thinking of doing downtown.

I did reach out to some staff at Will County about because I know I think Donna last meeting had mentioned, a location for an arts fest at the old courthouse site. And the county seems to be open to perhaps like a half day kind of festival at that location. But it might be tough, just having not met for a while to plan something like that on a on a short schedule for the fall. But, you know, if it's something you guys feel strongly about, we can certainly go in that direction too. But

Alright. Go ahead. Don't wanna finish it. I don't wanna interrupt you. Go ahead.

Yeah. Sure. Sure. And then the other thing I didn't write it on here, but the other thing that we could do is we could use it for artist fees for the city square sculpture artist as well, the $16 there. So there's a few options. Those are things that I just thought of. If there's anything you all wanna discuss or, you know, anything you wanna pitch, it would be good. It'd be good to have some direction on this by next month, though, so we can kind of get the activity going if we have to send out a request for proposals or anything, get that going for an artist.

Well, I guess I don't say unofficially, but what seems to be important to the people that sit up in this thing? Because I feel like, you know, we could put on a festival, and we have the money to do that. But addressing something like we some of us were at this thing at the what do you call it? Park that's on Broadway there that where the lichens stay.

Road 66.

Road 66. And, you know, the planners and everybody was there, it seemed to be something that they were proud of. If if this is something that we can do to, you know, and make that better, then it reflects well on us. At this point, I feel like we should take in consideration doing something that, you know, that the council want wants to see the money go towards so that we're taken a little more seriously as opposed to, you know, there's a 100 different ways to go about using this money, whatever we dream up. But I'd like to, you know, but now does that does that make them make the decision where they wanna move it?

I I would support relocating or fixing up that statue subject to everybody else's thoughts on it mainly because from from being at that meeting that they're proud of what they did as they should be. Let's, you know, let's help them. But, you know, I don't know if they want to move it or not. I don't know how long it takes to make that decision. But, you know, if murals is a priority, then let's, you know, let's decide on something, I guess.

I agree with you, John. I think moving the statue is important for a lot of reasons. I think it's a hazard where it is to itself and to the community. Would we propose to the Route 66 people that maybe they want it? I don't know how that goes through. So that would be my first question. And my second one, and this speaks to you, your idea of doing something that we're passionate about. I really wonder if can we give some of the grant money to the Rock and Roll Museum for repairs. Is that appropriate for us to do that?

That's general operating, and I don't know that that would would fit. Mhmm. But if it were something in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Museum, we do I think we're on our fourth or fifth year of a wine, jazz, and arts fest.

So something specific.

If it's yeah. I and I would be comfortable from my wearing that hat from the Rock and Roll Museum if if that were to be approved to set that money aside specifically for the artists, and we do have performing arts. We have, graphic arts arts people there as well. And, we're partnered with Bicentennial Park on that. If that were to be considered, I'd really like to see the commission come up with some ideas on how that could be built more for the the city and the community, and it's been good.

We get a good turnout for it, a lot of artists, and we've had people travel for it. Mhmm. They they come from Chicago and other places to do that. If that were to be a consideration, maybe we could talk about some kind of a budget for the artist specifically on that. Just my 2¢.

Yeah.

And, of course, I'd abstain from any voting on that. Just throwing it out there.

As I would have to.

Yes. Oh, yeah. It's true.

Since I'm on the I guess I'd ask for the, you know, I mean, I'm part of that board as well. But, you know, I would there again ask for a feeling of the perception that it would how it would be received at at the city level because I I kinda feel like I kinda feel like we need to address something that's important to them for them to be more interested and supportive of us. Yeah. I don't know how else to say it, but something that they're passionate about. I know the amount of money and the overall scheme of things, if they want it, they can probably get it done.

But it would be nice if there's something that we're both working on together that so that's not sure what that is. You probably have a better feel of that, but there's gotta be some kind of art, whether it's a mural or or Yeah. Statue or something that we can say we have the funds and we're in agreement on. This is my opinion, so I'm subject to everybody else's input on that. But I just I just think that

Is there any plans for the Route 66 Park other than what they've done? And so far, I know that they've put in some new signage, some history on some boards. It's a a really nice vantage point to see looking over towards the prison in that area. I do know that they had some it appeared that they had some kind of what do I wanna say? Not stage, but somewhere where they would put artwork.

If we were to suggest moving the Mikan statue there, could that be continued on with other art pieces where peep it would be an attraction. About four years ago, my wife and I went to Rich and Creamy ice cream.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

And right at the the entrance there, it says it's a Route 66 attraction. Mhmm. And when we went into the park, it was it was a shame because a lot of the signs were worn. You couldn't read them. They had already basically gone away. There was nothing left. So that was nice to see that redone. You see a real nice sign that says attraction out there. And then you get in, and in my opinion, that's our that's an impression on our city if that's what we're inviting people by the sign out by the road to come and see, and that's what they see. But and we're learning Route 66.

We're being the the museum is learning that there's you know, last year, we had visitors from 47 different countries, and people come through Route 66. Is there any way that we can help to improve that even more as an attraction? I think that would qualify as operating expenses to continue to build that, which would be I assume that's city property, not Route 66 or our CVB doesn't own that.

Yeah. It's city.

City property. Yep. So could we possibly, as table talk here, consider making that more attractive for for visitors? That's kind of the entry away to the downtown where people might stop. And it is on a lot of we get calls all the time asking where the park where that park is because your people wanna stop and see what's there.

By the ice cream place. Right? Yeah.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Right on Broadway.

Yeah. I'm looking at it now.

There's the and they did some really nice signage there. There's great, moments as they call it. There where there's a big postcard that you can take a photo with. The big Route 66 sign is there. Of course, Rich and Creamy is there with the I believe Jake and Albert are still on the top of the of that. Yeah. Right. You could see that from the overhead there.

I I my initial thought from processing all this is that

I'm guessing this is where I'm at right now.

Is that since next year is the one hundredth anniversary, I would be more inclined to put our money towards anything artwork of some kind

There's the picture you're

looking at. Anticipating the big flow of people coming next year and then maybe next year because it's a one hundredth year anniversary we have some kind of an event that we could get scheduled being 2026 know, on Route 66. Know? So this year, the physical, you know, additional signs or artwork for anticipating the people coming, I don't say in droves, but more so next year. And then next year, maybe we have some kind of a festival of some kind that we advertise on, you know, on the Route 66, you know, website or something.

So

To coincide with the anniversary. Yeah.

And especially if we work with the group. To me, that's really important because if we have that group and we have your Rock and Roll Museum and we have our group and everybody's going in their own direction, if we work together, we can make a better impression and more of an impact. You know, together, we're stronger than we want.

Yeah. I agree.

A lot us. I got a really, I guess, this is embarrassing. Is this park is is this a 66 dedicated to a 66?

Yes. They they bill it as a Route 66.

I drive by this, like, three times a week, and I had no clue.

We didn't either until we had a sweet tooth one night and stopped in for some ice cream.

So so I guess that that begs the why why do we not have, a big sign that says 66, pull in here or stop here.

There is a sign that's there, and then it's also advertised in a lot of the the Route 66 books.

Because I see the 66 I mean, I see the 66 emblem on the street every now and then, but it's kinda faded.

Yeah. Right at the right next to right at the driveway by Rich and Creamy, there's a sign that we just saw a second ago when we were looking through there. Just at right in right in there. Right right down there in that clump of trees to your right and turn Here. Okay. Route 66 roadside attraction. Not it's not huge.

It's saying

if you're driving

on the highway. There's a new one too. I mean, so there's this a is a this street level view is two years old.

Yeah. I I just drove down there today, and I don't remember seeing anything.

There's a new

They had a dedication here.

They they had a rededication last summer. There's like a new I don't know how big it is, but it's gotta be at least five feet tall, I would say. Route 66 kind of emblem artwork. Yeah.

Yeah. They put something that looks like a postcard. And then also the Route 66 sign that used to be there

Yeah.

Has been replaced. US sign went in and and kinda re redesigned it, revamped it so that they weren't using, like I don't even know if there were lights on it originally, but there are now. If you go a little bit further in that direction that you're headed on Route 6.

Yeah. But I'm I'm I'm thinking I'm with you guys. We spent all the money right here because this year and next year, it's gonna be that money's gonna be well spent.

It needs to be it needs to be up before next year.

There's gonna be a good return.

Yeah. And it's a thing to do, Ray. You think

What's that right there? I'm sorry. What is that?

In the center?

Yeah. It's one of

the Yeah. See.

I see. I I live here. I've been living here for twenty years, and I

have nine

It's a great walk through that park, actually. It's been a It is a good walk through that park.

So so I guess the question begs, we need to get people to walk through that park. Yeah. How do we get them in?

You know,

sometimes arrows in the street.

A sign farther away saying in the next, you know, like, five, you know, five tenths of a mile or whatever. Some some of their signage before because you're going, what, 40 miles an hour or sometimes more Yeah. And fly back past you.

If you do have a tendency probably not to pay attention if you drive We do it every

Well, living here, we probably don't. But I as I mentioned, I think a lot of the road, 66 people, they they know where they're because

it it said 66 on the street at one time. I think that'd be good. I don't what it cost to paint it on it, but that'd good to just label that so people Several.

I'd love to see that all around town.

I think

Well, why can't we do that?

Yeah. You think it's Is

there something we can do?

You think it's a good idea to Make a template. Ask, you know, the city planners to to come up with a couple art ideas? We're we're thinking Route 66 to enhance. Yeah. So mean, so that they have they know what's the next, you know, what what they're dialed in. They know Is there what they want. I mean, would be, you know?

Yeah. So I think We got

this money to spend. Excuse me. Right? You know? And then we'd like to go them instead of us. Not that, you know, we'd vote on it, obviously, but they have a good feel. They're planners. I don't know.

Yeah. Questions. So, you know, you were getting at earlier, John, what would be supported by council or senior staff. I think anything to highlight the Route sixty six anniversary, I think, would be pretty well received. So Jane Bernard, who's been in here a couple times, she was kind of our project manager, I guess, for the rededication at Route 66 that happened at the park that happened last summer.

I I can certainly talk to her about, you know, were were there any things basically, she applied for a grant to help get a lot of those that new artwork and the new kind of landscaping and maintenance and whatnot that you see there now. I I'd be happy to talk to her and see, you know, is there anything that was on your wish list from last year that you couldn't get because of, you know, scarcity of funds and, you know, the arts commission would like to contribute, you know, its $16 or whatever toward that effort. And then I'd I'd probably also have to check back in the grant itself. I know there's some things, and and I know, Ron, you're a little bit familiar with this too. There's certain things that are and are not allowable expenses.

Definitely anything related to provision of artwork or paying artists is certainly allowed. There's a bit more specificity on, like, facilities maintenance and stuff like that that I'd have to look into. But I think I think a lot of what you've discussed would be allowed. And I think it's a good place to to put your energy if that's something you're interested in.

Do you

think that the painting on the street would not be because that's not really art? Like like you were saying, big 66 on the road several times.

I know they have I've seen one before.

But, you know, a repetition.

So people can just follow it?

That'd be so cool. Just follow it.

Just not are you talking about on actual Broadway Street?

Yep. Yeah.

Would that not be

It is it's a cool idea. I will say it will be challenging to do that because it's an IDOT controlled road. That's right. A highway. Yeah. That's Mhmm.

And

not gonna say it's impossible to do in this time frame, but probably challenging. I like challenges. I like We could certainly do something like that. Well, I don't wanna say certainly. I would think perhaps we could do something like that, say, like, in the parking area or something, or the, you know, like this access road that's here. I know it's not technically part of the highway, but it's, adjacent and to the the the feature itself. Yeah. On on actual Route 53 would probably be tough.

The parking lot graphic, if you were to put Route 66 there, the the I think the purpose of doing that would be wayfinding. You see Route Route 66, and you know you're on Route 66. They if we put it in the parking lot, they'd actually have to pull into the parking lot to see that. But if we can create anything that would attract people there to stop and take a picture with the big sign that's there or

Oh, so, like, the Kodak moment thing.

Exactly.

Instagram now. Not Instagram.

We just dated ourselves. Sorry.

You're I almost wonder, like

Kodak. Oh, like, a Kodak moment. But what

about repeated signage on the side of the highway about 66 ahead?

Burma shave?

Yeah. Yeah. You know? Ranged. They ranged. $15,000, but, I mean Yeah. To me, if if if if Jane has something that's on her wish list, whether it's here or maybe whether it's in the park, new park, or something that reflects well in the city and we can spend our money, you know, and then ask about the statue. Is that something that

we do? I think that's a good plan.

The statue, I don't know. I just say to get a feel of whether it said something this year or next year.

Yeah. Yeah.

And we'll realize that we have to spend the money by August.

Right.

Yeah. If we and another thing I was just gonna say that is if we if we're thinking about doing something in that park particularly, we might be able to make that money stretch a little bit further. Because if we're putting in say, 16 if we decided we put full 16,000 or whatever it may be, I would suggest that we also reach out to Bob Navarro at the at the Heritage Corridor CVB because maybe he can find some other funds to go with that to stretch those dollars and and add other artwork in that park or whatever it may be. If you haven't been in there, like Vince, you were saying, there's a little there's a swing set area. They have a couple of, like, old gas pumps in there.

Oh, wow. Some very large panels with information about what's in the city of Joliet. Oh, that'd be cool. Yeah. That's that's in there. They have that postcard. They're Route 66, and then there's a couple other items that are there too. And like I said, I think there's a couple of stands for artwork that I don't think they have artwork on yet.

Yeah. I I know there's some spots that they were hoping to get that in. So, yeah, I'd be curious to talk to Jean about that.

Well, and we can beat this, you know, to death, but just keep the time frame in mind. If she came up with an idea or a couple ideas, by the time we go out for bids and get it done, we're probably looking pretty close to having it done by August. It's not that big of, you know, $15,000 is not a lot in as far as a project and time wise, but I don't know. I'd like to I'd like to get I don't know. That's just me talking just because I just feel like we need to get some support from the the city and attaboy, so to speak, that we're thinking of of them as well as reflects well on both of us then bigger things happen.

And, Rick, can you

tell us again when this grant when do we have to have it approved? When do we have to have the funds used by?

Yeah. So in reality, so technically for the grant, funds have to be used by August 31 year. Practically speaking, they really need to be used by probably the first Friday in August, I would say, just so that we have an ability to properly code those expenses before those checks get cut after city council approval. Because, like, every check that gets cut from the city winds up in a report at a subsequent city council meeting that ultimately gets approved by the councils and expenditures. So, you know, it's it's a process to get that going.

And so realistically speaking, we'd want we'd want to be ready to make a payment by, like, July, early August. So

So with that said, given the date that we're at right now, we may be looking at four to five months to have this selected and paid out by. Correct. So we one, we'd have to make sure that we can either have meetings or call special meetings to make this happen.

Yep. Well, you can find out what's on the wish list. Right? Pretty.

Yeah, I could find that out probably by the end of the week here. That's just kind of a simple discussion with Jane.

Let me ask you one more question. When does the new city council start? Yeah. I ask too many questions. Know.

No. You're good. So the election, April April.

April 1. Right?

You should know this first.

Yes. Mhmm.

So, yeah, like, they'll meet, April 15 would be their first Yeah. Okay. Kind of new if, you know, if there are new members.

So more more than likely, we'll be dealing with the new council for whatever that's worth. But, I mean, it's not like alright. Well Yeah. What do we do?

In a month. Right? Less than a month. Right?

Are are you alright with asking Jane and and then

Oh, yeah. I think we should.

Yeah. I think.

Yeah. Mhmm. Are you okay with that? Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. I just think it will help grease the wheel, so to speak.

Yeah. We wanna work with everybody. I agree.

The other thing, with that too that I was thinking of is, something in the park or, like, a wayfinding to the park would be great. I was trying to see, like, up on this corridor if there's a spot, like, maybe on the side of a building where you could put, like, a mural that says Route 66 Park, or something like that. I didn't really find anything too great. But

Where does 66 start in Joliet?

It comes right through. So it's on Broadway and then goes right downtown. And then it

there's Could you have a sign that says welcome to Route 66 courtesy Joliet Arts Commission or something like that? I mean, where does it start? Where does it go from? Was it

Still north of

Was it Romeoville?

It comes through oh my goodness.

Yeah. Like, where does it start with? Like, could you put a sign that says welcome to the Route 66?

Well, that's kind of a tricky question because over the years, Route 66 took different so downtown Joliet, there's, like, four different roads that was Route 66 at different times.

That's what I

kinda thought.

Coming Yeah. From the North, it's wherever you come into Joliet on Broadway. Yeah. Like, where where does it start?

Where does it start?

Where Yeah. Broadway and theater would be, like, the starting point in the city limits.

Yeah. We could put a bold border sign there then. Right?

That's Joliet. That's so

It's great.

Though even though yeah.

North Of Theodore.

North of. That's where Joliet starts. Theodore. That's what I'm saying. Where does Joliet start? You can see welcome to Route 66 because then people will be a little bit more

I like that.

I I have I have a tendency tendency to just defer to the planners who have probably been you know, they dream about this stuff every day when they go home and talk about it during work. You know, they they they know what the the next thing that you know, give us one or two ideas or what's the next idea, and then we can if we really don't like it, well, I guess we don't have to do it. I mean

Here's one other idea We talked about this in a previous meeting before, was looking for creating artwork out of lighting. We were talking about Yep. Right doing if we were even gonna stay in that park, it might be nice to put some lighting there for people so that they're, you know, able to go through and feel safe as they're going through the park there.

It would cost more than $15,000.

Yeah. I don't know how much can be done if it's yeah.

Right. That's a big part.

But those are all ideas that Yeah. It is. You you know, send on Yeah. To that group. And, again, you know

It'd be nice to have something to vote on next month.

Yeah. And, I mean, ideally, you know, given the time crunch Ron sort of detailed there, I I would really like to get a special meeting before our next regularly scheduled meeting to to discuss this. And I think, you know, even if if that were the only item discussed, I I would think as long as there's, a fairly well thought out idea on the table, I would think we could get that in place. So yeah. I can I can run these thoughts past Jane, see what if there's anything on her wish list or possibly Bob Navarro's wish list for this area?

And then I'll also check with her about the Mike and statue relocation, and I'll check with Dante on that too, see if he has any new thoughts on that. If if, you know, maybe that's a fallback option there. But anything else?

Nope. That

okay. We'll try to get that answer and then maybe call for a special meeting on that.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, as soon as I have some guidance, I'll just email everyone what what the update is. And then yeah. If there's sort of concurrence or, you know, a couple viable ideas, I will get a special meeting together so we can formally vote on that.

Okay. Any other questions?

No.

If not, then do we have anything else under that category?

I would say not under that and probably not really under the next one either.

New or old business?

Alright.

Is that where we're at?

Yeah. New or old business.

So just a quick question for you on that. Do we have any updates on any additional grants

for consideration? The only update I would provide is we did not apply for the NEA grants for a mural project. We just there was some concern about not being able to match those funds right now, and it had a pretty hefty match. So we didn't apply for that one. And then there was another

Was that strictly a financial match or was that because I know a lot of grants will let you if like, when we apply, they if you do volunteer hours, they'll or if there's other things you've already put into it, lot of times they'll take that into consideration.

Yeah. It was strictly a dollar match financials. So yeah. And then we also discussed the asphalt art grant, I think, last November. We also did not get a application in for that one.

That one, it was a little bit tough to corral external partners to go in on that one. You know, we had a couple of sites sketched out. You know, we we just didn't have the time, to be frank, to kind of coalesce that application together before it was due. We did get a little bit of interest from Joliet Township High School on, you know, maybe participating in that grant on its next cycle. Because one location we did sort of tease out was a street mural.

I can zoom to it here. That would promote pedestrian awareness and safety here at this Eastern And Van Buren Intersection right in front of the school. So they did seem kind of open to maybe exploring that with us for the next grant cycle. So, you know, assuming that we get this cycle opportunity again two years from now, we that might be a a starting point that we look to pursue there.

Alright. Sounds good.

Any other questions, comments? Next up is public comment for the record. There's nobody in the out here tonight. And then we just have a motion for adjournment.

Just a quick we need to replace one of our members?

Oh, yeah. We need to probably make that announcement, right?

Yeah. So Eric Gorder resigned. So we're at eight members right now. We did get application from another member. So we're waiting to hear back from the mayor's office on approval of that application. If that gets approved shortly, it should be on an upcoming council agenda. It might even be in place by probably not a special meeting next meeting, but maybe our next regularly scheduled meeting. So, you know, I I I'll be happy to kinda keep the group, apprised of what's going on with that. Right. So that's the only vacancy right now though.

Well, it's just actually hate it. I hate the meeting. Alright. Yeah, good.

Any other questions? Sure. Then we just call for a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor of adjourning signify by saying aye.

Aye. All opposed? Motion carries.