Arts Commission - Bylaws Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Hey. This is Ray Heitner, City of Joliet staff liaison to the Arts Commission. It's Wednesday, 04/16/2025 at 05:06PM. The commission chair and vice chair are both absent from tonight's meeting. So before we do anything else, we will need someone to volunteer to be chair for the meeting for on a temporary basis. Is there a a motion to make anyone the chair for tonight's meeting?

Motion that Donna be the chair for my speaking. No louse for you.

Mote motion for Frank Stapley. Is there a second? Certainly. Second. All in favor of making Donna the temporary chair for tonight, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay, Donna. It's your show tonight. Is it?

We're taking a roll?

Yeah. We can. I'll call the role. Falado.

Present.

Frank Tapley.

Present.

Simpson. Here. Steubert. Here. Summers.

Present.

Grotovski? Absent. Logan? Absent. Romero? Absent. Okay. We have a quorum.

Alright. The next item is approval of minutes from the previous meeting or from March 19?

So moved. Second.

Motion by Simpson, second by Steuber. Frank Stapley?

Aye. Oh, okay.

Yep. You got it. Simpson? Aye. Stoeber? Aye. Summers? Aye. Falado? Aye. Motion carries.

Alright. The next item for business, if any citizens are here to be heard, don't look like anybody's here. Old business. Guess we can start with that.

Okay. I got a little slide deck here. So last meeting, we talked about the IAC general operating support grant. We have a grant for $20,450 that has to be spent by Early. August.

We have a few or at least a couple definite expenses. Poet Laureate second payment, we talked about $1,500, so it's recommended that we do that. City Square Sculpture finalist payments is in process right now for $2,000. One thing that popped up since we last met, the Illinois Arts Council is holding a conference in November down in Champaign. I'm not quite sure where in Champaign, they're still working out some details.

But I did check with the IAC if sending a couple people to that conference would be an eligible cost, and they said yes. So right now, I've just scoped out. I don't know what the registration is gonna be, but I sort of just took a ballpark of what our typical registrations are for other conferences we attend, and then, you know, what a hotel stay for two nights down there might come out to. And I scoped it out for two people, assuming probably one staff person and someone from this commission, you know, maybe the chair or vice chair, but that's one thing. I guess I just wanted to see if that if you felt that was an acceptable use of grant funds, if we, you know, paid up front with the grant for registration and hotel fees.

And then we probably pay for, like, travel costs and meal costs per the city's policy on that out of, you know, our normal conference travel budget. But just wanted to see if if you all thought that that was okay, if you wanted to maybe send someone from the commission down to that conference. It's November 5 through the seventh, which I believe is a Wednesday through Friday. Is

there a way to expense it before August 31?

Yeah. So what I would do is I think the registration opens April 23. You know, if as long as this commission recommends it and if I can get concurrence from my boss, then I would just register right away and book the hotel right away too. And then those expenditures would probably be on, like, a May council ledger for approval. Like, every every single expense the city makes goes to city council, basically, in some way. And so, you know, that would sort of be included in their

Well, okay.

Invoice report.

And then for just for just analyzing both ways, I mean, it's we'll probably get the grant again, the next next year's grant again. So it's Probably. Yeah. So it it's it's possible that we could do that with some of next year's money if we

Yeah, that's a good point, actually. If we have I don't know when if we're awarded. I don't know when we would be in receipt of those funds for 2026, but I guess maybe before November.

I'm not

totally sure.

I guess I'm just forgetting both sides of

the Yeah.

You know, if we wanna spend the money on a project, whatever we decide tonight, you know, for the balance of the money, we spend it. And then Yeah. If we like the idea Mhmm. You know, we can consider it, you know, assuming we're gonna get the same amount like we have in the last couple years to do it. So I mean, I'm fine either personally, I'm fine either way or I don't know. Just

Yeah. Yeah. The only the only thing with, like, waiting is I don't know I don't know. I'm I'm pretty confident we'll get an award in 2026, but I I don't know, like, when those funds will actually be in our account here that we can draw from. That's the

only thing. Can we I meant I meant this time. Can we register somebody and then pay closer to the August date as far as the hotels and stuff? And then if we do get it and we want it, I don't know. Maybe you can't spend the balance.

Yeah. It's they haven't said what their registration window is yet, but I would assume that information will be coming out soon. So

Well, pay and all that, I'm I'm in favor of of doing that if anybody else is. So go ahead and somebody else talk with me.

I think it'll be beneficial to send someone. I would even volunteer to go just so I can learn more about the processes and what other arts councils do. Sure. Just so we're more of a efficient group moving forward. So I'm open to attending the conference either this time or any next opportunity.

Okay.

Yeah. I agree. I think it's

a great idea too. I probably couldn't get off work, but Yeah. Darn. Yeah.

For sure.

But you will. Yes. Yeah. I'm a favorite. Yeah.

I'd I'd be interested in how on how much, you know, the cost would be. I'd I'd consider going Okay. And paying my and paying my you know, just paying my own way. I mean

Yeah. I don't I don't know what registration costs will be. It's it's you know, I I sort of conservatively estimated, you know, what it is, like, for, like, our planning conferences. I don't think it'll be that high. But I don't know. You never know. I don't know.

Alright. But

yeah. It it seemed like a pretty good opportunity kinda like Dasha said to maybe talk to some people around the state, other commissions that are set up like this, just, you know, see what projects they're working on, how they go about fundraising, stuff like that.

So is the thing to do with it sounds like we're we're wanting we're okay with this with to figure out who's going is is just set aside the $1,500? Yeah. I should then you'll see

Yeah. I I'll I should by the next time we meet have a better idea of, you know, what those costs really are, but, hopefully.

It's a state conference, is that what it is?

Yeah, it's the Illinois Arts Council, which is the entity that gives us our annual grant, they're putting it on. It's an arts and humanities conference, so I'm not entirely sure what the humanities side is. But

I'm I'm sure that it would be good for us to be there then if if they're if they're giving us if they're deciding whether to give us a grant or not. Yeah. Might be nice to show up.

Never never a bad idea to to, yeah, show your faces, stuff like that.

Registering and showing up for a day or two or two, depending on what the agenda looks like and the costs. Yeah. I would feed it too to

Okay.

Alright. So what what do we need to do? Or or or we need to Improve this or just we're we're okay with it?

Or I think I don't think we need a motion necessarily. I think just well, I don't know. You did motion the other two things. If you wanna make a motion on supporting a staff member and a and a commission member to attend the conference at a cost to be determined, we can do that.

I'll make the motion.

Okay. Motion by Falais. Is there a second?

Second.

Second. I got Summers. I'll call the roll here. Simpson. Aye. Steubert.

Aye.

Summers.

Aye.

Falado. Aye. Frank Sapple. Aye. Motion carries. So then that leaves us, you know, with around $15,000 for other stuff. And so that yeah. This is the conference logo here.

Could you send that link to us maybe sometime just Yeah. Definitely. I'd like to

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe something we could just drive down for a day. A couple of us do. Have one person designated and then

Sure. It

was just yeah.

So the rest of this presentation are mostly things that I have just tried to think of, ways to spend this money. And I am not an arts programming expert, but just wanted to float some of these out here and see what you all think, see if you have any other ideas, and kinda go from there. You know, I will say backing up a little bit. I know last month we talked about relocating the George Mikan statue to Route 66 Park. I talked to Jane Burner, our staff lead on that project.

She advised me to hold off on relocating to that site, just citing that that there could be complications with the landscape architect who's designing that site and and getting his approval in a timely manner. So I'll start off with this, I guess. You know, one thing that could potentially be done would be a relocation to Victory Center facility at what is that? Jefferson And Hickory. It was this was something I mentioned in, like, a staff meeting in passing a while ago that George Mikan, to my knowledge, attended Joliet Catholic Academy back when it was at the Victory Center site.

I did find out recently he did not play basketball there, though. He did not play basketball until he got to DePaul, but nonetheless was a student there. So we we think that we have room at that site that the city can has control of right now. There's decent pedestrian approachability, I would say, on the Hickory side of the facility. Cost to relocate that statue would be probably around 7 to $8,000.

Part of the I know we've talked about this a little bit in past meetings, but the part of the concern with the statue in its current location, one, it doesn't have good pedestrian access to it. People just kinda drive by it at 50 miles an hour. And then the other thing is kinda more importantly, there's this crack in the, what do you call it, base, I guess, that's seeping water in. And so there's concern that this sash you could topple over if the base is compromised much more. So even if it's not something that we address this year, it's probably something that's, you know, whether we use grant funds or maybe use staff art maintenance funds or something, Something that we'll probably want to do soon at some point, but, you know, within the next two or three years, I guess.

But wanted to bring this issue back up just because I know we sort of talked about it last month, and it was pointed out by other staff that the Victory Center site could be a suitable home for it. So wanted to see if you had thoughts on that.

Where exactly is the Hickory Center?

Yeah. Let me let me pull that up here. Yeah. So this is the facility here. And so between Hickory and Broadway, South Of Jefferson, and this is the old JCA gymnasium that's being demolished here.

Before you go over the bridge. Right before

you go over the Yeah. So That's pretty much

That's this is where it would be moved to?

Probably either this frontage or let's see. Let me go the other way. Potentially, this frontage on Hickory Street. It's a bit more pedestrian oriented, I would say, a bit more neighborhood context or maybe on this side.

So the Hickory Center is in construction. It's being rehabbed. Is that right?

They just took down one section of the building.

Okay. Yeah.

It used to be a cafeteria and a gym. Okay.

Possibly on the screen way, we could relocate it here I

mean, I did, but not I wasn't hired there. I did go down there too. This looks like a good space. This would be pretty common.

Yeah. Right

there. This is a good space.

Yeah. Okay. I can I can check with our staff, see

if I'd like to see what other options, projects we have?

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Definitely. So that's that's one thing.

The other thing, we had kind of an internal staff meeting last week on you know, next year is the Route sixty six Centennial, and there's gonna be kind of a concerted push to help to beautify our downtown in advance of that. We anticipate a good number of tourists kind of coming through Joliet with that. It's also the Centennial, the Ragalto Theater as well. Hopefully, the spring opening of City Square. So a lot of that's kind of coming together at the same time.

We had a meeting to kinda talk about, you know, are there areas in downtown that we could either do, like, a project to make more attractive, or are there are there little things we could do to help beautify, you know, certain areas within the city's control? And so a couple of areas of focus that came out of that meeting. One was this area just on the west side of the Ottawa Street parking deck, which is this is the Ottawa Street parking deck. So the east side will be taken care of by city square. That's you know, when that's done, that's not a problem.

But this West Side is

I saw it. I have few pictures now.

It's a little bit bland, I guess, you might say. You know, it's a parking deck. We do have some some decent planters out here and try to, you know, maintain the landscaping and stuff. But one thing I had thought of, and I don't know if this is the best location for this, but our poet laureate, Uxmar Torres, a while ago commented to me that he wouldn't he he thought it would be a good idea, and I I kind of agree, if, like, his poet laureateship could be commemorated in public art in some way. And I guess I was thinking, like, you know, is there a way that his poem or an artwork resembling his Joliet poem could be painted on a mural in some way?

And one thing I was thinking about with that is Dante Divertolo, who I've I've brought up here before, had mentioned to me that there's a possibility we could do murals by virtue of creating new walls instead of painting on an existing wall. And so one thing I I had thought about since the city has rights to kind of this grassy area here would be if we could install a wall with, you know, the the Joliet poem that we want our poet laureate to draft each term, have a mural that resembles that poem in some way, and then sort of just keep building six by six or eight by eight foot walls along this stretch here in front of the parking garage as more poet laureates hopefully come with the city. You know, hopefully, this is a program that doesn't die out. But that was something I was sort of just thinking about. And you could almost, like, call it, like, a poetry garden or something like that, and it's a way of activating a definitely under utilized or under focused space into something that would be perhaps an attraction.

So that was one idea or just the idea of having a mural that that illustrates Oxmar's home in some way. It doesn't necessarily have to be here, but maybe elsewhere. I don't know. Just general thoughts.

I would love to see his poem just his poem because Yeah. I remember it as being so powerful and full of imagery

Sure.

That I wouldn't need a mural. I would just read those words and, you know, that Yeah.

That'd be

very meaningful to me.

Right. I would love

to see. Are you talking about fixing it to the outside of the parking deck kind of area?

In the Close. Yeah. I think this is probably not a good way to really show this. But I think what I would do is I don't think I would, like, attach it to the parking deck per se, just kinda create a wall that could be ground in, like, behind these small bushes. We might even remove these. I don't know if we were to do this. But

Hey. You could do, like, a six by six post

Yeah.

You know, eight feet apart and then some kind of boards between them and me. And then, you know, you'd have to dig them and place the post in concrete, but you could ex that way you could expand on it.

Yeah. Right.

You know, make it

It could be like a wall of through the years

Yeah. Right.

Or previous phrases or

Those those kind of the idea.

So what what's the higher ups in the planning department? Think of that, or have you run it by them?

Haven't run it by them yet. This is very, very fresh. I think they would be supportive of it, but, you know, it's it's possible that there's a variable I'm not thinking of. But

You got a you got an idea for a budget? Would would would we hire it out, or would the staff do it?

Yeah. We would hire it out just so that we could spend the grand money, I think. You know, I we I talked to Dante about this a while ago. I need an updated quote, but it would probably be, like, I don't know, $4 for the the wall and the foundation together if we hire out the work. And then I don't know what the cost of the mural would be.

You know, maybe, like, 1,500 or $2. I'm not sure. So, you know, very ballpark. And then we we might wanna say, spend money on uplighting or something like that. You know, we depending on, like, what grant eligible costs and how how detailed we wanna get with something like this, we could easily spend between 5 and $10, I would say.

Can we do it by the August?

That's another question. Yeah. Parts of it, maybe. You know, I I I guess I would say if there's general support for the idea here, I would check-in with senior staff on their level of comfort and then probably also talk to Uxmar to get his consent, and then probably at the very least spend the grant money on material costs by this summer. And then, you know, if we have to either bid the artwork out or, you know, have the artwork done in spring, maybe we do it then.

But I would think if we can get quick enough approval on this at a staff level that we could, you know, at least get the wall and get the foundation in and maybe get any accessory supplies to it purchased by August. I would think that would be doable.

I support the idea. I just wanna make sure that the placement is that it's visible from the cars passing by too. Yeah. So that they want it that it's big enough that they wanna stop because if we're just relying on foot traffic only, we wanna bring something in that if they're passing through, they wanna pull over and

Yeah. That's a point.

What it is. So what do we use? Is there are there funds to keep to maintain it? Because that's has been one of the problems that Right. Regardless what we put up and how do we maintain it? Where are those funds coming?

Yeah. I think yeah. It's a good question. I think, you know, we would just use our art maintenance budget funds over the years and then say, you know, we we would probably bid the work out to a variety of artists, I would imagine. And then and their proposals we would need similar to kind of the city square sculpture, we would need kind of their recommendations on, you know, how often do you think this needs to be touched up so that if it's like a every three years it needs to be touched up, then that's budgeted and the art maintenance budget accordingly accordingly.

What if we do something that is a proposed that an artist would do something the way the electric boxes were wrapped with the vinyl so we don't have to worry about the pain elements, you know, that has a longer life.

Yeah. We could we could do that too. Yeah. We could to to that end, we would probably look to get designs from artists this summer and then go through probably that same company to get the vinyl wrapping. We we could we could look into that.

Because you talk about text. Right? We're talking

about Yeah. I think I think so.

Yeah. The actual words

of the going text?

Yeah. I mean maybe maybe we could in the background of the text have some design or something but for sure I don't know yeah

yeah you just don't want it too busy yeah yeah and the thing I worry about with murals is they do become dated looking and text could be thrills, if it's well designed.

Text and color, splashes of color, organic or geometric shapes.

Exactly. Maybe it

can be done almost on a limestone look background, which, you know, goes with the city and just have the words.

Yeah. That's an interesting idea.

Yeah. So here's what I would suggest is that we set x amount I mean, to me, because it's got to be done by August, you could probably get somebody to drill, auger a couple holes. I'm assuming this is how we do it, but it doesn't have to be. Set a couple posts and make the sign. And we set, I don't know, dollars 3,000 or whatever for that part.

And then in next year's budget or as we go along, we finalize how we put the structure, the substructure, for lack of a better word, up. And then we decide how we and I'm assuming it'd be don't know, four by eight, like a size of plywood. It could the plywood sheet could be four by 12 or whatever. We decide. But since we have to spend this money, we allow a certain amount for the, you know, the post and the substructure and then work on that and use funds from next year's budget. Otherwise, it it it seems like we aren't gonna be able to quantify it

Yeah.

Enough and spend it and get proposals and input from

Yeah. No.

That would the planning department or something.

Yeah. If it's something that we bid out for artwork, that's not gonna be done by Arist. But, yeah, like, if we can get support for the idea and then just purchase materials this summer, I think we could do that.

And I I would think that, you know, somebody who's doing park on the other side of the park, that could, you know, just me going from the know, you could come over and auger a couple holes and fill the concrete and put a six by six post, and then, you know, somehow you put the I'm assuming it'd be wood, but whatever it is. You know? And then then that part's done, and we spent because we have to spend the rest of this $15,000 by the end of the and I don't know what's anybody thinking of that. I mean

Oh, I have a a question because I'm operating blind here. Do we know how many stanzas the poem is? Oh. Is it very I mean, is it extremely long? My my the reason I'm asking is rather than doing one big four by eight, if we're trying to move people through, would we do sections? A stands there too, and then they walk at a couple of feet and there's the next, and we're moving them

Yeah. That's a decent idea. Let's see.

It would be more probably expensive to install the post, but less on the material, but it would move people. If and they'd see something driving by, then it's not one thing they're gonna look at. It's it's several. It's four or five.

Oh, and orgasms. Mhmm.

Yeah. Exactly. Well

and, you know, it it is the it is the idea that keep adding on to each porta. You know, how how how much space would we you know? I I like that idea. I just and I'd like to see him turn the trees a little bit so that he can

Well, yeah. Right where it's at right now, if you put something that large in, I'm afraid it's gonna be blocked by the vegetation. We don't wanna lose the vegetation. But if it were lower,

you can see it.

But this doesn't have to be a permanent space for all future poems. This could be word the first one is, and then the next one could be another place, maybe the same style, maybe the same type of panel or whatever we've chosen. And that way, it's familiar to the community. They know what they're looking for. They know when they see one that it is the same. It's the poet laureate

Mhmm.

Image that it's you know, appears in different parts of the city. So I don't think this particular location needs to be the place for all of them.

I agree.

So I don't I don't think we need to put ourself in a place where we're thinking five, six, seven years down the line. Let's focus on this year, the money that we need to spend now, and do it.

You know? Yeah. I agree.

That's a good point. Yeah.

I think people moving around around the city. To to read them would be a plus. Yes. Yeah.

And then now we have a a walking tour, another tourist attraction for people that's coming in that could, you know Right. Follow that path.

That's kind of why I thought doing maybe the stanzas would move people versus just getting out to look at a And what? Piece of plywood size.

Yeah. It is it is a lengthier poem than

I remember. Lines.

Yeah. So so, I mean, if you're wanting the text to be large enough that even, you know, people on the sidewalk can read without effort, I don't know. You'd want text, like, that big, maybe. I don't know. So, yeah, maybe maybe the idea of having, you know, two, three, four walls that show this, like you said, move people along, maybe that's good. Yeah. Yeah.

And they wouldn't necessarily have to be a straight panel wall. They could be straight and then angle in for the next one and angle almost zigzag close to each other to fill space. If we wanted to get do something artsy with it, that would be to be designed.

Ray, what you're proposing or your initial thoughts of this is we're going to have this context, this poem over some kind of mural that was going to be painted on or something. Who yeah. I mean, it's not it's not two different things. It's just this text.

Yeah. I when I thought about this, I was open to, you know, any kind of variation on the idea. I just thought either just his text, kinda like Peg was saying, or his text and, you know, maybe emblematic artwork on there or just the artwork, like, whatever. I was originally thinking a mural, but I I like the idea of the bio wrapping. I think that could be good and and more sustainable. So, you know, I'm I'm open, you know I whatever you guys would like to do.

I'd rather see the words be the more visible with a plainer background, but maybe we spend a little extra money jazzing up the posts so they're not just four by fours in the ground. Maybe we could do something and paint those so they look like, you know, maybe something coming off that looks like one of our bridges or something. Or you could run

It's an interesting idea.

A real simple k. I don't know they're called. Pale blue wavy lines. Drew behind the words river. Kinda thinks to me river. Right. And that's why I'm thinking the river doing I like that, and then maybe the post having or some kind of topper that looked like the bridge like that ties in with the city and the poem and Yeah. Makes it interesting for people to wanna stop.

Yeah. Alright. So you have other ideas? Or

Yeah. So it sounds like there's some support for that if we can work out the logistics. These are just some examples of built walls that, you know, other communities have done for this kind of artwork. I'll go I'll move on here, though. This was another location that was cited in our reading.

This is at the intersection of Ottawa and Chicago. It's really kind of, in some ways if you're traveling south on the old Route 66, it's in some ways kind of the your your doorstep into Downtown Joliet. It's this triangular lot here that the city owns, and we had some staff that was pretty interested in in dressing this up. Obviously, we can fix the landscaping here. One thing I I did check with the granting authority to see if landscaping was an eligible grant cost, and it is not.

Not surprising, but I wanted to check anyway. You know, I I don't know what I'm sure there's plenty of things we could do or, you know, have an artist do to dress this up in some way. One thing again, my head was just on, like, do we build a mural wall? I think we could do that if we wanted to. It would have to be very much flush with this base of the triangle here just due to site visibility issues with the roads there.

But I tried to measure it out. It seemed like, you know, if we had something that was fairly tight to this base of the triangle, you know, you could do some kind of an artwork there. I don't know if anyone has thoughts on anything that would be interesting to go there. I can put it on street view here too to give you a better idea of where it is.

It's kind

of this triangle here. And this smaller triangle is really what the city already owns or city right away, I guess.

I think whatever we put there, we want it to be effective but somewhat simplistic. You don't wanna be messing with traffic vision. Or

Yeah. What do you say the height requirement is there?

I don't think we would want it to go above this advertisement sign for this business here. I think that's probably seven feet tall. At least seven. That's actually looks taller than that. But

Would would it be one piece or a v piece with something on it? It's up up

to you. And the other thing we could do, I mean, I I realize, you know, this isn't a panel made of visual artists. Like, the other thing we could do is if you're if you're interested in doing something here, we could try to work with a local artist to have them design something.

I just like to mention that Deborah and I are both artists.

Aren't we all?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just any any thoughts in general. They they again, staff kinda just suggested that I

Come on.

Introduce this space and

What I see for this space that's low enough, I know some cis communities do the benches that are painted by artists. Yeah. I think all of that green stuff can be cut out of there that can be laid back down to flat concrete. I know we talked about the pavement painting outside the Slammer Stadium before. If that place that grassy area was flattened, we can do pavement painting that just sort of continues your eye right up into a painted bench where people can sit, you know, that says welcome to Downtown Joliet or Route 66 or historical, you know, like the Vegas sign.

When you get so far off the strip, there's just that little sign that's so famous, but it's a small little thing. Could we could we design it,

you think, in a way that people would wanna stop and it'd be a place for a photo?

For sure. And that could you know, they have that Route 66 sculpture that's over by the museum. Not the museum. The train station now. Right? Isn't there just 60 6? Yeah. Route 66. So even if it's those letters or we can get, you know, something similar to that or even just the bench that can be painted that says Route 66 or

I like the bench and maybe something over the bench that Mhmm. You know? Some kind of rail or something over it that said welcome to Joliet or Route 66 or something that all Ties in. Something similar to what's already up so that there's a continuity through parts of the city? Yes. You know, I think that's to me, that's really important. If everything doesn't, just to fight and shoot stuff in, but there's some relationship.

Do you have images, Ray, of the 66 anywhere in your file or photos here?

Of the route or,

like, their The the sculpture left. The side. The big number. The the two numbers and the I just wanna see how big it is and how much space it takes up.

Are you saying, like, the stuff near Union Station or just

I think there's a Route 66. Yeah. Union Station, and I think there's one in front of the museum as well.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

The one in front of the museum is quite large.

Yeah.

To add some color to it.

That's what I'm thinking, you know, to make this one fun. Yeah.

But that's it looks like that size right there would fit in that triangle. Yeah. It would.

I think it would look cool there.

I would the idea of, like, a a photo op there, I thought about that too if there's, like, photo op art that could be included there. Yeah. We can definitely see if we can get, like, a sign like this and then

try to

paint it. The root sign, and the 66 is placed within it. Yeah. It's painted or something. You know? Mhmm. Like, we don't need it.

And then

the bench would be maybe next to where the

six six is now. Mhmm.

I was trying to think, like, if you were standing here, would this be a good photo op spot of

Of what's behind you?

Yeah. Like, it it like, if there were a piece of art there, then sure. There's a good photo op of the artwork in you. But I don't know if it's like mean, the church is right here.

That's kinda pretty. The signage like she's talking about with the Route 66th, and that would be To your new People would stop and leave their picture in front of that

or Yeah.

Dot that.

That's that's that's the photo op is the artwork.

Right. Right.

Yeah. Would you take down the flower pots?

Maybe. Or Move

them to the side.

Yeah. Yeah. The other thing we talked about too is this got mixed support, so I have to keep vouching for this if if you think it's a good idea. But I know a lot of cities paint these planners. They have artists just like you know, it it could be thematic based or they just paint whatever they want on it. You know, if this were to be, like, a passive recreation area, I think, you know, like, painting those would be kind of a fun idea.

But But then that's maintenance. Yep. Yep. They look good for the first year. Yep. And then they become looking rather do something clean and focus on the artwork, I think. But have some nice flowers in there.

What about the, sculpt? Well, like, in some, like, high schools, they'll take the hedges, and they'll trim them to be the name of the school's mascot, things like that. I mean, I know that's probably slightly more expensive expense, but you know?

Yeah. Like hedge artwork here.

I mean, we could put a

lot of salt on that in the winter to probably kill it.

Right. You have a better feel of this. How important do you think it is that we take these funds and do something that the planners want to do as opposed to something that we think of. It seems like that if we're going to get support from them and work together with them, do we need to make the first step? I mean, like, if this is the area that that they have said needs Yeah.

Some addressing. I mean, I like all these ideas, and I think they would reflect well on everybody. I just you know, it seems like five years or so that we've done this, you know, we're not working with them. And if the work relationship could become better, we might get more things to do, more money going our way. So is that a consideration or just do what we think is best and throw it out there to them and see what

they I mean, would do what you think is best. It's ultimately your commission

I agree. And your funds. Gauge the temperature.

Yeah. And and, you know, I will say, like like, something in this location would manage. It it would it would be an attention getter, I would say. But, ultimately, it's kinda up to you guys how you wanna prioritize projects. So Okay.

To me, this needs more work in something here versus the the parking garage.

Yeah.

Because this is an entrance. An entrance. This is an entrance to the city. This is setting a mood where the other, we have vegetation back. We're talking about trimming it back. Mhmm.

Well, part of the concern to me too is that, you know, the stuff we gotta go out for business stuff and gotta get done and it's money spent by the August, we've run into that problem, it seems like, before.

So that's

a better one to start Yes.

Early in the year.

Early in the budget.

Yeah. I mean, just the the consideration is if whatever we decide on this can get done and and the money spent by then. And that's not to say that we can't pursue this and use next year's money on this, which, you know, if we like it, we should pursue it and then spend next year's money on it starting start now. But we do need to get the money spent. Right? Right?

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. So I guess early things that I'm hearing about this is if we can get a replica of Route 66 sign or or something to that effect here, is there an appetite to have an artist paint something on that, or do we want just the sign there the way it's kinda it is at the other locations?

Well, I like just the sign. Consistency.

Who who mentioned about the sidewalk painting? Is that a little area about the the I mean, I know that's maintenance issue, but, I mean, is that a a small enough area that would I'm just throwing ideas out. I don't know. Like, a little square of the of the concrete.

I'm thinking taking the grass out. I I was considering taking the grass out altogether and having it a complete flat space even if it was paved or concreted slats out and do the do a pavement painting there. I know it was an idea that came up last year at one of the last commission meetings. Mhmm. But I think it would be a beautiful compliment to a bench or something else there, some color as you enter the city.

I like that idea.

Okay.

K. And I feel that whenever you're doing the pavement painting, if it needs maintenance, it doesn't show as much. It has a a weathered, worn look versus, well, that should have been taken down. You know? And

because it's not an area that's gonna be driven on, it may actually last a little longer than, like, an actual road Right. You know, in the months when there's snow and ice and shoveling and, you know, it's a softer, you know, traffic area or just feet, you know, versus cars and stuff like that.

And this gets into probably an additional discussion with our public work staff. They probably wouldn't like me bringing this up or an outfit. Honestly, I I doubt these parking spaces here ever get used.

Think they're not parking spaces.

But we want them to start using them.

I didn't know any parking spaces.

That would be nice. Mhmm.

But, I mean, if we did a pilot pocket park here and it were successful enough, I could see where you could even expand it onto these parking spaces with something. Yes. That's that's probably a discussion for later on. But yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, I think that's pretty that's that's very helpful.

Ray, how how far does Chicago Street work go in that direction? Do you know?

What do you mean by work exactly?

You know, the the roadwork that's that's being done.

Oh, the roadwork that's being done? That is a good question. Yeah. I don't know off the top of my head.

I'm just curious.

I don't think it'll impact this area if that's what you're getting at. Yeah. It's not a month. Yeah. I'll I'll follow-up on that, though.

Alright.

Okay. Well, I think those are some really good design ideas, and I'll talk to our staff about that and see see if Can you can you go

back to the go back to the money

Yes. That'll appear.

Yes. So do we need to act or, I mean, make motions on on on this stuff? I'm I guess I'm concerned that, you know, if we wait till May or or, you know, can we

Yeah. If you wanna make motions on any of these recommendations, you're welcome to. Or I can just kinda run with the guidance that we have here. But, yeah, if you wanna formalize it,

we can Well, we formalized the first three. Right?

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know if anybody saw it. We got $15,000 left to spend. I guess if if if we approve it, then what what does it do? Go go to planning to to do something with it?

No. I I don't see this going to any other public review bodies. You know, it's really just a matter of you saying, staff, we are interested in pursuing this. Please follow-up on it to the best of your ability and Who doesn't? Ray report back on this over the next few months.

I guess I would probably take the lead on that. Ultimately, it's something that we would probably work with public works department on and facilities department on. But, yeah, think I'm not quite sure how we go about getting the sign, but I know Jane Bernard has worked on that for the museum and for the main station. It's just a matter of when can we make those purchases and when can we get those items installed. It's another area where, like, due to the scarcity of time here, I I think, you know, it's maybe unlikely that this gets put up this summer, but if we can purchase the materials and maybe have a contract for artists set up this summer, I think that would be a good start.

And then and then, you know, if there's leftover funds that need to be spent to execute the project, then we budget for that accordingly this summer for 2026. You know?

Well, I'd like to make a motion that we move forward on this Ottawa Chicago Street intersection design design project?

All all of it to this or park to one and park to another?

I would like it all to this, although I love the other one. I think we can get this done, and it's an impression. It's like the entryway, as we said to last city, and I think that's a good place to put them.

Okay.

And I think we should use the Route 662 signs as inspiration. I don't know that we necessarily have to have that exact sign that we have

two

places because we want people to wanna stop. But if we could do a a variation of that, I like the idea of the bench. I like the idea of it being a photo op. And I like the idea of color because I like color.

Could could one one of the one of you artists produce a scope of work, meaning exactly what what you what we're what we're doing. You know, cut that out, pour concrete, or that's what we're doing, buy a sign, paint, you know, so that so that we have direct a direction, and we're proceeding with with whatever, you know, what whatever it is. And then we'll spend the balance of the money and the whatever we don't get finished, we'll use next year's fund to finish it. Is that It's my artwork. Well, know, move the pots to so and so or leave them there, dig up the dig up the grass and and and the trees and pour concrete and, you know, set it

Yeah. I think it I I think it needs to be taken down to a hard surface. I like the idea of the painting on there. I like something I like her ideas of, you know, having the shield sign with the 66 in it and then maybe a bet maybe it attached to a bench or something below it Mhmm. That could be remain see through so that the businesses behind it would be seen, but it would make a definite impression that it was there and there would be a spot to sit at the bench and maybe if it's see through, people can interact with it better.

Right. And then maybe the bench is somehow attached down here that you could sit and do the photo op, but the the sign itself would be see through to not block traffic or My concern is

if if we're gonna run it up the ladder, so to speak, with the city people, we need to have, you know, it spelled out so that they, you know, understand what what it is we're proposing. I like the idea. I think that's a good place if if you guys think that I'll support whatever. But I think we need to be definitive on how we wanna proceed so that when it gets brought to the planners and and the higher ups that we we spell it out, you know, what our vision is. That's all. What do you guys think down there? I mean, I mean, don't you think? I

mean Yes. Do we need a person to do y'all want me to just take the lead on, like, trying to price it out? Like, list it out.

Or maybe just list out.

We gotta list it out. Thinking won't won't Jane or some whoever the people got it. Somebody's gotta bless it. Right?

Yeah. We'll we'll need our our public works and facilities staff to bless it. Yeah. I think, like you're saying, a a list of action items to do here would would be good. You know, like like you're alluding to, get get signed, get benched, remove grass, you know, what parts of this. Whatever else we've discussed here. But

It's a plan. What what which parts of those is cost and we spend money on? If the public works comes in there and digs that out, are they charging us? Or are they just gonna do that?

Yeah. I mean, we'd probably to spend the grand money, we'd probably hire that out just because, you know, I think that I don't view that as a landscaping cost. I view that as a means to produce artwork. Right. Mhmm.

So I don't know. So that that might be up for debate. But yeah. I you know, what whatever I guess, you would all would like to see be done here, just, you know, finalize the list, and then I can take it up the ladder for consideration. And then, you know, like, Deb, you were kind of sketching out something. If if there's anything even at a concept level that could be sketched out for what this might look like, I think that would help too.

I think they have some great ideas down there. I'm just basing it on what Yeah.

We know. Right. Right.

Thrown out and what I visualized from that.

Yeah. Sure.

And, you know, we'd say, you know, site work, 2,000, concrete x amount of dollars, signage, artist work, bench, however else we figure in, and we're gonna come up to the $20,000. Or if it's higher than that, we at least spend the Yeah.

And and if we go over the $15.04 50 that's left, like or whatever it is, Yeah. I I I wouldn't worry about that too much. We have our maintenance funds that we could probably use, you know, if if there is an overage on a project. There's, you know I I could speak with a reasonable degree of confidence as long as it's within a couple grand of that target that we could we could compensate. Yeah.

It's Route 66. It's something the planning partner want. And then we have the expertise, we excluded down there, to do it in an artful fashion. I think it's what they want. It ties into the centennial. It'll reflect well on us that we can do an action item.

I mean, think if it's a time constraint constraint and we end up that we could get the Route 66 that's already placed, you know, at the train station and the museum, but we could add the bench and maybe add color to that Mhmm. Or make something to take that to make this one a little different We you would also be an option in my mind.

You certainly could dig that out, pour the concrete, and put a bench there by the August. And then if the Route 66 sign is still coming and it it comes in September or something and gets set and gets painted or whatever it gets done, at least we're committed and it's it's started.

Yeah. And, I mean, even if we have to pay for those goods that are services up front, you know, we can we can do that. But yeah. No. I think just a list of what it is you all wanna do and maybe a a very rough conceptual sketch would help, and then we'll take it from there.

So outside of this meeting, how would we present information, or do does it need to wait until a meeting?

Present information to, like, me or to

Yeah. Who is this information going to? I mean, to us.

Yeah. I mean, it would themselves. No. It's a good point. You know, with open meeting act laws, like, it's not something where the five of you could get together at a cafe or something and discuss this. I would say a good approach might be if there's, like, an informal subcommittee of two of you that wanna kind of collaborate on this.

Yeah. I think Deborah and I should work on it.

Donna, do you think that there's No. Hey, Deborah. Do you do you think there's certain parts of this

that Deborah next to me.

Yeah. Gotcha.

Do you think there's certain parts of this that are already defined, like the excavation, the purchase of the bench and the sign and the concrete, and then the actual artistry part could be done.

Well, I consider the bench as part of the artistry part Well because depending on what you

I mean, the purchase of the bench.

Oh, well Yeah. We'll we'll decide you don't wanna put something in that competes with, you know, the bench and key. So I think bench should be part of Okay. The design of the

bench. Yeah. I'm I'm fine with the subcommittee. I guess I was trying to say parts of what we can perceive

Yes.

That

I'm not sure.

That aren't, you know, I would say that aren't artistic and and require collaboration to start moving it. And then Functional part. Yeah. And then the then the rest of that can come be the, you know, next month's meeting.

Well, couldn't couldn't they just do a list, do a plan, and send it to you? Is that

Yeah. Definitely.

What it's Yeah.

To to me, it's defined well enough for

We've talked

to somebody. I I would I'm fine with you guys proceeding however you think it's gonna do. You're the artist in the sense that I'm fine with that. I mean but I just wanna see it.

Alright. We're done.

Yep. Yep. So, Peg, you had a motion to follow-up on this. Do you wanna, like, maybe add with Deb and Donna's Absolutely. His subcommittee?

So I'd like to add to my motion that Donna work on a specific list of items to be taken care of for this project, and then we'll we'll be presenting it to you, Grant.

Sure. Okay? Yep.

Alright. Is there

a second? Is there a second? Second.

I'll call roll. Steuber. Hi. Summers.

Hi.

Falado.

Hi.

Simpson. Hi. Frank Stampoy. Sorry.

That's a good one.

Okay. Motion carries.

So We'll should have that by our next meeting. Like

Ideally. Yeah.

Yes. But if we have anything prior, we can send it directly to you, Ray?

Yep. Just email it to

me. Alright.

And if we there's details we need to go over, I'll try to get a special meeting scheduled. Okay. So that one is sounds promising.

That's the balance of the the funds. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever that is. 15 Yeah. Or whatever. Okay.

I got a few other ideas here. We can go over them, or we can just say, you know, we're sort of locked into that piece. It's up to you guys.

Well, why don't you go over

the Yeah.

Next idea was just paying some musicians to perform randomly around town. Like, a 100 for an hour or something like that.

I have

to tell you, you can laugh, But I have a home in Fort Myers, Florida, and Fort Myers is a river town

Mhmm.

That back in the seventies and eighties, no one would go downtown because it was so bad. They have revitalized it, and it's not just the weather because they lose it in the summer. But once a month they have what's called an art walk, and once a month they have what's called music walk. And they do that. They have bands and musicians playing on the corners, or sometimes a venue will sponsor that. And people turn out like crazy.

Yeah. Mean, it it attracts people to places. You know? Like, you you hear it, and your natural instinct, I mean, long as the music's good, is to you know go in that direction right you know my thought was can we align time slots with you know times of higher activity downtown, like slammers games, like an hour before slammers game, Rialto events, you know, weekends at Bay Park when people are just kinda just hanging out at the park or or other parks. You know, these these are very much just off the cuff ideas.

But, you know, just just the thought, like, if we needed to say create say, you know, Ray, we wanna spend 2 or $3 on this and come up with enough time slots at whatever the amount would be, a $100 a pop or something like that. Just an idea. You know, it's I understand a bit outside of the box and and maybe difficult to enforce, you know, performance necessarily in all those times, but just some I thought I'd throw out there.

I think I think it's something that we should maybe lean towards. I haven't seen the effect of it, you know, in in the other cities. However, coordinating with the Slammers game or Rialto in those peak times doesn't bring anybody here because they're already here, and they're focused on going into the game or they're focused on going into the Rialto. I think if we're gonna do something with the music and the art, we wanna bring it people when they're not here to have a reason to come.

I I would say that not necessarily this year, but next year, if the park is done and has a pavilion I mean, a Yeah. A performance space, And it's on Route 66. And there'll be people coming from all over the world country that, you know, Friday at noon. We're just picking that out because it comes, you know, or Thursday after or, you know, some evening, Sunday, whatever, to your point, you know, you do that and you have the space. You know, we will have a stage, and it's something that I like the idea.

I think it's something we consider, you know, using the the new park for. So it means maybe something that my opinion would be something we'd address maybe next year.

I agree. Sure.

What do

you think? Grow out to the other intersections too from there. Sure. It's so smaller like one man. You know? But the key will be to, you know, find the day and make consistent. Consistent and publish it. Yeah.

Your ideal with off peak times, then there would have to be a conservative effort to publish that. Right? Like

Well, yeah, they have they set a calendar, and it's always the first Friday of the month is gonna be art walk, and the third Friday of the month is gonna be music walk because they've established this. We're not established yet. But if you're working towards that, then those are times there are pick times when people aren't necessarily coming down for something. Yeah. Sometimes it coordinates, but you wanna Yeah. You know? Yeah.

And people also like food. So to pair with something like this, if they're up, they're singing for an hour or so, it might be worth it to have coordinate with food trucks. If you bring a little coffee, tea, or barbecue down along with the music and, you know, park across from the music, I think that'll help some other local small business food trucks enjoy it.

Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Food is art too.

It is. Right. I think if

you could bring the the three things together and start small, bringing food, bringing art, bringing music together. And then you can once you establish something, then two years from now, you can start breaking it out that this is music day or night. This is, you know, art. But we have to draw as many people as we can when we get to that.

I think the food and the music would be a good place to start.

I

do. Mhmm. Yeah.

For, like, an hour or two hours maybe.

And I think next year with Route 66 and the the tourism will be a great opportunity. Wherever we do it, it'll be just bringing a lot of people. So, normally, you know, the exposure will be great, I think.

Okay. That's helpful. Any other thoughts on this one? No? This was sort of a fail safe.

If if there weren't other options that sounded good, we could just dump the money into the city square sculpture cause. Right now, that is the artist is kind of reviewing contract for that, so it's it's been stalled a little bit. But, you know, it's it's an option if, say, there weren't any other ideas people here liked or if they're ideas and we can't quite execute it up to the 15,000, we could take the balance and sort of just throw it into that.

Where does that stand? Have have they just is it approved? Is that we're with this design that that we recommended?

Not by counsel yet. No. Yeah. We were just waiting for completion of the contract, but we'll get there. It's just kind of a slow go right now.

It still can be done on time?

I think it could be because the artist's time frame was only eight months Right. To do it. And if it isn't, it's something that we need to roll out in '26. We're, you know, willing to do that at this point. Okay.

This is something that I know we've talked about in the past. There's a little bit of renewed interest with staff on this, kinda like artistic exterior lighting. I think more specifically to some of the more prominent historic buildings downtown was was kinda where the discussion went on this. There's a little bit of a caveat in this grant that I think we can only use up to $5,000 of grant funds for something like this because it's a classified as, like, a permanent infrastructure component. So, you know, this this is another thing that's if if you'd like me to explore more with Jane, Jane was kind of one of the big drivers of of this idea.

We we could potentially look into, like, 3 to $5 of funds going to artistic uplighting of, you know, several buildings around downtown, sort of just throughout Union Station Library, the Lawrie Building at the intersection of Route 66 and Lincoln Highway. Some examples there on the right. I know we talked about railroad underpasses a while ago. I think that could still be done. We are kind of cleaning up a lot of the old artwork underneath the railroad viaducts that are just west of Slanger Stadium.

So those could be good campuses, but I think the the conversation we had was a bit more geared toward, you know, just trying to make buildings a bit more attractive. And, you know, if if we want, we could there are companies that'll design several different images that you want cast on these things. So it's it's an option. I just thought I'd bring it up.

I like it. I'm concerned $5,000 won't go very far.

No. It probably wouldn't. It's something we'd probably have to feed get at our facilities budget to combine.

I mean, it

Yeah.

I think we'd love to work and and and help facilitate it. But Yeah. For $5,000, buy buy a couple lights.

Yeah. Or artists' concepts or whatever. Right. Yeah. Right. Yep. Yeah. We had the same kind of thought. Okay. This next one, this is a bit abstract, but there's this concept that started out of Northern Minnesota called the great places concept, where basically every year they just pick a few spots that are in the public domain and they just let an artist do what they want with it for $5, you know, at a very low cost.

That could be like street or concrete painting or putting in a couple sculptures or there's different ways you could go about doing that. But at a very, very high level, that's something that this commission would be interested in, we have a number of underutilized city owned or operated spaces within this kind of Route 66 footprint downtown that could be viable candidates for something like that. I would probably just try to seek artist designs this summer for it, kind of similar to what

we did

with the utility boxes last year pay like a couple $100 or whatever for their time to make those designs and then in 2026 budget for I don't know, whatever that dollar amount is, $5,000 for a space to remake some of these spaces into kind of like living artwork, so to speak. On the right there are just some of the spaces that we we already talked about. One of them that could be potential uses for something like this, but I realized I didn't include any examples from the concept here. But just throwing that out there again, seeing if that's something that might sound good. This river wall lot is one that always kinda jumps out at me.

It's certainly underutilized space. And I think long term, it it'll be developed. But in the short term, in a, like, two to five year window, I think there's opportunity to activate that space more than it is. So, yeah, just wanted to throw that out there, I guess. Or I can keep just kinda going.

Last one is I touched on this a little bit. We have all these planters downtown. We kinda work with the city center partnership on maintenance of these planters, but there are a lot of cities that let their local artists paint these planters. It's something we could look into. Understand that maintenance is an issue just like anything else that you're gonna paint. Depending on the scope or scale of what we would do with something like this, we'd have to budget in that maintenance accordingly, but just wanted to throw the idea out there again.

I like the planter project. I was part of a planter project at the Yorktown Mall. So if you guys been there lately, look for my planter. It's still there. But it's a nice way to get groups out of all ages.

I work with teenagers. This could be if we keep it graphic, like the artworks in this photograph and not try to do anything that is realistic or representational and we strictly work graphically with you know the elements and principles and lines and shapes and colors, repetition, things like that. We can probably get the local high school kids involved and make it more community based outreach with the planters. I think that's an attainable activity for early fall, even late summer.

Okay.

I like the idea of getting schools involved and even community people. I would love to go out and paint something like this and be part of it, but we have never had Mhmm. You know, something

like that. Even if the designs are sort of predetermined

Right.

And groups are assigned to planters and we hand them a image that, you know, we want to see that similar and let them sort of explore that, you know, idea.

Okay. Yeah. That definitely makes sense.

Ray, is something like is something like this is it any chance that the city would say, especially with Route 66, if we said, Okay, there's a dozen of these. I'm just picking a number. In this particular area that we want to focus, that the city would say, based on what you have here, x the number of $1,000 per fan. Say, would they give is there a way to give $12,000 out and and and say, The ones in front of you know, on Route 66 so that it could get started, or that you think it has to come out of our our funds that we have. I mean, if somebody can look at this and say, especially with the tourism that's coming next year

Yeah. I

like you know, we would allow you to do a dozen of these, and here's where we wanna focus and then let what we're talking about, whether you know, however we do it with the, you know, with the schools or something like that. Mhmm. You know, make it small enough where they could, throw us a little something, but it would reflect well enough on us that, all right, we get some momentum going. I Are

you getting at seeking, like, external sponsorships or something for this stuff?

Well, I didn't think of that, but certainly or just somehow if if, you know, the higher ups

Yeah.

Like the idea, could say, okay. We'll allow x a number of dollars to do something like this. And then

So what I what I can definitely do is go over this slide deck with my boss and and pinpoint the ones that received sort of favorable feedback here. And then say, you know, we're working on probable costs for a couple of these maybe. Are there funds elsewhere if we want to do more? Right? Yeah. We can we can certainly have that conversation. I mean, you know,

it sounds like we got our money allocated for this North Chicago Street project with the bench and stuff. But I like this idea and especially working with the schools that think with the Route 66, it's somebody I keep saying the higher ups. But they say, well, kind of like we did with the boxes, a dozen. And somebody up there, up upstairs, so to speak, points out the ones. And then we we would need to get the money, though. Right? I mean

Yeah. I mean, we would wanna have that budgeted out, and we'd wanna have a scope of how many of these planters we really wanna paint. Maybe it's all of them. I don't know. But I know they come in different sizes too. But, yeah, mean, if it's something that you all want to pursue, we'll make it happen some way or another. Might might might not be within one budget year, but we'll we'll make it work eventually.

Yeah. You know, I think if if we like the idea that we need to put it out there for him to chew on, so to speak

Yeah. No. I understand.

Happens. You know? And then if they decide, well, man, we really want this to be done by, you know, 2026 when the park is open and the people are coming. Yeah. Oh, jeez. We'll throw you a little something. Guys, keep going.

Right. And so It's possible. Yeah.

Are we having these type of planners in or near the park that maybe that that would where our focus would be? Yeah. Instead of spreading them out all over, you know, have a if if the splash is the park and we can do around the park.

The only thing with that is I'm not sure if there's a predetermined aesthetic for what's going in there at the park. But it's a good it's a good thought. Yeah. I don't know.

Well And it could be the ones surrounding the park or coming up the street to

the Right.

That we have

some to start to bring.

I I just contend that if if if the artists do their thing, it will sell itself, and it will gain momentum. We just gotta get it up, and we just gotta get it started.

We also How

do we

how do we start that? You know what mean? Throw the idea out there. Let them Yep.

We also have to look at when you're painting it because you when the flowers are overflowing the pot, you don't wanna be splashing paint and trying to do this project. Yeah. Good point. Timing. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Those were all the slides I had. You know, if there's any other thoughts on downtown art or beautification projects, we can talk about that, or you can just email me if you have any you have a light bulb moment and you wanna send me something?

I will probably email you about the planner project.

Yeah. That'd be great.

Just think it's very tangible. There's no need to sort of drag our feet on it.

So Sounds good.

Thank you.

We're trying to make art happen. Let's do it.

Yeah. Sounds great. Okay. So we sort of combined a couple agenda items there, but we can sort of proceed here to item five a.

New business. And

that item is election of arts commission chair. So Ron brought up last meeting that he's right. Our bylaws state that we're supposed to have the chair and vice chair election, first meeting of the month. Ron has technically served two terms already even though they weren't two full years. You know, he was elected in, like, June 2023 and then elected in, like, May 2024 due to reorganizations.

He didn't serve two full years, but did serve two terms. So we will need a new chair if there's any nominations. And it can be someone who is not here, I'm told.

Let me ask you a question. Can someone like Ron be a vice chair?

I don't believe he can. Think he's gotta take he's gotta sit out a year before he is a officer again.

Who's our vice chair now?

Tom Gratopsky is our vice chair.

Should we move Tom to the chair? Well He said he was interested

in it. He said he would be open to serving in either of these roles.

And and I guess I'm a little concerned if he can he hasn't been able to make the medias lately, but any interest on it? Well, I'm I I the way you're the way you're the way you're getting things done Yeah. Is is is encouraging. Yes. And that's not to say that you're the only one that can do it, but I like what I'm seeing.

I don't wanna fail. I just wanna make sure I'm sure about what I the role of fully sure about what it entails, but I am open to it.

What if Tom was voted as chair vice chair? As you did so nicely tonight, steps up when he can't be here.

Yeah. Yeah. He has to work together. Part of the role.

Yep. That works for me.

Do we have to do that in two separate?

Yeah. Yeah. Two different motions would be good.

So K. Well, I'll move that Tom Gratowski is our new chair.

I'll second it.

K. Motion is second. Do we got here? Summers. Aye. Falado. Aye. Frank Stapley.

Aye.

Simpson. Aye. Stoeber. Aye. Okay. Tom is the new chair.

Congratulations, Tom.

I like to nominate Donna Frank Tapley as vice chair.

L second.

And these are two year terms. Right?

One year. One year. Just for the rest of the calendar year. So not even really one year at this point.

I see.

Okay. Motion and second for Donna for vice chair. Philotto.

Aye.

Frank Stapley. Aye. Simpson. Aye. Steuber. Aye. Summers. Motion carries. Item c there was sort of blended into our previous discussion. So I I don't know if there's anything we need to discuss on that, if that's okay with everyone here.

Agree. Okay. So number six, we're any more new or old business?

I don't have any.

There's no public to comment, so we're gonna move for adjournment.

So move.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor of adjourning signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned. Thanks everyone.