Friends of Dicken Woods General Assembly
Minutes for the Wednesday, February 4, 2004 meeting at Dicken Elementary School
Attending were Helen & Mason Barr,
Mike Champion, Felix Chmiel, Brian Cressman, Jack Eaton, Sandy Foulke,
Kay Holsinger & Doug Wood, Stephanie Hunter, Tom Ivacko, Mary Anne
Jaeger, Sophia Jan, Tim Kennedy, Theresa Leite, Harvey & Rayelene
Mieske, Jan Newton, Deb Norbotten, Bob Palmer, Burt & Nan Perry,
David Read, Erik Stalhandske, Leslie Westbury, Marian Williams, Carol
& Max Ziegler.
Erik Stalhandske chaired the meeting and opened proceedings at 7:03. All present introduced themselves.
Agenda. Erik reviewed the agendaand asked
for any changes. A presentation by David Read, Master Gardener and new
member of Friends of Dicken Woods, was added to the agenda.
Parks Dept. Updates. Tom Ivacko reviewed
the Park Advisory Commission meeting that he and Jim Boyd attended on
1/19/04. A letter had been submitted to PAC for their meeting packet,
outlining FoDW's concerns about the continued possibility that the Ann
Arbor District Library would build on DW and also about City Council's
apparent rejection of our donation of $50,000 toward the purchase price
of Dicken Woods. The letter outlined possible alternative uses of
FoDW's funds, to be administered by FoDW in support of improving the
woods. That letter also asked for further input from PAC to help FoDW
reconcile Council's action with our pledge. PAC debated and strongly
affirmed that they expect FoDW to donate the $50,000, based on the
assumption that the land would remain as open space and not be sold or
developed. In addition, the two Council representatives on PAC (Bob
Johnson and Wendy Woods) firmly stated that Council did not reject
FoDW's donation, and would in fact welcome it.
Tom also reviewed the latest update from Jayne Miller of the City
services area responsible for parks. Miller said the city is scheduled
to close the purchase of DW on February 13, and she fully expects that
date to hold firm. Once the city owns the property, she expects to
speak with the AADL to see if they have any interest in building a
branch library on DW, and then she plans to meet with FoDW to take any
further steps.
Discussion. Much discussion ensued among
the membership regarding all these issues, and focusing on how FoDW
could donate the funds with some kind of assurance that DW would remain
as open space and not be sold for development at some future point.
Conservation easements and/or deed restrictions were discussed, along
with the potential difficulties of getting city approval for either such
action.
Vote on Funds. Language was proposed and
debated at length, and amended a few times. The final language was
moved for a vote by Kay Holsinger and seconded by Marian Williams. The
final vote was unanimous in favor, with one abstention, for the
following statement:
- "Friends of Dicken Woods will donate $50,000 to the
City of Ann Arbor Park Acquisition Fund upon a good faith authoritative
commitment from the city to permanently protect as open space the entire
10.14 acres of property known as Dicken Woods."
Master Gardeners Program. Next, David
Read, Master Gardener and newest member of FoDW, presented a short
overview of the Master Gardener (MG) program, including its history and
mission. The MG process requires volunteer service of its members, and
much of that service is done currently in other city natural areas such
as Bird Hills, Furstenburg, Bandemer, etc. David discussed the
possibility of having the MG program partner with FoDW in a long-term
effort to help improve the ecological quality of DW by identification
and removal of invasive species, planning, nurturing and planting of
native species, etc. David's offer was eagerly received by the
membership and David received a round of ovations for his wonderful
efforts on this front. Discussions will continue between FoDW, the MG
program and the City's Natural Areas Preservation Division staff to see
if such a partnership is possible.
Budget. Deb Norbotten reviewed the
budget. After all expenses (including those approved later in this
meeting), FoDW has $42,370 in the bank. There are currently $5,800 of
outstanding pledges. $2,100 in previously pledged donations were
rescinded after the October 2003 City Council vote to purchase DW left
open the possibility of AADL building a branch library on DW. Deb or
Erik will recontact the members who have the $5,800 in currently
outstanding pledges to provide an update and see if they are now willing
to donate those funds. FoDW may also consider recontacting those
members who rescinded their pledges to see if they would in fact still
donate if we receive assurances from the city that DW will remain as
open space, according to the approved resolution above.
Various expenses were discussed, including reimbursements for signs,
the environmental report from spring 2003, website charges, and postage.
Jack Eaton moved approval of the expenses; Nan Perry seconded the
motion, and it was approved unanimously.
Fundraising. Jack noted that we do not
yet have $50,000 to donate to the city, as pledged, and so our first
order of budget business is to the raise the remaining balance. Erik
then spoke about future fundraising ideas. David Barrett, the
musician-extraordinaire who was key to organizing the August 2003
benefit concert at the Ark has offered to do it again! David really
enjoyed performing the first concert and thinks the DW efforts are
worthwhile, so he is willing to put his time in again on our behalf.
This is a really wonderful offer. Erik is in touch with the Ark to try
to arrange a date. Jack will help Erik on concert planning issues.
Other assistance would be very welcome.
In addition to a 2nd Annual DW Benefit Concert, members discussed
organizing a 2nd Annual DW neighborhood garage sale. Stephanie Hunter
suggested spreading this sale across 5 or 6 (or more) houses this time.
Naela Jenkins (via an earlier email message) had offered to help
organize the sale again. Stephanie and Leslie Westbury offered to work
on this effort too.
Last fall FoDW received an offer to possibly host a fundraising event
at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase. Brian will now followup to
investigate that possibility.
Tom and Judy Ivacko and Brian will investigate T-shirt sales as
another fundraising option. Tom modeled his FoDW T-shirt at the meeting
(after promising no Superbowl-inspired "shocking moments"). The shirt
features the FoDW logo (designed by Brian Cressman and Amanda Humphrey).
It was further noted that FoDW still has not contacted local
businesses for fundraising assistance, and that option will be
investigated at a future point.
Dicken Elementary. Mary Anne Jaeger,
Dicken Elementary Principal, then spoke about the impact on Dicken
Elementary of having DW saved as a natural area. Mary Anne expressed
the school's appreciation for FoDW's efforts, and supported the new
collaboration between the school and FoDW. Mary Anne strongly supported
the idea of FoDW making micro-grants to Dicken classrooms to help
integrate DW into the educational experience. She noted that in these
very difficult budget times, this kind of creative fundraising is very
helpful.
Walking Tours. Mike Champion will
organize an afterschool walking tour of DW with any interested Dicken
teachers and staff. Mike will also host weekly walking tours for any
interested individuals. Generally the tours would be scheduled on
Saturdays at 11:00am, meeting at the end of Dicken Drive. Contact Mike
(mc@xegesis.org; 747-6499) for more information.
Followup note after the meeting: the Dicken Teachers walkthrough has
been scheduled for 4 pm on Tuesday 2/10 and the Saturday tours at 11 am
will be held the next 2 Saturdays (2/7 & 2/14) starting from the end
of Dicken Drive -- no reservations necessary - anyone is welcome to
join the walks.
Brian also offered to help arrange to have various nature experts
come to do guided nature walks, including possibly for Dicken
classrooms.
Trails Committee. Next, Doug Wood, Chair
of the newly formed Trails Committee, spoke about the process for
planning and establishing a network of trails in DW. Doug encouraged
anyone who is interested to provide input to the planning and
implementation process. Doug hopes to have initial plans ready to begin
first stage work on the most obvious and non-controversial aspects of
the trails network as quickly as possible after the scheduled purchase
of DW on Feb. 13. The work would need to be coordinated with the city,
and the first stage efforts would be designed to not interfere with the
eventual DW master plan (see below). The Trails Committee consists of
the following individuals: from FoDW: Stephanie Hunter, Mike Champion,
Tim Kennedy, Doug Wood (Chair), David Read, and Debbie Johnson; from
Dicken Elementary: Mary Anne Jaeger (Principal) and Ken Monash (5th
grade teacher); From the Ann Arbor Public Schools: Dave Szczygiel
(Environmental Consultant), and yet to be determined members from the
City of Ann Arbor.
Master Plan. The meeting wrapped up with
Erik noting an agenda item that we didn't have time to discuss: the
creation of a Master Plan for DW. The SC will begin efforts to work on a
Master Plan (probably a 5-year plan) for the improvement of DW, but
this document will need to be coordinated with other organizations,
including the city, Dicken Elementary, and hopefully the MG program.
The meeting ended at 8:56 p.m.
Minutes taken by Tom Ivacko.