Friends of Dicken Woods General Assembly
Draft Minutes for the Monday, May 3, 2004 meeting at Dicken Elementary School
Attending were Helen Barr, Mike Champion, Jack Eaton, Kay Holsinger,
Doug Wood, Stephanie Hunter, Tom Ivacko, Naela Jenkins, Debbie Johnson, Deb Norbotten, Bob Palmer,
Erik Stalhandske, Leslie Westbury, Max Ziegler.
Erik Stalhandske chaired the meeting and opened proceedings at 7:02.
$50,000 contribution to the city. Erik
reported that he spoke with the new contact person at the city regarding
whether it would be OK from the city's perspective if FoDW waited to
make the $50,000 contribution towards the purchase price of DW, until
after our summer fundraisers. The contact person said she would contact
PAC for further feedback.
Press coverage for cleanup day. Erik
reported that he has contacted the Ann Arbor News to see if they will
cover our May 8th cleanup day. The paper is reviewing this and we are
hopeful that they will send a photographer and/or reporter.
Cleanup Day. Doug Wood reviewed the
status of plans for the May 8th cleanup day. The Trails Committee (TC)
has thoroughly planned the efforts for the day, including trails work.
The TC has coordinated closely with the City's Natural Areas
Preservation Division. A number of the early goals have already been
accomplished. As for May 8th, the top priority is cleaning trash (large
and small) since that is what we absolutely need the city's assistance
on (removing the trash) and we have their commitment for. The next
priority will be cutting the new trails, and that will begin if we have
more than enough people on the 8th for trash removal (which is probably
something in the range of 12-15 people).
As for trash removal, the city will have a truck at the end of Dicken
Drive throughout the cleanup process. At the end of the process,
they'll bring the truck to S. Maple Road where the large trash items
will be. We'll need to load the trash onto the truck. People will
gather initially on the 8th in the Dicken parking lot and will then walk
over to the end of Dicken Drive. When it's clear how many people we
have, we'll split trash removers into those will walk the periphery to
remove loose trash items, and those who will go to the farm house area
to remove large items and other areas to remove concrete chunks. If we
have enough people at that point, we'll also designate those to start
cutting trails.
As for trails, the areas to be cut will be marked in water soluable
paint by Friday May 7. Branches that are cut will be left in the woods
to help mark the trails. Other existing large brush piles can be used
to further mark the trails and to cut-off the old open areas that were
created by Atwell-Hicks when surveying for Crosswinds last year. If we
want to further disperse any large existing brush piles, we can simply
drag them further into the woods and spread them out. If the large
piles are rearranged into many very small piles (or into no piles at
all), they'll quickly break down. The new trails should be roughly 2
feet - 3 feet wide and cut high-enough so tall people don't get hit in
the face by branches. We don't want to open trails larger than they
need to be. Trails training sessions are available by meeting at the
end of Dicken Drive at 7pm on Tues, Weds. and Thursday before the May
8th cleanup day. Eventually wood chips will be placed along the trails.
At the moment, the city's supply of chips is spoken for, but if we can
arrange for a truck to pick up more, we can probably get a large
quantity free from the City's Materials Recovery Facilty.
The message from the TC is that we are ready and organized for a
large work crew to show up on the 8th. And the more people we have, the
merrier and quicker the work.
Bob Palmer is getting the cleanup day flyer distributed to all Dicken
school families. It was decided that we should create a similar flyer
that isn't specific to the school, and we should distribute it to the
surrounding condo associations. Tom Ivacko will draft the new flyer and
forward it to the associations.
Jack Eaton offered thanks to Doug Wood, Mike Champion, Stephanie
Hunter, Deb Norbotten and the rest of the TC for all the great work
they've done so far. Erik offered thanks to Bob Palmer for his work
getting the cleanup day info distributed via Dicken Elementary. Bob
noted that the school has been supportive. Naela Jenkins thanked Max
Ziegler for his offer to bring Washtenaw Dairy donuts to the cleanup
day. Mmmm, donuts. Naela will also be bringing lemonade. In addition,
NAP will supply water and bagels.
A message to the FoDW mailing list should be sent out Friday morning,
May 7th, to remind people about the cleanup day. Tom will draft the
message.
Erik will contact Margie Teall so she and city council know about the continuing efforts of FoDW.
Caring for the trees we planted.
Stephanie noted that NAP tells us we should make sure to water and
provide mulch for the 2 trees we planted last fall. If residents at the
end of Dicken Drive could do this it would be extremely helpful.
Finances. Deb reported on the finances.
Including the recent $500 donation from a member that was earmarked for
Dicken Elementary School microgrants, FoDW now has $46,620 in the bank
account. After further conversations regarding prior pledges, we hope
to receive another $2,000 towards the promised $50,000 contribution to
the city. If those funds come through, and if our summer fundraisers
(garage sale and concert) are successful, we could end the summer with a
few thousand dollars after making our $50,000 contribution to the city.
That would be a wonderful place to begin planning for future
microgrants and other operations.
Taxes. Erik thanked Jack for handling
our tax reporting obligations. Jack has filed for the automatic 3-month
extension, and he is currently working on the necessary forms. Jack
will forward further questions to SC members. The forms primarily
require us to describe our activities over the last year.
Minutes to prior meetings. Jack
motioned to postpone approval of the minutes from the March and April
general membership meetings. Naela seconded the motion. Any interim
comments on the draft minutes can be sent to Jim Boyd. All approved.
Garage Sale. Naela has drafted flyers
for the garage sale, and she'll send them around the SC for comments.
We hope to get the flyers into the Dicken School distribution system by
June 1. The current plans show that items can be dropped off at the
Jenkins' house between June 11 and June 18. Naela will be organizing
the sign up sheet for help on cleaning and tagging items and for the
sale days themselves (Fri. June 25 and Sat. June 26). Setup times for
the sale days will begin at 7am, though the sale itself won't begin
until later. Naela has contacted Barnes Ace Hardware and they have
agreed to donate items to the sale. Naela will get a tax receipt form
from Deb and will give it to Barnes. Barnes will fill in the value of
the items.
Benefit Concert. Erik has been
organizing the benefit concert. It is scheduled for Sunday August 29
from 7:30 - 9:30pm at the Ark. The Ark has been very supportive and is
offering us a reduced rate charge for the venue. The musicians have
also been extraordinarily supportive. We expect the concert to include
George Bedard and the Kingpins, Matt Watroba, Al Hill and Whitley Hill,
Dave Barrett, and possibly others too. Ticket prices will again be $20.
Erik will investigate whether than can be claimed as tax deductible in
part. Jack will work on the program for the concert, but will need
help gathering information about the musicians.
Next meeting of FoDW will be on Thursday June 10.
The meeting ended at 8:10pm.
Minutes by Tom Ivacko