Auburn Beautification Commission
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Present: Sarah Dibble Rhinehart, Chuck Mason, Joan Macholl, Glenn Thomas, Susan Secaur, Claire Lovell
- Motion to call to order at 5:05 pm
- Park Clean up on Earth Day
- Thanks and congratulations to the team members who were able to do park clean up day! It looked great and we got good media coverage.
- Volunteers cleaned up something like 1200 pounds of trash, despite Verizon linemen cleaning the same area a few weeks before Earth Day.
- Joan noted there were thousands of masks and cart wipes from Wegmans.
- Chuck suggests that if this event becomes our signature event, and we get lots of people every time, we could expand down to Buonocore Park and into downtown.
- Joan had talked to Kathryn Becker, who’s in charge of the National Honor Society at the high school, and she mentioned that the NHS kids have already gotten their credits by Earth Day.
- 2023’s event will land on actual Earth Day (Saturday). Hopefully we’ll have good weather.
- Welcome to Auburn Signs
- The W was replaced on the Lake Ave sign, although we’re not sure by whom. Chuck suggested it might have been the City DPW.
- Glenn installed all the solar lights at the different signs. Thanks, Glenn!
- Chuck approved as Treasurer
- All vote to approve Chuck as official Treasurer.
- Treasurer’s Report
- There was $17,928 in the bank when Joe turned over the accounts to Chuck. There have been 8 checks written since then, and $13,822.77 remaining, before any annual payment by the City.
- ~$700 to custom accounting services
- ~$650 for board liability insurance for the year
- $2,000 for subsidizing flowers downtown
- ~$400 to Claire for historic marker sign paint and South Street garden soil and plants
- ~$80 for work gloves and bags from Earth Day cleanup.
- It would be best to have Sarah’s bankcard do purchases (rather than reimbursement checks).
- There was $17,928 in the bank when Joe turned over the accounts to Chuck. There have been 8 checks written since then, and $13,822.77 remaining, before any annual payment by the City.
- Fall cleanup
- What sites are good to do for a fall cleanup?
- Historic Markers
- Claire had repainted two signs: one on East Genesee near Morris Street and one on Lake Ave near Camp Street. They attracted attention, which has prompted the City to take down a sign and check what it would cost for a professional repainting (ie. powder coat).
- Crocus Planting
- We planted crocuses in several places in 2021:
- Pomeroy Park near Veteran’s Memorial. Most of the daffodil bulbs were missing this spring (possibly eaten by squirrels?).
- Little playground park near Willards Chapel on Seymour, which could use some fixing up on the playground. It was done with community block development grant about 22 years ago. The crocuses were planted around the young trees and did bloom.
- Along the North Street cemetery fence. Claire planted 500 crocuses along the cemetery fence but they didn’t come up this spring. We’ll wait another year but maybe next year we could try something hardier like lily of the valley.
- Along the lawn on Mary Street at Clifford Park near the tennis courts. A few came up.
- We planted crocuses in several places in 2021:
- Auburn High school
- A handful of years ago, ABC planted red tulips in a ribbon-shape. It could use more attention again.
- Permaculture Park
- It was sponsored by ABC at times in the past, but it was mostly done by Peter Cramer.
- Pete used to have weeding parties. The park could use some more attention. He has a group of volunteers who will check up on the park.
- The city bought the shed and it has some (but not a lot) of tools in it.
- Downtown art statue
- Joe Sarnicola had forwarded an announcement to Claire for Sarah to see about a Skywoman statue to Sarah for ABC to support. The statue will go forward, and ABC has vocalized its support for it.
Next meeting: Monday, August 22nd at 5 pm