Kane County Reporter

City of Aurora Sustainable Aurora met March 8.

Here is the minutes provided by the Commission:

Call To Order:

This was called to Order

Roll Call:

Caryl Riley: I would like to call this Sustainable Aurora Meeting for Thursday, March 8, 2018 to order it is 18 pm.

I will now call the role, please signify by saying “here”: Member O’Neill , present Member Perkins, present Secretary Wan, present Vice-Chairman Bates and I, Chairman Riley am present.

Others Present:

Caryl Riley: For City Staff representation we have Alex Minnella, Planner.

Minutes:

Caryl Riley: First Item on the Agenda is the Review and Approval of the Minutes from the September 7, 2017 meeting. Are there any requested corrections to the minutes as written?

Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the minutes from the September 7, 2017 meeting as written?

Motion has been moved by Member Bates and seconded by Member Wan.

All those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye, all those opposed by saying nay. Motion carries the minutes are approved.

This Minutes was approved and filed

Caryl Riley: First Item on the Agenda is the Review and Approval of the Minutes from the December 14, 2017 meeting. Are there any requested corrections to the minutes as written?

Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the minutes from the December 14, 2017 meeting as written?

Motion has been moved by Member Bates and seconded by Member Wan.

All those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye, all those opposed by saying nay. Motion carries the minutes are approved.

This Minutes was approved and filed

Agenda:

ComEd Region Grant Opportunity

Caryl Riley: The next item on the agenda is the ComEd Region Grant Opportunity.

We will first hear a presentation by Alex Minnella on this item.

Alex Minnella: ComEd has committed to supporting municipalities, townships, counties, park districts, conservation districts and forest preserve districts in northern Illinois with their ongoing efforts to protect or improve public spaces for the benefit of all. ComEd designed the ComEd Green Region Program to assist local communities in these efforts by providing funding for some expenses towards these goals.

Staff met with Joe Hopp (Public Properties Admin), John Russell (Grant Writer), Ben Moon (Maintenance Supervisor), and Cathy Hayen (Horticulturist) in regards to the ComEd Green Region Grant the advisory board brought up to City’s attention.

The intent is to apply for the $10,000 ComEd Green Region Grant. This is envisioned to be a sensory education garden using pollinator species of plants. Part of this grant will be education signs placed in the gardens so that visitors can understand the purpose and importance of the pollinator plants.

The City of Aurora is making major enhancements to a highly visible downtown mall/park in 2018. If we were selected to recieve the grant, we will create a series of raised pollinator gardens with educational signage throughout the mall/park area. Over 120,000 visitors, young and old, will enjoy the gardens -- and learn about the importance of pollinators.

The City of Aurora will include four Pollinator Gardens as part of its reconstruction of the downtown Water Street Mall in 2018. The gardens will display various native plants needed by local pollinators.

Pollinator gardens invite butterflies, bees, beetles and other insects – and we will use Green Region funding to purchase a wide variety of plants which will attract these insects.

The brick-paved Water Street Mall runs for one block in downtown Aurora, with Aurora City Hall and a community playhouse on the western edge, and a few businesses and two small City parks to the east. Presently, the Mall serves mainly as a walkway for the thousands of visitors to City Hall and nearby businesses, and downtown’s Paramount Theatre and RiverEdge Park concert venue.

The City plans to install three raised planter beds, with concrete curb barrier, as pollinator gardens along the eastern side of the Mall, and a smaller pollinator garden at the south end of the Mall. The gardens along the eastern edge each will be approximately 33-by-10-feet, and the smaller garden will be about 8-by-15-feet.

These pollinator gardens will provide the City Horticulturist and Sustainable Aurora Advisory Board an opportunity for large-scale public outreach and education about pollinators and pollinator gardens, through the use of informative signage at the garden beds. The deadline to submit applications is March 16, 2018 and John Russel, Grant Write with the City of Aurora, will apply with the assistance of member Karen Wan, Bernina Perkins, and other staff members. Selected communities eligible for the grant will be announced this spring, in May.

The advisory board members discussed about the next steps and the involvements each member will have.

Caryl Riley: Does the Board have any questions or discussion on this item?

Hearing none – We will move on to the next agenda item.

This was discussed

Pending

Announcements:

Caryl Riley: Are there any announcements by the Members of the Board?

Mavis Bates: GreenFest will feature the Earth Hour 2018 on March 24, 2018 from 6:30 pm thru 8:30 pm at the SciTech Hands On Museum. It will be a free event tailored to raise awareness for healthy living and a healthy environment by encouraging creative play at the downtown museum in a limited illumination environment.

Save the date for Aurora Greenfest that will take place this September 22, 2018 in Aurora.

Karen Wan: Save the date for the next Fox Valley Sustainability Forum on Water that will take place on April 5, 2018 from 1:00 pm thru 3:00 pm at the Hickory Knolls Discovery Center.

Speakers have been invited to talk about water conservation, water quality protection, storm and flood resiliency and more.

On the agenda: Community institution and residential strategies, programs and resources for flood mitigation and storm water runoff reduction, Municipal resiliency planning and programs, Update on habitat and connectivity study of Fox River dams and progress report on nutrient pollution reduction, an overview on a new, free resource for elected officials and community leaders on best practices for ensuring safe and sustainable drinking water systems for our region now and into the future: Drinking Water 1-2-3. Plus, a highlight on drinking water issues facing communities within the Great Lakes region.

Adjournment:

Caryl Riley: That concludes our scheduled business for this meeting. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?

Motion has been moved by Member Bates and seconded by Member Wan. All those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye, all those opposed by saying nay.

Motion carries the meeting is adjourned at 6:58 pm.

This was adjourned

https://www.aurora-il.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03082018-1391