11/15/2019
Meeting Minutes 11/14/2019 - Taken by Secretary Carol DeVries
A pizza social at 6 pm was held before the meeting as a thank you to all our volunteers who put in so much time and energy in this, our first season, of making our grounds even more beautiful. A special thank you goes out to Steve for donating the pizza, Joyce for donating the soft drinks, Barbara for donating the snacks and wine, and Susan for donating the wine and cheesecake. Thank you also to Susan, Don and Carole for setting up the room.
Meeting started at 6:40. In attendance were Susan, Steve, Joyce, Bill H., Bill R., Mary, Barbara, Don, Chris, Suzanne and Carole. Secretary report read and approved. Bill R., treasurer, reported we have $532 in cash. Susan submitted two receipts to Bill for reimbursement from First Service. This was for seasonal decorations for along the sidewalk in the front and large brown debris bags.
Board needs our 2020/2021 budget by March. Our landscaping board will meet to come up with a proposal to present to our landscaping committee members for their input. Please call or email any of our board members with your wishes soon. Just like last year we will be giving GPE board a 5 year plan.
Joyce is resigning as co-chair of our committee. She is unable to do any physical gardening work but will do the two holiday pots outside the Fireside Room and will decorate the large pot by the front door using money donated to us by Wendy and Bob. Mary will take Joyce’s place until we have elections for new board members. Thank you, Joyce, for all your contributions over the years.
Much discussion was made about how to get information out to members. Chris is going to do research on this, thinking maybe about creating a Facebook Group page.
Suzanne and Mary volunteered to shred four bags of newspapers so they can be ready to put in our compost bin when needed in the spring. We would like all our committee members to not only start shredding your own newspapers for us but to also save your coffee grounds and gray egg cartons for the compost bin. Egg shells also.
Discussion about upcoming projects include the GPE board wanting us to come up with a design for the area we are calling the “picnic “ area. Do we turn it into a nice hosta garden by dividing and transplanting some of the many hostas we have or do something else? None of the shrubs there now are good. Soil is very poor and there are many large tree roots making doing anything in that area difficult. New mulch needs to be put around property in spring, old shrubs need to be pulled out. Don and Carole meet with Dustin, the Arborist from the city recently. He said because of all our trees it will be difficult to have nice shrubs. Trees make too much shade. Dustin did suggest trimming the majority of our existing shrubs right down to the ground to try to manage them better as they grow back. That has not been done in the past. Bill H suggested buying a large watering wagon to make watering easier but it was determined most of our committee members aren’t strong enough to pull it around. Don has provided us all with long, lightweight hoses that work well.
A high priority job in the spring will be to dig up many of the lilies along the rock wall across from the garage door. Suzanne will oversee this project. They are overgrown and need to be thinned out.
The Irwin Island job is complete. It required many hours not only from our volunteers but also Alan, our neighbor across the road. He dug up, weeded, provided compost from his bin and planted some butterfly loving plants in that area. That area only gets water from Mother Nature. Alan water it using his hoses during dry weather. Our volunteers will be weeding the area.
Meeting adjourned at 7:40. Next meeting Thursday, January 9th, 6:30.
Respectfully submitted
Carole DeVries, secretary
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Archived as a word file as a permanent record available upon request. C Scull
