BEAUTIFICATION COMMISSION

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Attendees: K. Hurst, S. Poulson, A. Cumming, M. Maupin, B. MacDonald, B. Bowers, J. Lattanzi, D. Ford-Werntz

Design Presentation: Ashley Kyber, WVU independent contractor, made a presentation of her design plan for the Speiger Lot. She worked with a $5,000 budget. From the City she would need fill dirt and recycled or broken up concrete. She told us that the current condition of the lot is like that of a rooftop garden. Crushed brick would be the main ground material. There would be two beds – one a rounded circular bed with yellow sedum and coreopsis or day lilies at the top. The other garden would be a spiral with mounded soil and plants covering the mound (possibly ground phlox). She would fabricate 4 steel planters to go on the back edge of the lot with tall grasses – this would provide a soft break from the parking lot. Stepping stones through the garden would have steel casings with blue crushed glass in the center. She had some suggestions on how to enhance the Cox building – painting a mural; adding flower baskets to the window wells facing the lot; restoring the current painting on the building. We advised her that we would work toward a Fall installation and asked her to make the entrances to the lot handicapped accessible. She will provide us some copies of the written presentation so we can proceed through the approval process.

Minutes of March’s meeting were, corrections made and the minutes approved.

Old Business:

Rawley Lane Pedestrian Corridor: Since our City Council representative and our 4^th Ward representative were not in attendance, we did not have an update on this item.

New Business:

Woodburn Neighborhood: Our City representative will check with the Public works department on when the renovation of the stairs will begin and ask the Assistant City manager to help get this project moving. Stakes that were installed for placement of trees have been removed. It will be difficult to find a good time to do the tree planting in May but because the Grant requires work to be completed by May 31, it may have to be completed. Our Tree Board rep. will check on this.

Contacts for New Design Projects: Our Chair will contact Biafore’s to try to arrange their presentation at our next meeting.

Advocacy Issues for Beautification’s Long-Range Planning: We need an organized list of all issues to send to the City manager. Our Botanist Rep. circulated a letter that the Commission received a good while ago expressing distaste for the condition of the “Memorial Wall” in the South University Park. Our Chair will work with our Botanist to create a letter addressing this issue. Previously we talked about the proposed Dog Park in Krepps Park but because our BOPARC rep. was not in attendance, we have no further information on this. We need to get an update on the Walnut street renovation which will help us in discussing what proposal we might make on extending the Wall Street Corridor from High Street down to the riverfront.

Planning Office: Guideline Recommendations: To further clarify the City ordinance for landscaping, we will ask Chris Fletcher to come to one of our next meetings and talk to our membership.

Streetscape Bumpouts: Though not in the original design for the bumpouts, garbage cans are now there because the Public Works Dept. wants them there. This should be taken up with the City. They are a health hazard and quite unsightly. Our Chair will meet with the City Manager on Friday and bring up this issue.

ADOPT-A-STREET: Our 3^rd ward rep. did contact all the groups and tell them about the Earth Day activities. They now report to the City so she had little feedback. She has talked to BOPARC Senior Center and since they have moved to the Wiles Hill area, they have been assigned Virginia St. for their clean-up. She noted that there is a plan for 50 trees to be planted on the Law School Hill. They are quite small and she has suggested that they be visibly marked off, especially during football season to help prevent them from being trampled.

TREE BOARD REPORT: The Tree Board will meet tomorrow (Thursday). They will talk about the urban forestry projects (we received a handout) and they will be talking about the tree approval list.

PROUD OF OUR TOWN AWARDS: One of our representatives looked for the two sites mentioned at our last meeting as prospective awardees but wasn’t able to locate them. At the recent Earth Day celebration we circulated several flyers to interested people and hope that we will hear from Morgantown residents who can identify businesses or private residences that they feel are worthy of an award.

BOPARC REPORT: No Report

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE REPORT: No report

PROJECT SITE REPORT: Our City Representative reports that she has hired a 6-month seasonal employee who is working out well. May 5 a previous summer worker will be coming back. She has one horticulture intern coming on board May 19 and there is still one more horticulture internship available. May 18 Master Gardners will help plant baskets. She notes that there are several incidents of Christmas lights that need removed on street trees in downtown Morgantown.

Meeting Adjourned at 5:45 p.m.