Thurston Nature Center Committee (TNCC) Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 (Draft)
In attendance:
Neal Foster, Mike Conboy, Tom
Edsall, Colin Brooks, Beth Caldwell, Bill
Phillips, Katie
Richter.
The minutes from the April
22nd, 2009 regular TNCC meeting were approved (with one
minor change on the word “dredged”).
Mike Conboy gave the Land Steward’s Report. A scanned copy is available here.
Highlights include twenty oaks being planted by TNCC volunteers and friends
(including members of Cub Scout Pack 160) on 4/25/2009 to help establish an oak savanna at Thurston
Elementary. They will need watering
through the summer (about 400 gallons per
watering session). A motion to pay the
Van Leers for use of their convenient water was passed. Chips continue to be distributed along
trails. Some Thurston Prairie plants
will be transplanted ahead of the temporary movie set occupying part of that
area. Winter brush cutting has opened up
large areas for Spring wildflowers (including Trillium, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and
many more).
Next we discussed the use of part of the Thurston Prairie by
Castle Rock Entertainment / Warner Brothers for the Rob Reiner-directed movie
“Flipped.” Castle Rock offered a $5,000
donation to the Thurston Nature
Center for use part of the
prairie. We agreed that 1/3 of any
donation should go to the Thurston PTO (since we’re a committee of the Thurston
PTO, which has 501(c)3 status), and the rest would be used for Thurston Pond restoration. After a period of discussion, the following
motion was proposed, and passed by a vote of 7-0:
“The Thurston Nature Center Committee declines the $5,000
offer. The Thurston Nature Center Committee would support
the temporary use of the Thurston Prairie for a minimum donation of $10,000 to
the Thurston PTO, so long as all materials brought on site are removed by
Castle Rock / Warner Brothers when filming is complete.”
Acknowledgements letters were sent by Neal Foster for
donations made to help with the oak savanna tree planting. I then made a Treasurer’s
Report in my role as the current Secretary-Treasurer. To help with paying for the trees and related
needs of our oak savanna planting effort, Neal Foster donated $500 and Mike
Conboy donated $1,000. Tom Edsall loaned
$1900 to cover the immediate cost of paying for the trees, which will be repaid
out of the MDNR Community Forestry grant funds that we were approved for to pay
for this project. Therefore a total of
$3400 was given to the Thurston PTO Treasurer
in May. The PTO wrote a $2821 check (#
4252) on 4/21/2009 to
Possibility Place Nursery to pay for the trees and delivery. Neal is submitting
a $400 bill to the PTO to pay for the 20 gator bags placed at the bottom of the
trees. That left $189 of the funds given
to the PTO for the oak savanna project as unspent ($3400 - $2821 - $400 =
$189). Of the 2008 OHMHA $300 donation,
$118 was spent repaying Barry Johnson for ordering a copy of the 1967 “We’re on
our Way” video from the LBJ Archives that Margaret Weiss
had found last year, leaving $182 of that unspent (the $300 donation was
deposited with the PTO last year). That
leaves $189 + $182 = $371 of TNCC money still in the PTO’s checking account – a
start towards future restoration work!
We agreed that the TNCC web page ( www.thurstonnaturecenter.org )
could be used to help with fundraising for Thurston Pond restoration. To start with, we will post the “Friends of
the Thurston Nature
Center” form that Neal Foster is
developing.
We will be showing the copy of the 1967 short film “We’re on
our Way” at the June 5th Ice Cream Social at Thurston, which
includes a few minutes of people helping establish the TNCC over 40 years
ago! I will bring my laptop to show the
movie.
Bill Phillips
talked about his discussions with a potential pond restoration firm who might
be willing to help with dredging. More
information will be forthcoming at upcoming meetings as things develop
Submitted by Colin
Brooks, TNCC
Secretary-Treasurer, colinmargie@sbcglobal.net
(v.2009.08.30)
