The city of Evanston Harley Clarke Planning Committee met Jan. 19 to discuss financial planning.
Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the committee:
"City of Evanston Harley Clarke Planning Committee is located at 300 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL 60202, USA,"
MEETING MINUTES
HARLEY CLARKE PLANNING COMMITTEE
Thursday, January 19, 2017
6:00pm
Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave, Room 2402
Members Present: E. DeStefano, E. Revelle, D. Campbell, J. Bryan, D. Terras
H. Garcia
Staff Present: E. Storlie
Others Present: M. Obrugliera, C. Run, A. Packman, M. Rosinski, S. Sullivan,
L. Raab, J. Schneider, P. Stankovic, E. Guthrie, K. Hartzell,
L. McFaran, C. Bova, C. Dalrymple, R. Dalrymple, R. Crews,
B. Janes, A. Roosevelt, T. Suffriden, L. Damashek
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES OF DECEMBER 13
The motion to accept the minutes was approved.
PRESENTATION ON IDEAS FOR HARELY CLARKE BY THE NO PARK SALE
GROUP
The group started the presentation by referencing the City’s Lakefront Masterplan as a
framework to use as we move forward with making a decision with Harley Clarke. And
shared information on 4 public use mansions in the Chicago land area that they visited
to research how they operate (types of programming, source of primary income, if they
have a separate foundation, if it’s private or public owned, etc.) They believe Harley
Clarke is a city asset that should be run by an entity that will run the facility in the best
interest of all Evanston residents. With vision, energy and commitment, Harley Clarke
can become the focal point of educational, recreational, and cultural activities at which
people from all over Evanston can enjoy and learn. There are multiple groups eager to
collaborate to realize the potential that exists on the lakefront, now we need the City to
make a commitment to its residents to either run Harley Clarke with vision and energy
or find an entity that has vision and energy to realize the incredible potential we have on
our beautiful lakefront.
In discussion it was determined that we’ve had these conversations on what to do with
Harley Clarke for many years. If the City wanted to do something the City would have
stepped up and taken ownership but there are some constraints we have to be very
candid about: the City’s financial constraints; human capital constraints (staff stretched
too thin); and political constraints (lack of political will). The Committee feels Harley
Clarke cannot be fully sustained by the City so we have to look at other options. They
received a lot of great ideas from the different groups over the last few meetings but
what they haven’t received is an actual business plan on how they can make the ideas
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Harley Clarke Planning Committee
work. There needs to be a financial plan with money that can be counted on year after
year to keep the building operating at a baseline level.
Attendees at the meeting were invited to get together to develop a business plan for the
Committee’s review at their February 16 meeting. The next challenge will be a
memorandum of understating / letter of agreement with the City.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting ended at 7:10PM. The next scheduled meeting is 6pm on Feb 16, 2017 at
the Civic Center in room 2402.
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