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 City Beautiful Commission Brochure (under development) Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 10:30 am Public debut of this new website! Board of Directors Room 2nd floor of City Hall Markham and Broadway Refreshments provided Press Release Commission History In April 1947, the City Beautification Forum, consisting of eighteen members, was organized by Mrs. Raymond Gesell. From this group, the Little Rock City Beautiful Commission (CBC) was created on January 12, 1948 by Ordinance No. 7494. It is one of the oldest city commissions. On September 21, 1976, the Little Rock Board of Directors passed Ordinance No. 13,204, which repealed Article III of Chapter 26 of the Little Rock Code or Ordinances and abolished the City Beautiful Commission as then constituted. The current City Beautiful Commission of Little Rock was created by Little Rock Code 15-26, 27 and new members were appointed the the Board of Directors (BOD) on October 19, 1976. Past Chairs of the City Beautiful Commission: Chair / Terms as Chair Mrs. Raymond Gesell / 1948 - 1956 Mrs. Gordon Oates (Willie Oates) / 1957 - 1959 Mr. Wayne Cranford / 1960 Mr. Steve Stephens / 1961 - 1962 Mrs. Catherine Hidy / 1963 Mr. Milas H. Hale / 1964 - 1965 Mr. Fred Schmutz / 1966 Mr. William Terry / 1967 Mr. John P. Gill / 1968 - 1969 Mr. Paul Lawhon / 1969 - 1970 Mr. Henry Nichols / 1971 - 1974 Mr. Jim Mauney / 1975 Mr. James Conner / 1976 Mr. Bill Gaskin / 1977 - 1983 Mr. Ted Hannah / 1978 Mr. Don Arick / 1979 Mr. A. J. Almand / 1980 Mr. Janes Vines / 1981 - 1982 Mrs. Sharon Priest / 1984 - 1986 Mr. Bob Callans / 1987 Mr. James G. von Tungeln / 1988 - 1989 Mr. Bert Parker / 1990 Mr. Joe Franklin / 1991 Mr. Merle Seamon / 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Ms. Dottie Funk / 1999 - 2001 Mr. Nash Abrams / 2002 - 2003 Mr. Tim Heiple / 2004 - 2005 Ms. Karol Zoeller / 2006 Ms. Lynn Mittelstaedt Warren / 2007 CBC Goal To raise the level of community expectation for the quality of its environment  CBC Duties
1 REVIEW THE VARIANCES TO the LANdSCAPE ordinance 2 PROMOTE THE BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE IN LITTLE ROCK 3 PROVIDE Environmental policy
directions & guidance to BOD 4 PROVIDE AeSthetic Improvment Guidelines TO
BOD CBC Mission Statement To enhance the City’s appearance and quality of life by promoting and providing supervision of its natural resources and surroundings.Various CBC Projects: History (under research development in red)  Miss City Beautiful Pageant (1950s)Bicentennial Carillon/Bell Tower by the Zoo in War Memorial Park (1977) Commercial Landscape Awards (1979-present) Belvedere Pavilion in Riverfront Park (1986) City Flag design contest (1988)-new city flag debut October 1988 Pretty & Clean Neighborhood program (1990s)  (L-R): School group audience, "Green Lady"/ Kate Altohff, "Speaker"/Commissioner Dottie Funk Arbor Day events Arbor Day skit (2001-2003) - educational booth for school children’s City Arbor Day Event Little Rock became a "Tree City USA" in 2001 and celebrated this designation in Spring 2002 with an event at City Hall followed by the planting of a pine tree in front of City Hall. The Tree City USA program requires its communities to host an arbor day event each year and the City Forester kicked off the city arbor day events with an event at the River Market Pavilion. There were six different environmental theme stations maned by various agencies and organizations. Fifth grade classes were invivted to the event with a limit of 500. T-shirts and canvas bags were given out along with a host of other items. CBC hosted one of the stations and performed a skit. This school related arbor event continued for several years and later moved to the fall to promote fall planting and was a big success.  Commissioners (L-R): Nash Abrams, Lynn Warren, Ann Ivey, Sharon Tallach Vogelpohl, Karol Zoeller, Tim Heiple Adopt-A-Street Program – South Bowman Road (2002-present) Adopt-a-Street Program Information In 2002, CBC joined in partnership with the City's Adopt-a-Street (AAS) program. CBC Chair Nash Abrams (2003-2004) wanted CBC to help promote the AAS program. He has been a litter prevention advocate for years and personally adopted miles of streets to cleanup. Initially, CBC adopted a street to cleanup and asked for high litter and high profile street to adopt and the AAS program recommended South Bowman Road (from Kanis Street north up to Mara Lynn Road) in West Little Rock. The AAS signage went up and CBC went to work to clean up the street every other month during the year. Commissioners Karol Zoeller and Jan Hicks worked on the promotion of the program and were able to partner with Lamar Advertising to donate one billboard at various locations within the city's limits. Commissioner Sharon Tallach Vogelpohl (Mangan Holcomb Partners) donated graphic design and advertising assistance from her firm to design the advertising slogan and billboard artwork: "Here's your chance to own the road." Later, the AAS program with Public Works purchased 250 bumper stickers of the billboard artwork to post on city vehicles to promote the program. CBC's involvement helped increase the street adoptions by 25%! One of the duties of CBC is to promote a greater public interest in the improvement of the appearance of the city of Little Rock. CBC has demonstrated this goal by adopting a street for five years and just renewed our adoption. In doing so, the Commission seeks to encourage others to do their part in creating a more pleasing environment for our community. In June 2007, Chair Lynn Warren issued a "challenge" to the other city commissions and boards to join CBC in adopting a stretch of road in the city to keep clean. As of October, 2005, there were 162 organizations with 132.2 miles of adopted streets. However, the Adopt-A-Street program has many available streets for adoption and CBC would like to challenge all the other city commissions and boards to also adopt a street. If all the 33 city commissions and boards adopted streets, our city would have nearly 200 organizations involved with the addition of approximately sixteen more miles of clean streets to help keep our city beautiful. For more information on the program, see AAS on the web or call for more details on what streets are available for adoption at:371-4808 or email David Hathcock at dhathcock@littlerock.org Click here to see the Adopt-a-Street brochure  Sponsors: Trash Bag Sponsor: WalMart (2007) Pincher Pickup Tool Sponsor: Walgreens (2007) Billboard partnership with Lamar Advertising (2002-2006) Graphic design/advertising: Mangan Holcomb Partners (2002-2003+)  Eye of the Beholder Awards (2002-present) Bowman Bus Stop Tree Planting (2004) Arkansas Flower & Garden Show (2006-2008) Annual Spring Event in Little Rock  Former Commissioner Jan Bartlett Hicks by our garden show booth in 2006 The Little Rock City Beautiful Commission (CBC) has participated in the annual Garden Show since 2006. In 2007, the commission invited newly formed Keep Little Rock Beautiful (KLRB) to share the booth to introduce this new group to the community and find citizen volunteers for their non-profit group. In 2004-05, CBC was instrumental in soliciting and helping organize the Task Force for the creation of KLRB in conjunction with Keep Arkansas Beautiful (KArB) and the City of Little Rock. For more information, see Item #10 on the "FAQ Page" of this website. In 2008, CBC used the topic of roses as the booth theme since the red rose was chosen as the official city rose in the 40's by this commission and was used in the commission's logo. CBC encouraged the community to plant rose bushes to beautify the city. In conjuction with the rose theme, CBC gave out 20%-off rose bush coupons good at six local nurseries and a rose planting care fact sheet prepared in partnership with the Central Arkansas Rose Society. In addition, CBC had two drawings each day which drew large crowds for our donated give-away gifts: donated “knock-out” red rose bushes, signed copies of P. Allen Smith’s latest book (Living in the Garden Home), original crafted wooden bowls and the beautiful rose arrangement that decorated the booth (provided by Tipton Hurst) at the last drawing. The rose themed booth was a popular attraction for attendees. A poster was made by Commissioner Watts summarizing alot of information on the commission. This year at the Garden Show, there were over 8,461 tickets collected, 352 volunteers, 93 vendors, 132 booths, 9 display gardens, 25 gardening “how-to” presentations, 6 speakers, a juried flower show, 4 showcase gardens and a professional florist competition. The 2009 show is scheduled for February 27, 28 and March 1st. and the commission is considering a repeat of the rose theme for next year to continue to promote the city’s historic slogan of the “City of Roses.” Partners/Donations: Rose Fact Sheet: Provided by the Central Arkansas Rose Society Rose bush donations (6) for drawing: Homeyer Lawn & Sprinkler Signed book donations (3): P. Allen Smith's Living in the Garden Home Hand-crafted wooden bowls (2): Alex Watts with Laughing Creek Photograph of Willie Oates (former CBC chair): Nancy Nolan Photography 20% Rose Bush discounts available w/coupon at the following nurseries: Good Earth Garden Center and Nurseries River Valley Horticultural Products Horticare Nursery Cantrell Gardens Nursery Green Tree Nursery Hocott's Garden Center  City Beautiful Commission (2008) Lynn Warren, John Beneke, Steve Homeyer, Debra Redding, Jessica Watts, Jennie Cole, Kay Tatum, Walter Jennings, Bill Wiedower Pocket cigarette ashtrays (2006)  Beautification Project – Back Entrance to Little Rock City Hall (2007) One of the duties of the Little Rock City Beautiful Commission (CBC) is to promote a greater public interest in the improvement of the appearance of the city of Little Rock. To this end, CBC has been involved in several beautification projects around the city such as the Bicentennial Carillon/Bell Tower by the Zoo (1977); Belvedere Pavilion, Riverfront Park (1986) and the Bowman Bus Stop Tree Planting (2004). During our 2007 planning retreat, we identified two beautification projects that have been discussed over the years that we would like to pursue. One of the projects is to beautify and improve the aesthetics of the rear entrance into City Hall where many visitors and city directors enter. This area has been a concern with the Commission since 2001. The “City Hall Beautification Project” (Phase I) would involve the area shown in the photo below. Background This project started as an idea from then Commissioner Nash Abrams to the new commissioner, Lynn Warren (landscape architect) in 2001. Some tree planting improvements were made by the city at that time but it wasn't until 2007 when the synergy was right and the project came together through the cooperation of many groups. The goal of this project was to get everything donated and has been very successful. City staff are to be commended with their very cooperative efforts at all aspects of this project. There are plans for a Phase II for this project and will be announced at the upcoming ribbon cutting event.  Before  After Project components This project began in May 2007 with supervision of Commissioners Lynn Warren, Jan Bartlett Hicks and Steve Homeyer and discussions continued through August 2007 with final approval from the City Manager Bruce Moore. Project coordination began and scheduling was focused for October 2007. In May, through discussions between Commissioner Homeyer and the Keeling Company about irrigation material donations, the donation of a water feature came up. This concept was presented to the full Commission and CBC agreed to pursue the water feature donation with the city. The water feature is a symbol of the prominent natural river that the city developed around and brings it to City Hall. Some large boulders were planned to symbolize the namesake of the city as well. The sound of water helps mask the adjacent street noise with more pleasant and soothing sounds, referred to as "white noise." The plants will complement the water feature and the shady area and create a nature nook. The water feature, white noise, benches and the plants work together to create a nice visitor entrance as well as an attractive break area for employees. This project works to fulfill the Parks Department's slogan of Little Rock as a "City in a park" by bringing a mini-park environment right up to the back door of City Hall. The Keeling Company offered to donate the development of the water feature with the design assistance of the City Parks Department. It is the first component of the development. It was designed to be an educational workshop for local contractors to learn about this type of "pondless" water feature construction from the vendors involved. It also served as a donation to the city to beautify its visitor entrance into City Hall.  Vision Meeting (L-R): Chris Keeling and Commissioner Steve Homeyer  The Vision in place Transforming an "eyesore" into an "escape" is a quote from Chris Keeling, water feature project coordinator. His goal for this project was to showcase what teamwork and cooperation can create for the community and it has been very successful. This construction occured Tuesday, October 16th with many interested and curious on-lookers. By the end of the day, the water feature was working and the construction workers celebrated with a photo opp wearing "Got Water" t-shirts.  The next phase of the project is training with the city on the water feature, final details on the feature followed with the installation of the irrigation in the project area and plantings. Once the project is completed, a ribbon cutting media event will invite the City Manager, Mayor and City Directors and all the people involved to celebrate the project's completion. Project Summary Partners: City Hall logistics: City Staff (2007) City Manger's Office: Bruce Moore, Bryan Day, Susan Langley City Attorney's Office: Beth Carpenter Public Relations: Scott Carter Public Works: Steve Haralson, P.E.; Ronnie Loe, P.E; Steve Beck, P.E. Building Services: Jessie Trigleth, Vic Moya Public Works – Operations: Eric Petty, David Wooley, Kenneth R. Wilcox, Rusty Green, Neb Murry and Anthony Johnson Parks Department:Truman Tolefree, Mark Webre, Leland Couch, Phoebe Stephens, Joe Scerbo, Jim Sick, Kevin Planning Department: Tony Bozynski, Dana Carney, Christy Marvel Water feature donation: Keeling Company (2007) Vendors:
Keeling Company, NLR (event sponsor); Hall Marketing, Gulfport, MS /
manufacturers’ representative; and Aquascape Inc, St. Charles, IL /
water feature equipment manufacturer
Irrigation materials donation: Keeling Company (2007)Workshop Contractors (Little Rock): Southern Lawn, Schneider and Positive Results Irrigation labor donation: Homeyer Lawn & Sprinkler (2007) Rock/Boulder assortment donation: Homeyer Lawn & Sprinkler (2007) Top Soil donation: Homeyer Lawn & Sprinkler (2007) Plants donation: pending To date: The Good Earth Center, Parks Department, (2007) Sponsors: Pizza Sponsor: Hillcrest U.S. Pizza (2007) Bottled water Sponsor: Central Arkansas Water (2007) City Beautiful Commission (2007) Lynn Warren, Chair; Jan Bartlett Hicks, Vice-Chair; Ann Ivey, Treasurer; Mary Jane Rebick; John Beneke; Steve Homeyer; Jim Vandenberg; Debra Redding; Jessica Watts Community Recognition  Awards Eye of the Beholder Award (EOB) Commercial Landscape Award
Associated Programs/ Partners Adopt-A-Street (City-Public Works) - CBC adopted South Bowman Road (frontage from Kanis to Mara Lynn) in West Little Rock Adopt-a-Street Program Information Arkansas Earth Day Foundation Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) Keep Little Rock Beautiful (KLRB) Keep Arkansas Beautiful Keep Arkansas Beautiful Partners in mission Keep America Beautiful Little Rock Parks & Recreation Commission Little Rock Sister Cities Commission Other Little Rock Commissions American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) ASLA-Arkansas Chapter American Institute of Architects (AIA) AIA-Arkansas Chapter Tree City USA Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Tipton & Hurst-Little Rock Florist Chenal Properties Janet Jones Company/Realtors Lamar Advertising WalMart Walgreens Copy Systems Mangan Holcomb Partners Little Rock Planning and Development Department Little Rock Parks & Recreation Department City of Little Rock Site Little Rock Urban Forestry Little Rock Public Works Arkansas Flower & Garden Show Environmental Coalition Little Rock Housing and Neighborhood Programs Arkansas State Police Arkansas River Trail Pulaski County  IMPORTANT CBC MILESTONES:1970s Milestones City Staff and CBC kicks off the "Landscape Award" program (1979-present) 1980s Milestones 1990s Milestones CBC kicks off the "Polish the Rock" Award (1995) 2000s Milestones City of Little Rock is recognized with a Tree City USA affiliation (2001) City Beautiful Commission becomes the Tree Board for variance requests to the ordinance (2001) CBC adopted S. Bowman Road in West Little Rock (2002) Promoted the program to increase adoptions by 25% CBC partnered with Lamar Advertising (donated billboard display) and Mangan Holcomb Partners (designed the billboard ad) to launch the new AAS billboard that rotated around the City (2003-present) Public Works purchased 250 vehicle bumper stickers of the billboard ad to use on trash trucks and city vehicles to advertise the program (2003) In 2007, Chair Warren asked for a donation of trash bags from WalMart and pickup tools from Walgreens, both stores are on the adopted street corridor and received them. AAS gave CBC a dozen new orange vests and Commissioner Homeyer had the group's name added to the backs, so passer-by traffic would know who we represent. In 2007, after 5 years of street adoption, CBC renews their commitment to continue! In June 2007, Chair Warren issues a challenge to the other city commissions and boards to adopt a street as well. Bowman Bus Stop Tree Planting (2004) CBC is asked by the City Manager's Office, Keep Arkansas Beautiful (KArB) and Director Stacy Hurst to help organize a Task Force of interested citizens, businesses, institutions to form an affiliate of KArB for the city. This was done in 2004 with the Task Force group worked on the formation of the group in 2005 under the supervision of CBC Chair Zoeller and officially became "Keep Little Rock Beautiful," a non-profit agency, in 2006. A commissioner sits on KLRB board (per the bylaws) to help continue communication between the two groups and to help each group to work together on similar projects. CBC kicks off other "Community Awards" - Little Rock Star Award, Little Rock Landmark Award, Little Rock Green Award, (2005-present) CBC addresses the #1 litter problem in the state which is cigarette litter and introduces cigarette pocket ashtrays to decrease cigarette litter around the city (2006)Booth - Arkansas Flower & Garden Show (2006, 2007) Invite KLRB to share booth in 2007 to bring awareness to this new group City Hall Beautification Project (2007) - improvements to the back parking lot (north side) to include new water feature, irrigation, and plantings to enhance the entrance (all donations of labor and materials) New City Beautiful Commission website (2007) - designed, developed and maintained by the commission for the citizens, mayor, directors, staff and variance request applicants. Update the commission bylaws (2007) - Approved September 2007 Focus the commercial landscape awards as the "Top 3 Best of the Best" for the year (2007) with new signage and plaques Comments for the Landscape Ordinance (2007-2008) - September 2007 - January 2008 Banner photos courtesy of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism Page photos courtesy of Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism or Lynn Mittelstaedt Warren |
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