December 2022

 Eagle Heights Garden Committee Minutes

December 14, 2022  7 PM

Remote Meeting

7:00 Present: Lily, Ric, Alan, Jessica, Ann, Jolene, Barb L, Barb A and Karen.

Minutes  Motion to approve the November 2022 minutes. The minutes were approved. 

Registrar Update

Lily suggests we limit the Discussion list to current gardeners.  The committee agreed. 

UW Housing would like us to have a demographic survey of the gardeners.  We agreed that the survey should be sent to each garden plot.

After some discussion it was agreed to not participate in the 2023 Garden Expo.

Budget Review

Since 2021 we have been using our considerable savings for operating costs.  We have enough money to get through 2023.  Salaries and operating costs have gone up.  We have had a separate mower employee who did a wonderful job but we had to pay overtime and benefits which we can no longer afford.  

Plot fees have stayed the same since 2012.  In order to have money to operate in 2024, the fees will need to be increased. We cannot raise the fee for the 2023 gardening season and we do not need to.

Lily presented several budgets for discussion.  2018 as an example year of the last budget she could find any record of without the disruption of the pandemic. In addition to the pandemic, we've also had disruption from garden worker shortages but we need a new budget because of rising costs. There is one proposed budget for 2023 and for 2024 there are two; one budget without raising fees to show the amount of debt we'd go into and one proposed budget with the fees raised to avoid going in to debt .  Sometimes it is difficult to predict the garden spending patterns because they are dependent on weather and how much the employees work.  The 2023 budget has higher portapotty fees and UW Plumbing costs. The income for 2023 is slightly lower because workday fees were combined for 2022- 2023. Wages and supplies are also higher in all the future budgets. The 2023 plumbing fee is estimated as a little higher than the theoretical 2024 fee because we planned large projects for 2023. 

Discussion ensued.  It was agreed that relying on no workday fees as a source of income is not wise because we cannot predict the amount accurately.  The administrative costs for half and whole plots are the same, so half plots have to be higher than half the cost of a full plot.  We used to have a big cushion and we will have spent it down at the end of 2023.

The Garden Oversight Committee will need to approve our budget and fee increases.  The proposed budget options should be placed on the January 2023 agenda for discussion.  Our decision can be reviewed in July 2023.

Other Items

Lily has started a yearly calendar of tasks which will be shared. 

Leaf Pile

The Wisconsin DNR wants all the leaves removed by July 1st of every year so we do not have an ongoing compost pile.  A compost pile is not allowed because there is a municipal well just north of the gardens.  Lily had hoped that FH King would have used more of the leaves.  In our agreement with Shorewood, they remove our weeds and bring us their leaves. Lily heard that the weeds go to Purple Cow, but she could be wrong.The  MOU with Shorewood says they take them to the landfill. This could be old information. It also says the leaves delivered must all be shredded.

In the future we need to make sure that University Houses are well supplied with leaves. Deliveries cannot be made to University Houses when the access road is wet as the trucks get stuck.

Ideally we should get close to no leaves in the summer.  We need to manage the amount of leaves we get and ask gardeners to get the leaves they will need for the season after the leaves are moved by July 1st.

Lily will explore ways to make sure the leaf pile is removed by July 1st.  Jolene says we have 10 hours of labor from UW Housing Grounds every year.  Perhaps Purple Cow will take the leaves in July.

The Committee agrees it is a top priority to have the leaves gone in July.

Motion by Barb L and seconded by Ric to adjourn. Adjourned

Submitted by Karen, subject to correction by the Garden Committee