HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-STAC-2009-09-02Shade Tree Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
September 2, 2009
Present: Nina Bassuk, Judy Fogel, Tony Hanna, Dan Klein, Pamela Markham, Judith Maxwell,
Paul Paradine, Debra Statton, Keith Vanderhye, Lew Ward
New Member: Lee Miller
The Committee met initially on the corner of Franklin and First Streets by the Water and Sewer
Building to look at the tree lawn along the south side of Franklin Street and at the front entrance of
the Water and Sewer Building to confer about what trees and shrubs to plant there this Fall.
There is money in the Water and Sewer budget for this. The department has prepared the tree lawn
nicely, going 30" down and replacing old soil.
Planned are 8 trees along Franklin, also shrubs and groundcovers. In front of the building,
there will be a memorial tree on the lawn to the left of the entrance, shrubs on the right to balance
those on the left of the building, and 3 trees along First Street to replace the dead maple. (See the
list "Ithaca Tree order Fall -09" for specifics.) There was quite a bit of discussion about whether to
keep the forsythias to the left of the entrance or to replace them. Suggested for the front of the
building were blue hollies, doublefile Viburnum, columnar evergreens either side of the door,
weeping Japanese maple, low growing roses, kousa dogwood, witch hazels, etc. This gives Nina
lots of ideas for the final plan. The staff at Water and Sewer would like more flowering shrubs.
The trees will be ordered now, and the shrubs purchased locally from Plantasia Nursery.
Nina's class will plant everything the first Tuesday in November.
The meeting continued back at the DPW conference room, with notes on additional Fall planting
plans. Schichtel' Nursery is going to give us 10 frontier elms to replace the ten that died last year.
The part of East State Street being repaved has 30" deep structural soil. 6x6 foot holes are
being left for trees; there is room for 12 trees. Planned are 6 Ulmus x `Danada Charm' (There are
two already in the City in front of Northside Pharmacy) and 6 Celtis occidentalis `Magnifica'
which will complement the Ulmus nicely.
On Green Street, one tree pit is unfilled, so that will be planted with another Homestead Elm.
By City Hall a Quercus macrocarpa died over the winter, so another will be planted to replace it.
For other spots, 10 Quercus prinus, Chestnut Oaks, will be used. There are only 3 in the City
now, and they're a nice tree.
Nina had an email from Andy about some issues he's noticed:
• Reminder about the Franklin Street planting project
• The Children's Garden, where a trail has been cut through the pin oaks there, cutting
into the roots and compressing the roots, also a pile of unused orange tree protectors
there.
• The park on Wood Street where heavy equipment brought in to drain the skateboard
park drove too close to the Taxodium and broke branches. Also some vandalism early
in the year after the trees were planted. (Tony reports all is fine there now.)
• Andy hopes to be back soon.
Dan reported on the Common Redesign Committee developments: there are four proposals on
the table, to be narrowed down to three before the public meeting scheduled for Sept 23 (which has
been delayed until shortly afterwards). Basically, replacement of the water mains down the center
of the Commons can result in the middle being left open and trees along the sides, or trees in the
middle with the sides open. Each scenario comes with different numbers of trees which have to
come out. Some plans require all trees to come out. The only trees which aren't threatened are the
ones on the east side of bank alley.
Nina and Paul brought up the possibility of using a "mole" (horizontal drilling). This replaces
open trench digging and is less costly. It could save the trees. NYSEG uses this technology all the
time. Dan asked for more specifics in order to present the idea to the Committee; Paul will put him in
touch with the knowledgeable person at NYSEG. Dan can bring this up at a phone conference with
Sasaki, the landscape architects in charge of the project, next week.
Dan suggests identifying trees which are "very special" or "worthy of saving ". Committee
members immediately mentioned the Katsura, Concolor fir, Metasequoia, and Carpinus.
Lew reported on activity at DPW. They've been busy responding to homeowner requests for
elevations, clearing around stop signs, working at the police station parking lot, and with storm- related
emergencies. There have been 13 large and 4 small take -downs since Spring. (A big basswood on
West Falls St probably needs to come down; NYSEG will cut it down.) IURA way out on Spencer
Road wants a small planting; the City is waiting for them to come to grade. Lew has made an
addendum to the tree work permit (so the City can get money from insurance companies when
someone injures trees). He passed this around. (Lee commented that $100 /caliper inch seems too
conservative an amount; Lew says the City adds labor charges too.) A homeowner on Fall Creek
Drive cut down $2300 worth of City trees by mistake (9 trees, including flowering dogwoods).
Lew reported on Citizen Pruner accomplishments for the season. They pruned 335 City trees, 43
in Belle Sherman, 95 downtown, 36 in Fall Creek, 47 in BS ?, 60 on East Hill. Only West Hill and
South Hill got no pruning.
In June Lew trained in Syracuse with pest control protocols. He is spending a lot of time doing
mapping site clean up
Next meeting is Wednesday, October 7. Minutes respectfully submitted by Debra Statton