HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-STAC-2010-03-10Shade Tree Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
March 10, 2010
Present: Nina Bassuk, Judy Fogel, Dan Klein, Ellen McCollister, Pamela Markham, Judith
Maxwell, Monika Roth, Debra Statton, Lew Ward
Corrections to Feb minutes: 1) the structural soil parking lot is on Park Road; it's not an extension of
the lot at Inlet Island. 2) the Garden Club hadn't voted on the tree donation to the City for Arbor Day as
of the last meeting, but has voted now.
Forestry Technician's Report: on March 3, DPW (Ray, Shelley, and Dave Hoagland) interviewed
Lew and another candidate for the forestry technician position, and will make a decision soon. They
haven't interviewed for the tree trimmer position yet. Staffing levels are low, says Lew.
All trees for spring planting are sited. Although residents often request fruit trees, these are not
appropriate for the public right of way due to maintenance, liability and disease, for which the City is
responsible.
Water and Sewer are still planning a fall planting at their facility. The curb and walk and tree
lawn preparation will happen this summer.
The City Engineering Dept is planning new sidewalks, cross walks, and bump -outs on Thurston
Ave on the other side of the bridge. There's room for 5 trees. They are not planning to take out any
existing trees.
A Cornell student is coming down to work on GIS, analyze resources, look at vulnerable sites by
area, work on maintenance schedule and potential rain catcher. Lew has little things to straighten out in
the data base. Nina suggests the structural soil map could be worked on. Yes, on it (Lew).
The crew has been cutting down trees - - -one at Stewart, some at Southside (RI's and P1's). One
Norway maple by the gas station is not doing well (I1 -12% of City trees are Norway maples).
Van Horn Park by the bottle redemption center has loads of grocery carts and garbage. It is
nicely open there, was trimmed up last season and chipped by Dan in the fall.
Nina notes that several Austrian pines in town are 90% dead, one on Meadow St by Aldi's, a big dead
one on Dryden and Eddy, a third dead one on 79 up at the triangle where the forsythia is. All are DOT
plantings. Please take the dead ones down. The disease attacking them is diplodia tip blight, possible
to treat but not an easy fix.
Nina spoke to Rick Manning about the trees planned for the new parking lot (temporarily gravel
now) near Island Health. He said there's no money, she said she'd rather 2 big, good trees than all these
tiny inappropriate choices. He'll work on it. She's not too concerned about the huge cottonwood there,
would rather keep the oak.
Pamela was asked to suggest a likely work site by a realtor friend heading the Board of Realtors
beautification effort, and suggested around the Youth Bureau (on the right coming from north) could be
cleaned up and myrtle planted. Approximately 10 volunteers would work for 2 hours. Pamela wonders if
she has to ask anyone. Dan says fine by him -- -send them his way if they want more planting work after
this clean up. Monika will bring Citizen Pruners if Pamela lets her know - -- between the YB and the lake
some poor quality trees need taking out. Talk to Dave Hoagland and Lew about a load of chips.
Pamela reported on the result of her grant application for us to the Dept of Ornithology. Only 18
groups got a grant, we're one of the 602 applicants who didn't get funding.
Other volunteer projects: A class at New Roots wants a project. Ray suggests clean up at Conley Park.
A Cornell Tradition group is doing clean up at Bryant Park. A business frat is going to clean up at the
cemetery. Ellen reports that the Sustainability Hub wants to put a tree in on the 400 block of College Ave,
and asks about timing. It's a hard site due to vandalism, injury by trucks, etc. The tree needs to be
moisture tolerant. Lew says a Triumph elm could be put in end of April/early May. He also suggests
putting bollards (bumpers) there to protect the tree.
Homeowner notification flier: Lew presents the flier he wrote that's going out to the homeowner when
tree work/planting /take down in front of the house is anticipated. Nina would like the flier to tell how to
care for new trees, and would prefer a "door - knocker" format, but Monika says door - knockers are illegal.
Monika has the old one designed by STAC some years ago, and will bring it in.
Arbor Day is April 30th and the planting site for one of the trees donated by the Garden Club is Baker
Park on S. Albany near the traffic circle. Mayor Peterson will come and make the official proclamation.
DEC will be there to give the award. Lew says there shouldn't be a problem for the 2008 Tree City award;
now need documentation for 2010 awards.
Dan reports on Beautification Brigade training March 23 and 30, and mentions a tentative project to
plant weeping forsythia at the rotary where the stabilization is going on now.
Monika has Citizen Pruner training fliers if anyone knows anyone who might be interested.
Follow up on Pamela's request for trees for the 500 block of Chestnut Street: Lew says the site has old
chunks of macadam from former private property. He thinks clean up is not the City's responsibility. The
need for deer protection there also complicates planting there. Nina volunteers to go look at the site. She
has trees she's done with, unusual maples and plane trees, which she can donate.
Next Meeting April 14 [mtng was postponed from April 7] Minutes respectfully submitted by Debra