Tree Board

Tree Board Minutes March 11th, 2020 at 4 pm Attendance: Wes Powell, Dottie Mann, Brian Beuscher, Ron Erb, Eddie Combs and Kathrine Killebrew 1. Wes asked for a motion to approve the minutes from the February meeting. Ron made the motion, Dottie seconded and the board passed the minutes as written. 2. Kathrine updated the board on the park storm clean-up. All parks that the City was working on are finished. Trice Landing will be bid out for clean-up on the 12th. There is also a bid going out for future hazardous tree work throughout the city. All TAEP grant trees have been planted, but a beaver has already eaten one. She will replace it asap. 3. Kathrine also gave an update on the Arbor Day tree give-away. It went really well. We had over 100 citizens stop by. The color code for tree species was a big hit and very helpful to everyone. We have about 150 seedlings left. She would like to pot them up to allow them to grow a little bigger. Wes made a motion to approve up to $150 to purchase potting soil for this. Dottie seconded. Motion passed. Next month Katie will bring the state nursery brochure to go over our fall tree order. 4. Wes announced that we gave out 403 seedlings for TN Tree Day at Pettus Park. We will get 50 free trees for being a distribution location. These should be planted at Billy Dunlop Park to add to the riparian buffer. 5. Wes and Katie have a site visit scheduled next week at Hazelwood Elementary in preparation for our Arbor Day Celebration in April. This may need to be rescheduled due to COVID. 6. Wes announced that the Tree Board requested a base budget of $4000 and an additional $70,000 for the city tree inventory. With COVID we are unsure what the city’s budget will look like. Dottie mentioned that we  need to present a proposal to Mayor Pitts with the cost vs benefits. Wes asked each board member to submit ideas and info for the proposal. 7. Eddie reported that the Christmas Tree Chipping service was a success. His crew chipped 39 yds of material and kept trees from being dumped in our parks and throughout the city. 8. TN Arbor Day is March 6. WE will be giving away trees at Trahern Mansion from 9-2 this day. Kathrine, Wes, Ron and maybe Dottie have volunteered to help. 9. The City Arbor Day celebration will be at Hazelwood Elementary on April 3 at 10 am. Wes will make an itinerary to send out. 10.Michelle Austin, Kathrine’s boss suggested that the Citizen Forester Program be pushed to the fall. At that time there is more availability with city facilities to host the class and fewer other activities going on. The board agreed that this was a good idea. Wes asked Dottie to reach out to Copies in a Flash to get prices on printing the booklets for attendees and teachers. We are looking for a minimum of 10 registrants and a maximum of 20 for this to be successful. Weekly topics will be: 1. Tree Biology and Anatomy. 2. Tree ID and Pruning. 3. Tree soils and selection. 4. Tree Fertilization and Propagation. 5. Tree Planting and After Care. 6. Tree Disease and Hazards. With no further business the meeting was adjourned.