Shade Tree Management Board

Shade Tree Management Board Madison, NJ 07940 Minutes of September 21, 2017 Meeting The Shade Tree Management Board held its regular monthly meeting on September 21, 2017 beginning at 8:00 AM in the Committee Room of the Hartley Dodge Memorial, 50 Kings Road, Madison, NJ. Call to Order: Gene Cracovia called the meeting to order. Present: Gene Cracovia, Penny Garman, Alice Wade, Nancy Bruce, Stephen Miller, Alan Andreas, Tom Salaki, Brian Monaghan, Vince Licari, Ken O’Brien, and Paul Allocco. Not Attending: Carmela Vitale Minutes: The August minutes were approved. The Board addressed the following items of business: Public Contacts  No Public Comments Council Liaison Report  Carmela was not present Hazardous Tree Presentation  Rich Wolowicz gave a slide presentation on various aspects of dealing with hazardous trees. Borough Tree Status  Removals/Pruning 94 trees have been removed from the STMB list year to date. There is still a backlog of removals which are affecting the budget.  A tree at 40 Pomeroy which was supposed to be taken down by Tree King has now turned into an emergency. Tree King will be notified.  Two ash trees were taken down along Burnett Rd. There was no sign of EAB.  Construction / Street Tree Protection Alice and Vince met with Ray Cody to determine who is going to enforce protection rules. No final determination was decided on. Ken believes that enforcement should be handled by Construction and Engineering office. The Board agreed. Ken will talk to Ray Cody TCC  Atlantic Health Project at Giralda Farms – Andreas was shown where 23 new trees will be planted. He was satisfied with their plan.   YMCA Andreas recommended that they consider removing their ash trees.  Alice and Vince inspected a site where 4 Zelkovas were removed—they will not be replaced. Fall Windshield Survey  Penny reminded all that the surveys were due by November’s meeting. She requests that type of trees to be planted, order of priority, and dead and dangerous trees be included in the survey. Budget Report  2017 projected budget $117,650  Expended This Month: $2,280 Honor Tree Services  Total Expended YTD $44,983.75  Encumbered $36,646.25  Unexpended $72,666.25 FMST Nancy discussed plans for Bottle Hill Day. She explained that both STMB and FMST would be combined into one display. OLD BUSINESS  ArborPro Update – Steve said that ArborPro will hold another demo of the system either 9/26, or 10/3.  NJT – Carmela and Vince attended the meeting between NJT and Madison representatives. In Vince’s opinion the meeting did not go well. He said that there were many missed opportunities and that there should have been more preparation. COMMUNITY FORESTRY PLAN  Nancy reported that the final draft of the new 5-year plan would be emailed to members shortly. Included will be new goals as well as past goals. She believes the plan looks good. NEW BUSINESS  Annual Tree Conference - scheduled for October 19th and 20th; Tom said he would look into attending. PARKS ADVISORY COMMITEE  Paul said that the Parks Advisory is interested in helping to gather funding for implementing Tom’s Arboretum plan.  Lucy D. Anthony - it was proposed that the 6 trees to be planted in the park should be as large as possible. FMST has agreed to help funding. Board Adjourned 9:40 am Submitted by Brian Monaghan