Tree Board

Tree Board Meeting Minutes February 02, 2012 Memorial Room, City Hall Present: Geoff Beyer, Wendy Blakeman, John Van Deren, Carole Naquin, Jean Jolley, ! Craig Royce 1. January meeting minutes approved. 2. New Tree Board co-chairs approved- John Snell and Sarah Hoffmeier. 3. Carole reported that Tree Board member terms posted on the website should! be ! current. 4. Geoff reviewed the requirements for the grant from American Forests. This grant is ! for $5,000- 6 downtown trees ($2,000), 30 streetscape locations ($2,800) and an ! educational component ($200). The requirements are time consuming but the ! consensus was that it will be worthwhile doing. Carole said she would help with ! some of requested info. Wendy said she would help with options for downtown ! tree sites. ! There was some discussion about possible streetscape sites; at times these may ! overlap with downtown sites. There was some concern about the large number of ! trees to be planted. Others expressed concern about the maintenance of these ! trees. It was felt that getting a commitment to caretake the trees should be part of ! determining where the trees will go. ! Possible sites discussed include: gateway entrances to the City, adding to ! Millennial plantings at the High School, residential neighborhoods (CAN groups), ! peripheral neighborhoods- Rte 2 across from the High School, ! Suggested downtown sites (Sarah will keep this list.): gateway areas to the City- ! corner of Memorial Drive and Main St- across the river from Shawʼs, at the ! Montpelier Junction railroad station. ! Sites from John S.: Replace Columnar Norway Maple in front of Splash ! Replace two Hop Hornbeams along City Center ! Replace Norway Maple in front of bagel shop ! Replace Green Ash in front of Chinese restaurant ! Plant multiple trees on slope at Union School (along Hubbard St). This has been ! OK'd by Public Works but needs to be discussed with Union School. My vote ! would be to plant 5 trees (large ones) along the top of the slope. 5. There was further discussion about sources for volunteers for Tree Board work. The ! following were mentioned: National LIfe employees, Montpelier high school students 1 ! who have community service requirement to fulfill, The Resource, a youth build ! group, ages 16-24. The Tree Board does have a list of volunteers gathered from the ! Farmerʼs Market table. 6. Geoff said that a budget with no cuts will be presented to the voters. 7. Geoff is talking to two interns about working on the Tree Inventory. They can work ! Fri afternoon and weekends and possibly work together. Inventory software should ! be updated if needed and inventory should be user friendly. 8. Tree Board at the Farmerʼs Market Sat., 2/18, 9am-2pm. 9-11 Carole, John V., ! 11-12:30 Wendy 12:30-2 John S. Whoever can join us is welcome! ! Carole and John S. to update photos on presentation board. Carole and John V. to ! work on hanging items !from tree branch. There was discussion about raffle for tree ! from the nursery or fundraising where folks could choose a leaf on the branch. ! There would be something behind the leaf- a T shirt, etc. Wendy has new ! pamphlets from Vt Urban and Community Forestry Program to give out. We are not ! doing hot drinks. 9. John Snell met with Harold Garabedian, manager for the district heating project. ! Harold is very open to Tree Board concerns about protecting existing trees and ! enhancing opportunities for adding trees. The plans and specifications are being ! drawn up at this time and they hope to let it all out for bids in the spring. Construction ! will be Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 with the heat flowing by Fall of 2013. John will ! stay in touch with Harold regarding this project and keep the Tree Board informed. ! John has a request out to the state to see if there are funds that could be used along ! the river, where the pipe is being buried as it goes to the High School. Possibly ! these funds could be used to enhance this area as part of flood mitigation. Let John ! know if anyone knows of other pots of money that might be available for this. New Business 10. Tree Pruning Workshops ! Geoff Need to check. ! Dave Wilcox ! Daveʼs willing to do a tree pruning workshop at 5:30 sometime during last two weeks ! of April. ! Tree Pruning workshop at Kellogg Hubbard. Sat., 3/24, 10-1. Tree Board members ! encouraged to attend. Daveʼs willing to work on nearby Montpelier trees before or ! after the workshop. Tree Board should let him know if we have any trees in mind. ! Wild Apple Pruning, Berlin, 4/07. 2 11. The Tree Board ordered 50 "The Montpelier Tree Board, Taking root in Montpelier" ! T-shirts that should be coming in (hopefully) before the farmer's market on the 18th. ! They were roughly $7 each, are 100% cotton and are coming in two styles (green on ! white and white on green). 12. Abby submitted the Tree City USA application. ! 13. Typical Tree Board meeting time is 5:30-6:30. Proposal to extend meeting to 7 not ! popular. People prefer coming earlier if more time needed. Some cannot stay later. 14. Monthly Tree Board work day proposed for third Saturday of the month. There was ! some question about whether this would happen during winter months. Also people ! preferred weekday time slot vs. weekend. Suggested Friday pm. 15. Keeping track of hours was discussed. People will do this as of 01/01/2012. 16. Craig Royce, a new person to attend Tree Board meetings, asked about status of ! the tree proposal around Hubbard Park Tower. No one knew the status. ! Discussion was that the Tree Board should stay in touch with tree related ! groups and be supportive of their efforts. 17. Craig is coordinating an Earth Day celebration on Sun., 4/22, at the State House. ! He suggested that the Tree Board should have a table. 18. Status downtown trees. Streets were divided up and people to check on health of trees in their section and report back at March meeting. If someone wonʼt make meeting, please let Sarah know results. John V.-Main St. south, Carole-East State St., Craig-Main St. north, Wendy- Main St. to Court House, Jean-rest of State St.. 19. The proposed calender for 2012 was not reviewed. Next meeting: Thursday, March 1, Memorial Room, City Hall. Time to determined. 3