Tree Board

Montpelier  Tree  Board     Minutes  for  October  5,  2012  Meeting:  5:30pm  Memorial  Room,  City  Hall     Attendance:  Drew  Devitis,  Bob  Troester,  Carole  Naquin,  John  Van  Deren,  Geoff   Beyer,  Craig  Royce,  John  Akielaszek,  and  Sarah  Hoffmeier       • Approved  September  minutes     • Carole  explained  Leaf  Drop  50/50  Raffle  and  sent  around  draft  poster  and   sign-­‐up  sheet.  October  6th  and  October  13th  Farmer’s  Markets  will  be  where   the  Board  will  sell  the  tickets  for  $1  each.  Participants  will  guess  when  the   large  Ginkgo  in  front  of  Fothergill,  Segale,  and  Valley  (accountant’s  office)   will  lose  all  of  its  leaves  by  picking  a  date  and  a  time.  John  Van  Deren   suggested  adding  “Farmer’s  Market”  location  to  poster.  Bob  T  and  John  A   offered  to  help  volunteer  to  sell  tickets  –  Carole  will  send  out  an  email   to  coordinate  volunteer  time  slots.  Educational  materials  will  also  be   available  at  the  table  for  visitors  and  raffle  participants  (Wendy  B  or  John  S   has  them).  We  discussed  the  rules  of  the  raffle.  Geoff  Beyer  suggested  having   the  first  person  to  purchase  a  date  get  25%  of  the  pot,  while  others  sharing   that  date  would  split  the  other  25%.  The  Tree  Board  would  take  50%  of  the   pot.       • It  was  suggested  that  the  Tree  Board  continue  doing  the  Farmer’s  Market   throughout  the  winter  months  to  educate  folks  and  promote  other  special   events  (discussed  at  the  end  of  the  meeting  such  as  pruning  workshops,  tree   walks,  and  tree  id  workshops).     • Updated  Barre  St  and  downtown  plantings  that  happened  on  Sept  20th  &  29th.   Sarah  would  like  to  add  compost  to  a  few  of  the  plantings  where  soil  has   settled.  Sarah  asked  that  if  anyone  sees  a  pit  that  needs  to  have  more   compost  to  please  notify  her.  Geoff  will  provide  the  compost.     • A  new  planting  date  was  set  for  Wednesday,  Oct.  10th  from  2-­‐4pm  as  Geoff   will  have  workers  to  help  us.  If  the  weather  is  not  good,  a  back-­‐up  date  was   set  for  the  following  Wednesday,  Oct.  17th  from  2-­‐4pm.       • Geoff  said  that  he  would  get  his  crew  to  rototill  the  nursery  in  the  next   few  weeks.       • The  Board  and  volunteers  were  reminded  of  the  City  Council  presentation   Wednesday,  Oct.  10     •  Geoff  discussed  the  Capital  Improvements  proposal.  The  Tree  Board  needs   to  submit  our  project  suggestions  –  porous  pavement,  larger  tree  wells,    possible  irrigation?,  buried  wires,  etc.  with  an  emphasis  on  comparison  costs.   For  example,  if  we  use  porous  pavement,  how  much  will  it  cost  to  install   versus  how  much  will  it  save  the  city  in  salting/sanding  each  winter.  Drew   offered  to  send  information  from  the  master  plan  on  porous  pavement  and   Kevin  Casey  may  be  able  to  help  quantify  comparisons  of  costs.  Follow-­‐up   needed  and  forms  due  by  Weds.  Oct.  10th.  Geoff  offered  to  contact  the  St.   Alban  Tree  Warden  to  discuss  how  their  porous  pavement  project  went   which  was  installed  3  years  ago.     • John  A.  will  be  attending  the  Oct.  20th  Tree  Stewards  Conference  in  Randolph   –  other  interested  people  should  contact  Sarah  or  John.  It  was  asked  if  the   Tree  Board  will  pay  for  participants  and  agreed  that  the  Board  should.     • It  was  mentioned  that  a  potluck  Tree  Board  Party  will  happen  at  the  Snell   household  in  December.     • Bob  T.  brought  up  interesting  information  regarding  urban  tree  ID.   Itreetools.org  is  a  website  mentioned  and  he  discussed  how  in  Philadelphia,   Washington  DC,  and  NY,  applications  are  being  used  to  id  downtown  trees   suggesting  that  at  some  point  it  would  be  great  for  Montpelier  to  do  the   same.     • Brainstorming  other  ideas  –     o Geoff  mentioned  that  North  Branch  uses  plaques  to  identify  and   inform  visitors  about  different  species.  Carole  and  John  VD  suggested   that  each  downtown  tree  have  a  similar  plaque  identifying  the  tree,   giving  characteristics  of  the  tree,  benefits,  etc.  The  local  graphic  design   store  may  be  able  to  make  these  for  the  Board.  Costs  and  details  still   to  work  out.   o Carole  suggested  doing  a  Tree  Walk  (similar  to  the  Art  Walks  done  in   Montpelier)  with  brochures  and  other  information  for  participants   o Pruning  and  Tree  ID  workshops  were  discussed     o A  4th  of  July  Float  was  also  mentioned  –  could  give  out  ‘whips’  for   planting     • Adjourned  at  6:30pm.  Next  meeting  scheduled  for  Thursday,  November  1,   2012  at  5:30pm  in  the  Memorial  Room  of  City  Hall.