Zionsville Tree Board

Minutes of the PZAZ Committee Date: October 21, 2020 Zoom Meeting ELECTRONIC MEETING This meeting was conducted pursuant to Governor Eric J. Holcomb’s Executive Orders 20-02, 20-04 and 20- 08 and Governor Holcomb’s Exercise of his powers under Indiana’s Emergency Management and Disaster Law, Ind. Code 10-14-3, et seq. Additional information about this meeting was provided in the annex published with the Agenda Present: Tom Casalini, Mervyn Cohen, Greta Sanderson, Nancy Tikijian, Brad Burk, Pauline Coderre and Amy Lacy Absent: Brad Burk Greta Sanderson called the meeting to order at 8:00am Minutes The minutes from August the 19th 2020 were approved. Update on initiatives and committee responsibilities a. Ordinances and preservation: Mervyn asked for a timeline and for clarification of the objectives for the committee responsibilities. Amy reported that the Town is planning to redo all of the zoning ordinances. The Parks Department is planning a new tree ordinance. b. Events (tree-planting day, Z’Greenfest): Nancy will explore the date for the April tree planting day and also identify the individuals that we need to work with. c. Tree City designation: Lance is in charge of the tree city at designation for Zionsville. We do not need to do anything about this. The arbor day foundation grants the tree city designation. Their web site is https://www.arborday.org/. There are four 1  requirements to be a Tree City, one of which is that the city have a tree board. Our committee is the Zionsville tree board. For more information about Tree Cities https://www.arborday.org/programs/treeCityUSA/index.cfm d. Outreach: No update e. Beautification-Tom: • Lights. Tom suggested that the town replace the old orange lights on Sycamore street between 421 and the new bridge with new lights. These should be the same as the new lights on Zionsville road and on Main street in the village. Lights are also needed in the Pine St / Main St parking lot and in the “Friendly” parking lot on the corner of Hawthorne and Main streets. These are necessary for safety and aesthetic appearance. A draft proposal for the new lights will be submitted to Lance. Pauline's suggested the possibility of adding string lights in the village . Greta indicated that these cannot be hung over any area in which there is a motor vehicle traffic. • Closure of one block of Oak Street Mervyn suggested that we recommend closure of Oak street between 1st St and Main Street. This is a small one way St that is little used. Exiting the street onto Main Street is also dangerous because of very poor visibility created by parked cars. The area would make a very nice small green recreation space. • Murals and Plantings Tom as suggested that we should recommend adding murals in the village. These should be designed so that they work as a focal points for visitors to the town center. He also suggested that the town add planters to the new Sycamore street bridge like those that are present on the Zionsville road bridge. Old business a. Memorial for PZAZ Founder Lana Funkhouser: 2  Amy, Chris and Greta met. A ginkgo tree will be planted in the patio outside the town Hall. It will replace a crab apple tree that is dying. The mayor has approved having a small ceremony. The group approved the purchase of a 10 by 8 inch silver plaque. Chris and Nancy will a draft wording to be placed on the plaque. The tree planting will probably occur this autumn. The opening of the plaque will be in the spring. b. Fall Tree planting: The town has planted a 77 trees. Amy will distribute a list, indicating the location of each of the new trees. c. Zionsville Gateway: There are ongoing sessions seeking input for the new gateway. Our group will comment when draft plans are released. d. Report on Sept. 18 Strategic Planning Session with other town boards: Tom, Greta and Amy have met with other groups. They identified some areas of overlap between the activities some of the groups. They will meet again to identify which group should be responsible for specific roles. e. DNR on establishing a tree board: Greta spoke with Carrie Tauscher from the DNR. She is the State Urban Forestry Coordinator. The group would like to invite her to make a presentation to us. It is felt that this would be best done as a live session in the spring or summer when it is safe. Carrie will discuss with us the specific roles and functions of tree boards. In the interim Greta will ask her to provide us with tree board manuals for us to read. Amy will get a Zionsville tree inventory from Lance and share with our board. f. Amy will explore creating a Microsoft 365 group for us to share documents with each other. The next meeting will be at on 8:00 AM Wednesday the 18th of November 2020 The meeting adjourned at 9:00am Minutes prepared by Mervyn Cohen 3 4