##VIDEO ID:1WdVZrZaETg## e e e e e e e e e e e e that's I testing I'm listening e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e in accordance with the open public meeting Act of 1975 adequate notice meeting has been provided uh please rise for the pledge pledge ladies the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and Chad would you call the all please chairman chance hear me better here councilman Meer here Vice chair here commissioner preminger Barbara here commissioner wner commissioner van pal here Mr MOSI here let the record show that uh uh City landscaper or contract landscaper ramener is here and also uh the city manager was here a little while ago there he is right there all right um You have the uh me meeting notes are minutes from the November meeting uh I'll entertain motion take take a look at it if you haven't read them already I'll entertain a motion to re to review the minutes I was not here at the meeting so I will be abstaining uh from that and Barbara I think you were not here at that meeting correct so you're abstaining too from that all right I'll entertain a motion to I'll make a motion to to approve the minutes as presented yes I'll make a do I have a second second second Jim all those who were present uh at that meeting please uh indicate by saying I for approval I I no we only have we only well we only have three of that's it out well I have to go with okay approved is presented all right we also have with us a uh alternate number one who is recent disappointed Joel Perez hey uh to be alate understand that Jim you're going to be with us through next January or no this would this this will be it this will be the meeting if you want me to attend another if you need somebody I I can do I want you to take Joel around at least a couple of days or a couple hours and show them your District a point I when once you're approved sworn in I want to have him you him take over Jim's District okay as I mentioned it's Lafayette Street and part of Washington Street m Washington Lafayette there's uh a lot of City trees in that area as you know and a lot of them um do get hit by vehicles from time to time especially on Washington Street and um you're madis right from Madison up yeah on correct correct so um so you have you have the physic State also involved then that's definitely something I'd like to talk to you about okay the physical state the the physical state is owned by the City generally we don't charge for trees to be taken down and we treat the physical state like a private C like a private uh uh citizen you know said they need to get a request from us or approval from us to take trees down uh in that in that area uh in of the physical state all right uh all right we have a guest here this morning Dana you want to come up and turn on that microphone I know there you go good afternoon everyone for having me back thank you Connie for adding me to the agenda okay we just wanted to talk about can you hear me okay what we just wanted to talk about uh the trees that I'm going to plant okay in pleas two trees or four trees I'm planting four but two are crepe myrtles so we needed to talk about the other two trees well we consider those trees also okay so all right two a Cre what are the other trees I'm hoping for southern magnolia that's like an evergreen it is uh it's a flowering Evergreen and it uh um from the research that I conducted Wix moisture right and with the changing climate it's getting warmer and wetter so I thought that would be a good fit and it's a beautiful tree and the blossoms are fragrant and it's gorgeous all year long do you have a specific Variety in mind um the the from what I saw the southern magnolia was the variety there was a bay Magnolia a southern Sweet Bay Magnolia but and they're they're a native species but uh and they're beautiful tree too but no southern magnolia they they have a lot of cultivars now some of them are sort of um dwarf form and so I kind of wouldn't one I was going with the larger variety if I can add I have a a southern magnolia in my yard well established probably a good 25 ft tall um spanning probably 20 feet or so it does get that's actually a shade tree it quite a bit I've got one too it did say it was considered a shade tree and uh the whereas the other variation that I was looking at was a smaller yeah it's almost like a shrub like a gross colum there jam and other varieties but I can't make a motion but if anyone else would like to I mean I I I think that's a fine choice to use um beautiful treat and the crepe myrtles would that be a single trunk crepe myrtle or the bush type of thing multi trunk we're going to do the single trunk you're going to do a single trunk that's right we'll put we're going to put two of those in the front and then we'll do the Magnolias in the back that'll give you a more tree like appearance rather than a bush right right okay anybody have any comments any more comments about the trees no I think it's I think they're fine I I think that's that's I think we're we're satisfied okay with the replacement trees thank you for taking the time and coming in of course thank you all right now Dana excuse me last time you did stay and you're more than welcome to stay but don't feel obligated to do so if you have you know other things to do I just didn't want you to thank you I might I might stay okay thank you thank you thank you all the best do we have any other guests yes on up good afternoon everyone hello my name is Joan Dempsey and I am a homeowner 665 Hugh Street I can take this for you thank you and I wanteded to ask your consideration for the removal of a tree and I realize that is sacrilege it is on city property in the space on the other side of the sidewalk street L I'm sure you do 665 Hugh Street on the corner of Hughes and Franklin it is a Bradford pair which a lot of municipalities consider now to be nuisance trees because and this one has certainly done so they split this tree we've owned the house for three years the tree has been hit twice by large trucks coming around the corner and it's taken out significant portions of the tree and it really is an isore and a nuisance and it provides no shade I don't know the procedures but we would be uh willing to incur the expense of taking the tree out and replacing it with an appropriate shade tree so I'd like to ask ask your consideration I'm Sorry Miss Anderson I'd like to ask your consideration for removing that tree and replacing it with a better species I don't know whose District this is 655 years that's I was just looking for is that bar is that your District yes it is I matter of fact I looked I came over and looked at the Magnolia that you had right and removed it and I believe I have even talked about that tree before with the accident that yeah exactly and I have I apologize my uh I was technically challenged this morning my printer went out on me I have pictures of the the most recent damage to the tree with the truck that hit it and brought down the power lines but I couldn't print them out I can certainly send them to miss Anderson in soft copy or can drop some off I've actually looked at this tree personally and um that tree has had more than its share of issues um it's almost not even a tree anymore it's basically just a it's been topped so many times and pruned severely so many times I do agree with you it's certainly not appealing and the Bradford pair is something we're no longer encouraging to be planted in the city anyway um it's also upended the Slate yeah which I'd like to correct and replace yeah well and slate is a lot easier to usually to work around cuz they can lift it up and and put some gravel or whatever underneath um as as far as a a substitute tree when we're talking about the trucks making a turn at that corner I would almost suggest going for something more columnar it's not going to provide a canopy like we like to have on the city streets but um but because of that traffic pattern that Hugh Street is the one way down we might suggest something more cumer of a type of tree and I have no problem personally but you know I certainly would hope for other people people's input I would not have a problem with that tree being removed no it was in bad shape when I looked at it at least probably almost two years ago right and in terrible shape then so I'm I'm with that yeah absolutely anyone else have op it's pretty pretty poor shape yeah over the years well that's a that tree is a city's yes it is a city tree pardon it is a city tree yeah that's a city tree so it's our responsibility for removing the tree uh I'll entertain a motion to uh remove the tree uh as funding permits uh and the possibility putting a replace replacement tree of some sort in there okay but Mrs dempy said she's willing to do that what she's I'm willing to pay the home owner said she's willing to pay for a new tree there okay if um is that allow well we should remove the tree yeah the city can take responsibity what kind of tree do you have in mind I will do whatever you all well we have a column or oak on that street which did quite well um but there are Maples there's colum their Oak um maples have a tendency over the years to really envelop the sidewalks well that's the only problem with the maple but they are colum no not that I know Matt had some trees at his house but I don't know I don't think better than nothing but um I thought maybe a Ginko a gko because a lot of the goo varieties grow more colum or too you know Kinko is a nice tree yeah if I me if that's something that you're happy with too I think would be great cuz there are no Goos on that street okay so that would be good to put a little Variety in there yeah but I'll make a motion to uh have this tree removed have a second second by Barbara uh any more discuss I can second it yeah what go ahead what I said I can second that Mo yes you can yeah all those in favor of removing that tree on U that damaged Bradford pair on uh Hugh Street signify you saying I I any abstentions I'm sorry all right no not you all are wonderful as as as money permits we're out of money uh so we got to wait till we get some more money in the budget to do trimming and removals particularly since that's going to cost a couple of thousand dollars to probably to remove can a homeowner reimburse the city for can a homeowner reimburse the city for removal or vice versa do you mean do you mean could you remove the tree and the city reimburse you no okay I would either remove it at my expense or I would reimburse the city well that would get it done would that be possible Paul because you guys out budget money I will have budg Mone well submit a submit a uh an estimate for removing of the tree you okay submit an estimate for removal of the three I'll present it to Mrs uh Dempsey Mrs Dempsey and if she agre this is going to be this is going to be a little bit different of a removal because of the Slate being there and her wanting to replant in that same spot we're going to have to have a backo come in and and lift the lift the Slate up and remove some of the root remove the root system so I will get you a price though and then next week all right great well do you want will you just be submitting the price then to Mrs Dempsey no submitting it to Ryan will'll submit it to Mrs Dempsey okay ronal Ron R I'll give a price J Tree and Mr Dempsey so you guys can decide what you want all right sure all right great all you need I think she wants it go on as soon as possible yes all right am I done yes I think so thank you very much believe I can't believe make two people happy today can we go for three all right you here for a reason uh Matthew Notch top-notch tree carer U I was here for Mrs Dempsey and uh she's asked me to do the replanting for her are you set on planning that exact spot or no can move it it's whatever makes sense whatever would be best for I do think on the Franklin Street side though there are overhead wire so I would kind of caution about that I think it would be better on the Hugh Street side if possible just because the wire situation I guess there actually is there there is okay I I believe it actually the wires go in an angle right just by looking at this photo I mean that's pretty much what it shows yeah so it's coming off this pole that's behind the tree going on an angle across the street so maybe further in on Hugh Street yeah wherever the better location s willing to move well then of course utility feeds into the house also so you have to watch that I didn't I was thinking too for Ron's purpose that stump ring can be very involved with PE trees and the you know then excavate and maybe just grinding it out we're going to shift spots if you're going to move the spot then I can just grind it and it'd be less expensive this is a slate sidewalk it is yes it's a slate sidewalk yeah so you have experience with lifting slate slabs without breaking them unfortunately yeah do they break they don't break well we had one we had one break and that was about 45 years ago and I haven't had one break s okay so so you're well experienced with it you can do it okay yeah I you know I would suggest just take a look at the site and see where you think one will fit that you can agree upon well I think that's already in here you mean the cost of it no no just the status oh sure as long as you're here the we're finished watering for the year now correct okay yeah we finished like a month ago okay all right although we could be we been invoiced yes you invoiced minus two water T additional waterings be on the original proposal that's ended in September 21st but it didn't rain yeah for still hasn't earing I still have a uh invoice for $600 for two additional waterings I haven't oh no way nothing on the rad yeah nothing even here I guess that's it thanks Matt all right thank you Matt thank you Matt all right um we're waiting to see if the city clerk is going to come down we need to get Joel sworn in is alternate number one uh but let's continue on Public Works assistance we know that you help help us pick we know that you guys help us pick up branches and stuff and debris and whatnot off the streets after storms uh and maybe do some do some cleanups and whatnot after grinding down and whatnot but is there any other ways that you can assist us uh uh in your round s on cleaning up the streets to remove small trees uh public in public public places we got some small trees that probably could be removed very easily without calling in Ron maner uh for those type of trees is any way you guys can continue to give us some assistance um right now the procedure is just write us a work order or an email and if we have time we can get to it if not then what to subcontract are you on skeleton you are you on reduced crew now for winter we are not reduced crew no but we do have a heavy workload right now okay so send us a request and if we can get to it we can if we can't then we'll have to subcontract it out or you guys will have to subcontract it out yeah for a tree falling into the roadway or something that's that's that's that's that's an emergency 100% we can count on you to help on a quick basis because Ron may be off to doing other other things uh uh in his because he is a private contractor for other folks also all right cuz earlier this year in the early spring you were able to remove some of those smaller trees correct and I mean some of those trees that we that have failed are only in the ground 2 to 3 years so they're basically a 4in caliper at most it's a correct one slice thing you know you got a tree that's maybe 10 foot tall at the most and uh that's the kind of things that we could right I'm not saying I'm not saying we can't do it I just say we just need you guys to turn around just send us a work order request hey can you take a look at this tree like Connie has hey we can do it hey no we cannot cuz our Workforce is too heavy okay you there's other priorities I see the work ERS that go in and then what happens is they're refused because because we're too busy we can't we have other we have other other obligations to handle I understand or we're short-handed or I have you know bigger op bigger problems to deal with well why don't we try to get those kind of work orders in now in the off because you're not you know there's no flowers now there's no watering of that so hopefully there'll be enough time to get some of those at least those smaller trees taken care of because I mean I could do it myself but I mean are we allowed to do it I mean I'd love to cut off some of these suckers on these trees as well I did that historically through throughout the years but now I guess we're at a place I don't know if we should be doing that or not doing that what I used to do was young tree pruning I would go around do some directional pruning and uh on the you know really young trees or remove some dead branches and then put them in the curb notify Public Works they would pick them up but now we've we've been saying that it should only be the contracted person or Public Works doing the tree so I don't know if we should be doing that or not I mean I don't have a problem doing it but well mean if if we were to do that we'd probably have to sign a waiver to be honest with you so that's a yeah I don't know how we would go about that there's something for you to look into okay uh would be something on the be boiler I'm sure there is yeah what's the reinstatement of public trees Memorial trees well okay I brought that up because for whatever reason during the pandemic the uh Memorial tree program was suspended um at the time I believe we were charging $100 or $150 there's no way possible that you can get it you can't even buy the tree for $150 let alone have it plant at stake and now you see our Memorial tree the recruit wer buys the tree right we plant it and they also pay for the memorial plaque and we place it right but what happened was a few years ago that whole program was stopped the people that were calling were being told that we no longer do Memorial trees so because then they would call I guess at the time they kept calling to say Well when is this tree being planted when is this tree being planted and you can't just plant a tree you know every time somebody calls and wants a memorial tree sometimes you have to wait until we do our Mass planting you know which is typically in the fall but my thing is with with this I I would like to see the memorial tree situation put back into place because number one we gain trees for the city it's not coming from our budget but we have to put a price on those Memorial trees which some people might find exorbitant but it's what we need in order to purchase the tree plant steak and now if we have another dry spell like we had this year water the trees so we're talking about a memorial tree not costing $1 or $150 anymore we're going to have to C charge something like 500 well uh George can we refer to what I would call experts we happen to have two of them here um to give us what and average cost of a planting is going for well that's including the price of the tree and planting everything involved sure and that would be obviously Ron maner and um Matt Notch so if we can hear from these guys give some kind of an idea of what an average price is that would be great well that's I was basing it off of what they submitted into the budget but I'd certainly like their comments in public too but beyond that we're going to have to deal with developing a whole program because as you may or may not be familiar we had issues with the memorial bench program which we no longer do because it needs to be an a Very established procedure and documentation that you know some people may feel I got to tree and for some reason the tree dies and then they want a replacement tree because they felt like they bought a tree and they have that tree forever so there's there's issues with that and if you start a memorial tree program well they may want to dictate well I want my tree here and and if you put a street if you're if you're saying hey we're going to use it for our street tree program you're not going to want to put Memorial tree for Sally over in front of Joe's house so there there's a lot of prescriptions and and things that we need to really work out in detail in if if the shade tree wants to think about moving forward we need to really have discussions and formalize a whole program the cost I think is probably the most the easiest thing to come up with and and probably the minimal thing the more is the prescriptive nature of what you know because really you're it's a contract between the city and the person making the donation and and what is the ultimate obligation of the city and uh we just got to be careful of that that's well we have had that issue in the past so I I agree with you with that you know we have people that want a memorial tree and we want it they used to like to walk down to cada streets so we want it on Decor Street well sometimes you there's no space to put that so I absolutely agree that we're going to have to just say a tree will be planted somewhere within the city and usually when they want a memorial tree they want it near the Washington Mall or they want it near where a lot of people are going to be and there's only so many sites that you can do that with and what we typically did as far as replacing we didn't have it in writing well that's but you have to have all that stuff documented because you know if if you're going to sit there and say hey you're going to pay $1,500 for a memorial tree they're going to say okay well where's my plaque where's my this and that and then if the plaque gets stolen or something happens to it the plaque Fades or something happens to it who's responsible then then to replace the plaque so there's a lot of things that we're realizing that you know before we contemplate that we need to go through a whole process of let's develop the whole program and parameters so that it covers and protects the city as well as you know so that both the city and the person trying to make a donation knows what they're going to get for their donation and what time limit it covers so you like to see us put together three or four pages of like and I think and it yeah I think we got to just have all those kinds of things have to be detailed so before they make a donation you know they're going to sign and they understand the program and that the city's comfortable with you know because you know it's binding to the city on on what that program would be so I think we need to I think it's I think the cost is probably the easier part of developing that or re bringing back a program like that yes yeah I don't know if we should do a subcommittee to come up with that or how we should go about that right how to go about figuring out how to do a memorial tree program again yeah yeah well we we also ran into a problem with the mo Memorial itself uh the uh that's what we had some really nice memorials done for a while then the trophy company stopped doing that then we had them inscribed on brick bricks uh and I think the company is not doing that anymore either so coming up with the suitable well they were doing the granite slab yes I think they still do that you should definitely incorporate uniformity to whatever the plaque whatever it's going to be use the same vendor you don't want all different looking black Stones this and that you I would say make that uniform well I agree with that too but I mean does anybody have any input as what do you think about doing this with the memorial trees should we start that back up again or what anybody have any thoughts on the memorial program going back up I have no problems with with reinstating it as soon as as long as we can find a suitable guy that's going to do Memorial bricks uh and uh uh we can charge the people for the cost you know real real cost of the three plus planning or you know they could just give us the money and we'll buy the tree and put it in right so okay but we we're going to have to put it in writing again we got to be able we've got to be able to choose the location that's that's the other thing too run out of places near the wall and on the mall and yeah and uh in public parks and stuff like that yeah and when they when they uh do uh Harbor viw Park we do that there's at least two Memorial trees in har View Park they're overgrown but the plaques are still there MH so okay all right all right um budgetary needs that's the big one well then we'll talk Shane timing was good on that wasn't it let you talk about Council should we go on to something else much watching the meeting out here well I just not a bad city manager um I just think you know we can't be asking for the same budget as last year because we ran out of it two years ago and we have an issue with replacing the tree we were just talking about on Decor Street you know thankfully we have a wonderful member of the community that's willing to do it for us you know for everybody um we definitely have to ask for more the what we have to ask for more yes price cost goes up my intent of looking at this is that for for what what we spent this year on tree removal and trimming to ask for at least three times more on that particular item all the rest of the items you know we we've didn't spend or or there were money left over we were able to sweep out in November and use it to pay bills all bills to my knowledge have been paid uh outstanding bills well our secretary has already submitted our our budget to the manager you know what happens is the manager creates the budget yes and then they presents it to city council then it becomes City council's working document um I think it if we wanted to make a request to the city manager to increase the budget item of replacing and maintaining trees in Kate May that should be done by a motion at this table and whether he's here or not he's going to have to hear about it yeah well let's uh I put it on a table we should ask for three times what the uh uh three times what the cost was this year for maintaining the trees because the trees get older they're going to take more maintenance to trim and trees get uh older they're going to take more uh cost more to remove uh should they have to be removed so I think we should ask for three times on that particular item of budget do we have to do we have to specify each separate thing of the budget no I don't think so when we prepare the budget right they have you haven't even called for the budget to be submitted yet uh yeah the manager is asking for requests at this point requests but not budget budgetary requests yeah okay because not only is the I know you're talking about the tree maintenance and the trimming and the pruning and removal but also with planting trees the cost cost of trees have gone up what we used to pay you know 150 for a tree now a lot of the nurseries are charging 250 for the same tree you know every Everything has gone up as far as we're talking about increasing our budget for next year because of of the the higher costs and and the more requests for trimming of mature trees and the higher cost for taking down of mature trees I totally get it it's just matter so we can submit we got to you got to put those numbers together and figure out what you know what we're doing in the past and what we how we need to manage the program moving forward so yeah it's not a problem to look at it we just got to we've got time you know before that and obviously looking at this year's budget you know we're overspent you know we're right at the at at the limits so so we got to look at what what numbers we want to put forward for next year would you need that last week no no if if by the end of the year if you get me some valid numbers before the end of the calendar year so I can you know sit with CFO and make sure that we can roll those numbers in and the lantern flight this issue I don't know we don't there's no grant money that's we had yeah we talked about it we had we we received a grant okay so that's not going to be part of our budget then we don't have to have well it's part of your budget yes I mean that's you're going to have the availability to use that so you're going to I mean that's what you you guys had a subcommittee and and looked at it's Mar forn fly though yeah yes we're yeah okay but the budgetary increases weard to forther tree maintenance and replacement right yeah oh yeah in addition to yes yes okay can I ask on here where the budget item for the planting of trees is is that included in tree maintenance is that all one and the same that's all one and the same most likely yeah because I mean that's the big number here is the tree maintenance um it's not itemized to show separately tree plantings and that's what George had brought up about tree plantings but I'll assume that's all in that one number it's going to be all I mean those are the line items that we've historically used so I mean it's it's all in there okay okay okay so you're we'll submit a budget request very shortly yes all right okay uh Frank anything from Public Works no not at this time bill um You' submitted you put a summons in to somebody that did trim the street tree uh with an attitude on new was it New York Avenue yeah iation and what so I actually press the button yeah there you go I actually spoke to Mr Notch about that because he had seen but um I wrote a violation notice so it's on record but I didn't issue a summons so a summons would mean a fine and go in the court but we have a record of it the guy cut the trees okay so you want me to go to court with you just let me know if for for a violation and his summons you go to court I'll I'll be available to represent the shade Tre Commission on on uh any Court appearances that have to go okay absolutely okay all right so there's not going to be any Court not going to be any court all right all right but the guy got the got the message right y all right thank you New York is what about Shane Council uh oh I don't have anything today I I'm still working on the uh preferred tree list at this point that's on what the the uh preferred list of trees oh okay approved approved list yeah did I no you didn't I wasn't sure I didn't want to bring it up at the meeting thanks so what's going on what's going on with land fly uh at this point we're kind of in a holding pattern uh our plan is we got this this grant money we need to determine how many trees we have on our City properties because that's probably what we want to go for uh moving forward we might want to come up with a 50-50 program for private properties uh two uh we're going to put out a newsletter at the next uh uh ta tax bill it informs people what they what they can do about the lantern flies and some information about The Tree Of Heaven uh and at and at this point between now and then you going to use that Rucker material yeah a lot of the Rucker's material uh Penn State has some material too um and then at this point between now and the spring we are trying to get information of where people have these tree of Heavens on their own property we can't determine what kind of approach we can have on this situation because we don't know how many trees we we need to take care of so that's that's really step one finding out who has trees of heaven and then putting out the newsletters and then determining how to spend this grant money whether we want to put most of it towards uh the trees that are on City Properties or if you can spend some of that on a 50-50 program so we're in a holding pattern till the spring at that at this point just gathering information and that just happens to go inside the dormany the dormy that's right they are dormant at this point and if anybody thinks that they have a tree of Heaven on their property please contact the shade tree commission secretary and uh we can go out there and look at it is that good sounds good okay all right that's all I have anybody else have anything for is the city clerk going to come down uh so we are we I was talking to the city manager and the city clerk we're going to have all the Commissioners uh sworn in at the reorganization meeting in January so we'll have the papers here for all of you to sign saying that uh you know you're not going to give any preferential treatment you know based on you know who you yeah but I want Joel to take over Jim's territory next month he will he will Brian brought the Bible down we going to give you piece of paper you're going to sign it you're going to read it and sign it and and uh and swear that you're going to fulfill your duties uh to the best of your your ability is that acceptable they don't have they don't have the paper prepared for it right now Joel is it helpful for me to stay on Alternate one on the sh commission all right and you're going to meet with Jim Van you're going to meet with Jim Van Pelt he's going to to take you around is District on of territory we've divided up the territories according to the recycling uh budget recycling schedule is how we've uh defined our territories and I fig your number what seven or six seven seven recycling territory all right that's all I have anybody have anything more for to go to the order I'll I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I can entertain that Barbara do I have a second members all those in favor thank you very much for coming I appreciate itad welcome AB board I than going scare the hell out of him I don't think so