##VIDEO ID:TdDQnS6O5JM## okay it's 10 o'clock and I'm going to call the meeting to order of the cranber commission Scout and we're going to pledge the flag now I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands indivisible andice all all right we're going to move on to the statement of adequate notice um pursuant to the Sunshine Law adequate notice in accordance with the open public meeting Act was provided on January 5th 2024 of this meeting's date time place and the agenda was mailed to the news media posted on the township bulletin board mailed to those requesting personal notice and filed with the municipal clerk and we're going to go on to roll call and hours if possible um so Miss Easton here how many hours or to be determined to be determined okay Miss irons here hours here hours to be determined Miss Johnson here uh I have uh eight volunteer hours plus um 8ce plus today's meeting all right and Miss LaRon 10 hours and 10 hours all right thank you so Jackie you have really 16 eight and eight right right 16 plus the mean so 16 totally total and eight of those are CE right great right okay I never explain that clearly do you want to um could you yes but could you also maybe email um Shin to see if she has any hours or CE to report thank you um minutes has everyone had a chance to read the meeting minutes from the September meeting I I'll make a motion to accept I second the motion we're going to move on to roll call for the um September 5th shry minutes uh Miss Easton for yes yay uh Miss irons y Miss Johnson what a roll call for what today approving the minutes oh the minutes oh yes yes and Miss Larson abene absin because she was absent excused the last meeting and uh Miss Sara Letterman is uh excused so that is so the September 5th shry minutes are adopted by the majority of members present with one exstension thank you okay um I'm my attempt is not to rush you through this but go a little bit fast I have to go attend to my mom um she doesn't have an aid today sorry for the personal business um and I think we're in good shape um in a lot of ways and uh what we will do and I'm let me see where this is on the um okay that's in a new business so we did Community forestry management plan um oh Township committee report is there any thing you want to mention that's been going on in the township committee as relates to trees or or no nothing's going on anything anybody have anything from I I missed that Parks meeting again okay um tree removal and replacement ordinances okay I believe I've had eight applications and I've received as many phone calls about people removing trees by either an unlicensed meaning no arborous license for the company or no permit so you know I don't have any evidence report we have no teeth in the ordinance for someone to go out it certainly can't be me I did go out to Bergen Drive where three shade trees now I couldn't obviously I couldn't do dbh because they were gone they were pin OES um but I measured the diameter at the at the flush cut point and there were 2 36 dbh trees and a 30inch tree very large obviously planted you know too large for the space because they have a very bitty um devil strip there there but a neighbor had a couple neighbors had called and they were very upset because they just disappeared now looking down the street now the true they did not apply for a permit um they were definitely pins and if you look at the street there was a monoculture on one side and the other of Pino this is in is that the green Bergen cranber green um and they need a lot of work the the pins on the street now look like the pins did in Heritage when we started to go through the parks to prune so um they probably you know there's nothing I can do about the fact that they're gone or there's no recourse here that I understand however um it's possible that they had a lot of dead Limbs and maybe couldn't be limed up anymore I don't know but they were very big for the spot they had all pushed up the sidewalk I imagine the homeowners might want to be replacing the sidewalk I don't know what their intention is the stumps aren't ground so that was um good because I could see what the how big the trees were and I responded to the to the residence who complained um so but there's also been um one experience I had and I didn't have time to stop and I again don't have the authority there was one of the new trees that we planted in the nut loss on Main Street being trimmed by a hedge trimmer now that means every cut that that hedge trimmer made to every bit of wood is a wound it's damaged so um I checked with some arborists and apparently you can if you can stay on the ground with your hedge trimmer and reach it you can use a hedge trimmer there's no there's it's not not against the law if he'd been on a step stool or a ladder that would have been against the law and a violation and he didn't have a helmet on so um you know I've been been absurb i' I've received calls from Arbus who have noted um unlicensed people taking down trees this kind of thing but um I'm just sort of I'm not writing this all down because I have there's nowhere to go with it but just to be aware I probably received as many and you know I didn't investigate everyone if it's on the street I can go look at it if it's someone yours someone's yard I don't know but in terms of applications um we received quite a few we we really do need to improve the application form um I I stressed that I wanted the dbh definition and how to do it on the sheet and mostly we're getting um circumferences we're not getting dbh but I've sent them the link to the dbh and tried to get some dbh um no one's removing more than two trees so far so we're not at the just under five um uh for a variety of reasons mostly because of decline Hazard someone's putting in a um a garage so I've received I think it's seven applications and this went into effect June I'm looking at Bonnie June at the June something meeting of the township um and so that's uh let's say June July August September in five months I received one nine so there's quite a a legitimate argument here to have an arist now um we haven't spent any money Consulting Arbus so far although we have 5,000 in the budget we're going to ask for that again next year but Jessica and um Jackie went to the shade tree conference they talked to arborist Jessica and I had an one-hour meeting with the Princeton arborist and that was that was graus um and and coincident and interestingly enough he is available to consult either on a contract or payroll basis I don't see payroll happening because that's not we were not there yet but um as well as uh the Meadow Lakes arborist is always available for a quick consult advice um so we we've moved we we're in that area and we haven't hired anyone but I probably will need a consultant before the end of the year um to start planning for spring planting alth um although we don't have to do that now and now that I think about it it's uh it's November 7th and maybe this year won't happen but but we will begin to exercise and have and start working with someone next year as soon as we um figure that out the $5,000 in the budget um did everyone get a copy of the budget um that will cover uh rates range from 75 to 150 75 so this $5,000 and we've already received so also I should mention I've talked to two other arborists yeah I can share with Jessica here you go it's the same as last year except less 20,000 on the pruning which I'll get to um oh I know that no that's actually not what I want to look okay that's fine thank you here we go sorry here we go um that's going to get us 25 to 40 hours I think that should be sufficient and we'll see how that goes next year before we ask for more or ask perhaps for a paytime a paytime part-time PID arborist um what some townships are doing is they have some someone on their DPW crew um works with the shade tree commission and they are an arborist they're at least an ltco if not an LTE um and because of the nature of the trees number one they are the most valuable resource in town they're not not easily replaced they provide huge services for this town for everybody and um I don't want money or budget to really be the limiting factor here because um we should be we I think we could be spending more money to save the trees we have a lot of problems you have the old trees all planted in the wrong space they're coming down we need to plant new trees we need to manage the trees it's been a problem watering this year which I'm disappointed to tell you um and going forward in the future maybe we consider um which is one of the reasons we never got to the planting one we weren't getting adequate watering of the Trees of the five trees we planted in two years un five trees and although that's just been remedied recently I hope we can save them you know when October according to the um Ruckers climatologist October was the driest October in the record of New Jersey October's since we've been recording it's seriously dry there's no moisture in the soil so we had to push planting and we saw this coming back in July really um so we we're pushing PL into the spring or the fall but definitely to next year um and we will when and several things need to be considered and this is where the arbor is going to come in helping us select the species related to the inventory um what the other Town folks are doing as we've been doing in terms of tree planting you know where there is spaces but also if someone loses a tree for whatever reason and they want it replace where we honor that and we and they get a tree I mean they don't get a tree the street gets a tree um and that's how we find out about um empty spaces yes Bonnie on South Main some of those new trees that were planted never took they did they remove them though the dead ones yeah the dead ones are there and now it's now it's I can't tell because yeah all the leaves are off there were a few Young dead ones there's been several Replacements in that area again I think watering was the issue they have a they have a large grassy strip actually which is nice um I'll take a look at that and I don't the list of what trees DPW is taking down but they've been taking down some some of the new ones so maybe they I have to see if they're on the DPW list thanks um I forget where I was oh so planting and watering is a big thing you know we'll have to get a contract for watering I don't I don't see us convincing the township to buy watering a water truck for DPW that must be you know what $75,000 I don't know but but we'll have to hire some kind of service to come in if we're going to plant more than a few trees or even even then so um let's see so going through the the budget are we actually on the budget or did I jump around from applications I jumped from applications to budget did anyone have anything to say about applications or um um can just to the end and we then we talk or now I'm not really sure um because we missed the township committee report let's get through the rest of the agenda and then we'll Circle back how does that sound okay I have a question on okay well just yeah we're getting phone calls at the on the township end and then we also direct them to the Shay tre's um page because it's posted on the website and and if someone contacts me I direct them to the website well actually what I do is if anyone contacts me by email I send them all the links um we also I I I was hoping it was going to continue to be in one of the monthly announcements but I guess we have to submit it every month to to go into that announcement because that's really important that we continue to let people people know but I guess it's up to me to do that and do I send that to scout who sends it to the web gut I don't know how that works you can send it to Debbie okay okay I'll send it to Debbie did did Omar put put in requests to clear that land on um South Main in 130 okay I don't I don't know who the partners are that own the property but I believe whatever was submitted for that was well before the um they just they just cleared that right but but just like the clearing that took place on Old TR road that plan had been approved about seven years ago or something so this plan was approved definitely not since June I don't think what plan what are you talking whatever whatever the whatever project they're doing on the corner there yeah you're talking about the corner of 130 on the circle yeah 130 in South Main yeah I I didn't see any plans for that but I'm thinking that whatever plan that was submitted a while a before June I would guess the whatever the original plan I haven't seen a landscaping plan so maybe they're not there yet they they had they had a um variance a zoning variance I do know that um and that was only for what a zoning variance list for what I think two years yeah well I think whatever was granted I mean went through I'm sure it went through through the planning board it never came through Shad Tre because there was um there wasn't a good process for that a couple of years ago for for things to come to shry so we could avoid invasive species planting and that kind of thing um I can so I don't know sorry long answer I don't I don't know um I question hear concerning words from you about the ordinance in general like you know we don't have the authority we don't have like you know there's some things like would it be something you know we want to revisit to have some way of you know oh yeah yeah and we're going to work with an arst on that I mean we need to revisit the ordinance I think oh we totally do a way to to do these things because this was a test yes this was failing like that we can catch these things and figure out so this is this is the template this is our first time out yeah we can make changes and we're going to use the arborus to help us with that okay okay because we are all lay people here including everyone who helped us work on it so we will get the AR to involve this time plus I know that um there was some light shed on the on the ordinance because every many towns are in the same situation okay because they want to make the deadline some towns forever have had a sheet tree ordinance I mean a tree replacement or ordinance like Princeton long time long time before this and so as as we get more educated we will propose to the new Township committee because we just don't have time this year no no no you know a better a propose the changes the modifications to the ordinance but also you're considering that yeah okay yes definitely and then also I agree because I know people who have told me too bad about the ordinance I'm not I'm doing whatever I want on my property well that's sort of the cranberry way with some things to say and that's I we have we can't do anything about that but also our role and we're not on that yet on the is the education part and that's getting something public education in the library you know about this as well as uh letting Debbie know you said to Applications have come in which is I think pretty pretty good yeah because there was also um some uh but my concerning part is there's not much we can do we don't have the authority blah blah blah blah and you know that's and that's but we have but we have what did I say seven or nine nine applications yeah so people are people do know and they'll tell their neighbors because neighbors are telling neighbors you can't take that tree there a tree there's a tree ordinance and because this is another story I heard the neighbor said no there isn't we can take we called and and they say we can take any down trees you want now that's just an outright lie because they didn't call the township and no one in the township said sure take down any trees you want they wouldn't do that before the ordinance the other thing is I'm wondering are the and you might have known this from the shade trade is that um uh uh from the uh conference you went to are the arborist are not the arborist but are the landscapers that are doing the work the tree people are they now aware that cranberry has it and Which towns they do because I have spoken to people taking down trees and they oh we didn't know about it that that's what I was going to say I think that if they hire a reputable person you know to take the tree down they are aware of the towns you know that have or they're aware to call the town or to call yeah so before okay before the ordinance I received many calls from people who assumed there was one and there never was a permit for tree remal until June and so and they they were Savvy and they worked with a lot of townships a lot of people are doing trees I not a lot but there are there's one particular Landscape Company we see in Cranberry that's working on trees that is not licensed to do it um and but I have to see them in the Act without the helmets and doing the tree thing I guess and then report it to the township um but what I want to say is uh oh um that's okay I just that's all I wanted to say oh it's the homeowner's responsibility to to know about the ordinance that's what Arbors are tell and but if they're good Arbors they'll look into it because they expect that there's a tree removal permit okay but really it's the home's responsibility I can just if I could just add one to the specific with it is whether or not our ordinance has any teeth regarding specific aspects of tree remov the state has very clear laws about practicing um tree work without the proper licensing and the state very good point has um and and those and those rules do have indeed a lot of teeth to them including some serious fines against contract they do and I'll say this to everyone on the committee today please if you see um a violation meaning they don't have a license number on the truck you can't bear you know you happen to see something call me well first just look it up on the website we have a link on our website look it up and see if they're currently licensed or not they keep that up to date and if they're not um are there's someone I can call who uh is a regional person I don't know the person's name or but I just learned this there's someone that I can call who will come out and he works and he's a state person and he deals with it so in the best case scenario you know um and something just for we might want to have think about expanding the information we provide online for homeowners and just remind people that it's really it's not um number one this is about Public Safety it's about the safety of of the homeowners or others on the property and it's the safety of the workers if you're working with an unlicensed tree company or Landscape Company um there is a lot of liability that shifts to the land owner so there's I think we I think it's there's a lot of Education to be done that I yeah we can we can add a tab to the website that says you know sort of hit all these points um and then they then there these additional supporting information in the other tabs we can arrange that because that is something that Jess and I are working on with Scout um okay so I think we've talked about tree removal replacement enough unless anyone has any more questions update on Memorial trees and Parks um the uh there's no new planting so they're not planting I kind of lost touch with the person that wanted to plant something at um milstone but maybe they're working with the Lions but I don't the Lions but I'm not sure but all planting um is next year because of the drought and the condition of the soil oh and the memorial trees that are planted are doing well I'm hoping that the magnolia the Tom Widener tree the magnolia in Heritage which I um cleaned up a few times uh just because it grass was blown on it from the mowers and there were weeds and stuff but it's it was doing really well now there's no gator bag on that and if the if the gator bags which have been empty for a while so I don't know that it's been but they were watering that separately and they are going to be continue watering again I mentioned the Magnolia specifically it's a beautiful tree in two years it's going to be amazing it was loaded with flowers this year it's a Bracken and um Brown bra anyway it's a very nice species and um one of the webinars I went to the tree guy uh made note of it what a fine tree it is um community outreach we're going to uh get right on that in February and maybe in between now and then reach out regarding to do some Community out reach in the school but in the meantime cbury Community we should just talk about the ordinance and why it's important and maybe we could even um it just occurs to me with our Consulting next year as well as education Maybe Taylor would even do that for us I'm not sure because that would be after hours but anyway we will get an arborist to come in probably and talk about that not us someone who can really speak to why trees are important how they filter our groundwater um why this is important and also really this came from the state you know we didn't just make this up but it's good to have protection and not lose our tree canopy we're going to lose our air filtration and and shade um Barton has been expanding Barton has been expanding like crazy I don't know if you've noticed I mean all of a sudden on on anel Davidson it each side of the road so that's helping our caty because there are so many trees well in a temporary way but it's true it does it does add to the green the green uh belt in town and and we are there are some of them that we're considering as uh provider but but what but the planting is complicated in the sense that we have to select just to go to that although it's down here I'll wait um canopy assessment I just did you get it I forgot I didn't check check that link yet did you check that link Jessica did it work I okay well we have a link that we're looking at for canopy assessment that's available online I'm not sure how um current the data is but we're going to check that out and get back to you on that consultant LTE I've already talked to you about that um anybody have anything else about old business just with I don't know if this is the is this the place to comment um about the budget okay two two minutes and we'll be there first we're gonna talk about the sh well I'm not because I is it part of the climate education we're gonna we're trying to Yes um coordinate with the climate education for whatever grades they can coordinate with and it would be outdoor ideally is that we do some kind of outdor program with them I I wanted to say something about that the um School the benefits of trees you know we got a a newer uh update on that and I haven't gotten to talk to anyone about it but I thought if we we could work with different age groups in the school and just give them the basics of benefit benefits and then have them break up into groups and come up with their own you know Spiel and if they have a video they could video even you know with their phones uh and present it to the different grades what they did or even in a library to the parents and then that's great and we will be coordinating with um the chief School administrator uh regarding because a little the curriculum is different for every grade of course and how how we can do that but idea was to be outside and if if you have that can you um at the end of the meeting can we make a copy of that benefits of treat that you picked up since that's the new one yeah we'll make a copy of that for everyone okay okay at the end thanks um so shry bud I mean shry conference G is there anything else that you wanted to share from the shade Tre conference Jackie well there's a there's a lot but the the bottom line from I I tried to summarize it real short is um diversity and I don't have my notes here but uh about native plants native trees uh we have to revisit that because of climate change and uh what is a native plant doesn't NE necessarily all the native trees do well now with our climate change and we have to look and More Southern species Southern species and they gave us a list a couple of the speakers gave us lists of their favorite ones and I wanted to type that up and share it but I haven't gotten to that yet well let's have a workshop on that I mean it's small workshop with us we can you know do that and just focus on that which would be great because the more you know about trees the morees that was big thing they or they are looking at it and I think that was one of the good things about us not planning any trees this year we'll have a better idea of what trees to seek but as far as working with the um arist it's important for us to get our list of trees in around February for fall planning they're not recommending spring planting at all then it's interesting because there was an article in here I don't know maybe two years ago about planting in the spring but um now they said they they're saying to avoid the planting in the spring well this spring would have been bad well this spring was too wet and this fall is is a serious drought so there there you have it we don't do it in the summer maybe because of the climate change will'll be PL here in the winter soon who knows maybe you know December will be our month I'm sorry is anything else well I think um Jessica was there uh for the second day I'm sure she might have stuff to say Jessica sure okay so um definitely my big takeaways were on the what you know what trees to plant and how to plant them that was huge emphasis on that um and it relates to part of what I need to report on on our recommended trees list but I think um so much information has come out of this meeting that uh and I took a lot of Notes too from both days that it I think does make sense for Jackie and I to like bore in on that a bit more there are a lot of recommendations about specific trees also types of trees bringing in as she said Southern trees um also a lot of talk about the use the the the need to really look at your um your Township's tree inventory that you need diversity and then that needs to be informed by what you have in the township and luckily we have data yeah so um so just a lot of um a lot of discussion of that it was really interesting there was also some interesting talk about um examples where um community volunteers had been used really effectively in um not just planting trees but in caring for them like watering programs pruning even uh these are not casual programs these these These are programs models that have very um that are very developed and have some funding behind them in order to develop them but they're also so for example philad Philadelphia treekeepers it's a group and they're happy to share their their information and their findings but there there are some good examples of a success in using volunteers um to to to do those kinds of things are any of the volunteers a scout group or student volunteers I'm just asking or is it the general be excluded but the general population and it would be um but these are training programs when you sign up you get trained and you get certified to be a part of your of of your group doing this um so it's just it was just an interesting approach I think it's something we might look at and what's the training program called um I believe it's it's Phil it's I believe it's um the one that comes to mind first is it's a Philadelphia treat Keepers but I can send that I may not be get giving the exact name of that group that's a treekeeper it's a tree Keeper in in Philadelphia well I love the name and it's a but it's a it seems like it's rigorous training but it's something that's a benefit to the people and it could be all ages um but it's it sounds do you think there' be enough interest in this very small community for people to take the time to get Technical Training and um because that's the person we want to come on the board since Bonnie this is Bonnie's last meeting today I don't think I said that on the record but Bon has served Since U I'll I'll touch on that on the end go ahead yeah I do okay I I think you might yes I do cool would it be appropriate for I guess because it's a training thing you can't really have Scout what um I think with between the high school um I mean I think it you could what's interesting to me is it could be really be a range of Ages because you've got high school students at PHS who need service hours do you have any idea how many hours the training entail is like a one session training or is it no I think it's I think no I think it's Rous than that it's it's a series I and and that to me would be you know the Challenger I think there's also some equipment involved like water uh tracks or or like water pumps that could be compatible with the trunk you know for watering like um so some of the watering needs you're you're talking about there there are um there are examples out there where that's been taken on by Community is this something to propose to DPW that they go one of them goes through this kind of training so there is someone on DPW that has some kind of that knows I mean that most it's I'm not sure it's a training program that you can just pop into from another Township I think it would be like that that so I I just I think that's it it's worth further discussion I think like um and looking at is there something that we could I think it's more like we would need to replicate some yes I I think it was more like community base too like at least the I was familiar with in Camden you know they would get a community that had no trees and you know gather the people together that were interested in it and so the trees were on their street and so they had people but but they also train them and not as rigorous as the one in Philly but I was thinking we could start it like in an ho8 Community I was thinking about trying to do it this year but it's a little too late no time but but you know I know PE you could get a group of people interested and it's a matter of you know I mean if we have another two months going on three months of no rain uh this is going to be necessary but I also have tried just to watered my tree in front of my house and it's you know we're not talking about one like watering cement just runs off well no no it goes in but but know getting the we turned our hose bibs off so I'm taking the water from inside the house and you know pouring it on the tree and um oh anything else from the New Jersey shry conference and thanks so much I'm really glad you guys made the hall to Atlantic City I wish I could have gone um okay the budget I think I started with that before but it's very similar to most years because things don't CH don't really well membership dues training um and have you been reimbursed or did you guys were the township submitted the checks thank you um we've talked about the Consulting oper far Steward um advisor tree maintenance generally we've had 20 to 30 there's so much uh it was 50 last year because we hadn't done the work the year before and we pushed it to this year so it's back down to 30 and this is again where an arborist will work with our tree inventory in a Consulting basis to determine um you know just to make a work to create a work plan to get quotes that's what they'll do and we're doing nothing as high as a bid it's not I mean I think bids are what over 44,000 so all of our prices are well under that all of our expenses um and another $10,000 which is hopeful we can raise that if you want if you think we can it's about okay it's F it's about $500 a tree which is why we were saying we really wanted that to be the fine for removal of a tree without permit because that's how much it costs to buy the tree to put the root guards in the sidewalk as we're talking about shade trees here Street trees and to water it even if we can get you know so it's that's how much it is so this is um well this is 20 trees that's probably a good start for next year um because that's we got 10,000 that's 20 trees so does anyone feel like we can handle more than 20 trees or do you want to 20 trees a good way to um go out of the gate with the ARB burst and the T inventory and all the professional help [Music] it's 10 oh for the the arborus that's 25 to 40 hours um that's a that's not I mean we've I don't know how to anticipate how much time we'll need we can always we can because it's whatever the arborist does I mean whatever the consultant does for us um you know Tre pruning maintenance that's part of it getting that professional advice we could always draw from that fund if we had to if it went over the 25 to 40 hour depending on their rate um I don't feel like I have enough knowledge to about you know to say how many trees we should be planning in terms of the um the tree planting line but I I would love to see the Consulting arborist line bumped up but let me ask a question I mean I for what you have there that seems a reasonable number of hours but it I'm not seeing um any hours to help you with the applications that are coming in and for that I think we'd want at least like a good two to three hours a month I don't I just did nine and I don't think all the nine of them took me two to three hours I mean there's not there's not that much information that we're asking for and then there's just a matter of um sometimes asking for more information for instance someone submitted and I couldn't find the name of the arborist in the directory so I said please submit whose name is this license under and he sent me both certificates that the Arbor s but there's not much in terms of reviewing people aren't sending um they're sending just a little bit of information you can look at them if you want no this is great I mean the it's it's really nicely described here what what the Arbiters would do I do not see in this description anything that includes reviewing oh yeah the review of yes well that would I'll add that review um uh what we call it not we're going to do more than review the ordinance we're going to improve the ordinance it's reviewing the ordinance but also reviewing application or assistance with review well here's the thing about the applications because I've lived in town for 40 years I know I often know the applicant and already have some kind of Rapport um and also people have sent me emails and called me at home about a tree permit which I'm not I'm not appreciative actually but they figure they know me and so then I send them the links or whatever and I don't mind doing that that's really that takes of what I'm doing with my time not that much unless and I haven't had an a a a problematic application um they're pretty quick I mean and then there's also issues with um calls in that you know and complaints that like the one you were describing you know where you've had to go out and measure unfortunately now the stumps that kind of thing you said there were about nine of those that came in well I think there were about half dozen calls where someone reported something they weren't permitted or their neighbors said they were taking d trees they didn't care they weren't permitted someone did take down trees and they weren't permitted about six but I've only gone out um once and that was this week to look at the big trees the big pin oaks that have been removed on Bergen but but what but but excuse me what we do need help with with in terms of the application and the process is um uh just escaped me um oh I don't want I'm not doing a cell sheet and I'm not maintaining all this data for the township for free I'm a volunteer so that's where the paid person would set that up for us um because it should all be in an Excel sheet in one place and it needs to live here in the township not on my PC drive so that's something else so in that really in that regard he would help us yes keep track and and also if he had Authority he could go back this you know they're the ones that it's the arborist job if there's an arborist involved it is they can be the one that goes to follow up on the planting plans we see we don't have any planting plans yet when they come in yes that's going to be more so far no planting plans because no one's taken down sure um but several people have said they want to replant anyway even though it's not required for their one 12in caliber dead tree or whatever and then in that regard I direct them to the website and to to us if they want someone to come out and talk to them you know right tree right place type thing and we're going to be improving our recommended remended plantings based on all the changes in so I I I would still like to see that line bumped up because I like to allow us some flexibility with that but I do have that just to finish I think it would be important to have a description in there that of this person to provide assistance with with requests and calls concerns as well as tracking those so anything we think that they might be assisting but but that doesn't NE that doesn't that doesn't mean that you have to call them in for that but that but that that would be an appropriate use because that because you could look at this is restricting what what um what we're going to ask them to do well I'll rev and then also potential assistance and again I just say potential here with um looking at uh uh you know like the if the if the um if the planning committee if something good comes through the planning committee that involves trees that if there's something that we need assistance reviewing that kind of thing um and then the other question that I have with that is if we can get um any expanded work done on a tree inventory where would that line come from is that under Consulting Arbor or is that its own what do you want to see you mean expanded inventory yes right well because we've hardly worked with the inventory we have I don't right now in my strategic thinking and we have the cfmp coming up yeah next year no I guess my question is what line would that be what would it be in different line it's just en because it would be additional Services it would be you know a phase two or something so it be additional line item so would be like tree inventory or yeah but I I don't see you have any time to work on that Mi your personal I mean just from what we accomplished this year we spent more than half the year on the ordinance Y and that and now I just like to call attention that we do have an incomplete tree inventory we do not have a complete inventory of all the township Street trees it's true so and that and I think that's something that we just I just want to keep we laid it out in four phases actually I mean they've all been defined except for East of 130 I'm still I don't I don't and that's maybe something talk that and that's where we would talk to the arborist is there any point in doing that inventory over there maintain it and again I think um so something to have in there is that like advising with future planning or like because are CF I mean and could they be used to help advise on any Grant applications that we put through because some of that might need to happen next year even in order to get something for the cfmp right so our cfmp is expiring in 2027 which means any work we're probably not the priority for the next round of Grants I did talk to someone from the state on that they're prioritizing you know when you're when you're expiration date comes up um but that doesn't mean a Grant application even if we were doing work in 2026 then we we might well have to apply next year so this year for 2025 26 Grants next year for 2025 26 which is what we would need for 2027 so I just would like to know we develop it in 2026 so we'd have to get the Grant in what the way we did it last time because we did a grant we got it on a grant last time is we got the Grant in February April and we had our cfmp nearly by the end of the year right so the work toward getting a grant might have to have to be done next year yeah I mean I don't want to be so specific I can I can I don't have to put anything here except 25 to 40 hours which is maybe what I'll do regarding the Consulting arbs because what ever we need at the time and when we do some kind of bid to find out who's going to charge or whatever that's when we specify to the arborist these are the things we're looking for help with the township uh Denise will prove it and then we send it out like that do you see what I'm saying is there reason to hold this line as like at that level is um uh I just don't see more than 25 40 hours uh over the year um be rolling unless I unless I can unless I have time to get help this year that we might still use some of that we're not allowed to roll is my understanding can't roll we can ask for more we can ask for more Al do want it make it seven that would be yes because we we have talked about making it seven so let's make that seven and that makes the total um um yeah I I think it is important to have a buffer there because uh but is Denise going to say look you didn't use it this year well that's it's well that's very possible we the thing is that all the information we've acquired this year has been because we happen to network with arborus and it's all been free including a whole more than an hour conference call with the prince and arborus this this has all been graus because we're shade Tre and we're volunteers and um so but but one of the top things too is if we're going to do tree education and educate about the ordinance um and make sure it's out there the arborist will do that and I don't know how much you know that that might be $300 right there for that that would be a different type fee because that's not really an hourly thing that's a an honorarium I suppose so so we'll try for seven and we'll see where it goes and we're not done yet the year's not over and invoices can be submitted as long as they dated December 31st for this bu this year's budget um anything else about Consulting arborist forest stward and I can take out the forest Steward that's really just really once I get Michael Van cleff here and has anyone talk to Michael Van cleff um to look at the tiny Forest then then we'll go from there because that's who I'm going to start with you know I think that what said earlier yeah that's what we really need yeah yeah and actually that was on there last year I you know I I think what I did was I was changing this around and then I didn't quite finish it and I printed it out because that was on there um work of this with the tree inventory report and I don't that's not there um pre tree printing maintenance um I think 30 um you know after the drought this year and we see what happens we don't know what's going to be happening what the trees are going to be like we see some trees that might be about to decline um anyway we'll see what kind of work we have but we certainly need at least 30,000 because tree work is very expensive you might want to add to that um when the utility companies came through recently on Main Street they really did a number on a lot of our older trees yeah and uh you know that's where it would be helpful to know you know from an arist or whatever just need to be pruned to help them out and what trees we can anticipate having yeah exactly that's very helpful because that's a big thing he can also look at the inventory to see what shape they were in before he or she before the before the um utilities came there's nothing my understand is there's nothing we can do about that period That's just that no I know they have to do um and I did hear a lot of some some people thought the town ship was doing it I don't know why um and they weren't but yeah that's all the all the anything tree wise we do where we need a professional because none of us are um especially now that we have an inventory to work with and and this situation um trees need to be taken care of um no I don't think we can add more to the 30 because this year it looks like we're only going I'm waiting for the second quote it's only going to be about 17 because I we had to abandon the idea and this is why we need an Arbus too this is a big thing which I was why I put that first we need the arborus to help us say which of those trees what needs to be done to those trees structurally on Main Street and then he he would work with us getting the bid and then we employ someone to do it because it was far too much for me to take on um there's a lot of young trees on Main Street and I just didn't have the time as much fun as that would have been to count trees on Main Street and look at them all um and then 10,000 for the tree planting which again I said would be 20 trees and then is it still about 100 cover our work session special notices does anybody have any additions or comments before or we vote on the I'm going to ask for a vote on the budget may I ask a question what was the what was our request for 2024 it's it's right here is that the shade tree commission tree budget so I'm looking at the you there's another sheet of paper that's similar to the 2025 in your packet this is it this is 2024 okay okay thank you that that's what I was yeah so last year the reason it was 50 is because we hadn't gotten the pruning done in time there's there was another sort of weather issue I think and so they weren't able they weren't going to be able to do the work until January um and so he couldn't invoice to J so he just pushed it so we received permission to put that 20 and that sort of was a rollover but then it was immediately used um the the whole 20 I think actually a little more but right now it looks like the bsit are coming in for the works in par for the work in Parks because that's the most important thing especially a lot of pruning around the new playground in Village um you know Parks represented that we had to remove trees because of the sweet gum balls well no trees were removed sweet gum balls are not a problem they don't ruin the surface and also if they didn't have that high canopy you wouldn't be able to play on that play equipment in the summer at all because it just be too hot um they said they were having some kind of canopy but there is no canopy but the the shade tree canopy is especially important there and and there's a lot of little things um the quote I got from one vendor does include down to one inch caliber branches just because it's a sensitive area and we want to keep that high canopy and keep those trees healthy um and then the question on the work session special meeting notices what is the cost per work session on that it's like $15 a notice it's okay yeah all right and that does that seem reasonable to scout if we continue on that because that's what you submitted last year I'm not I'm not in charge of making that budget decision we that's that's they asked us to do that yeah to include that in our budget oh no no I meant like does that allow us enough oh totally oh yes yeah we put plenty in case for so we can have as many special meetings as perect we can yes definitely plenty um and that's why I made it 100 just to cover the whole year um and the expense hasn't changed since last year um yeah the township asked us to pay for the no so it was new last year so that's why it looks different okay so we're at 47950 and um we're done with the budget and moving on to meeting dates oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I need to ask for a vote to approve I need to ask for a motion to um I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the 2025 budget request with uh not as printed but with the 2000 added to the Consulting arborus so it would be a total of $7,950 I second moving on to roll call Miss Easton yes Miss irons yes Miss Miss Johnson yes Miss Larsson yes and Miss Sara Letterman is excused that is unanimous thank you okay everyone has a copy of the dates of the meeting in your packet this one um have you had a chance to look at it to see if there's any particular conflicts that weren't anticipated and again we will be having you know workshops and special sessions to do when we really need to work together to so we need three people at least to work together to get things done um oh actually I don't even have it um I mean it's the usual first Thursday of the month yeah I had looked at it it looks fine so I think that's fine I don't see start September 4 might be early I'm if I could just check when thing here um yeah we it's it's that's always a tough meeting day the fourth because it's right po cranberry day but we really do need to have it before cranberry day um but I will be talking to you next year about the value of being there whether they the continues to be much value um in us being there on Main Street well uh and also I'm not sure Lee did join me this year um and Shireen was there for a while too which was good I don't know that Lee will be joining me in the future like in a year from now thank thanks for that good okay so uh I I moveed to accept uh the proposed 2025 meeting dates and I ask you to put them on your calendar Jackie second did all right Miss Easton yes Miss irons yes Miss Johnson yes Miss arain abstain and Miss zaro Letterman is excused that is uh approved in the majority with one exstension thank you okay term expirations this is term expirations this is when I get to um Express appreciation to Bonnie Larson for serving on the shet tree commission since 2008 and attending and I'm sure you're still going to attend the township meeting so if you hear anything interesting about shet tree in the event that one of us isn't watching um let us know um do you have any words for us uh after all your years of service here well I've seen a lot of um Community Forest plans and um there have been a lot of changes since we started this since I've been on the committee so um it's been interesting and you think the changes were for the better of the trees abely no question thank you thank you very much I I'm going to be looking for you for you know every the next several meetings I'm sure [Music] um oh there's another term expiration that I escape me I'm sorry is it Jessica yes Jessica your term is coming to at the end of the year I sent you an email earlier sometime in October I think it was so if you could just respond to me about your interests that way I have it in writing thank you I hope it's a good response would love to serve thanks yes I I would just say louder than that yes I would love to renew my my service just respond to the email thank you Jessica thank you Scout um cfmp guideline objective um we could go through this now we could wait until February um or or or because what I I think what I want to say is instead of taking the time to go and we're not going through the whole book or anything we just go through the goals and objectives and see what we're hitting and missing and it does look funny because you know we actually almost got a 10-year plan here when they extended it but between now and then look through um Pages specifically 40 through um I think it's 46 and um bring any thoughts about how we're doing what what more we can do to the to the February meeting so that's pages 40 through 46 and there's a lot of other things to look at as well um what will be important when we um are redoing this of course is to include that new ordinance um in in the plan and hope which is why it's important for us to get that um new ordinance and the application well not change the or well maybe change the ordinance a little bit but definitely um improve the application for inance there's no place for the person to put the date that they are applying for the permit um so we'll move on from that unless anyone has any um comments about cfmp but it's always refreshing to look at it because it reminds you um how well we're doing I think in relationship to our goals and objectives considering the size of our group and climate challenges um tree maintenance I think I've already go gone over that uh there will be no planting this year um other than the trees that we plant Ed in with relative to Arbor Day oh okay um member reports um I feel like I've given all a lot of information about what's been going on with me anybody else have anything to add to their member reports at this time and then summary of action items um yes right after this oh before that's okay okay um summary items um I'm G I'm looking at you Jackie well uh Jessica and I will definitely go get together and look over everything about the uh convention and and make a list of trees too among other things tree list would be great summarize there was a lot and also uh about suggestions about maintenance of trees plantet trees trees you know uh what other communities have done successful in terms of tree maintenance for health and Hazard right because I think that's going to be important good maybe we can even just have a a you know Workshop that includes downloading downloading from you guys and and also the school uh program I think yes I you know I'd like to get a game plan going okay yeah well um okay we'll do that spring would be good time with all the construction going on over there it wouldn't have really worked out for the fall anyway so it be better to do in the spring maybe win concert with their their clim kind of hot on this idea of giving them the ideas for uh the importance of trees and letting them choose yeah and well we'll have to it's all make video they can make their own videos in as a team and then share them yeah imagine we'll be coordinating with the individual teachers I'm not sure yeah so okay thank you uh I'm going to ask um Scout for the unless someone objects I I'm sorry bring this up before but the um do not plant list it's it needs to be a little bit more exhaustive than that there's a lot of up changes and updating to do on a regular basis I for now and we can wait till February if you don't want to because maybe this is require a vote or just agreement um I want to put up the have her put the have this the link to njst to their list and they can and they can use that because it's now only two pages I think you know some used to go pages and pages but now they've sort of organized it better it's just two and that could be the reference point because that is for New Jersey yeah that would be good for um Builders you know new but for homeowners it might be too overwhelming to them I don't know we can put it on February we'll um put on February agenda thank you okay um well I'm expecting the two bids to are the third person I haven't heard from again so there I don't think I'm getting a third I I put the call in two weeks twice two weeks ago um it said there should be Printing and maintenance done before the end of the year uh working on that that's a that's the primary current thing continue with the applications um uh reviewing the applications um that's all I can think of Kathy um going forward with the Arbus what you know I I was busy writing so I don't know if you had just included that trying to hook up with an arbor so that we're ready to go in yeah well I I I don't know exactly how I going to approach it but I'm schedule sometime with the Arbus to specifically talk about our planting in yeah next year okay so and we're and we're and and we're asking you know the consuling arst is in the budget so um although do you have to wait till April to to spend any money because of the budget approval that's always confusing to me if if we our budget right now that we didn't it all expires though when when will it expire December 3 well it might even be before the 31st I'm not sure like I think all invoices have to be submitted by December 15th or something like that and that's it well we can talk in February about the budget anybody else J I'm sorry just in terms of report yeah I um I I I feel like there is so much to tease out of the the meeting that we just we just got back from um my emphasis has really been looking at the recommended trees and um and and recommended maintenance plans for them planting times things like that so um I guess if that means reporting back with with some more specific suggestions I think it means we have a work session to to get all this information because you did just come from this meeting and um I'd like to do it in January if if you want to pick and I guess I could say I oh yeah maybe this should have been an old an old business but um just in terms of the recommended trees list that I have looked at the our current list is about six different lists I think six or seven and trees can appear in more than one list um I've taken that I've turned it into a single spreadsheet where no tree appears more than once and I've divided it into four groups um the first two are what and this is me interpreting the categories and and and descriptions that were put into our list um that there were there was a set that were Street trees um and some of which um I think the most important thing is to identify trees that can be what is a good Tree Street tree and of those what are okay to plant under utility wires or places where there are other height restrictions and those are um so I've I've I haven't added anything new uh or anything like that I've just tried to understand our current list um and say like okay this is what I am assuming were identified as these are good Street trees um because the way the descriptions were put in trees that can be planted within a lawn strip or something and then the ornamental trees um that were smaller um and then of those based on the height um or rather list which ones could be suitable for under utility wires and then the other two categories are um ornamental like other well not even necessarily ornamental yeah I there there were also um ones that were suitable for retention basins yep and ones that um were suitable for wooded areas and I so I the group three is just like other good shade other good shade or like ornamental trees yeah specifically sorry the exhibit list was designed for all the differ Siz planting strips in town and that's why you have all those different categories it's very very old and it was updated in 2009 I've said this before I'll say again I did not vote for that list because it included too many problematic trees some some things that were just ornamental some things you know and we've we've deleted trees but we haven't added any but it sounds like four groups is enough and it doesn't need to be specific and the fourth group is just shrubs um and some townships only really post two which is street it's just Street trees and here's what we um do we have shrubs already um we have I thought I didn't think we had shrubs on there actually maybe yes do does have shrubs okay they I they identified that way though I don't think they were oh they are there we go page two so and um then what I propose is in like that we just have however we end up wanting to group this whichever ones we keep or you know don't keep whatever we add that we have some core tags where you can identify this is a native plant this is an evergreen would be something else that might be useful to people um and this is an ornamental which we need to Define I'm assuming in our context it's meant a small tree that's like attractive for small please there are lists that kind of use them differently but that's that's how I've been assuming that to be and that we could retain those kinds of tags but you don't have to have a separate list no we don't have to have a separate list they can have they can have a notation a denotation you know the ones all the ones to that kind of thing Stars native um or whatever I agree and that we and then we just you know we can double check I I also have a link to North Carolina State University the the extension has a great plant tool box um and a really good database where you can pull up tree information they're not the only one it's just so up to dat there were a lot of Botanical names many many of them that have changed or things that were misspelled so I've updated I have this I had trouble printing it out um Scout this is three pages I mean if people want you could copy it from here you need the magnifying glass um but this is what I did um and it's got the updated Botanical names and common names I preserved all the notes and the categories from our old list so we wouldn't get lost on why something had been where but I think it all needs to be reverified okay can you send send this electronically to me I can I can you can have a copy I don't know if you I'll need to print it out bigger but I'll figure that out and so you want me just to just to you guys or to the group I think I you can email it directly to Cathy but BCC and and copy myself and BCC everyone else on that okay you can always email everyone but you need to only direct the email to one person and BCC everybody else I think this might be a useful yeah I think it's very useful I'm excited to see that have that paper yeah we can print it out big we'll figure that out um and work on that and we will schedule um so I'm so not as I was saying one of the things summary is to plan a a work session but we can't until we reor so which is February um six 6 okay so we'll work something out by twos it'll we'll work something out by twos between now and then everyone stay in touch send what send what you do um now it's time for Barbara to make some comments her Township committee report thank you Barbara thank you sorry I sat up here so I thought it was going to be right away um anyway um I first want to thank Bonnie for all her time and effort on the shade tree and we'll see you at the township committee meetings I'm assuming um just the length of time is enormous and you know volunteerism is is some the backbone of our town and people like you and everyone have is what makes this town so wonderful to live here and um you value trees you value people you value time and effort and so so appreciate of you Bonnie and we we need more volunteers like you so thank you so much um and um anyway so that's that um gosh 2008 that's really fabulous um um so I'm also liaison to the environmental commission and I just thought I would let you know some of the uh initiatives that are going on there the EC um Dela is really leading a bunch of charges leave the leaves I don't know if you've heard that it's called leave the leaves leave the leaves oh yeah yeah um you know at first there was some like misunderstanding you leave them then they go into the storm drains and blah blah blah no they're kind of more managed within your property so that you have piles and insects and other you know vertebrates and Beads could be used so anyway that's an initiative that's going on and can I once again encourage the town committee to encourage Boy Scouts someone can do build a compost for people and that's where you keep your leaves all winter long to add your food compost or you just compost the leaves and it makes black gold and there was a scout that did it once and was very successful that's how I got my first compost bin easy peasy a service to lots of people and that all works in with the Le leaves just a comment thanks that's a great idea though to partner up with uh Boy Scout Girl Scouts Scouts in General on that um anyway um um cranberry Gardens for wildlife continues uh it's a community wildlife habitat certification through the National Wildlife um Federation and that's you know if enough people do it we get certified as a town um and then um this one is really have you um have you worked on her I Dela is also working on an outdoor classroom project she's got the plan and she gets the BD she has the budget um now she's kind of looking for money but I have you gotten a chance to review it well I've looked at the plan with yes we did look at the plan together and you know shade tree is at the ready I mean obviously if there's an outdoor classroom um that could benefit us in the benefits of trees program that you know Jackie wants to um I wasn't aware of include yeah it's not it didn't happen yet it's all in the planning stages she actually went to the rers Cooperative Extension and gotten helped and you know she's very like if the whole thing is being managed really well there's a plan she's trying to get the money and I think you know um she's going to different places and you know yeah well I've worked in um School Gardens and Dela yeah I'll forward you then you know some of the information um uh the Girl Scouts have also um put in a new face to the kiosk in Cranberry Brook preserve um yes this was really exciting first I get this we get this email oh my God what is going on so they took out the old one and all these bugs and bees and stuff started flying out at them so was thrown down and everyone was like what's that junk in there but anyway it was because they were removing the kiosk spas and putting in a new one so we have a new one and I'm not sure what kind of information they're working on it but I don't know maybe something sha tree related might be something we want to put in there I don't know um might be something to consider okay like a do not plant list or some links to something um and um parks and wreck um uh they there's this chess board discussion of the chess board um they have the tables and it was supposed to go in Heritage Park but it's looking like it's going to probably go back into the library area um oh yeah um it has to do with the amount of budget that was budgeted and there was not enough budget for a walking path to where it was going to be put so it's on hold for being put in this year and hopefully next year there will be a place that thank you for that update yeah yeah and um uh I think um oh the other thing is is there a um I got a question is there a uh curriculum already for climate change for the schools that you could look at to help them that's all well when I spoke to Jennifer she said reach out to her she'll talk to the teachers she'll get back to us and before I reach out to Jennifer I can get together with Jackie and I know Jessica was interested too just to see what what exactly we want to propose because I have not looked at the curriculum which I know I can find online but we can find the basic curriculum online from K to8 and looks like Jackie has a reference book so um there we go oh yeah okay oh and they were oh the school was just certified silver oh I saw that in in the mayor's announcements yeah that's excellent yeah and um thank you for the budget I am in support of thank you and I will make sure that your voice is and um it's been years since I've had to defend it so I'm assuming I don't have to defend it this year usually it's better to have someone come in oh because I've been told oh not to come well not this year I don't let me know what's happening in January when the date is thank you okay thank you very much Barbara and um unless anyone has anything else I'd like to um make a motion that we adjourn the meeting second it thank you Jackie all those in favor I I