2004-04-08-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Town Tree Committee Lexington, Massachusetts, April 8, 2004 Minutes of the Meeting Meeting opened at 7:30 a.m. Attendance: John Frey, Dave Pinsonneault, Jim Jones, Anne Senning, Nell Walker, Jim Wood, and Karen Longeteig. In the absence, due to illness, of Secretary Susan Solomon, Karen Longeteig volunteered to take the minutes. The Committee sends best wishes for improved health to Susan. 1. Minutes of the previous meeting of March 11, 2004, were approved. 2. Applications for tree removals: Dave reported that under the By-law, to date there have been 172 cases, of which 82 are closed. 3. Tree removal application at 511 Lowell St: Dave posted notice of hearing in the Minuteman, as required. He said it is a case of two oaks close to the street that the property owner wants to remove to improve sight- line in exiting the driveway. The trees are healthy; he is not inclined to approve; the hearing will take place on site on 4/12. 4. Tree City USA: Dave and Anne are still planning to go on 4/16 to Plymouth. Fines under Article 34: The Town Meeting has approved the final version of the Tree By-law unanimously. Dave was asked and agreed to keep track of fines. 5. Tree Removal application fee: A TM member has suggested that the Town charge a fee for applications to remove trees. Discussion ensued on how much of the Tree Warden’s time an application and site visit takes, and any such fee relative to a building permit fee already levied. Dave noted that most builders are cooperative with him, and he would not like to spoil this relationship by harassing them with a fee. Any money collected would probably go into general Town funds, not Tree funds. The committee suggested that Dave estimate the time/cost relationship and report back at the next meeting. John will tell the Selectmen that we are working on a recommendation. 6. Memorial Tree Fund draft brochure review: Anne had researched the Mass State program of enabling funeral home directors to suggest and collect donations for trees in lieu of flowers. The money goes to the State and comes back to the specified Town in Re-Leaf Grants. It is a separate program which could be done alongside our own memorial tree program. Anne agreed to give this information to Douglas Funeral Home. Several changes to the text of the draft brochure were agreed. Karen will put final version on disc. Anne and Karen will comparison-shop printing prices at Sir Speedy, Wales, and Arlington Swifty Printing. We will ask for prices for 1000 copies, full color, brochure paper. When we get estimates, we will try to figure out how to pay for it. 7. Brookhaven, Met State and Raytheon projects -- Protecting trees: Jim Wood suggested a strategic emphasis for the letters spoken of in last month’s minutes – that they be directed to the Board of Appeals, asking Appeals to require of the developers the production of Specimen Tree Protection and Re-planting Plans, to be delivered to the Tree Committee. (Copies of this letter would be sent to the developers.) This would require a separate letter for each project. John agreed to work on it. 8. Inventory strategies: The DEM, Urban & Community Forestry, has grants available for up to $10,000 for educational purposes. Tree inventories might fall into that category. Dave left an application form with Jim Wood, our grants wizard. Anne has been to a GIS workshop on watersheds and community forestry at UMass. She described their standard software, “ArcView”, in which layers of data can be added to a map. This brought up two questions: (1) what data we really require, and (2) who would keep the data, and where? (Town computer facilities may not be adequate.) We discussed and listed the data we want: Inventory limited to only street trees and protected trees o Location (“address”) and layout (in relation to curb and other utilities) o Gaps (planting opportunities) o Species o Size, both DBH and height o Condition (excellent, good, poor) o Last pruning date, by whom o Utility locations (overhead or underneath) o