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TreeMINUTES9-8-05 Minutes, September 8, 2005 Lexington Tree Committee Lexington, MA Present: John Frey, Chairman; Jim Jones; Karen Longeteig; Anne Senning; Susan Solomon; Nell Walker, Jim Wood, Jeanne Krieger, David Pinsonneault. Guest: Gerry Paul 1. Scribe and Minutes: Karen Longeteig was named as scribe. The minutes of August 11 were accepted as corrected. The scribe for that session, Anne Senning, will make a corrected copy to send to the Chairman. 2. Report under the Tree By-Law: David Pinsonneault, Tree Warden. To date, 391 sites have been visited, of which 266 are now closed. Total of 474 trees approved for removal, of which 202 actually removed. A total of 1,094 trees are required to be replanted, of which 433 have actually been planted. David reported that he has purchased 14 trees with the NSTAR grant, and will be planting them at homeowners’ requests in different locations as replacements for trees that had to be removed. He has purchased Pear (‘Chanticleer’), Okame Cherry, and Red Maple. The choice is made after examining the site, some of which had other large shade trees present, and in consultation with the homeowner. 3. Planning and Education Grant status: John Frey reported that we will probably get the grant; it has been favorably forwarded to the Commissioner. If so, we will have a lot of work to do. The grant included $6000 for the lecture series, $6000 for the mailing, and $6000 for inventory support. It was suggested that the mailing ask for peoples’ email addresses so we can capture a sympathetic future audience. 4. Inventory: Anne Senning commented that transferring new data to the back-up computer is a complicated process, but David Bordenca has written out the 14 steps necessary. Karen Longeteig reported that we have inventoried only 85 more trees since last year; we need to step up the efforts. Field commitments for the immediate future were made. It was also felt that we need at least one more iPAQ (or equivalent, such as a Tablet PC). Jim Woods committed himself to pursuing funding for this if Anne and Karen give him the specs of what is needed. 5. Public Relations Articles: Besides the topics assigned last meeting, the following were added: February: Jim Wood will write about the override, financing of trees, losing trees in Lexington, and other subjects from the presentation given to Town Meeting last March. March: Karen Longeteig will write about new trees we recommend to be planted to diversify Lexington’s trees, such as the Princeton Elm, Tulip Tree, Sweet Gum, and how to choose what kind of tree to plant. April: Nell Walker will write about champion trees in Lexington. For May, a topic of “How trees and sidewalks can co-exist” was suggested, but no author was named. Jim Wood and Karen Longeteig will approach the editor of the Lexington Minuteman. The series would be called “Tree Talk”. 6: Article for the CLC newsletter: this item was not taken up due to shortage of time. 7. Grass damage after Farmer’s Market in Fletcher Park: Jim Wood brought up possible damage to grass, trees & shrubs caused by the vendors’ trucks at the new Lexington Farmers’ Market. David Pinsonneault said that this question will be reviewed with vendors after the October conclusion of the season’s market. Jim suggested that any trucks be parked along Mass Ave or Fletcher Street, with customers and foot traffic only on the lawns. 8. Tree Planting Budget: David reported that the DPW strategy for funding requests for 2007 was to ask for $10,000 as a tree line item, up from the $5,000 for this fiscal year. They felt that