2013-04-11-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Lexington Tree Committee Meeting April 11, 2013 201 Bedford Street, Lexington MA Members Present: John Frey, Chair, Karen Longeteig, Jewel Kuljian, Gerry Paul, Anne Senning, Nell Walker Absent: Jim Wood, Chris Filadoro (Tree Warden), Deb Mauger (Selectmen's liaison) 1. Gerry Paul was appointed as scribe and the minutes of the March 14 meeting were approved as amended. 2. Wed. April 17 at 7:30 was set as the next session to evaluate trees at the nursery. 3. Setback and Street Tree planting sites: Resulting from recent publicity in both the Minuteman and the Colonial Times, requests have been received for 57 street trees and 39 setback trees. Best estimates are that: 30 street tree locations can be qualified for spring planting and 30 for fall planting. 20 setback locations can be qualified for spring planting and 20 for fall planting. 3a. Role of the Tree Committee and need for planning support for the Forestry Division: The previous discussion then led to a review of whether the Tree Committee has strayed from its charter to assist and advise the DPW and Selectmen and is now performing functions that can be in the critical path of meeting tree planting goals. For example, we are now responsible for qualifying planting locations and getting Dig Safe authorization -- both of which we have, in fact, volunteered to do but in hindsight may not be appropriate for our committee. We are concerned about being in the critical path and about the magnitude of the tasks potentially making it difficult for us to achieve them, instead of focusing on rewarding work on which we can add value. Suggestions were made that the DPW might engage the services of a part -time contract planner, or consider filling an open staff slot with an individual who can perform critical planning functions -- asking for Tree Committee assistance as available, but not depending on the Committee for ownership of these functions. The Tree Committee can then continue to focus on such items as the Tree Inventory, Tree Manual, Tree Bylaw, tree related policy, public outreach, and innovative fund sourcing, as specified in the Tree Committee charter in the Bylaw, Section 120 -6.