2018-04-12-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Tree Committee Meeting Thursday, April 12, 2018 7:30 am 201 Bedford Street Room 125 Present: Chris Filadoro (Tree Warden), John Frey, Jewel Kuljian, Pat Moyer, Gerry Paul, Dave Pinsonneault (DPW Director), Anne Senning, Nancy Sofen, Jim Wood. Nancy Sofen was appointed scribe. Minutes (second edition) of the March 8, 2018 meeting were approved. Discussion of DPW funding of tree planting that began last month was resumed. Dave reiterated that the DPW has committed for FYI to plant 70 trees in the fall and 70 in the spring, with fall planting paid from the Forestry budget up to $45K. Any of that $45K that is left will be used for spring planting, before using the Tree Mitigation Fund for any remaining tree planting related expenses for the year. Dave will look at the details of the Mitigation Fund expenses to answer Jim's questions about what recent spending covered. If in the future the Mitigation Fund is trending toward lower levels, the DPW will request supplemental operating budget funds from Town Meeting. The Tree Committee's role in that case would be to educate TM members of the need for such funding. Both Dave and Chris emphasized that the Forestry Division's first responsibility is safety, including removals and pruning. This has been a particularly bad winter and there is a lot of work still to be done. Kudos were given to the Forestry crew for prompt removal of storm damage. The Tree Inventory, when complete, will provide information about ash trees so that plans can be made for treatment and removals. On Monday, April 23 there will be training on injections for Emerald Ash Borer. Chris has solicited RFQs for spring planting from 4 companies for responses by the April 20 deadline, and expects to award the contract the first or second week in May. Because the anticipated total is less than the cutoff for a major bid, Chris has some discretion in who he sends the RFQ to. Chris does make some calls to check tree availability; Schicktel reports that they have minimal stock because of the late winter, so