2018-09-13-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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LEXINGTON TREE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Thursday, September 13, 2018 at 7:30 am Room 125, Samuel Hadley DPW Building, 201 Bedford Street Present: Members Gerry Paul (Chair),Jewel Kuljan, Jim Wood,Anne Senning, Nancy Sofen,John Frey (Emeritus), Jill Hai (Selectman liaison), Bob Creech (Planning Liaison). Guests Erik Gitschier (DPW), Gang Chen, Gloria Bloom, Kathleen Lenihan. Absent: Chris Filadoro (Tree Warden), Pat Moyer (member) 1. Nancy Sofen was appointed scribe. Minutes of the August 9, 2018 meeting were approved. 2. Erik Gitschier outlined sidewalk work that is being planned by the Highway Department this fall (Appendix A), and described his approach to sidewalk replacement. a. A study was done 3-4 years ago to see which sidewalks need work. Priorities for which sidewalks will be replaced are determined by Safe Routes to Schools, amount of use, condition and other factors. b. Sidewalks must be 5' wide (by selectmen's mandate) to accommodate 4' wide snow equipment and the fact that equipment is operated in less than ideal conditions (snow cover and operator fatigue). c. They try when possible to leave a 3' or larger planting strip, and to replant more trees than are removed. d. While Tree Committee prefers meandering sidewalks, snow removal and ADA requirements for clear line of sight make that difficult. e. P.J.Albert (the contractor currently working on Mass. Ave. project) has been chosen for sidewalk replacements listed,with Mass.Ave. and Oak Street to be the first to be done. EG is confident that they know the town's expectations regarding tree protection. He expects that no trees will be removed for these sidewalks. f. Would like to walk Emerson Gardens Road with Tree Committee members, to see how best to replace this sidewalk that has been damaged by maple roots. ACTION ITEM: members to email availability over the next few weeks. Anne comments that many setback trees were planted in the ROW because underground Comcast lines prevented the planting of street trees. 3. Submission to Town Annual Report (Appendix B) was approved as amended: a. Reference to web site maintenance was removed. b. The seventh bulleted highlight was reworded to read, "Provided input to the Tree Warden for information to be collected for a complete Town tree inventory to be conducted in FY19." 4. Applicants for the open position on the committee introduced themselves.