HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-02-10-TREE-min
Lexington Tree Committee Minutes of February 10, 2005 Meeting
Present: John Frey Nell Walker, Jim Jones, Anne Senning, Karen Longeteig, Jim Wood, Dave
Pinsonneault
1. Jim Wood was appointed scribe.
2&3. Minutes of December 9, 2004 and January 13, 2005 were approved as presented.
4.
4.1 Bylaw actions: 258 Sites, of which 168 were resolved, 358 to be removed (of which 145 have been
removed, to plant 809, of which 322 planted) presented by Dave Pinsonneault.
4.2 Forestry in January: 3 removed, 2 pruned
4.3 Tree City Application being processed
4.4 No word on grant application
4A Sherri (Kathy Miller)-suggested we might be able to get on the Community Forestry Partnership Grant.
The Tree Committee could apply (not the town) for the ESRI grant for the software license for the Arc Pad
hand held computers. Presented by Anne Senning
NSTAR provided a $1000 grant for tree planting. This was in the form of a $1000 gift card for Weston
Nurseries. Per Dave Pinsonneault
5
5.1 John Frey presented the Tree Article on February 7, 2005. The Selectmen asked where the 15K
funds were coming from? Patrick Mehr suggested increasing fees on the tree removal permit applications
to $150.00. John Frey estimated 11-13K a year would be raised with this increase.
5.2 Selectmen’s position on the fee increase was to ask Linda Vine to look into how this fee change might
work.
5.3 There is some potential for an additional 10K to be put into the DPW budget for tree planting.
However, on February 9, 2005 Jeanne Krieger said the Selectmen had not found the 15K requested in
the Tree Committee's article.
6
6.1 Moved that we proceed with both Article 18 and the Lexington Tree Fund to be held by the Trustees
of Public Trusts. Passed
6.2 Agreed that Anne Senning should approach the Douglas Funeral Home to determine interest in
participating in a program to have donations provided for the purchase, planting and maintenance of
trees.
7. Article 16-Substitute "fund" for account. Article 18-include the words,"not to exceed $75,000"
8.Memorial Tree Fund Brochure Prerequisites for implementation
8.1 Brochure approval by Selectmen
8.2 Approval of Article 18 by Town Meeting or establishment of the Lexington Tree Fund to be held by the
Trustees of Public Trusts.
9. Working on debugging Tree inventory software to allow data entry into the Tree Committees laptop
computer, our main data base. The software that we are attempting to use is the Community Forrest
Partnership Arc Pad SW which we are trying to use for data input into our laptop.
It was suggested that each member of the Tree Committee learn how to enter data from our manual tree
inventory records. (Equal pain for all)
John Frey asked if "where we needed trees planted" showed up as a function of our Tree Inventory data
base. Yes
10. Articles for Town Meeting-Previously discussed
11Other Business
11.1 Karen noted that the Dixon report on the center revitalization suggested the performance of a Tree
Inventory
11.2 The committee briefly looked at the Historical Society's plan for Tree planting around the old Depot
building.
11.3 Jim Wood suggested we work with the Conservation Committee to get the Town owned land around
the school administration building and bordered by Fletcher Ave and Mass Ave transferred to the
Conservation account. Otherwise it will surely be built on, destroying the 20 trees that we planted on this
site.
Respectfully submitted,
Jim Wood
Hi Jim,
Actually, the answer to the question
John Frey asked if "where we needed trees planted" showed up as a function of our Tree Inventory data base. Yes”
should be “No”. There will be a partial suggestion of tree opportunities by the fact that no tree is there, but we don’t see fire
hydrants, bus stops, telephone poles, street signs, and last but not least, the filling of the space by a nearby tree on private
land. This will all take some re-thinking.
Best,
Karen
Karen Longeteig
Going Native Gardens
143 Concord Avenue
Lexington, MA 02421
781/862-4094
-----Original Message-----
From: nell walker [mailto:nelwalk@earthlink.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2005 4:51 PM
To: longeteig karen; walker Nell Walker; senning anne; solomon susan; Jones JIM; pinsonnault david;
jamescwood; Krieger jean; frey john
Subject: Re: Lexington Tree Committee Minutes of February 10, 2005 Meeting
Jim -
Nice brief minutes of a 2.5 hr. meeting. I think it is useful to say who is absent, in this case, Susan Solomon and Jeanne
K. Add a date (1990) to 11.1. Significance of the Report is that 15 years ago an officially published report re the Town
Center suggested a tree inventory was useful.
Under those present, we usually id. the characters essential to our meetings (e.g., D. Pinsonneault, Forestry Division (?)
and John Frey, Chair. Other small suggestions are in red.
On Feb 11, 2005, at 11:39 AM, jamescwood wrote:
Present: John Frey() Nell Walker, Jim Jones, Anne Senning, Karen Longeteig, Jim Wood, Dave Pinsonneault()
1. Jim Wood was appointed scribe.
2&3. Minutes of December 9, 2004 and January 13, 2005 were approved as presented.
4.
4.1 Bylaw actions: 258 Sites, of which 168 were resolved, 358 to be removed (of which 145 have been removed, to
plant 809, of which 322 planted) presented by Dave Pinsonneault.
4.2 Forestry in January: 3 removed, 2 pruned
4.3 Tree City Application being processed
4.4 No word on grant application
4A Sherri (Kathy Miller)-suggested we might be able to get on the Community Forestry Partnership Grant. The Tree
Committee could apply (not the town) for the ESRI grant for the software license for the Arc Pad hand held computers.
Presented by Anne Senning
NSTAR provided a $1000 grant for tree planting. This was in the form of a $1000 gift card for Weston Nurseries.Per
Dave Pinsonneault
5
5.1 John Frey presented the Tree Article on February 7, 2005. The Selectmen asked where the 15K funds were coming
from? Patrick Mehr, Selectman candidate, suggested increasing fees on the tree removal permit applications to
$150.00. John Frey estimated 11-13K a year would be raised with this increase.
5.2 Selectmens position on the fee increase was to ask Linda Vine to look into how this fee change might work.
5.3 There is some potential for an additional 10K to be put into the DPW budget for tree planting. However,
on February 9, 2005 Jeanne Krieger said the Selectmen had not found the 15K requested in the Tree Committee's
article. Only one of 4 Selectmen was in favor of our $15K request. (art. 17).
6
6.1 Moved that we proceed with both Article 18 and the Lexington Tree Fund to be held by the Trustees of Public
Trusts. Passed
6.2 Agreed that Anne Senning should approach the Douglas Funeral Home to determine interest in participating in a
program to have donations provided for the purchase, planting and maintenance of memorial trees.
7. Article 16-Substitute "fund" for account. Article 18-include the words,"not to exceed $75,000"
8.Memorial Tree Fund Brochure Prerequisites for implementation
8.1 Brochure approval by Selectmen
8.2 Approval of Article 18 by Town Meeting or establishment of the Lexington Tree Fund to be held by the Trustees of
Public Trusts.
9. Working on debugging Tree inventory software to allow data entry into the Tree Committees laptop computer, our
main data base. The software that we are attempting to use is the Community Forrest Partnership Arc Pad SW which
we are trying to use for data input into our laptop.
It was suggested that each member of the Tree Committee learn how to enter data from our manual tree inventory
records. (Equal pain for all)
John Frey asked if "where we needed trees planted" showed up as a function of our Tree Inventory data base. Yes
10. Articles for Town Meeting-Previously discussed
11Other Business
11.1 Karen noted that the 1990 Dixon report on the center revitalization suggested the performance of a Tree Inventory
11.2 The committee briefly looked at the Historical Society's plan for Tree planting around the old Depot building.
Major feature is an arc of Princeton Elms to replace the former Dogwoods in front of the building.
11.3 Jim Wood suggested we work with the Conservation Committee to get the Town owned land around the school
administration building (town conscience land) bordered by Fletcher Ave and Mass Ave transferred to the
Conservation account.Otherwise it will surely be built on, destroying the 20 trees that we planted on this site.
Respectfully submitted,
Jim Wood