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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-02-09-TREE-min Minutes, February 9, 2006 Lexington Tree Committee Lexington, MA Present: John Frey, Chairman; Jim Jones; Karen Longeteig; Anne Senning; Gerry Paul, Nell Walker, David Pinsonneault, Tree Warden, ex-officio. th 1. Scribe and Minutes: Karen Longeteig was appointed scribe. The minutes of December 8, th 2005 were approved as presented by John. The minutes of January 12, 2006, were approved as corrected (typographical errors were questions marks, to be replaced by quotation marks, and “J. Paul” corrected to “G. Paul”). The scribe for January 12th, Jim J., will arrange for a corrected copy to be in the hands of the Chairman. 2. Report under the Tree By-Law: David Pinsonneault, Tree Warden. To date, 432 sites have been visited, of which 296 are now closed. Total of 495 trees approved for removal, of which 231 actually removed. A total of 1153 trees are required to be replanted, of which 501 have actually been planted. Other tree division activity: Since January 1, 2006, the division has taken down 11 trees and th pruned 8. The Tree City USA application is complete. This will be the 17 year for Tree City USA designation, possibly not consecutive as the town lapsed at one point when there was massive personnel turnover. David has spoken to the Town of South Hadley which is offering some free trees, and will get 6 to 12 Swamp White and Pin Oaks of about 1” plus in DBH. Lexington must dig and burlap them. Karen asked for “several” for the high school’s landscaping project. The Mass Tree Wardens Association has River Birch seedlings. The Lexington Field & Garden Club will buy 100 of them to give out at Arbor Day, plus 500 free spruce seedlings to give to kindergartners. The Town’s budget is quite lean already, according to Dave P. There is $5000 for trees, as last year. Any additional funding for trees will have to come in an override. Dave was pessimistic about our desired $25,000. We will talk to Jeanne Krieger about strategy, but all committee members felt we should press for more funds. 3. Report on videotaping the lecture series: The editing session is scheduled for this afternoon at the LCTV office. We will try to get an electronic banner running across the bottom of the screen. It was mentioned that we should obtain at some future point a large cloth banner to hang behind the speaker, etc. 4. Planning and Education Grant Progress: Dave P needs a report of volunteer hours spent regarding grant activities, from October 5, 2005, in order to comply with the grant terms. Mailer: Dave has processed payment to the mailing company, Eagle. There were 5 minor nd corrections made on the 2 proof, per Anne, who did a thorough job of proofreading. We will get 1 more paper copy before the final, which will be proofread only for these 5 errors plus inadvertent printer errors. Lecture Series: To pay the speakers, Dave needs an invoice from the speaker with the name, address, and Tax ID number. The Town takes 2 to 3 weeks to pay. Nell will call Peter del Tredici’s office to get his tax ID number, which was missing from the invoice. th Next lecture is February 15 by Peter Alden. Tree Management Manuals: Dave P will drop off a nd box of them for sale. Logistics: Our primo logician, Gerry, cannot make it to the 2 lecture for camera work. Nell will pick up the equipment from LCTV and deliver it to the library, Karen will arrive at 6 to set it up, and Jim J will run the second camera. Nell and John will get training in the Library sound system from Sharon Pei. John will call Carolyn Beckwith to make sure the room is set up for 120. Anne will make a sign-in sheet, and door signs for the library to be posted in the morning. Inventory (under the grant): Dave P. reported that David Bordenca (MIS) and Cartégraph company have begun conversations. David has sent them our inventory file to see if it is possible to coordinate, or to get costs of whatever technical time needed. Once we have this information, we can follow up with Davey Tree Company to re-evaluate their state-wide offer. This offer was discussed at a meeting of Anne, Karen, Dave P, Jim J, John and Nell on 1/24. Our programmer Denise Castronovo is processing the next map phase into GIS; it will be ready in a couple of weeks. For Belfry Hill, David B will give us a specially masked Pictometry map to aid in inventorying this undeveloped area. 5. Tree Inventory report: Anne reported that David B has programmed in the additional species names, and she will work with him to get photos to accompany them. The Phase II file has been updated with those names and is essentially done. 6. Public Relations articles: The Minuteman has delayed Jim Jones’ article for a month (NB: it appeared in this date’s edition.) Karen’s letter to the editor reporting on the first lecture was printed last week. John’s article on protection of trees during construction is due to the editor actually now, but because there was a delay, by the end of February, and Anne Senning’s article on the inventory is due by mid-March. 7. Arbor Day planting: John and Dave P will take a look at Belfry Hill and see if there is a good site for the Arbor Day tree. th 8. Kathy Yates Memorial Tree Planting: to take place June 9, an American Elm is desired. The Garden Club hasn’t talked to Dave P yet about it, but may want it in Tower Park. 9. Report on Meeting Training Workshop: John and Karen attended this Town-led training. John noted that he has given all minutes from December 2001 through last November in electronic files to the Town Clerk, so we are in compliance with requirements. 10. Trees Co-existing with Sidewalks: Karen reported that there was an excellent speaker, Dr. Ed Gilman, at the New England Grows trade show who invited one and all to use the pictures and notes on his web site. He showed pictures of repairing sidewalks that conflict with trees, as well as how to site new trees to avoid problems. The website is at http://hort.ufl.edu/woody/pruning/ . Discussion ensued on how the Tree Committee needs to develop and articulate STANDARDS. At present five committees are focusing on outdoor walking space: the Disability, Center, Sidewalk, Design Advisory, and Tree Committees. Our committee needs to provide the technical information for the rest of the Town. Meeting adjourned at 9:32 a.m. Next regular meeting is March 9th in Room 111 at 7:30 a.m.