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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-04-13-TREE-min Minutes of Lexington Tree Committee Thursday, April 13, 2017, 7:30 am Samuel Hadley Public Services Building, Room 125 Members Present: John Frey (chair), Jewel Kuljian, Karen Longeteig, Gerry Paul, Anne Senning, Nancy Sofen, Jim Wood, Chris Filodoro (Superintendent of Public Grounds) The meeting acted on the following items. The paragraph numbers reflect the order of items as they were discussed at the meeting 1.Nancy Sofen was appointed scribe.The minutes of the March 9, 2017 meeting were approved as amended. 2.Pleasant Street sidewalk: Members asked whether tree hearings had been scheduled, and noted that legal notices placed in the Minuteman is an outdated notice method. Can the Tree Committee be notified of upcoming tree hearings? Pleasant Street Tree Hearing is Monday, May 8 at 9:00 am in front of 41 Pleasant Street. 3.Tree Bylaw Amendment: The Committee recognized April 5 Town Meeting approval of Article 37 amending the Tree Bylaw. There was discussion of the “at risk” period while awaiting approval by the Attorney General, which typically occurs in August. Chris will host a meeting with builders at the DPW to educate them about the changes, and will begin enforcement when the AG rules on the bylaw. Gerry will ask the town clerk to notify the Tree Committee when that happens. 4.Arbor Day:The DPW will host an Arbor Day celebration on Friday, April 28 at 11 am at 201 Bedford Street. Invitations will be sent and this will be posted on the DPW web site. Someone from the Tree Committee will make comments about the tree species to be planted. The tree will be planted to honor DPW staff who have lost someone near and dear to them. 5.Tree Bylaw removal applications and activity: no action 6.8 Sherborn Road: Gerry Paul reports that boulders are still piled around trunk of a tree at Six Point Builders’ construction site at 8 Sherborn Road. Chris asks that we notify him when we see violations so that he can enforce protection provisions. Gerry will update the permission form to include important references to the bylaw and the Tree Management manual on the back side, highlighting the main issues that have come to our attention. 7.Tree City USA and Growth Award applications: Chris has submitted the th paperwork for Lexington to be recognized as a Tree City USA for the 28 year. Also, our first Growth Award application appears close to approval. To receive this award 10 point must be earned for such activities as having a tree bylaw, a planting program, citizen education, Arbor Day celebrations, etc. These awards help toward DCR grants. Gerry and Nancy suggest notifying the Lexington Minuteman and Colonial Times and asking them to cover the Arbor Day celebration, where these awards will be announced. 8.Spring 2017 Tree Planting: Chris has received about 75 emails requesting trees, which he will forward to Julie, who will print them and create a Google Docs spreadsheet; she will also add those on waiting lists from last year to the spreadsheet. Requests will appear in order they were received. Chris will respond to homeowners with an email that a member of the Tree Committee will contact them. Once all trees are placed he will send another email to those who did not receive trees, asking them to contact Julie by phone or email if they wish to be placed on a wait list for fall planting. It was suggested that in the fall a separate email address for requests, treeplanting@lexingtonma.gov, be created with both Chris and Julie having access. After Chris changed the RFQ to remove the guarantee by contractor, which had led to the understanding that the contractor would also water through the summer and therefore increased the price, Matt Foti was awarded the contract to supply and install 55 trees for $25K, paid from the Tree Fund. Trees to be planted are 3 Cladrastic kentuckea, 5 Cotynus ‘Grace’, 10 Liquidamber styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’, 5 Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Emerald City’, 10 Quercus palustris and, all bareroot, and 5 Magnolia virginiana and 7 Cornus alternifolia (substituted for Ulmus Americana ‘Princeton’), ball and burlap. Jewel will order 10 Prunus sargentii ‘Accolade’ from Wagon Wheel and charge them to the town, with delivery to the DPW. The Tree Warden and Tree Committee are allowed to spend $40K from the Tree Fund each year. This planting will deplete the Tree Fund, but a $22K payment is expected from the Kelley’s Woburn St. project. Chris will try to source 6 Nyssa sylvatica and 10 Quercus coccinea using Forestry funds; we should not place these species until they are located. Town staff will plant the trees specified for Merriam Street, the Masons and Youville Place. Karen Longeteig asked how to replace the two Class of ’58 trees at LHS that died. Chris will handle those separately. The following members agreed to visit sites and place the number of trees in parentheses: Jewel (12), Nancy (12), Karen (4), Jim & Gerry (6), John to assist on request. Twenty-four trees will be planted at the National Heritage Museum and Youville Place; that leaves 13 trees for Chris to place. There was a discussion of whether we should place multiple trees on one property. While we recognize that public relations is important and that we don’t want to build a large backlog on waiting lists, a majority on the committee felt that our responsibility is to plant the greatest number of trees, not to serve the greatest number of people. Planting multiple trees on a single site, when appropriate, is a good use of Tree Committee and planters’ time to accomplish the stated goal. Gerry Paul noted that Dig Safe does not require marking with white paint; however it is good belt/suspenders insurance should the stake be moved. Stakes are available from Joel. TC members will obtain property maps with town right-of-way markings from online GIS maps at https://lexingtonma.mapgeo.io. There is a tool to measure and mark distance. Chris noted that property lines are often inaccurate on these maps but that town lines are accurate. Setback trees may be planted up to 20’ inside the right-of-way line in the front yard and should be visible from the street. 9.Commemorative Tree Program: The committee agreed to let this be dormant. We would entertain requests and leave the information on the web site, but will not promote it. John Frey* should replace Jane Beswick as the contact person. *later changed to Chris Filadoro.