Ridgewood Shade Tree Comission Meeting Minutes 20200512

Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission

Meeting Minutes

May 12, 2020

Opening

The regular meeting of the Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission was called to order at 7:35PM on Zoom by Andrew Lowry

Present

Andrew Lowry, Michael Sedon, Ian Keller, Carolyn Jacoby, Declan Madden, Susan Nashel, Manish Shrimali

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes for March 10, 2020 was made by Andrew Lowry, seconded by Carolyn Jacoby, and approved by all present.

Tree Inventory

Tree Inventory is proceeding as planned and there is good communication between Declan Madden and the Davey team.

Declan reported that Davey Tree had indicated that they expected that a complete inventory as proposed would be more than the 12,000 trees/planting sites budgeted. They estimate that there are another 1,000 - 1,500 trees/planting sites to count. It was agreed that it would be a mistake not to complete the inventory of the entire Village’s street trees (not including County or State roads) so that Ridgewood would have a baseline picture of the entire Village taken at the same point in time. 

Funding for the inventory is understood to be as follows:

Cost

$56,215 Davey Contract

Budget

$50,000 from the repurposed 2018 Capital budget

$10,000 from the NJ DEP. Grant (Funded by the Village but reimbursed by the state upon completion and satisfactory certification)

If there are an additional 1,000 - 1,500 trees/sites to count that would cost an additional $3,800 - $5,700 ($3.80 per tree)

That would bring the total cost to $60,015 - $61,900.

The Shade Tree Commission voted to approve that any overage (up to $3,000) above the $60,000 could be covered from funds in the Shade Tree Commission Trust Fund.  Andrew estimated that at least $7,000 was in the Trust fund and will confirm with Village management.

Project should be completed by June with results and training of Village staff coming in July/August.

Other Business

• The Webinar -Sidewalks, Urban Plazas and Tree Roots- presented by the TREE FUND was discussed and was highly recommended viewing for all STC members and Village Departments.  Ian will circulate the site location.
• The Hudson St. Garage planting will be week of May 18.  Ian reported that 5 Zelcovas and 2 Trident Maples will be planted. Not our choice of species.  The Hudson street sidewalk will be constructed with a 4’wide strip of 2’ deep CU Structural soil under the pavement. Tree wells will be 4’ X 4’ with metal grates.  It will be important to be sure watering of the trees is carefully executed. The responsibilities will be determined in the next few weeks.
• Carolyn will follow up on getting CEU’s for the Webinar for those that attended.
• Manish will review the CFMP to see if there is anything we need to do this year that we have neglected, (we believe we are on schedule in all areas).
• Fall planting is expected to be on schedule.  It was noted that this is a Capital funded project so funds will be bonded, not taken from the operating budget, which may be under pressure from the pandemic.
• We will follow up on the collection of water bags and stakes from the 2018 planting.

Please let me know if I have missed anything.

Andrew Lowry

Volunteer hours: 7.5