Ridgewood Shade Tree Comission Meeting Minutes 20200908

Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission

Meeting Minutes

September 8, 2020

Opening

The regular meeting of the Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission was called to order at 7:35PM on September 8, 2020 by Andrew Lowry. The meeting was held virtually on Zoom

Present

Andrew Lowry, Michael Sedon, Melody Corcoran, Ian Keller, Carolyn Jacoby, Declan Madden, Steve Freides

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes for July 14, 2020 was made by Andrew Lowry, seconded by Ian Keller, and approved by all present.

 

Tree Inventory

The first few pages of the tree inventory will be presented to the village council before a presentation is made to the League of Women voters. A basic summary of the inventory should be given to the village residents.

Mike Sedon will ask the village council and Heather Mailander about the possibility of an emergency appropriation to take care of any hazard trees identified in the inventory.

Rescheduling the tree maintenance crew to take care of the identified hazard trees before other scheduled projects is also a possibility.

 

Storm Isaias Cleanup

The cleanup is still in progress. Utility mark-outs need to be done before the remaining uprooted stumps can be removed and ground up.

 

Fall Planting 2020

Partial bids were awarded by tree species and by the cheapest quote. The total cost for the fall planting is $109,722 for a total of 218 trees. The following three companies were chosen:

 

FairCut Services, LLC, Little Falls, NJ

Downes Tree Service, Inc., Hawthorne, NJ

Clarke Moynihan Landscaping and Construction, Andover, NJ

 

Lisa Simms of the NJ Tree Foundation was already booked and did not submit a bid.

 

Someone from the village Shade Tree crew needs to be assigned a lead role in the plantings to ensure that the trees are planted properly.

 

The STC was unaware that the tree planting bids were for specific tree species; it was thought that the entire fall planting was to be awarded to a single contractor. Andrew Lowry will request a copy of the bid package and the bids returned so that the STC may better understand the bidding process. The STC also needs to know who is responsible for replacing any trees that fail.

Parking Garage Trees

Declan Madsen is still watering the trees. He also plans to feed the paper bark maples at the train station when the weather cools.

Other Items

Declan Madden has not been assigned for the pruning and stake removal of the 2018-2019 trees. Andrew Lowry and Ian Keller will randomly check the condition of about 100 of those trees.

 

The NJ Shade Tree Federation October 19-23 meeting will be held online.

 

Tree City application and annual CFMP report need to be worked on.

 

Grants that the village and the STC can apply for need to be researched.

 

The NJ Tree Foundation runs pruning events. At these events, proper tree pruning technique is taught through a hands-on 1/1.5 hour class. The fee is $370 for a maximum of 10 participants. Covid-19 precautions are followed. Participants need to supply their own tools.

 

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 8:45PM by: Andrew Lowry.

Minutes submitted by: Melody Corcoran

 

Volunteer Hours: 4