RIdgewood Shade Tree COmission Metting Minutes 20170321

Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission

Meeting Minutes

March 21, 2017

Minutes Andrew Lowry:

Attendees: Andrew, George, Monica, Bron, Mike, Melody, Chris, Ian, (Michael Guerriero, Carolyn Jacoby)

This provides a summary of the decisions reached and the issues discussed at the above meeting.

Governance

A quorum was present.

Tree Ordinance

Chris discussed the revised tree ordinance. He pointed out that the ordinance covers "qualified" trees only and therefore excludes many trees in the Village. The ordinance will be discussed at the Council meeting in early April (not clear on exact date). Ordinance will then go to the Planning Board for review. Chris stressed that the ordinance was a first step and that future amendments would likely be made as needed.

STC members should get their comments to Chris before April 1.

If passed, the ordinance will be a major achievement on the path to protecting and enhancing Ridgewood’s trees. We are very appreciative of Chris’ efforts.

Street Paving/Tree Planting

Chris reported that the repaving contract for the spring would include the planting of 100 trees which will be guaranteed for 2 years.

Chris also indicated he would check to see if the old pump truck currently not being used could work as a watering truck. (Perhaps Tim or George can follow up with Chris?).

Tree Survey

It was indicated that we may need to bid out the tree survey as it will cost over the $17,000(?) limit for discretionary spending.

We will know by April 11 if we will get the Sustainable NJ grant for doing part of the tree survey. It was suggested that if we have to bid the survey out we use the Davey Tree Company proposal as a guide for the bid request.

Adopt-A-tree

We need an update from Tim regarding schedule for the spring planting. It was suggested that the Adopt-A-Tree planting would include staking but might not include gator bags. It would seem that we should have a standard tree planting requirement including; stakes, gators and mulching and use it for all trees in the Village.

We agreed that the cutoff date for Adopt-A-Tree (fall planting would be June 30, 2017. That should give us enough time to organize the bidding and schedule the fall planting in Oct./Nov.

Free Trees

We will be getting 500 "whips" in April. Bron committed to getting tree care instructions for holding them until we can get them planted in pots or the nursery. George is organizing the effort and will need help once the trees come in.

Earth Day STC Handout

Mike will develop some bullet points and give to Melody for design so we have something ready for Earth Day.

Education Event - May 9, 2017 - Urban Trees

We will have a presentation by Nicolas Polanin who will speak about urban trees at the library. We will invite other ST commissions (Monica?). It is important for members to attend as everyone gets Continuing Education Credits which we need to maintain our Commission status. The presentation will be at 8:30 and we will host an informal dinner and discussion before at 6:30, probably in the Garden room?

Bron is working on getting in contact with the speaker.

Downtown Trees

Ian and Andrew will visit downtown and try to identify tree wells which can be excavated without too much effort. They will then set a date and have PSE&G mark out the utilities.

Please let me know if I missed anything important.