20210511 - Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission Meeting Minutes

Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission

Meeting Minutes

May 11,2021

Opening

The regular meeting of the Ridgewood Shade Tree Commission was called to order at 7:35PM on May 11, 2021 by Ian Keller. The meeting was held virtually on Zoom.

Present

Ian Keller, Michael Sedon, Melody Corcoran, Carolyn Jacoby, Declan Madden, Steve McCabe, Manish Shrimali

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes for April 21, 2021 was made by Ian Keller, seconded by Carolyn Jacoby, and approved by all present.

Arbor Day Tree Distribution

Carolyn Jacoby received many requests for trees. The set-up at Graydon and distribution of the trees went smoothly. There were no complaints from the residents.

Essential Workers Memorial

The tree dedication at Veteran’s Field on April 30^th was well attended and well received. Mahmoud Hamza and family paid for the trees and organized the event. An article on the dedication was published in The Ridgewood News. The trees had been previously planted during the fall 2020 tree planting. The tree dedication was posted on Facebook by Mahmoud Hamza.

2018/2019 Tree Plantings

Nancy Bigos approved the STC plans to work with Declan Madden for a day checking on 2018/2019 tree plantings. Declan is available most days. The plan is to check the plantings in areas B and C for stake and gator bag removal. Andrew Lowry will coordinate this work with Declan and Steve McCabe. The village tree crew can also do this work on a rainy day. The trees planted in 2020 should have their stakes and gator bags removed in 2022.

Heather Mailander, village manager, approves of sending informational postcards to residents about filling the gator bag on trees planted in front of their properties. She did not approve sending postcards to residents inquiring if they would object to having a tree planted in front of their properties.

EAB Recommendations

The village council is going forward with the STC recommendations concerning ash tree treatments and removals.  Ash tree treatments and removals are scheduled to start May 12. A total of 173 ash trees are to be treated and approximately 400 ash trees removed.

An e-blast to residents to inform them about the ash tree removals and treatments will be proposed to the village council.

Graydon, Train Station, CBD Trees

Graydon opens in early June. Before Graydon opens, the elm tree needs to be treated and the ash trees removed and/or treated. Bartlett Tree is the likely winner of the bid for this work; the village council will most likely pass this at the May 12 meeting.

The elm on the island in Graydon would benefit from an application of fertilizer. One of the paperbark maples at the train station needs extra feeding. Funds from the STC trust fund could possibly be used to pay for these two treatments.

Franklin Avenue curbs, etc. are scheduled to be upgraded. After this work is completed, Declan Madden will review possible areas in the CBD where it would be easy to plant trees without the need for tree wells

CFMP

Manish Shrimali will check on whether the time table for CFMP plan submissions has been extended due to the pandemic. The next CFMP plan should be presented to the village council in September and needs to be filed in December. Perhaps, Ron Farr can be used again to help with the plan.

To renew the CFMP for the next 5 years, plan goals need to be set, ideally at the June STC meeting. Possible goals are:

• Complete tree inventory, including county roads
• Planting another 1000 trees
• CBD beautification, etc. planning with business owners and building owners
• Protective tree ordinance covering private property

Grant Opportunities

Using previous wording and boilerplate would make future grant proposals and submissions easier. Updating the tree inventory and assessing the entire village tree canopy are ideas for future grant proposals.

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 8:35PM by: Ian Keller

Minutes submitted by: Melody Corcoran

Volunteer Hours: 4