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TREE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES
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TREE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
September 23, 2008
Attendance: Don Nelson, Chairman
Rich Whitehead
Dave Tracy
Maribeth Becker
Absent:
Staff: Hal
Alvord, Tree Warden
Paul
Sotnik, Deputy Tree Warden
Dilene Byrd, Secretary
Neighborhood Liaisons: Dianne Witkowsky, Spring Hill/Hospital
Area
Gay Mac Leod,
Others: Diane
Lauricella
1. CALL
TO ORDER
Chairman Nelson called the
meeting to order at 6:10 PM
2. APPROVE
THE MINUTES OF TREE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING
OF AUGUST 26, 2008
Ms.
Witkowsky said on Item 14, Paragraph 2, Line 1, to change “Witkowsy” to
“Witkowsky”
Ms.
Witkowsky said on Item 14, Paragraph 3, Line 1, to change “Witkowsy” to
“Witkowsky”
** MR. WHITEHEAD MOVED TO APPROVE
THE MINUTES WITH CORRECTIONS
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
3. REPORT-
INCIDENTS OF ILLEGAL CUTTING
Mr. Sotnik had no illegal
cuttings to report.
4. TREE
PLANTING PROGRAM
a.
Mr.
Alvord said that he will contact Mr. Overall to stake the locations and will
then place the order with Almstead Tree. He said that this does not include any
locations on
b.
Van Buren and
Stevens
Mr. Sotnik said that he had placed a follow up
telephone call to Delois Barnes at the Department of Transportation, and she is
in the process of trying to get answers from the people above her as to whether
or not they will do the planting if the trees are provided to them. Chairman
Nelson asked how many trees will be planted. Mr. Sotnik said there will be
eight.
c.
Maple Street
Mr. Alvord said that he is in the process of
arranging a luncheon with Mr. Hiscock and assuming he could do that within the
next week or so, there will be plenty of time to plant the two additional trees
in the fall.
d.
Mr.
Alvord said that there was a Public Hearing and that DPW will begin the
removals next week and have the stumps ground as quickly as possible. He said
that he will request that Mr. Bociek begin looking for stock and that a
decision still needs to be made for which location will get which species of
tree. Ms. Witkowsky asked once the trees are planted if Almstead would be
responsible for caring for the trees. Mr. Alvord said that the contract
requires Almstead to ensure their survivability and health for one year. Ms.
Witkowsky asked about the status of the trees on
5. INFORMATION COPIES
Mr. Alvord distributed a
letter that Mayor Moccia had received from the Arbor Day Foundation
congratulating Norwalk for having been a Tree City USA for the fourth
consecutive year.
6. PROJECT UPDATE- WICKET FENCE FOR WALL STREET TREE PITS
Chairman Nelson asked if Mr. Viteretto has been in contact with anyone
regarding the wicket fences. Mr. Alvord said he will follow up with the
Redevelopment Agency to see what kind of discussions have taken place.
7. DISCUSSION-
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL GRANT 2008
Mr.
Alvord said that he had received a letter from Mr. Donnelly stating that he had
appreciated receiving the application but has received applications for approximately
$153,000 and only had $52,000 so they will not be able to provide any funding
for the project. Mr. Sotnik said that he had spoken to Mr. Donnelly and had
asked him what the criteria was and Mr. Donnelly said that the application was
a good sound one and if there was more money the application would have been
granted, but had decided to try and put it towards programs that are just
trying to get established rather than programs that have already been
established and are further along, such as Norwalk’s program.
8. DISCUSSION-
URBAN FORESTRY MANAGEMENT PLANNING WORKSHOP
Mr. Tracy said that he had
come up with a lot of new ideas for Management Plans. Chairman Nelson said that
he learned that what
9. DISCUSSION – TREE LINE
Mr.
Alvord asked since there has been no criteria found anywhere for the Tree Line
10.
REMINDER- TREE MANAGEMENT PLAN
Mr. Alvord said he has
completed the long-term goals and once he completes the funding piece, he will
be e-mailing it to the Committee members. By next month’s meeting he would like
to have a draft completed and would like to present the final plan to the Public
Works Committee and the Common Council for approval in December.
11. REMINDER- DPW OPEN HOUSE- SEPTEMBER 27, 2008.
Mr.
Alvord said that there will be a walk-thru scheduled for Friday, September 26,
2008, at 10:00AM at the Public Works Center for those who will be participating
in the Open House.
12.
DISCUSSION- NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVITIES
Ms. Becker
said that the CNNA met last night and that the Crime Committee had presented
their findings. Mr. Alvord asked how more neighborhood associations could be
encouraged to have tree liaisons. Ms. Witkowsky suggested more publicity of the
tree program. Ms. Mac Leod said it needs to be clearly stated what the time
factor is on a monthly basis and what can be accomplished. Chairman Nelson
suggested having Mr. Moss do a follow up piece on tree liaisons. He also
suggested doing some plantings in areas that currently don’t have a
neighborhood association. Mr. Alvord said the real success with the tree
planting program has been working through neighborhood associations because
there tends to be a sense of ownership and has some concerns about planting a
tree in the middle of nowhere that no one is concerned about. Chairman Nelson
also suggested finding volunteers who may be willing to take a group of streets
and find a place to plant some trees. Ms. Witkowsky also suggested presenting
before and after pictures of locations where trees have been planted.
Mr.
Alvord asked about the status of the group formation in the Wall Street area.
Ms. Becker said it’s currently there, but is loosely organized. Mr. Alvord said
there could also be some real value for an active business association in SONO,
Wall Street, and
13.
DISCUSSION- NTA ACTIVITES
Mr. Tracy said there is a Connecticut
Tree Protective Association meeting scheduled in
14. NEW BUSINESS
Ms. Lauricella
distributed a letter that she had drafted for some positive ways to interface
with the public. Chairman Nelson asked the members of the Committee to review
the letter and get back to him with their suggestions and feedback and he will
arrange a meeting with Ms. Lauricella. She said when she was preparing for an
appeal on a removal of a City tree that it was not a citizen or user-friendly
system. She said that she had come up with some thoughts and ideas on how to
change the process. Chairman Nelson asked if that was included in her letter.
Ms. Lauricella said “yes”. She also said she will forward her ideas on how to
get the public more involved in becoming Tree Liaisons.
Mr.
Whitehead said that he had spoken with Tom Vorio, the Superintendant of Oak
Hills Golf Course, and they will be attending the October Tree Advisory
Committee Meeting with their Tree Management Plan. They would like to review
what they have done over the course of the past year, and what they plan to do
moving forward.
Mr.
Alvord said that he had received an e-mail from Chairman Nelson which
originated from Dave Shockley regarding someone wanting to donate a red maple
tree and asked the status of that. Chairman Nelson said that Mr. Shockley was
going to take a look at the tree, but he has not heard back from him yet. Mr.
Whitehead said that they are very valuable trees, but getting it out of the
location where it currently exists will cause a lot of disturbance.
15.
ADJOURNMENT
** MR. NELSON MOVED TO ADJOURN
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
The
meeting adjourned at 7:44 P.M.
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