isible with liberty and justice for all. I hereby announce that this meeting is being held in in accordance with chapter 231 of the open public meeting act. Proper notice of meeting dates have been given to the Morris newsby Morris County Daily Record and posted on the bulletin
board in Burough Hall. Roll call please Mr. President Mr. Lombardi President Mr. President approval of the minutes from the May 5th meeting. Are there any issues or do we have a motion to move the minutes? I move that the minutes of May 5th be
approved as calculated. second. I'm sorry. Yes, Michael. Comments from the public. I am staying.
As there's uh no one from the public to speak, I close the comments from the public section. budget going smoothly there. Uh there's no communications. Uh Forester's report or Forester is not here this evening. Um I
will go through the Foresters memos and delay the messages back. Can I just ask just a point of information clarification? a little confused on this budget because it seems like things that we've approved are not they're not on
here. Um so when does Karen post them to this budget? So I asked her the same questions once the POS come through because it would be it's hard for us sometimes to make decisions because we've already approved money that isn't reflected on the balance of the sheet.
So is there any way that we could or is that the way it has to be done? that I'm not sure I'll bring. You know what I mean? Just in terms of we're trying to make budget decisions, but we don't have the accurate numbers. Understand? I'll bring that up with her next time I speak with her. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. I can tell you how
it's done since I do it. When I create the PO, I automatically put it on the budget. Doesn't mean that finance has done anything with it, but I've taken it out of our budget. So if you have any questions, I have two spreadsheets that can show
you what removal what the P number is. So like for this would it already have been would you have already created the PO but it hasn't posted yet? Is that what the difference is? Could people speak into the mics? This
is up to date as to as 512, right? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any errors, you're welcome to come look at it. Okay. Great. Thank you. So, going to go through the memos. Uh 25-5. Uh Commissioner Mleier stated that
there is what looks to be a small dogwood uh planted in the strip at the address above whose bark is peeling off and seems to be dying. Uh 66 Mountain Way. Um I have asked uh I have asked BPW to just put a little
bit of mulch around it based on the recommendation uh from Dave Dy so that the weed whackers don't hit the tree anymore. Um and according to David is a lilac tree. Perfect. 25-26 uh 52 Glen Brook. Commissioner Mle
stated there's a small tree with no leaves at the address above looks to be dead. uh trees has already been removed by DPW 25-27. Commission Mler stated that there are three river birch trees at Waton Park that look to be dead. Uh this was
responded to my email. So those are the three trees that we were given by the garden club. Uh the tops are uh still brown, but the there's regrowth from all three at the bottom and from one of them in the middle in the middle of the tree.
So um they will DPW will just kind of prune those back a little bit and they should be fine moving forward. Dave thinks they're going to grow all the way up to the to the top. Correct. They're going to leave out. They're going to leave out. Great. Yeah. So, what's going to happen is like more at the top. Um,
the branches will be pruned back and the whole regrowth will start from the bottom right back up. Okay, great. You had to spend a lot of time watering them. So, I was a little nervous on those. Glad to see they're uh getting green again. Um
252841 Parker Drive. Uh resident called in that there are dead branches hanging over his deck in his yard. The trees are on town property. Community pool parking lot um is on the back of this property. These there's two trees here that are on
town property um in the green acre space. Um it's two prunes uh 24 to 36 in at a cost of $1,200. I have a question about just a procedural question. So, I went and
looked at this and the um the trees are not at least that I can see. I didn't go in his yard. Um, you know, they're growing out of the woods. I can understand why the res might want them trimmed back. But this came up for me too when I watched
the adjustment meeting. There was a resident there who had some questions about wires and trees. So, if it's our tree, are we are we solely responsible for trimming it or is it your neighbor has a tree and it approaches on your property, you're allowed to trim it to
the property. Have we ever clarified that? S, any thoughts on on I looked at the just before I looked at the ordinance and what it says and to me the ordinance is not clear. It says obviously residents can't remove trees. Um, it
says if there's a there's a part of a tree that's dangerous. I think that's one of their trees to public land, they have to remove it when required, but I don't see anything about trimming. So, What do you what I I know from insurance standpoint and this I know which might be a little relevant but
like when a tree falls down whether it's yours or your neighbors what falls on your property you're responsible on their property they're responsible um in this situation you're saying the dead tree starts in it's not dead it's
just well the dead branch starts in our they're not even dead they're just the person doesn't shave in their deck or whatever right so Well, as far as I can see, but it originates in our Yes. in our right away. Our tree. But my my thing to you in your board is you you
just if it's dead, do you just cut it there or while you're there just cut it down so it can't fall somewhere? So, we're going to be there. So, I just get your point. It's not say our coverage, but it does originate from there. Um I I
have to really look into the the zoning law on that one, but that brings up I'd like to uh talk to the board about a tree ordinance. Okay. And adjusting it and um making it more 2025. I don't want to interrupt your meeting. So, okay. We'll take that. Um I just I
just like to get some because I mean it's a we have a few residents, right, that that their property abuts to municipal land and when the trees encroach on their property, they want us to trim them. I just think we should have a clear guideline for what that is.
Is it their responsibility or is it ours? Because if it's your neighbor's tree, it's your responsibility to trim it, not your neighbors who owns the tree. If it's on your property and that's correct. Yeah. If you if I live next door to you and your branches are coming over, I can cut them. You can cut it. Yes, but these are dead branches.
That's what we're doing. They didn't look dead to me. I don't know. But maybe they are. So there was So the lower branches still had some leaves on them. Uh when he went up uh with the machinery, there was some dead wood further up uh in the tree. Oh, okay. So, he's worried the dead top is
going to fall, but we're not going to we're going to trim back the rest of Yeah. So, pretty much the two trees where they are, they're literally right on the other side of the fence. They bought right up to the fence at this property. Um he's just going to kind of clean up what's dead towards the top and a couple of the lower branches. Just
trying to be budget conscious, that's all. Make sure that we're not paying for things that aren't our responsibility. 2529. Um, Commissioner Drexler has requested that Mr. Doobie look at fertilizing the following. Uh, it's a
total of five trees, a maple tree at the 911 memorial, a and four total trees on 53. So, at a price of 20 uh at $11 an in
fertilization. It's total of 24 in uh $264. Memo 2530 uh for Hillside Court East. Uh resident claims that the town tree in front of their resident looks to be dead and needs to be pruned or or taken down. Uh
tree was reviewed. Um there is a lot of dead wood in the tree. Uh it is a 24 to 36 inch prune. $600. 2521, excuse me, 253126 Winding Road. Um, I took a look
at these trees as the resident has called in multiple times um about their proximity to overhanging wires in front of the residence. Uh, 124 to 36 and 136 plus to be pruned, 1300
Uh, final memo 2532 51 Birch Drive. A resident claims that branches from town tree are overhanging her driveway and are hitting her car when she enters and exits the property. She would like the tree trimmed. Uh, this will be taken care of
by DPW, no cost. Question about 2531. Is that our responsibility or should that be the JCPNL responsibility? So JCPNL only works on a rotation of uh work and if
they're not in town to do certain sections, they won't handle it even if called. Uh the only time they'll make an exception is something that we saw earlier on in the year. there's a fire uh in the tree, they'll come and remove what was impacted by the fire.
It's a town over. No, he's talking about 26 winding. 26 power, but Mike's saying because they can't do it, so we're going to the cost.
So, we've run into the issue where JCPNL doesn't come out as much to do trimming um as they've done in the past. So, it kind of falls on us to to manage it. They only come once every four years. Yeah. The other thing with JCPML, they
hack those trees, too. So, they're not necessarily done in a way that's visually appealing. like a cannon in the middle of the tree. If you look down J line, you can see where they trimmed all of them and they're all separated and the wires go
right down. Yeah. So, we have uh four items that we are moving to approve in the amount of 3364. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. Who calls roll calls? Susan.
Mrs. Dy. Yes. Mr. Juda. Yes. Mr. Lombardi. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mer. Yes. Okay. I close the forers report section. Um move on to old business. There's
nothing on the agenda for old business and move forward to new business. Does anyone else have anything or just so just those things and then S would like to speak regarding the ordinance? So I have three motions here. Um my
first motion is to create two person working committees. Um the idea behind this is that we had a discussion last time that communication was difficult because we can't all email each other. So if we have two person working, we'll be able
to communicate with each other more easily. And also um I feel like sometimes because we don't have a clear division of responsibilities, sometimes things fall by the wayside. And my is that if we have a clear division of
responsibilities, we can um catch some of those things. So, I'm looking for a second on that motion unless there's questions about it. fallen by the wayside. I mean, I think we've had long discussions about that in our previous
meetings, but not that I'm aware of, but I think we have Sorry, we can't hear. I think we have, but we have had discussions. I mean whether it's watering, whether it's pulling up stakes, whether it's not
doing the walkounds for planting, these would just be a few things off the top of my head that have fallen by the wayside. I believe so. Yeah. They're not being done. We're not doing them or we're not doing them, I would say,
thoroughly. I think we are doing things We just had this rainstorm and this windstorm and I I I get these notifications from other towns. Tree down, wires down. We don't have it for we're maintaining our trees. We're
trying to plant more trees. U we got a letter from a resident saying, "Thank you. What a good job you did." Um, I think we're I I just having more committees is going to solve anything.
If we have something to discuss, we should discuss it here. Committee of the whole. So, I'm looking for a second for my motion. So, there's no Karen isn't here. If there's no second, then the motion fails. Correct. Okay. So, my next motion is that we begin our New Jersey Shade
Tree Federation accreditation by applying for the New Jersey urban and community forest program, green communities grant. My reasoning for this is that we currently are not protected by the community community forestry acts uh liability extra liability that would
protect us as um commissioners but also protect the borrow from liability. We also are not eligible for grants that are available through that program and um even the grants we are elig eligible for I worry they wouldn't take us as
seriously because we um have not gone through the accreditation process. So I'd like to move that we begin that process um of applying for that grant. We did apply for that grant. As far as I'm concern believe, I think
we're still under under uh under under the Department of Environmental Protection Clean Communities Grant. Now, I I don't know. I'm sorry. This is the green communities grant and our accreditation expired last year in 2024
for our 2014 plan that I never saw that document that we expired. It's available online. You can anyone can go on I'm uh interested in level of effort to do this and whether this is something that falls out within the shade trees
remmit or if this is something that's handled more broadly as part of said is by being credited that opens up an avenue for grants right without the accreditation it's just pretty much impossible but you have to what are We
applying for what grant are we applying for trees? Are we applying for money? When we did this, when we did this, uh this was to get the 408 trees in in the no net loss program and we went through
the whole process. Uh and there's a lot involved. I I want to know exactly what this grant is. It's nice to say, "Oh, let's get a grant, but what's the grant going to do? What's the cost? Is there
is there a match that you have to do?" I have none of those none of that information. So, you may not have received it, Mike. I forwarded that information to you and Karen. Um, the complete packet. I don't know if Karen included an email so you could look at
it before this meeting. I also spoke about it in January at length and described what the grant is for. There are two parts to the grant. One part is for the tree inventory that is now required as part of accreditation. I believe you can get up to $15,000 on
that. I don't have the numbers in front of me. The other one, I believe, is for $3,000 to write the community forest management plan, which would be hiring a consulting arborist to do the work. So, I will I will say this. So with with budget concerns and you and I discussed
this, my feeling towards this and this is something that we that I did want to take a look at further, but it was towards the end of the year depending where we were in a budget standpoint just because this is this does come at a cost as well. So for that reason I want
to I will not move to move this motion. Can we can we table I don't know how this work. Can we table it till the latter part of the year as suggested so we can think of you know maybe we can get more information about it and be more informed about what it
what it actually means. So, because you guys didn't receive the packet, I mean, that's fine. I mean, we want to table it till our next meeting. Of course, I tried to send it out ahead of time so everybody could look. I couldn't obviously I couldn't forward that packet on because of the the regular open. So,
that's why I was Karen may have forgot to attach it. So, yeah. So, yeah, let's let's I've always been open to this. Um, but from a budget standpoint, I do want to see where we are come like October, November standpoint, and I I will table let's table this for right now. I just
just for the record, I want to vote on it before the fall. I think we've let it go long enough and it is a lot of work and I think that having this plan would allow us to um do a much better job of all of the things that I said, you
know, I think we haven't been doing as good a job because we would have a consulting arborist who could recommendations about some of our practices and and see where we might be able to improve. I think that um when we met earlier in the year, Mike, I said I would wait till June. So that's why I'm bringing it up now because I'm doing
what I said. So I mean I'm happy to wait till next month, but I would appreciate it even if people don't want to vote for it if they would look at the documentation at least know what they're against. Yeah, I'm happy to I'm happy to look at it. I just don't feel like I have enough information at this point to make an informed decision. I understand.
So we'll table this. Okay. And my last motion is that um all of us complete one continuing education course per year. Uh I think that not only would that help with accreditation, I think it would help um for us to do community outreach. Um you know, I was going to uh
talk just for a minute about watching the board of adjustment meeting. One of the things that struck me is that there was a resident here who was very concerned about the trees across from her house and them the possibility of them falling. And one of them does a tree that's aging. I rode my bike by it
today. However, she was also um upset about she had had a lot of water in her basement due to construction and she was wanting these trees to be removed. Who was this person at where this could I finish speaking and then I'm happy
trying to listen to what you're saying? Told you was at the board of adjustment meeting. So, uh she was upset about water in her basement. But the two trees that are across from her house, according to back of the envelope math in an online calculator
poll, said like I think 500 gallons of water a week out of the ground. So why am I bringing this up? Because I think it speaks to when you ask Marian what fell by the wayside. One of the things that's fallen by the wayside is us doing the outreach that we should be doing to residents because residents only see
trees as a liability. They don't see them as something that's a benefit. Part of our job as a shade tree commission is to be going around having a booth at the farmers market, going around and talking to people, putting on tree presentations here to educate people about what the benefits of the trees are. We're not
doing that. We're primarily doing takedowns and pruning. So, I think that if we would if we could educate ourselves, then we could do a better job of educating the public. So, that's why um I want to have this. And also, if we apply for accreditation, it will go
toward our accreditation that we continuing education units. There are free courses that you can take online, so it doesn't have to be um a large cost. Some of them, of course, cost a lot more than others depending on what the unit is about. So, I'm looking for a questions and then a second on that
motion. I I honestly don't have the mission in front of us and I don't remember educating the public being part of the mission because obviously there obviously some of these courses are great, but there's a level of effort here also with um the commissioner's
time outside of the meetings and the prep work we're already doing. So granted some of them are free and still extra work but I don't remember our mission being that broad and my bad if I just not recalling what we agreed to as our mission. I know we looked at it
November December and I I honestly don't have it in front of me so my understanding could be completely wrong. I don't know if anybody else remembers. So, as far as as as this motion goes, um as far with the
continuing education, since one of the education pieces has already passed for this time, uh at this point of the year, and there possibly one uh to come in the fall, I I would like to table this January to give everybody the opportunity to have both set of dates to
be able to attend whichever one is easier for their choosing. There's many ongoing continue education courses. There's also free online asynchronous courses that people can take at their leisure. There's not only two opportunities to take continuing education. There's only two. I know
you're saying there's other ones outside of the federation. Um, no, the there are other ones, but Rucker Extension um has multiple opportunities throughout the year on some of the mailing lists. They're frequently emailing about opportunities. you can go
on there and look at them and they have continuing education units that can be applied towards our accreditation accreditation. There's also um the US Forest Service has a uh treeboard university uh that I think would be something that would be good for anyone who starts a new on this commission to
pay. It's completely free. It's asynchronous. So there's lots of opportunities out there besides just the fall conference. Last year there was a league of There was a program boosting the benefits of your municipal tree canopy
which I did attend whether they have another program they did ask whether you wanted I said at this point that I came I can't say anything new but it's always good to
be refreshed in point. So, I don't know whether we're going to have that this year again, but where where was this? I'm going back to my question. Where was this application
and for this board of adjustment was afraid of trees? Uh, where you mean what was the address? Yeah, it's the lot on the corner of you know the streets better than me at Hawthorne and that lot that they were
planning for the variance on the lot size. There's two large trees there on the Hawthorn frontage of the lot. And who was the person who had problems? I believe it was a resident that lived across the street. I don't know her name, although I'm sure she gave it at
the meeting. Was she looking to have those trees removed by the shade tree or the town? Do we know if they're 10 foot trees? She comes forward. Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with those trees as far as I can. Well, she had said uh she had what she
had said what she said to my recollection is that she was worried about them falling on the wires of the house. Um and she said, "As far as I'm concerned, you can just remove them." And that struck me as if you have water sump pump you have to put in your basement that you probably don't want to
be removing 2 and 12 foot diameter trees. from your house because we should be asking the surprise to plant more trees not to cut them down in my opinion and I think this shows a lack of our work in educating residents.
Not that we could necessarily convince everyone but it it seemed and the other thing is it was clear that the resident um had that whose mother lived there did not have any understanding of the right of way despite being a long-term resident. And a lot of residents don't know that they have the right of way. when I go around and knock on people's
doors planting, a lot of people have no idea that the first frontage of their lot is actually municipal right away. So, this is another thing I think we need to educate people about as well as how to care for the trees that we plant on their lot so that they don't have trimmer damage and other things. The um
actually when that got block got subdivided, I don't know what they did for candidly, uh no one complained about the subdivision. Nobody back presidents came and supported it. I'm not I'm not litigating that or I have no idea about
that. I'm just telling you I have no idea. I'm just telling you the meeting about the trees. Yeah. Well, I'm telling you what happened at the meeting on that lot with the trees on it when it was subdivided. Rob, why are these people so unhappy?
Why don't they come forward? Pick up the phone. Call town hall. Last year we 79 people something done and we did it. This year we have done 32 residents. What are we doing wrong? Why are these people so angry at the Shake Tree Commission? Just tell them to pick up
the phone and and call Karen or call Town Hall and say, "Gee, I have two trees. What can I do?" We just had a gentleman the year before you got here. He lived on Beach Drive. He had a tree removed. He said, "May I have another one?" We said, "Yeah." He said, "Oh, I
didn't know that." But he came forward. So, what are we doing? What are we supposed to do? Well, well, so first of all, I think that she did Karen didn't speak to her after the meeting. I I I think I didn't see that, but Karen said she would. But second of all, I mean, I guess my answer would be is that we
should be people don't know what we do or who we are. Um, I don't know that they're mad at Sha Tree. I just think they're they see trees and often times they feel like they're worried about them or they feel like they're a liability. And you know, there's there are liabilities with trees, but there's also a lot of benefits to them. And I
Guess that's what I'm saying is it's our job. We should be, you know, we want I understand that you want them to come to us, but maybe we need to be going to them a little bit more by putting articles in by trying to do outreach things like this so that we can educate
people. I think we agreed that that's what we're going to do in the fall with the plain stock. I think we already agreed. I pretty sure and then putting a a blank have a that you want us to
look at. Remember, we were going to work on that article and put it in PL, right? But I'm just saying until I'm Marian was saying, what are falling by the wayside? Until I brought that up, there was no discussion of doing that. That's what I'm saying. These are the things I think are falling by the wayside. So, I'm just trying to get us doing these these
things that I think are necessary to maintain this. But that is your opinion, Rob. And usually the complaint comes when people cut down trees, not when they're putting them up. Okay. Not when they have trees, it's when it's cut down
trees. People don't like it when you cut down trees and I don't blame. Okay. I mean, I'm just I'm saying my opinion, but that's why I'm here. Absolutely. So, is there a second for my motion? It seems like this motion is wrapped up
in the idea that we need to review the mission to see I mean I'm not against continuing education but what I what I am worried about is that scope creep within the mission right
we've had this before where we went back I think it was a year ago about parks and what was in the shade trees remitt within parks what was in the parks budget and we had that conversation which is really good conversation. My opinion is that this seems to be wrapped
up in the the idea of the mission and I would rather us have a conversation again. Let's revisit the mission see what's in the mission and separate the two and then figure out what the right course of action is based on the mission
that we all have a shared understanding. That's just my opinion. And also on the plane talk, why don't we put our goals and objectives that we talked about in January 8th? That kind of says it all too. The motion on the floor now is to confirm one course per
year, right? That am I correct? Yes, make sure I'm following. I'm sorry, Mr. Uh the way I just like I said, I did go to a course last year. I don't think uh myself as as a citizen volunteer here
that we need big government or little government or any government to tell you what to do. I think we're we're all will want I think that's why we're on this board to make the town better. And if there's something that we can do, we'll
do it. Do we need somebody that oh did you take this course? Did I take that course? I don't think so. That's my opinion. Yeah, I'm happy to take a course. I don't know that we don't I don't know if it has to be formalized within a motion.
That's just my opinion. I I'm already looking for courses for the fall. There's Chry chairman courses that I'm looking at. So, I I don't have anything else regarding this motion. So, is there a second for the motion?
But I'll say I'm committed to taking course. As there's no seconds, I close this part of new business and move over to S for his discussion regarding the tree ordinance. We have an existing tree ordinance done
probably I mean 15 20 years ago um and it's come to the council that a lot of people are abusing our trees. I'm not happy about giving any addresses out or names right now but we
need to look at that ordinance and find a way that we can enforce it with fines. I'm for education always first. Don't get me wrong, but but some people are just got deliberate.
Correct. I have to go and check on the property. I already know that you're upset and we'll look at it. But that ordinance should be done and it I want to say it should be coupled with our zoning officer and give him you know the
ordinance or the power to you know do a summon court and uh also if there's anything to to put back you know look at the ordinance and and see what we want to do. Um for many years um I think I
may be a little bit guiltous myself in my house I had the water pitching downward into my basement. So for me to lower the elevation, I had to remove trees. I did some cursing calls back then going back about almost 35 40 years
ago and you know basically they were under water but I think now it's 2025 everyone's concerned about everyone about the green. We got our you know what kicked with Sandy Robert went on record last week
about the loss about 15% I think on our streets on our trees in that area. It it's a little it's a little shock but more so we lost that. How did we lose them? Did we did people just go there or were
they you know because of seeing here something like that? Uh but even with that investigator I I think we should look at the ordinance and just think it that uh people will think twice before cutting a tree. I I don't want to put any fear in anybody and of course this
does not apply to an emergency situation falls on the house. Oh my god. But but we should get up to par with that and I'd be willing to sit down with you and and the vice chair. Anybody else wants to come, I'm
fine with it and take a look at it. you know, read it thoroughly and we should do something. Sure. Completely open to that. More than willing to take a look at it. Anyone else recommendations? I'd be happy to I'd be happy if you Is
this the same one from last year that never was adopted? Correct. The original the original the original ordinance. We have we have a tri the one that we were working on with
the u shade tree commission last year with Kathy Kelly, myself and Nancy. Uh sadly that didn't uh go that much further. Um that's all I can say about that right now. But it didn't that doesn't mean that it's right that we
didn't do that. Let's let's pick up the ropes and uh you know get Mars blames back. We were one time weren't we one time tree or new we're 49. You know what? There's a lot of discussion about canopy. Okay, a
lot of discussion about canopy. But people forget, okay? Uh forget one thing. Um and when we did get certified last time, to remember we had that terrible snowstorm where the limbs were
falling all over the place, followed the next time by Sandy. We lost in those two storms 150 to 200 trees, big trees. Now, the the burrow did go and
plant 408 trees. We had trouble finding uh locations for them, but what you're not going to replace a 40, 50 or 60 year old tree with a planting of two and a half. So that takes time and that's
what's and then of course what did you have here had the ash borer lanter fly. So those and it's not just the marplines those all uh are part of the problem not that people are
cutting the idea as I think I said earlier is you want to plant trees and we have to plant more uh that's simple as that as a we had the dash forward and we commission spent a lot of time
cleaning up that but that's beyond us. Now is the time to plant and uh and uh I know uh we wanted to plant like 15 trees at the beginning of the year. Uh Rob was worried about the budget. Well, you know
what? If you're going to worry about the budget, then you're not going to plant trees. And we ended up cutting back on trees. That's wrong. If we got the money to plant the trees, we should be planting. For the record, I think you're um saying something that's not accurate to the fact. When did I say that we
should plant fewer trees? Frank, plant what? I didn't say you never said that. The the motion was the motion was for I think 13 or 15 trees. You said, "Oh,
that's too much. Oh, how about eight or six trees?" And just as as the rest of the board said, "Oh, sure. We'll compromise with you. Eight trees." And then when we voted, you voted against eight trees
even. So, I mean, I voted against the trees that you wanted planted in Jane Way that there are three trees already planted over there because the location doesn't make sense. It still helps the canopy. We got caught up. You're incorrect. It was community park trees.
The reason I voted against the motion I said last time very clearly because of the fact and I'd like to be interrupted and then anyone can say what it feel like was because of the fact that we were planting trees where there were already three newly planted trees when
there are many gaps in the Bard that could use a tree and I didn't understand the logic. Should I have made that clearer when I voted against? Maybe. But let's be realistic. Okay, there were we were supposed to go all go around, like I said last meeting,
and have five locations. We didn't do that. Instead, we planted a bunch of trees in Community Park on the hill and some other trees where there's already two trees. That doesn't seem like a good decision to me. Again, here tonight, we have a whole list of trees here. Again, here tonight,
we're relitigating this. I'm not interested in that. I'd like to move on. We talked about this last meeting. I'm sorry you couldn't attend. So S, I have a question for you. I don't know if you remember in the ordinance. Is the ordinance for only is the
ordinance only residential or does it include commercial in there as well? For that it applies to our our trees in our rightway in our parks. So it's parks, residential and then it also goes to residential like if someone you know has
a has a tree in their backyard. The new tells you the state gave us a blank for a blank format. Not a blank or format, not a blank format. My apologies. If you cut down like a 24 in trees, you got to put
three two three inch. Yeah. Yeah. And there was an equation for that. Right. Now, that never been adopted. And what I'm asking the board is is help, let's adopt that and give the zoning the power to reinforce it. And I I completely
agree with you, Frank. You got our you know what kicked with all those things, the ashboard, the lantern fly, Sandy, and we're not going to create that canopy like that. But it's nice to hear that we're on the right track and and
knowing that little by little without us doing anything that tree will expand and increase our country, which is a nice thing. Yeah. The reason I was asking about commercial is because with the new commercial stuff going in like at Wakeard and all the other buildings. I'm
just wondering if you want to think about what the impact has and if that would be a separate ordinance because it's commercial properties versus residential and park. So that's my only point of bringing it up. But maybe there's something there to be
it it should incorporated. It should it should respect that ordinance. So applicant like Wer comes in and is going to cut down, you know, 236 or 230 inch trees, they should you look at the formula and says, "Okay, you got to put these trees, find a place for them, and
you know, there's plenty of land there to to do that." Yeah. I'm just saying moving it from like, you know, from A to B, but it would still be in that property. Yeah. And but more importantly, that thing would start, the canopy would start, you know, increasing
while we're sleeping. you know, but right now we don't we're not fully u geared that way and I'm asking for your guys help. Absolutely. More than happy to I I'm going to say something and uh I got a big mouth.
I I I think we'll always try to help you. I think my concern with one of the proposals was uh that they were charging a resident on their private property to cut down a tree. Now, maybe that
resident wanted to have a garden and there was too much shade and now they now they have to pay to cut the tree down to the town. Or maybe as that late lady that Rob talks about was afraid uh
there's a tree in her front yard that she's afraid is going to fall. Uh now she has to pay a fee to the town besides paying someone to take the tree down. I I didn't I don't see that as a maybe I'm
wrong as a problem. Uh I I don't think people willy-nilly cut trees down. I think uh and I think we have a zoning ordinance. I you can tweak the ordinance. Uh no problem. But we have to I don't I don't want to see charge I I
think it's wrong to charge people on their own property. Frank, the the fee started off at 100. I think we lowered it down to 50. And it wasn't about the money because $50 for a Mars Springs resident and I I'm sorry. It's not about that. It's about us knowing that you're
taking down a tree and us knowing that listen, if it's a, you know, a tree that's dead, it's one thing, but if it's like a nice, you know, 18 24 inch tree, it's nice that we know about it and say, "Listen, by the way, this is what you have to do just to cut the tree down."
That $50 wasn't doesn't cover Don's inspection. Doesn't cover anything. It's very minimal. It's more that you have a record and that the guy paid that. But now you want to drop that down to 10 or fives. I don't have any problem. It will not affect an 1820 million dollar budget
that we have in our town. Especially if you get 10 people that get a permit. It's not going to make or break anything. But more importantly, it's going to let us know what's going on out there. And that's what we're missing right now because I think that I'll have to talk to you after the meeting. I don't want to go on record or anything. supposedly there was a lot of one lot
just just recently last couple of days that there was a lot of butchering done and that ticks me off a lot. It bothers me knowing that you guys are trying to get the canopy and I'm like all right well what the heck are we doing then we're you just killed the canopy that we're trying to
restore. I'm trying to so the the fee was not about to break the bank and I don't think anyone in Marsh $50 or $100 will break the brand and take down a tree you're probably looking at two three $4,000 depending on where it is to the power lines or or the house or the roof. So it's more about getting
application and just have a paper trail. Now you want to lower that fee to $5, I'm fine with it. Just something that people know, by the way, you didn't do a permit. You didn't file a permit. I can now issue a stock permit because you did file a permit. And you're going to get that chainsaw and put it rest. So you
and I sit down with the forester or the zoning, whatever you have, and say, "Listen, here's your lot. Here's what you had. Here's what you butchered. Let's let's work together." And and and the mission of this of this board from Little I have, forgive me, is about
making keeping marshplains green and and the beautiful canopy that we have. So by us doing things at the same time we're closing our eyes on on on a chainsaw and not reinforcing it as I just feel very very uncomfortable if I go back to but
more importantly a new ordinance for 2025. We know where we are. We know everything that that that happened but we want to know and the council wants to know that okay given all that all right we're we're improving. We're we're moving forward and we have a system now
where if a guy does get a chainsaw, he didn't follow permit. So now we can stop permit. Let's make that $5 as much as you know. But you think about it, someone has to go there. Don's got to go there spend that on gas. It's not about that. It's about that us
having a record of what's going on. And also may maybe the residents, the the the the neighbors, you know, that tree was was was was giving a beautiful uh uh coverage over my roof and I never had an air condition. You cut the tree down and my AC went up
twice, you know, just something. Okay. Well, the guy did come to us. No, we don't know anything about it. I don't like that. No, the guy did come to us and this is what we told him and this is the plan versus he really cut the trees down. Oh, okay. Well, let's take a look at it. can't leave.
Sure. So anyway, I'm sorry if I talked too much. No, no, no. Completely with you. We'll uh definitely work with you on that update ordinance. Thanks. I'm happy to work with you, too. Thank you. I'm honored that you guys let me get through it this way.
Is there there's no other new business on the agenda, does anybody have anything else prior to closing? Seeing that there's nothing else. I just actually I just have one small thing. Um I spoke to uh Jean Epipan. I don't know if you ever spoke to her, Frank. You
were gonna ask her if she could come and speak. She's the Morris count. I think it's she's the county ref from the I did. And no. Um well, I I spoke I spoke to her um and she said she would be willing to come and give a presentation to us at some point um if
we were interested. Uh she said she's backed up for quite a while, so we might want to we want to that it might not be until next year. So, um I just spoke to her and I just want to give an update that the canopy study I gave last time I said I would give you in color, but I'm trying to update some things based on
some of the questions you had Maryanne and also um Gina had some suggestions um about the you know thinking about kind of Chief Frank's talking about about what are the reasons for this loss that I thought would be good to include in there. So, it provides maybe a fuller picture. So, that's why I don't have it
done yet. I'm hoping to have it done by next time. spoke to her. She says she basically gives courses to two professional people who have want to get certified to be that's the way she maybe
that she told me she has a talk she has a talk that she's going around and giving to a lot of shy commissions and she asked if we'd be interested a year later so maybe you maybe you gave her the idea tough.
Well, thank you everyone. I move a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second. Thank you everyone. Thank you.