##VIDEO ID:SLnAdJCUIhI## February 3rdd one in already you put it in the place so you wouldn't forget it huh and and I also put him in in the order how sit you were and everything thank you thank you okay so we have to go back and okay never did okay so let's just start it all over again okay roll call Mrs roll call on what being here yeah pres okay Mr Jus pres Mr Lombardi pres Mr M pres and Mrs stcker present okay there a full moon out there infected me okay I have one question are we going to change our time of meeting we talked about that last year and then personally I think we should move at later because um the all the other or almost all the other committees me later and it's very difficult for people to get here at 5:30 if they work or have kids they have to pick up or something so that's my personal suggestion 7 or 7:30 I do have a 3:30 to me that seems um not in the spirit of an open meeting what that to me that seems like it's not in the spirit of an open meeting what do you mean it's not in the spirit of an openting most people work so they're not going to be able to be here so if you schedule at 3:30 in the afternoon that's effectively closing the meeting to anyone who has a 9-to-5 job South for you does 5:30 work uh everything works for me okay I will have a conflict on Monday nights later it will be not all the time but I have commitment so a 3:00 or a 3:30 work last year we talked about making the meeting at 3:30 and the only reason we changed it is because our leison asked us to and she worked until 5:30 so last year we were all in agreement M um do you think if media at 3:30 we won't have a public portion is that what you're saying yeah it's not about me I mean I can make it at 3:30 I can make it at 930 it's about trying to make sure that the meeting's open to the public and I feel like uh 5:30 is not a time that most people if they work until 5 o'clock and they get stuck in traffic they're not able to get here so to my mind there's a reason that most of the other meetings in the borrow are held later than 5:30 it's because they're trying to make sure that people who work have families whatever other obligations they have they can get here it might I don't think it's about being convenient for us I think it's about being accessible to the public it's just I'm just one vote that's my point of VI I know well I'll stick with 530 that's we have done after everybody read and everything okay okay can I have a motion to so I move to keep the resolution of the current meeting time of 5:30 on the will be the first Monday of every month okay and you okay all right and all in favor no okay so okay I'm gonna take a roll call Mrs Dy yes Mr Drea yes Mrs Lombardi Mr L yes m here no okay and Mrs M Mrs de yes okay all right so I'm going to open up discussion between us or up here for our uh 2025 uh budget excuse me just before you start the budget I spoke with Anna and the amount of money that we had left over for within the budget we decided to put that in Arbor Day so we have to include that in the budget so if you want $400 now according to Anna she has $22 and now record show 467 so we'll figure out how to get that corrected but um that has to be placed when you're doing the budget so whatever you're going to put into arbit you have to include um that money that 2674 the balance we had correct now the 400 for plant the tree for those people that has to go into planting a tree so what will happen is is that we have tree planting that has to go in there an additional in and I think it has to be Aster what it is you know we'll just put in Aster stating that we received the check okay for $400 and we're going to do that for planting the tree and also with the budget money that we're putting in off day so it would be additional money in both of those last year's budget was $400 for Arbor Day I believe it was yes going to cover the uh the uh lch that we give the kids well I believe it is I mean we always made it work so okay okay so what's the new Total then if we're adding the new Total that's where the problem comes in Anna has $220 and we have $267 well she can you and her can take care figure that just yeah okay so it would be 667 total for Arbor Day is that what yes or2 I just want to make sure because I I checked to see how much no no no you put in $400 she takes puts to 200 off of that 400 that's what happens so we're removing the 200 what's that to put it in the budget you put in $400 and part of that $400 is her amount of money the leftover money me okay yeah no that's not what's going to happen she's going to give you know Cameron you and her work that out we're going to decide what we want to put in there that's what's what's going to happen to it then camon all I know is is that that money is additional money that is not has anything to do with your budget technically yeah well we don't need additional money if if $400 is the number okay all right I was asking because according to my calculations $400 isn't the number I don't know how many students there are exactly at borrow but I estimated 250 no 210 okay so so we have and I don't know if the Arbor Day membership comes out of that so the Arbor Day membership is $125 so what was your new to next right membership is right next the next line well I just if it comes out of the that's says professional membership so I'm not sure if that is counted as Arbor Day or not but either way there needs to be some sort of an increase um if the the number it's $79 for 50 SE so if we're going with them again so we would need to buy $320 yeah so we have 79 so I'll call it 80 please yeah right and and five so I'll make a note for so I'm just trying to do the math as all prank to make sure that we have enough to cover it yeah I only put 500 I incre I had 525 but I mean I'm just just trying to make sure that we have we don't have to take it from somewhere else it depends if the membership is coming from that or from the line below I guess Rob if you want 525 I'll look over we see it doesn't matter to me as long as we can cover so you're basically saying 320 for the ceilings and $100 for the membership is going to be your direct cost from that from that from that account in case somebody asked me just just want to know I asked a lot of questions tonight this is my first time guys so just bear with me so we got we have 200 students there's 50 that's four plus we really have to say five right and then 80 * 5 is 400 so that gets us to the 400 and then 125 for the membership would be 525 okay on my mouth so what is the membership underneath what is professional membership and well that's for the AR day not arit day for your membership to join you join the Federation sh so we didn't join this year right last year no we didn't join okay so this year we're joining theit 15 I'm confused as to why we wouldn't we didn't join last year and would join this year because first of all there was a couple of things that happened even with ar day there was a course they haven't given us this7 50 that's that's still out there that we've said the purchase order I don't how many times and they haven't paid it okay all right now with that when we joined Federation they misplaced it when I sent it in oh so I said okay all right so it's it's only that they misplaced it which is why correct we're under budgeted so we're going to keep it at 250 okay well I have a comment there too but it's a large comment so so I don't know if this is the place to say it or not but I would suggest that we make that 900 and here's how I arrive at that number okay so according to my research $150 for municipal membership to the shade tree um Federation okay currently we are not accredited as a shade tree committee um that means that we lose our legal liability personally and for the borrow because we're not accredited with the state all right so I have longer notes I happy to talk about this um but in order to get accredited we have to take some classes there's core training which is $100 per person it's offered at the conference in the fall and in the spring and then we have to take um continuing ed units now I don't know if those are bundled in with a conference if we can do it more cheaply but when I looked on ruer site it was 550 dollars above you have to get eight continuing ed units they came in fives and they were 275 each if you feel early which we would try and do if we did this we would save a little bit of money but not a lot there so by my math that comes out to 900 so why does everybody have to get a creditor well for one thing the law was passed so that the burrow would be covered it's um I can give you my my note on it if you would like I'm just curious does everyone have to get CR or you know because we're going to have this budget problem right about when we run out of money towards the end of the year and if every little bit counts and I'm just trying to figure out I'm not saying I disagree with it I'm just trying to figure out does everybody have to be accredited or can it be a portion of it so that we have Oh you mean in in the group you mean yeah oh okay I thought you might have municipality no no so it's um two people have to take the core training which is $100 um and that's offered I think I said offered at the conference and there's an online one virtual one in the spring and then there's the continuing ed units those have to be um they're separate from the two two different people have to do them one person can't take all the continuing ed units um and they they're separated they are separate from the core training so you can't double count so you have to take the core training and you have to take additional continuing at units and so there's a certain number of trees that DPW works on for us every year does it have to be to members of shade or is it should it be also a person on DPW since they are being engaged with some of the tree it's required to be a person from the municipality I think it was um last time it was Lorie fo and uh John S and John S yeah Lor was a council woman and she was and it had a pares core train right and she was BL on to the sh right that's what I me and John if you want him to continue or someone else in his I would imagine I mean we could discuss but I guess in terms of the budget it seems like that's the minimum we would need in order to meet those obligations at least I could see so Rob instead of 250 you want to make it 900 yeah that's just the like like I said the the 150 for the membership and then 100 time two for the core training and then 275 time two and we might be able to get a little bit of that back back if people register early for the training you can save $40 a person or something it sounds reasonable we need it right can I just ask who would be volunteering from the sh Tre worry about that later let's get the budget done because it sounds like it wasn't even someone from sh tree last time yes it was just I'm talking about one of us yeah but she was LE on it wasn't a member of the shade tree correct because you had the Lloyd Williams and all the other members on the body right so they're saying that a shry member has I think it's technically the language says one volunteer and one Municipal person so there's probably some flexibility there but I have to look at the exact she was doing the whole Grant yes at that time so greatly missed okay so $900 $900 instead of 250 okay let's do what about Park maintenance we skip down there no we still have oh yeah Park maintenance the first one huh which one are you what sheet are you guys looking at the oh looking at this the at the budget the worksheet the budget worksheet yeah you did got I'm looking at this budget report we going to keep with $7,000 like we had last year you inrease it that seem to be adequate for Park maintenance I would keep that 64 20 so could what about membership or miscellaneous rather what is miscellaneous I mean I kept it at 150 sounds like it's just a parking lot something to fall back on right sounds like it's just because in 20 if you look at this 2023 it was what $48 36 yeah but 22 they went over yeah 202 so the 150 we could probably use for the 900 know okay so keep it at 150 okay got it emergency service 1300 same as it's been right along yeah that's and that's related to emergency service work for trees that go down is that correct just so I'm on the same emergency take down emergency takeown y removal and take down I put 25 2 what I did I I looked at the sheet that you give and you had um I have five I split it in half you had 30 so I did 15 of 505 and 15 at 795 and then 15 at 95 and 15 and 300 according to the the bit sheet I I think this is a big unknown I mean our Forester has indicated as did the fiveyear plan that we're going to be experiencing a lot of problems with the trees due to the drought that we just went through and also do the storms that were that happened a bunch of years ago where the trees are I I don't know that that little incal increase is going to be enough to cover it and if we're okay with that and just figure out that we might have to reallocate funds from another line I'm okay with it but otherwise I think you know I do I do think it needs to be bigger and with with that point being made I know we had never really done this deep root watering is that something that we should possibly consider for this year coming out of the drought that we had it depends uh I mean it's definitely helpful but DPW also does some water so that's where I'm saying it depends if something they can handle they do have a watering tank um so if it's something we can get with them and we can have them do it I think would help obviously save your budget deep make line item yeah in this budget sheet there's a deep watering for Z so we leave that as this Zer Z are we 5 that well I guess my comment about this is um that I'm fine with this for this round from reading and doing the research I did it seems to me that according to what it said in the 2014 plan and from my other research that we're really supposed to be going around in November December when there aren't after there aren't leaves on the trees and doing a like a risk assessment and then basing our budget on what the risk assessment says so you know we can't obviously we can't do that tonight so that's not going to happen but I think going forward you know we need to figure out what this process is because as an as side if people will indulge me I looked at the the budget on the municipal site and in the last 10 years our budget's gone up 18% it's doubled and in the 10 years previous to that it only went up 7% so the budget been going up really rapidly so I think that you know what what I saw from watching the council meeting is that there's a lot of money it's going up fast and they want to have some checks and balances and I think one way we could do that would be to start early in the fall preparing our budget based on the actual needs of what's going on so planning locations whatever the risks are now it's not going to Encompass everything obviously you can't do that or know everything but that seemed to me to be what we should be doing moving forward I think you have to do it continually I mean you can't wait if you got a dead tree you're going to wait till the ball take care of a dead tree I think you see things when you have spring comes whether a tree blossoms out or not or whether there's dead branches or not uh I think you have to take you can't wait till that comes down yeah you can take a look I think it's I think it's 12 months year uh working on it I think you have to be proactive not reactive and uh I think you should be doing it and I think that's way to plan is why did the budget go up so much well you had the air for you had another other disease you have trees that are 70 and 80 years old you had a lot of development in the 50s 60s those trees are gigantic trees now of them died so you're going to have that and I'm proud to say that I think the town is proactive that uh we don't have as the mayor just said very many times that the tree comes down and knocks out the power uh that you do in other towns that are neighbors to us so I I I I'm happy that that that we do it all the time I don't think it can just do it at one time well there's a risk assessment normally happens in the fall and then it would be our job part of our job to go out and do assessments monthly Assessments in whatever our you know section is so I didn't mean that we just looked one time a year and but but aren't there professionals that do the that plan was a result of a grant that was given that we we earned right and so we had third party came in and did that right including the risk assessment did all the the forecasting and all that kind of stuff we don't have that right that was a professional company that went out but we I think the Shad tree what we can do within the volunteer organization that we have is we all have districts right and we go out and look at our districts and make the best assessment of what we think I don't know that Rob we can get to where you are suggesting we be within the confines of what this committee is is doing and so if you're suggesting that we make a recommendation to the council to have a risk assessment done and maybe that's something that we do but I don't think that for me personally I don't think that fits within the confines of what our budget is I don't think we can carve that out within the budget that we have but that's just my opinion so I don't know if anybody feels you said November for the following year like we go out November for like 26 yes okay um in that grant that I read it said that they lost 100 to 200 trees because of the storms Sandy and previous storms so that's another thing we have to take in account how the budget went up you know well I just I I I hear what you're saying Maran and I feel like um you know it's going to have to be a process if we change the way we do things we're not going to be able to change it and expect it all to be on target I will say that um you know we don't have to reinvent the wheel there's like a lot of other places that are doing this exact same work that we're doing and I think that it would make sense to get some different models of what other municipalities are doing and look to see if there's a way in which we could have a better idea when we go into the year of what our budget needs are rather than you know dividing the budget up every month seems like that seems to what the best practi is so that's my opinion I know it's a little bit of a detour but it's relevant to the budget because you know when people call up and say my tree is is falling down you're going to say well we're going to do an assessment at the end of the year for you no we we try to take care of those things we do take care of I mean I don't think a citizen's going to wait 8 months for you to cut a cut a tree down that's dead that's not what I said Rob maybe it's a 2026 thing that we can look into as we go into the fall to give us enough time I'm I guess when I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you Mar no no I'm happy to vote for this budget as is right I'm saying next year I need to in order to feel comfortable comfortable voting for the budget I need to know that everyone on the committee or that we vote at least on the committee that we're going to try and at look at the budget process and think about how we can be more predictive than L just estimating because I think that's what my understanding of what best practice is and I think it would take away some of the tension with the council about the money that we're spending because we would then be able to say look we need this money because we went out and we looked and we have this tree and this tree and this tree and they're categorized according to the management plan this class this class this class as Frank said that's that's a risk that needs to come down so we need more money but when we're just when we don't have any data or any like granular information about what we're doing it's very difficult to make those decisions that's my opinion well I went through the numbers that we that Karen give every month like we had 62 memos so and then we had eight no work required seven the DPW took care of one Jersey Central took care of and three were Parks one was sewer and then we had 15 trees that we refer to now um and then I did the that's how I got 71 pruned 30 removed 22 fertilized and 14 stump removals that's how I came up with my numbers but so I think that makes sense because you have a reason reason for and I'm fine with that I just I wanted to get this out here since we're talking about the budget Y and Rob I could tell you this I could put out um an email to one of the councilmen in carony um to speak with him on this I know he had been the council a on to their shade Tre and he's going to put me in contact with their shade tree commission syy and I want to have a conversation with with their shade tree commission to understand what they do versus what we do and try to see if there's some best practices we could both um take from one another I think that's exactly right and if you need any help with that or you want me to go and talk to other people we can work together to figure out what I think foran is a good think to have the only one that is has has been Tree City USA longer than us by one year so what was what is the number we're going to put said 25 25 fine with me everybody's fine with that okay stump removal what's the story here well according to the report we did 14 stump removals and I guesstimated at 375 and that comes out 250 so I just put 7,000 in well we did last year 6,995 so think that's right on to deep root watering yeah we decided to leave that at to zero because we're hoping that what we could do is use DPW to you know spot water as so that some people from shry don't have to go with buckets from the creek and that's why you're the chair spring spring this I would I would say $1,000 and why do I say that we have trees at wlong Park that needed okay we can't do just one tree there you have to do a number so spraying different than fertilization yes so spraying is different than fertilization correct okay this is for the what is it rust needle cast disease on the on the spruce trees over wat we had an issue with last year does this take into account the um the Red Lantern thing for that that is not for the lantern flood this is for a different treat I say sounds very low yeah that's the other disease you can't side I mean that plan never figured ashb fly or there was a lantern fly Grant last time that I have a thousand I mean I just I you put a thousand too these on I don't I'm not Sor from Frank I just put 100 but Frank is absolutely right I agree with him i' forgotten about the trees absolutely I'm worried we're going to lose them the drought and then the cicas are coming back okay new planting by the way what's the story Rob with the new planting supposed to do on the PO what happened looking at me for it you like planting I mean I went around and talked to everybody they were should have been planted I didn't have a chance to planted they were planted late I guess if they were planted yeah you just signed tonight this is what she signed and I here yeah I I just when did they plant they planted them the second week of December after leave one was supposed to be at at Windwood I don't see at pled I'll check with them but they yeah yeah they were pled but I'll check pleas right I put 8,000 iead fine we planting well now I got another big uh excurses here so uh I'm not sure exactly about these numbers so I want to say that in advance that but I did a little bit of research I was I was trying to about our tree loss so according to my math which does not comport with the numbers in the budget so I'm not quite sure because the the the numbers over the last two year or three years in the budget seem to indicate we planted a few more trees but I went back through the minutes so um I have to talk to Karen to get the more specific numbers but the point is that I think in the last two years since I've been on the commission we removed 50 trees um I came up with 28 from the minutes but there may be more than that 30 30 I mean I I you have 30 you have 30 the memos yeah okay so we're so we're at a loss there and then if you go back um you know when I was looking at the minutes one of the meetings I was originally at Jim Davidson said that no trees have been planted since 2017 uh which seems to that's an incorrect statement I mean can I finish and then I'm happy to let you comment bring so the the uh the budget seems to indicate the same thing in terms of the planning being at zero for 2021 so that there is not no money spent there or 660 so by my my estimate we uh removed more than 60 trees since 2017 um and we only planted these 30 now like I said the numbers may be a little bit off but the 260 also some of them were line items and it was hard to tell maybe there was more than one tree in the Parks and things like this we did get a grant to plant 408 trees which the um plan mentions in 2013 partially it seemed like to offset the loss of the 200 trees in 2011 um and during Sandy sand so I guess my point is that we are cutting down however you want to slice the math there because obviously we could keep going back to figure out when trees were planted and lost we don't have the data which I think is a problem but uh we are cutting down more trees than we are planting so I think we need to again think about that a little bit and in order to do that we need to figure out where are the locations that possible planning locations I completely agree with you because I know ran into the problem in the past where a homeowner calls and wants the tree removed and when we send the letter back out to say hey do you want a new tree they say no right so then I guess then it really is up to us to start locating areas that we should just start planting additional trees in I think that maybe one of the things we could have as a goal this for this year is to do like a planting survey where we each take an r r section quad section or whatever and we go around maybe we have a map and we make we make some notes about where there might be possible areas to plant but it's more than just that you cut down a tree when there's a tree right next to it you don't plant another tree there I mean I know I went around and and have been locating places in places not every tree that's been cut down needs to be replaced because there's other trees there and a number of homeowners don't want trees but those numbers uh I don't know those are numbers um I I think this year we cut down about 30 trees we said yeah removed yes remove I also think some of the areas where we remove trees I do recall specifically they are not appropriate for replanting right we had that issue of the space the four feet side areas where we know we can't replant trees even if someone wants it there we can't replant in C some of those areas and we haven't replanted in parks where parks where the trees have come down right and we know there's been a significant amount of trees that we put down in the park areas that we haven't necessarily replanted in so I guess I'm partially um I agree in concept but I don't I don't know how much that's going to help right because we can identify all the spots we want but our position has always been the homeowner has the if if it's in a residential area the homeowner has the right of refusal and we know that I don't know what the percentage is but it's fairly high it was at least 60% I think of people who were refusing trees when they were offered to be you know replanted so I don't know I don't know how much success we're going to have and all that even if we do identify these great areas because we would all love to see great canopies and all that kind of stuff but I just don't know how much success we're going to have I'm not saying we shouldn't do it I'm just saying I'm just not so sure how successful it's going to be what percentage it's going to raise the goal is to plant trees though but if people don't want them yeah they don't want so we take our section and I would say by like the March meeting to Rob's Point let's go through our our districts again right and come up with at least we say five to 10 spots that we we could think about planting in each area yeah I mean sure I I was thinking more comprehensive but I think that' probably less work for everybody to do it like that and least if we all come up with five or 10 I don't think we're going to have the budget to plan all those this year anyway they might all accept as I mean as part of the as part of the as part of the community forage Force management plan we're supposed to have a tree inventory now which changed right so I think in that tree inventory there may also be planting stuff um there so the $8,000 would get you 20 trees okay we didn't plant 20 trees this year we try and we may not be able to but I think we should go out and try and identify spots so that we can you know we're supposed to be trying for no net loss so we're way behind the number on that we are and the map the section's going to be the same right Karen okay so between so then to between the five of us if we all figure out five to 10 spots it'll probably narrow by the time we figure those spots out and talk to homeowners and things I think a goal of 20 trees to get to that $8,000 is something that we could probably get to yeah I mean I guess I just what was it last year we were at 11 11 I hate to see it being reduced you no I did I redu it we did more than 11 trees no $11,000 so then so then I say we hold it as is and really try with our March goal in mind of each trying to identify five to 10 locations in our lotted areas to try to we'll hold it at 11,000 and just try to get as aggressive as possible to plant between 20 and 30 trees this year my question is we want us to talk with folks as well just identify no just identify locations as a start like don't ring the doorbell everyone no I'll leave that for Rob no if once we identify locations then we could take it because it'll would need a letter from the town no okay so just as long as we're talking about it um as an aside I noticed that you know we had talked to some when that uh Maran the the median or planting curb strip came up I noticed that in the back of this plan in the I think it was this one there was an appendix where there was a list of what the boro's policy is about where trees should be planted so so we all need to familiarize ourselves with that before we go and look because that goes to Frank's point about well we don't want to plant next to another tree a certain distance from you know it's um page C it's appendix c um so there's distances there and things like this so you know just an open space is not enough we need to make sure it fits with this so that may limit us some too okay yeah there's a whole there's a whole bunch of streets that are going to be impa yeah absolutely pruning and oh the spotted R for the program Grant is zero right the council took that Grant I guess they're handling that so move on and take that out of there and go incling in cable well again I just went through we did 71 trees and I just did 35 and 36 to make it so I came up with what did I come up with 40 40 65 but I rounded it off to 55 51000 I did 50,000 55 55 but is that okay with everyone that's in line when we submit these C do we need to submit a justification for our lines like the kind of well that would my my job they ask they asking but the council can always you know call you guys up I'll try to tell them what you guys speaking about a lot of work going through I can imagine I got a little catchup to do too so storm Dage storm damage might as well leave it as it is right I'm okay with that I'm all right with that okay cash treat treatment that we're proud of that that's done fertilization the only tree I found that we fertilized was um the Pearl law tree we did some of the PA trees well I think it came up to $840 the problem was at the end of the year he usually does trees that were planted during the year and we didn't have any money to do it okay so we could keep it at 3,000 we spent 3,70 but think 3,000 is up Dave I would suggest if you can to go a little higher because like we talked about last fall about this year with the drought you're can to have a lot of issues of Stu um and again we want to try to preserve what we can so if there is room in the budget I would suggest to increase it to what recommendations what do you want to doks at $370 actual spend so if you could go up to like about 45 or so I would say 45 you say yeah okay that's it yeah we did tree and is there are there just so we could give Sal the notes are there are there specific trees that you're thinking of that are going to need that or just you know wat I don't mean like this tree or that tree but I mean like a band of trees or the ones that wat or something yeah I think wat we have issues with I mean the pear trees are an ongoing issue so the pear trees and the trees at wat parkl wall tree Pearl right it's okay we hope the council is okay with the budget my guess is we this field inspection item here is the does anyone know what that is or is that the risk assessment is that what that is that field inspection that's my guess is that that's what this was put in for originally was for cuz we wouldn't be getting paid to do a field inspection no I believe that's was it's for because I know I think when she did the L had to the grant they called in an outside for her to to do a risk assessment so I believe that's what that right fee was for okay so if we're going to do that in the fall I don't know how much it would even would even be because I I didn't have time to do that research but Dave do you have an idea what we did in this budget if the council approves all this I would be the person going because I don't I I feel that U you know they're going to look through it and and say well we can't afford all this I hope they don't but uh uh I agree with you my um my thought is that one of the things that was specifically mentioned and agreed with by a number of people on the council was the the having some sort of outside person come in order to do this kind of field inspection work but but basically that is what our Forester is he has what what would you just go over your credentials a little bit so everybody make sure that everybody knows sure um I I'm New Jersey state licensed tree expert U Isa certified AR um have a degree in horiculture from University Massachusetts uh my partner my is my vice president um he also has the same accreditations um he has a degree from delor Valley University a four-year Horticultural degree as well both have been in the practice probably for over over 3035 years in business together um additional we have Isa certified Arbors on our staff um like in addition to that we do continue education through brge University um andan think in the last month taken about four or five different classes through Ruckers one was a shade tree management course uh in December um for that and then addition of members of the tcia free care industry Isa International Society of articulture uh landscape contract Association the Jersey Society of Tree Experts um I'm trying to think there's probably a few more other things but we're pretty much members are accredited in for every aspect of the field and not to mention we've been in business for over 50 years um from there um there is outside people that all they do is consult um consultations which most of them have the same accreditations um I could even recommend some people that are great guys um they could do various studies what I do is generally when I drive around it's called a windshield survey and that's something they they could do for you as well or you could get into putting a whole program together you could spend I don't even know where you would end up hundreds of thousands probably where they can go out out to every tree in town they can label it they can measure it they can GPS satellite it um which is great to have on records at the end of the day it's not helping us plant trees it's not helping remove trees um but it looks great on paper I mean they can put together a stack of every tree um and again it's it's a great tool um I think for a small town like this I think there's a balance um between what I do what you guys do and you know possibly yeah there's you know want to bring somebody El additional um and again I could recommend some people if you like yeah I mean so my my thought is and I think this has been made clear a number of times like it has absolutely nothing to do with da no no or Greenwood no one has no one has ever said that there's that he's not qualified or whatever the issue is the conflict of interest of having someone do the assessment that is who then getting the business from doing assessment that's what the issue is but then that's what it's up to us to go and review each of the memos that's submitted and I understand that we might not be you know the subject matter expert for tree removal but we have to take the recommendation recommendation of a the Forester and we have to take into consideration what the homeowner is asking of the town and that's the biggest thing and that's I feel like that's what we do um more than that I don't what else we could really do without spending additional funds to now hire additional outside services to come in um s did you have any thoughts on do we you think we need to look into bringing additional outside sources well I'm just starting right now um you're asking me a big question um I think the the the trees and Mar Plains are better than any town that I know around here guys are doing a great job um and you guys had some hurdles but the ash the ashb and the Red Lantern fly and we're still blooming down our Boulevard and and everywhere um you know you're you're getting into a legal thing with conflict of interest I don't know if I'm really qualified to say anything but I know he's been serving on the board for how many years now Dave and you're dad before that right or correct yeah so I mean it's probably on and off I would say probably 20 30 years between the two of us um but also remind you that this also goes out to bid so we get the job because we're the lowest bidder um and that's the end of the day so yeah do we make money off it yeah honestly it's not great money and I'm not sitting here complaining about that but I do it because yeah I love the town I love the trees but we're also in town every day so we can be here John calls me up 8: a I got a glmb usually by 10 o'clock I'm there I'm we're dressing it we take care of it um so we work well together so it's it's a good real good Community Field and at the end of the day it's more than me coming here and just collecting the paycheck and um you know I really care what goes on and I'm going to give you my honest opinion whether you guys like it or not but I think you know the tree needs to be assessed and it's dead it's diseased you know but if it doesn't I'm going to say no let's save it let's treat it um you know one for the town one for my professional license as well and um I appreciate everybody's opportunity to work with you guys and anything I can do to help change things moving forward let me know and um I'm pretty colle and open I would like to see before this committee commission allocates any money towards a re a risk assessment that we educate s about the checks and balances that are already in place and how we make decisions about the trees and then get his thoughts and feedback on whether or not that's adequate or whether or not there's something else that we need to put in place to help address that if there's a perception that's that's a perception that we address or to just you know make sure it all Bo I'm a contractor I work in workpl I'm also in the counsel if the U Pharmacy gets elected to the council do you have to close his Pharmacy or can you still operate that a little great it's really a trust position that whoever has an official position you know is is honest and deals with our hard you know look at the track record you guys know best on that and we have checks and B fure we all think that's that's fair then again this committee when we get a memo there's not one of us that come to a meeting without going by that tree I mean we take pictures on our phone I don't know what I'm taking pictures of but I I book at the tree and I I think that's okay I think that we're all good that way yeah that's part of theck I think I think it's worth of conversation on the committee to see if we feel we have enough checks and balances in place and we can communicate what those are and then we can take it from there and and Rob if we need to you know in the second half of the year if we figure out hey you think we we need a little bit more you need maybe there's new trees that need a lot of attention and we have that money in the budget and we could do it without you know trying to figure out where we're going to take the money from I don't think that's fair very yeah I mean I think you know it's an award ation to have and I'm certainly not um accusing Dave of doing anything and um I think that one thing that would really help is if the there was a process in place to document from on Dave's on Dave's end or our end two days however you want to look at it you know what is being taken down what the reason for it is being taken down so that we have people have more of an idea because you know the tree is the tree so if Dave goes out there presumably he's a qualified harbers if another they're look at the thing more or less and make the same judgment call so if we had some you know um I think that the the slippery slope is for for that is you know if we just put all of our faith in Dave saying well it's going to come down and we don't have some sort of documentation this is one of the reasons I've been saying for the last year a second opinion you make no we're just him documenting like hey you know this here's a picture of this it has this you know it's a and then we have levels here in the back of our plan about um you know what sort of risk things are that's a that's a level two risk and then I think this was sort of where the some of the issues came up at the end of last year when we were talking about prioritization is is this sort of work on there and then it would allow for um people to see more transparently why the decisions were being made that are being made that's more work for Dave probably more work for Karen probably more work for us but I think it would be the right thing to do in terms of documenting what we're doing and it would also have the added benefit of allowing us to have better records in terms of budgeting and best practices and other things so would the memo with a picture attached to it Su place I I don't know whenever there is something brought here I make sure that I go out and look at it to see uh I have an opinion is this a dead tree yeah I can tell a dead tree I can tell dead limbs and I don't vote on anything until I see it and I make sure I do it that's part of our job I think uh it's it's a counterbalance it's a checks and balances and that's what we should do I mean if we have the memo already and you're saying more documentation why not attach a picture a picture to the memo I'm open to I mean I'm not here to prescribe a like a process I'm just trying to say I'm trying to legitimately openly honestly think about what the sticking point is the sticking point is that everything resides in the in in Dave and there's nothing external that people can look at right and that makes people feel like hey well I don't really know I work with Dave so I know that he often comes in here and says we don't need to cut this down and we all know that but I think we need to document the process the other thing is I feel like um the the uh classifications would help us to better do better better job of budgeting so that we could say you know for example I went and looked at the Deadwood row that you told me about over um the playground over at community park right which one by the sandbox yeah that one right so I mean you know I feel like I need to educate myself better I look at up and I look at it and I say okay it looks like that's dead and it might fall especially it's over the sandbox seems like a big risk for me one of the purposes of the continuing education credits and the course that I hope to attend from the money here I'll pay for out of my own pocket is a risk assessment course at Ruckers that will help us to you know we won't be experts in it but it will help us have a better idea of what we're looking at so I think that you know along with the budgeting the education goes hand inand so that we can be we can have more of a check I think the problem has been that it's not documented and we are not educated collectively other than that's dead or that looks so I think you know both of those things together would go some way in giving more transparency and more accountability in the process do you want to change the memo format I don't know on the spot I would have to think about it but maybe I mean maybe we would have to I mean we we have date and the Forester recommendation and the size of the tree and the size of the stump the only thing we can do is maybe put the price on it and this way we can do better on the budget I mean I just guesstimate it and I would say to to maran's point maybe we putting a picture of everything on the memos so then if we have to go back to something we can go back to a photo and at least have a cross reference that easier so when I take a picture from my phone I'm going to print it at home or am I going to come to town well I know I'm talking a lot tonight but I have a lot to say so apologies for keep there is software that um could allow us to do this but but some of it is probably more expensive than we want to spend I'm still investigating to see what other options there might be where you could have a tree you could just tag it and you could upload it and then it would be part of our you know connected to our inventory and we could know then okay when was this pred um you know okay when was it when was itot water when was it sprayed whatever and I think having that sort of data I mean I I hear what they've saying we don't need to have data just for data sake but I think a little bit more um recordkeeping as to the particular trees would help us to you know make more educated decisions about what we're doing so I would be happy if it's not inappropriate to talk to Mike about this at a later date maybe we could talk to the people in parsipany or other people that we want to talk to and see okay what are they doing what does it look like how are you know what kind of what's the equ of a memo for them and sort of work together to figure something I say we table it then until we investigate further how some of the other towns are doing we're sending the budget in though right yes today is the last day okay so let's go back I'm still on field inspection we're putting zero until another time well I mean I think what Frank's saying is that we've already asked for more than he thinks that we're likely to get so so if we do need a field inspection we'll have to figure that out I mean this came out to $12,000 $1,375 if I did the math right I had 1186 so we only went up a couple more right 121 12,375 if I did my math so from 96 what did we have last year6 not bad yeah now is someone gonna go and talk to Anna with this budget or Ken you're going to type in the numbers the counil I have no problem I'll it increased 23,000 right 236 23675 and we have notification why right I think yeah we need to have that documented when we go and bring the budget I think s will tell us what we need what he needs well the budget is in March so but we need the numbers of course earlier I don't have problem but typically like in W Recreation car they draw up the notes of what the rec commission did and send them to Tracy to our finance office it's you know then if they have questions they'll call probably at first they'll call Michael and some else in a board depending the questions they have then again in March when it comes up in front of the budget time we'll be calling you the 20 20 20 25% increase we call not the word I'm please don't right so Mr D you'll go I'll go talk to Anna but you know a lot of these things are nice and they sound nice and we're going to do this but you know you have to cut the trees you have to prun the trees you have to plant the trees just look at this budget here it's up over 20% if I'm a council person I'm not so thrilled about that I just tell you that from my experience so um just give you Mr chairman if I can ask one question so in an emergency situation you know chant calls up Dave there a tree down blocking XYZ at that point we have a backup plane going to go in there tnm whatever it is take the tree make it open for the public it's not scenario a tree is leaning on one of our courts basketball courts it's moving at that time you guys take a picture of what you're saying and you talk about it or what would the protocol be in that situation with the new protocol I should say right so the new protocol if if we're alerted by it or we happen to see it it would be that we'll we'll call in for a memo we'll send a picture in and then Dave as the Forester will go to take a look and make a recommendation on that at that point he would provide a price correct and if it's below we have to get like two or three estimates or he just does it or what's typical no he already has his he has his so much per manow eacher all that so you already have that information okay so it' be on tnm basis based on the prices he submitted and we're with no surprises okay thank you I didn't know so I just had ask obviously if it's an emergency then you know different situation want to get hurt we ready memos in or are we done with the budget we're done theet and we're going to do a memo why it went up and everything's here he'll be a unless you want to do a mbody want to do a so one of the things that I'll just ask I know we kind of you know have been trying to figure out what you know we have G do versus what we can have ppw do um s if if I could ask you is it possible for you to reach out to John to see if he's available to come in to our next meeting sure I I can just tell you right now you know you know we can bring John in and and I'm sure he'll be happy but okay uh about three weeks ago I got a phone call and my neighbors the same thing and a text message tree down on Johnson Road hits the wires okay Boom the it's it's night time the Jersey Central goes out they take care of the tree it was from our property there uh and uh they put the fix the wires cut the stuff up and cleaned up but the next morning John's out there okay nobody knows these things it gets done he's out there cleaning up the residue you saw a tree here it's windy a tree come down on wat on Park John the road guys are out there cleaning up the tree on wat on Park I mean they do a lot of things and uh I don't you want to document all those things uh we can I guess you can but a lot of stuff happens that uh I guess it's it just happens and nobody makes a big deal that's part of the job I guess I don't know I'm I'm saying this more in preparation because obviously we are requesting a much larger budget if we do get push back from that budget kind of preparing ourselves to make kind of a contingency plan to see what outside of what just Dave and team can cut what we could possibly lean on DPW to do a little bit more of just as a contingency plan if we don't budget that we need well I don't know how much more you can lean on them uh uh everyone wants to lean on the road department because it doesn't matter what happens in the burrow oh the road department can do it that's the phrase well they can only do so much Mike sorry uh I understand where you're trying to get at and and I I don't think either one of us whether myself or John could give you an answer just because it's a caseby casee basis okay um when we get to my m there's a few that came up and I reached out to John I said John take a look at these trees give me your feedback and he'll let me know yeah I think my crew can do it know it's unsafe for us we can't do it it's above our needs or we'll work you know sometimes he'll clean up what's on the ground I'll take the rest down or B you know he'll take it down I have to grind the stump um so a lot of the stuff that I I kind of know what John's crew is capable of I'll reach out to him get his opinion he'll get back to me and then I'll bring it to you on my memo okay um but unfortunately as far as I understand you're saying saying okay DPW John come in here can you do $225,000 worth of work for shade tree I don't think any any of us will know that answer um because most of our stuff is Case by case I think the council would want to know what DPW does we know what DPW does at the sports at the baseball fields Parks pool they are stretched are so lucky we are so lucky that's right not that many dpws even get involved with the trees that just s okay a lot of towns that I know of they do the sewers they have a separate Sewer Department that's big every town has their own pool four people working for the pools separately from uh the DPW workers they're just dedicated for the pool oras our guys do even the mechanical side of it with the pumps and the filters and breaking the pipes fixing them um we're blessed that's what you want to know and we do know what they're doing from our reports and U you know Frank's been here a lot longer than I have they're they're they're stretched and everybody relies on them everybody has their hands out and the more we're going forward I can tell you like the coaches and people in the pool and everything else everyone wants more you know a long time you had a fight to be a coach you had a fight to fix a field we can't beg them to come and pick up a rake times have changed and that puts you bur under DPW do we have extra people do we H people during summertime to help out yes we've got out of it we've been successful and again for Plains is always known to to do that but um they do a lot I think there was an assumption that was made in the council meeting that the sh tree hasn't leveraged DPW to do some of the work I think that's where I don't want to put words in your mouth but I that's why I made the recommendation and this point that I was making that we kind of took it as we weren't them enough yeah and I don't I just want that's why I had asked you keep John to come in to talk but if it's a case by casee basis listen I'm not looking for DPW handouts and I don't want to stretch anyone more than they're already stretched so we're not looking yeah and and Dave made it very clear I mean he's got the experience of so as John John there's something you can't do can do there something you can't do and I think they'll come to a a mutual agreement quickly because there's electrical wire there or something like that yeah complet I don't even know how far we sure to do certain things I do not think last year that we did not utilize DPW I think we utilized DPW where we could and the conversations that Dave has with DPW and DPW could do some things and they were they said some things we can't do and I so I think I think that is part of our process where we do engage with DPW where we can um I just I think it's important to get that on the record that that is part of the process that we did happy to hear that yeah and I think you have to like you said I think we all know but the liability issue of someone unqualified being forced into an issue whereas John tells his guy hey go down there to Glenbrook take care of that tree the guy's like all right John said to do it and like you said we had wires we have cars with have pedestrians or gu somebody gets hurt um I seen it happen not in town but I've seen it happen on golf courses before where they winner crew what do they do the guys are slow the ball sends them out go cut trees and I've had several incidents of horses that I've worked on I've heard of where people have been seriously injured from taking treeses down are not qualified no concept of what they're doing just because they're on the payroll and everybody says Hey use them instead of going to an outside vendor um or they look like those jcpnl trims right couple streets that are just with the hole in the middle they're horrible but I think there is definitely there's definitely a time and a place for both of us to work together whereas you know I think we can be intelligent enough and financially responsible uh which makes sense or let us do or get it on the ground maybe John's team can clean it up let us do the high risk St um so I think there's definitely good balance and I appreciate that thank you to uh your Foresters report then by the way did anybody double check the number I gave for the budget number do that is that right no check that someone else make what don't we do with the MOs first is that the communications we the only communication that we have would that wrote the but uh I think we have to go back to the Amo that was written in 2024 December 11 24 what 2463 okay oh that way that was the original yeah actually if we can go back a little further to 2462 um that was 35 M par that's a tree in the park on JM way I'm car looking confused I don't everything taken of except 2463 that's what I have in my folder so what tree are you talking Mr honey honey what was his name honey Shake honey cake honey honey honey honey he talked about the lot the park on Jane way place and I said I would go and see him and asked because he might want a tree on F of malapart it was 34 wasn't it number 34 uh and he doesn't want a tree in front but he did talk about the number of trees have been cut uh behind his house on this lot of Jan way and you would like some trees planted there so I'm just going to throw this suggestion out to everybody it seems to me we just have got $400 to plant two trees and I think this would be a great place to plant those two trees and if you all agree just mark down that I already got two trees to plant okay you know uh what kind of trees well Dave what do you recommend what kind of tre kind of no I think if if you're going to do in the open space I would definitely like to see a maple or an oak in those areas because we haven't been able to put those in town a lot with the restrictions with the sidewalks in front of the houses so that's a perfect area I think um I think so a couple Oaks would be great to be H fill that area excuse me is this in the Jan Park corre okay so that's where it is it's on the work the it is on the worksheet to revisit okay I do see okay all right and there supposed to be but there's a tree here that we work on yes now looking it is on the worksheet it is on the worksheet yeah so it was a recommendation to prune that tree there's that one maple tree that died back in there so right that should but this was all discussed at the last meeting and was placed on a worksheet so this is the worksheet and we have the memos okay so I don't know which one you want to do first we address the I guess it was the planting of that I think that was what was left open so J what what how much is that tree there for Janu uh J way that's a 24 to 36 in tree to be pruned and the cost on that according to our sheet this is Park maintenance and it's done by priority so this by priority and it's all listed yeah that's a low priority that's a low priority so I I'm a little confused of where this is falling okay no I was just because we never addressed the trees that have be planted no wait a minute let me just go back to that the priority was the for the parks Jane way was an extra okay but it's down this is okay I know where it is it's an extra and if you look at that tree which has woodpecker holes in it's so bad and there was a limb laying there already which the road guys picked up okay I mean so we're pruning that I hope so now my other question will go this is the park where this tree I guess we're going to be doing the parks okay so I put this in park cor okay and it's 24 36 that is correct memo 2463 that was from December 11th that was 168 Mountain Way um this is DPW I put a call on John he's going to get back to me but I believe he can take care of this tree um and the only thing that would be remaining would be for us to grind the stump out so it would be a 0 to 12 in stump at $105 25012 School Drive um John from DPW did look at this tree he can take care of it for us we would have to take care of stump grinding so it would be a 12 to 24 in stump plus is 265 2502 45 Locust Drive uh this is community park that backs up to Handover Township she had called last year about this tree John had sent me over um and I spoke to her I told her to call in to create a memo which I mean it was months later um but she called in finally about the tree that should come down the tree is dying it sits in kind of a low wet area back there so it should be removed it's a 24 to 36 in removal at $830 um there's no stump grinding on that that's main uh yes because it does back up the community park how much it uh $830 that was all I had for the memos three MOS correct two St GRS REM and what about the work sheet that we going some of those trees that we put off um in December yeah actually November like first of all the work that Dave just spoke about did it come to 12200 1173 what do you have 1173 I had 2 105 and 803 83 83 yep 1200 so we need to approve the three members correct separate together okay so we can just hold it into one thing okay so then we'll go through the worksheet as old business well uh the parallel tree obviously that's going to be Springtime fertilizing so that's going to stay on the worksheet we have 11 Bryce um in the cue there it's a big Oak to prun a lot of Deadwood I suggest I would say it's kind of a medium high priority where it's located ten ten Court Road um it's opposite ten court it's going into the little park there in court there's a gorgeous oak tree there it has a ton of Deadwood in it um with people pulling in there sitting and walking by there I I that's a high priority I feel and should be addressed 51 Davenport I know we had on since the fall um that is to me is a is a lower priority um there's not a lot of traffic most of this hangs over the wood line there a little bit I think that's a low priority 154 drive that was Deadwood that hangs over the street and the driveway um I would say that's a medium to high priority going to 25 Harrison Avenue we're going to circle back in spring with her U that's some trees that backed up to the Green Space you guys remember okay and 30 30 Laurel Street we want to wait for the spring um to see it's one of the ash trees it was dying back but I want to wait to see if it's completely dead or if we can buy some time maybe get a couple more years out of it from there and then going and then we have three Winwood Road um same thing it's a very mature oh probably I would say it's probably 80 90 years older minimal um but there's a good amount of dead wi that should be bured out for safety so that's immediate to high risk on there so then we have a couple weight for the spring couple lower uh priorities so I say that we should probably address what is considered medium to high to high priority today so that's um 10 Court Road 11 Bryce Court and 15 for drive and three wind can I just ask in terms of you sorry uh in terms of prioritization Are We separating the prioritization of Park maintenance and non-park maintenance because there's you know there's a priorization that we made when we requested additional funds at the end of the year for Park maintenance in the past we haven't really to my understanding we haven't separated those out in terms of priority I don't know I just it's an honest open question how are we viewing that you know in terms of the priority lists I think and I what however anyone feels on this I was just going to go sheet by sheet and just do sheet by sheet so we were just doing this the this worksheet going through which one's priority here and then I was going to go through this one for because I know I definitely want to address at least the top three yeah yeah because I think they need to be especially the top one yeah okay all right so let's do the top three then that's so there's High at 68 and the medium high priorities are at 184 right which comes out to 2520 yes yep that's what I have okay and then now we're going to look at the the sheet that we have called Park maintenance and this is to to your point of this is what we kind of did in nov remember ranking everything that we need to take a look at um I would think at least for right now from a usage standpoint we can move forward and remove uh the trees problem trees one two and three the three the top three on here because some of these other ones are kind of on the lower end of the priority that we can continue to monitor so this first one is one two three four trees is that right correct to me that's the highest Priority One we have which is the trees around the sandbox at Community Park I was over there yesterday looking yeah that is something to consider when we're thinking about planning I don't know how you plan on really plant under there but the same they were kind of all timing out at the same time it looks like right they trying to plant under the same no I'm saying we wanted like those trees are kind of it seems like they're all kind of reaching the end of their you know like Frank said they're planted and now they're kind of aging out at the same time we don't want to end up in a situation where all of a sudden because that's such a nice area over there and the shade is I me it's yeah anyway that's just an aside but yeah absolutely so can we just um so these are all these are all removals then correct um or prunes the prun uh Community Park the first one is pruning by the sandbox area and the horseshoe pits um those are all prun there's total four prunes there okay um and then the priority two was that watn Park um we had we had the two dead trees there one behind the playground the other one closer to Sun Valley and just just so that we could go through it what the 36 plus is how much uh that's $700 okay so there's 136 Plus at 700 and then there's three 24 to 36 in at 600 okay and that's 2500 total that's on last year's contract all of these that we did on last year's contract on this have all the prices that's so what adjusted so it has to be adjusted so it's going to be like 11 prices $20 okay you know you want to give us the prices so is 600 right yeah so 11 11 Bryce is 600 okay T Port is 700 15 Forest is 600 and three Winwood is 700 so that's an additional 2040 68 2600 yep on top of the 25 right that that go no instead okay it's just 26 total with the $20 increase in okay4 that is 520 and then 24 36 830 that bring us to 1350 for wat on part and then um number three thonis Pond Sign trail Pond that would be 2436 and that's $83 for that and do you know for our our number four on there um do you know if DPW has removed any of the smaller trees I believe they have not okay um I don't think I spoke to them about this okay because I know this has been gone going the PO okay yeah if you don't mind bringing that up yeah I could definitely look to John and meet him over there and see what he can get done and then and then we could readdress after um after you have that discussion three things of work then okay so those three things for maintenance would be 4680 Y and you also have the one at the bottom which is another 600 the Gan way tree right okay yeah that prune 24 to 36 is 600 that's correct okay that's 5280 so of 52 5,280 is being used of 7,000 say that again well here in park maintenance we have a figure for the budget of 7,000 so we've used 5,280 correct am I correct y wait till you get to the other two oh boy okay so then right now with moving forward we have everything that we're addressing this evening going back through our Park maintenance worksheet the worksheet that we had basing things on prioritization uh we would need 9,080 right tonight that's correct to move9 move that second Michael number five we're not going the roadway from the basetball court h no not this month we're going to hold off yeah we only did one two and three two and then the Jane way par yeah so before we move to adjourn on any of the new business I just want to read just some of the things that we want to you know I know there was some kind of talk from the council and things on how we want to how we need to do things but I just want to go over some of the goals and objectives that we're wanting to stick to for the shade tree to represent the community uh the best we can so we want to adhere to any residents concerns because these memos that we received are from the town's member that call in um whether the tree's dead or there's Limbs and things so that's our number one priority is addressing the resident concerns and then we as always to properly remove any dead trees disease trees and our big Focus moving forward and this is something that Rob and I started talking about uh since last year we want to bring back the native species of trees into the community one of the things that we're kind of always up against is the location on where to plant and the type of trees that people want we need to really drive the point home with the residents that we want to use native species we understand that the little trees that flower in the spring are pretty and things like that but it's not a tree that was native to this area and while we understand that some of those larger trees do you know quote unquote scare them for other issues further down the line we will will ensure that we are on top of these trees um so one of the other things that we're very proud to be a part of is is Arbor Day um and this is going to continue it's a program that we do at Mountain Way school we talked about it earlier in in our budget where we order seedlings for all the students at the school uh so each student can take out um and have a Seedling and planted at at their home um one of the things that we addressed tonight is our continued work between our Forester Dave and Dave mentioned all of his qualifications that he has and continuing to work with him as closely and bestly as we can and how he stated that he is working as closely and bestly as he can with John from DPW and then in closing just plant as many trees as we can this year and this is something that we discussed where we're each going to come back with about five to 10 locations and where to replant trees um by come for our March meeting because the best time to put them in will be in that April time period uh anyone else have any new business to discuss I just want to say that I did go down to the league of municipalities uh meeting and uh I did attend uh this program boosting the benefits of your Municipal tree canopy um there was uh I would say 15 to 20 attendees not that many uh the mayor of Hoboken was the moderator they had a forest ranger a a person from the New Jersey tree Foundation a licensed tree expert and a researcher um and they they talked about different uh things I I thought it was more geared to more urban places uh than than really planes and they talked about similar problems that we have uh the space between the curve and the sidewalk not big enough uh try to go the other way uh problems with wires and things like that so uh but it it was informative a little bit um of course uh they're feeling and I think we feel the same way uh that investing in trees invests in your environment and your economy of your community so um I I think we do a lot of the same things that they talked about uh and uh of course I had to asked a question and the question was you have any good Arbor Day programs for little kids and of course I hate to say it I got nothing but a lot of blank looks and a lot of aam after that so I didn't gain a new program but I tried anyway and it's so always good to listen to other people and see what they have to say and uh what I think we're doing candidly what what they were advocating and I was was always good to talk to a few people so thank you I just want to say congratulations Michael on your new appointment congratulations Rob on your reappointment and we're looking forward to working with you s same here 2025 thank you for our camera for all you do to pack up I feel a little bit that we we might not get all the money with S as AR a I'm sure magic W I just wanted to talk briefly before we leave I'll I'll make it quick because I know it's been a long meeting about the accreditation so just to let you know what's involved so the the um we talked I think I already talked about the reasons for accreditation so um there are four accreditation requirements the first one is that we have to have a current Community Forest management plan so that is the same plan that um eron gave us for so um this is uh able to be supported from the communi Grant which you said I think you were said that you found too um the new requirements I believe there're as of 2025 requires some sort of tree inventory but you know I think there's flexibility there from the brief discussion I had with someone at the shade tree Federation about what that would look like but um and um there's like a $20,000 grant for the tree inventory and the plan and just a five one and then there's a m 25% match but it can be in hours that's what I is that what you found hours yeah so this plan that um that we have here uh that's that has to be written if we want to get accredited um I believe it can happen over two years a two-year timeline I saw that somewhere I have to go back and look then there's the core training so for at least one Municipal Employee and one volunteer um and um then the eight continuing ed credits and then annual accomplishment report we have to file by February 15 one thing the accreditation will allow us to do is to open up to other grants that we can apply for so once we have that accreditation we can do that uh I think that we need to figure out how to make a plan to do this um and I don't know I mean Mike and I are allowed to meet I'm never sure about with open meetings we can meet if it's just the two of us to discuss maybe how to organize this or something I think there's a lot of work to do here uh in order to get us accredited to me it seems important um it's liability coverage for the borrow and liability coverage for all of us one of the things I read is that the reason that they passed the title of the um act I have it here immunity from liability relative to community forestry it's section 59410 if anyone's interested if you haven't already seen it is because chatry commissions were disbanding because they were getting sued individually by people for the decisions they were making and so that the state put this I'm me how much of a threat is that I don't know but that made me nervous when I read that so I think that um you know I would like to work towards that I'm willing to lead on that if people want me to um but you know it's a lot of work for one person to do on their own so there' have to be some collaboration I just have a question well let us know is that a sheade tree commission responsibility or is that a council responsibility because when you look at the the plan for before that green Community Grant yeah it was Lori Fu who was the L on was the council and the council took on the ownership of that so did you see anything about what the my impression is from um the discussion I had with one of the people at uh New Jersey shade Tre Federation that it's a shade tree responsibility and that this is our part of our charge and I believe that that is what the text of the um may not have brought it with me but the text says as well you know that we have to be we have to have a plan there's there's let me tell you people use a word liability uh very Loosely I think I mean life is a liability okay if you have prove if you can prove that you have a program you're going to get rid of that liability if you don't have a program you will have a liability it's just like if you have sidewalks that are raised and you don't have a program to replace them you have a liability but if you can prove that you have a program you you that that takes care of more that liability and I will say let me tell you rob this is a big undertaking and you're not going to maybe you will do it but it's going to take a couple years because I know that work that went into that program and it took a long time and people put in a lot of work I I don't think they ever got the credit that they they all deserved or I I hope I mean we got 408 trees we did a lot of planting uh it was uh it was a great undertaking and but it took tremendous amount of work tremendous amount of work I hear you on the liability and I thought I mean I thought about that I think that the protection here is that it's sort of there's an additional statue that speciic protects us right so it's kind of a double layer protection as opposed to the standard um you know demonstrating that we're doing our due diligence I'm happy to try and do it I think it's important I think that um you know there's a lot of things that we could uh learn from doing the the process both about our own processes and what could be better about the forest here and from other places doesn't mean we have to change everything that we're doing but I I think it can never hurt to go and see what other people are doing and think about what we could take from them and maybe they could learn something from us and actually the people that came down from the state were impressed with us but they did have some suggestions like always I mean nobody has a perfect answer and there's always a better way to do something so it's it's a great undertaking I congratulate you for heading it out so what I hear Frank is you're not helpful is that what I hear I did enough in that other one no I I right bring more information 100% use that as a guideline really well that's what I kind of think we can use a lot of that as a template yeah I think so we can use that as a template and what I'm going to do with talking with shet Tre from Paran and I'm going to get see if they have any other contacts and some surrounding hands let's see what they're doing and get some feedback there and then let's move forward with this sounds good to me you got to know one thing pipany has a great parks department and that's where I think the trees are under okay they had a a person in there who was there forever and he was a spectacular person he was a m in shap it's also hard to tell in some of the budgets that were mentioned in the council meeting what's included in those budget numbers right I don't know if it's an Apples to Apples comparison would be pretty remarkable but um you know like I don't know to to prank to your point about Parks it could be some of their stuff is in their Parks budget and some of it's in the shade tree budget so that would be interesting when you guys do the research absolutely yeah that's why we need to talk to people yeah figure and that's part of the why it's changed obviously so that's all I have thank you for listen um I don't know I copy of this this is what uh email to everybody boosting the benefits of your invisible canopy any extra copy if anybody wants it does anybody want this cop I was there I was there take it you'll take it okay I mean I have it I download I download but I'll take it can Mo you to a Jour soov so mov you can put me as second in fav --------- ##VIDEO ID:E8_-UlCkjAQ## in accordance with chapter 231 thece of meeting CH give it to me okay we need to elect the new uh chairman Vice chairman and all day chairman can I have someone moves I'm just a little messed up okay can I have an someone to move that so and so be an application um before we begin I'd like to remove my name from chairman because I family commitments I cannot give the town on in the time that I should be able to do so um I do not want to be chairman okay um if we're doing nominations I would like to nominate Michael Lombard chairman a second okay that is second by um okay okay is there any more nominations got to take right I move the nomination to be closed okay can I just have a roll call okay so it's m here Mr Dr yes Mr Lombardi no vote Mr Maier yes and Mr ster yes okay like I like to movee Rob as Vice chairperson second second okay is there any other nominations for vice chair hearing none I close that and we'll have a roll call Mrs Dy yes Mr Dr yes Mr lardy yes Mr Maier obain and Mrs ster yes okay the next nomination is for chairman of AR I'll tell you I'd be willing with roow or somebody else to do it again Maran you look like you want to do it oh oh you want to do it again I think last year didn't we do it as a committee we just have like one chair so I'll say Frank Frank and we're all okay and second you second second okay is there any other nominations for arbit day no okay arbit day chairman will be closed we'll have a roll call Mrs Dy yes Mr drer yes up you I can yes Mr M yes and Mrs yes okay and I would like to congratulate and I get to do I get to move down and right here you can sh right here okay Mr lomard Mr Maier and Mr J on their election to the decisions chair Vice chair and respectively okay that's okay there you go you've been you've been promoted close to the chair we have a camera person here hope it doesn't add what happened what happened to yeah no he was just setting up so yeah yeah so now it's me yeah do I have a motion to move the December 2025 meeting minutes2 2024 EXC second okay all in favor I okay take voice V thank you any comments from the public Jason car 24th Avenue mayor Morris Plains proud Mor as a matter of fact uh I just want to say congratulations uh to this you first of all and and to Rob on your appointments Ro thank you uh for your dedication p uh year two is three four uh but no the lot of these volunteer boards go unnoticed and uh unrecognized but every board contributes to the burrow and I think it's very important the volunteering the dedication of your time away from your family and uh coming out here doing work for the people of moris PLS is uh C certainly commendable so I want to thank each and every one of you for taking that time and and dedicating it to moris Plains uh shade tree is is no slouch to any of the other boards uh it's a testament when we get wind storms and the the regular storms whatever a lot of towns surrounding towns are without power and that's because the trees down limbs down or what have you and Morris Plains surely has made an effort uh to to curtail some of those problems and in the shade Tre is a big role in that so again I want to thank you all very much for your time and dedication to hor plans and best of luck to the both of you moving forward and thank you again thank you thank you sirk you're leaving us down I think you approved the the the things for 2025 are you're supposed to the minut for 2024 later I I made a mistake in said 25 instead of 24 so they're all all done yes thank you sir any other comments from the public my hearing isn't 100% so that's for in a while you're good company I move to close the comments from the public section can I just ask so there's a the resolution of meeting dates here did I miss that or did we skip it or that's what I meant did oh okay that's that's what I meant Robert okay you hearing's better than you thought I I don't have it in my spot in my stuff but you can email to me Karen can use my he gave us in December the dates I gave you all the meeting dates but I don't I did not give you the resolution this for the council right the first one it's not in here why didn't I give you there's two resolutions here it's okay can you just uh can we do the resolutions in meeting dates in a minute if you want or I'll go walk and now and get it not necessary yes it is you don't want to read it you have all the meeting yeah go get a quick take two seconds we'll take no problem we'll take it CL there then for a minute welcome sh Welcome to our it's an honor to to to serve you guys with a dynamic board that Forester to we're good we got TV wow light's Camera Action I don't think the TV is focused on you that I know I'm the best looking guy here what's going on I fix that here I can fix that there you go thank you you always appear five pounds heavier by the way on television and that's an understatement I saw myself on a screen and my cheeks were still on the outside this is just get a chance to look at the budget that's a council right the committee you know she gave us a calendar in December but the calendar was wasn't the it wasn't this calendar it was a a box calendar remember she plany boarding she but it had sh it had yes yeah all of but it wasn't ter talk about a resolution yeah for