e e e e e e e e e e
e e okay we'll call this meeting to order of the tree advisory Commission meeting the 6th of March 4 P.M we'll begin with I welcome everybody that's
here and uh we'll start with uh everybody introducing themselves starting over with all right Joe S I'm city engineer adviser Miriam Hoffman leof I'm Paul egund Jordy V Joey shugal Park and
Recreation director Jeff Huffman Public Works superintendent okay I'm glad everybody could make it as everybody uh let's see has everybody had a chance to review the agenda and do I do I hear a motion to
approve it as as recorded or do you want to make Corrections or additions I make a motion to approve it as recorded Lee approve it okay it's been moved in second and to
approve the agenda as written all those in favor say I I I all opposed same sign it's approved okay
um following is the the minutes for the meeting of 2 January 2025 has everybody had a chance review that in your notes uh that were emailed to you okay do I hear a motion for or or do
I hear requests for Corrections or additions lacking that maybe approval I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the tree commission meeting from January 2nd 2025 is there a second I'll second okay
it's been moved in seconded that the minutes for the previous meeting be approved all those in favor say I I opposed same sign they are
approved okay moving on Old business Joel all right um you want to you want to review that uh yep uh Mr Vice chair commission members um going through the
uh 2025 tree advisory commission budget and where we're at with reimbursements to date um we have had 22 tree um removal reimbursements come into our office so we have uh sent out
$1,535 in reimbursements and we to date we are carrying over uh $1,823 eight worth of expenditures um that would be available after July 1st for those um for remaining
funds um that's it for the year so far I know home show um that's been it just hasn't gone through our accounting system yet so that'll be deducted out of the next report you see in a couple months but otherwise fairly slow but I
would anticipate uh reimburse reimbursement requests for removals to pick up here in the next month okay do we move that they be approved or we'll just moving on next to the next
Point yeah you can just move on yep yeah just move on to moving on sure next report Park and Recreation Department update Jo thank you m Mr Vice chair Commissioners uh a couple big things going on in in the Parks right now
related to our our tree inventory uh we did award a RFP that I talked about at the last meeting for some large Ash removals in Parks uh the the bid went to manal land shapes and uh they have started working and completed work in
South and Nell's Parks if you've been near there um now with the snow this week uh I anticipate next week first for the the additional removals uh you'll see Washington Park be highly impacted by the next removals um and a few
miscellaneous trees one in German Park coming yet too so um but that process has been going good they will also um come back and stump grind those that they've removed as well so um other items going on so our staff has has removed uh has done trimming over the
winter um has done some removals as well mostly Ash removals um of of the trees that we could hit some of the we hit some interior trees in Washington Park with our staff that weren't as large um and our street department now maybe Jeff's going to touch on this a little
more um has been removing those stumps in our Parks as well any questions on any of that okay and that we'll move on to the next Point uh Public Works Jeff thank
you Vice chair and counselors um yeah as of so far in the past year we've cared out about 400 some stumps here now and filled and we only have a few left on the list we did quite a few for the park and wre in the Parks and stuff so we
only have a few left on the list for in town on the boulevards so hopefully if the weather straightens out next week we'll get back on those and get those done before we get busy with our summer projects but and then in the cemetery we took down six large trees in January here we took
down some pretty big significant ash trees that were dead so those are pretty much out of all the ash trees are pretty much out of the cemetery I think they only have a couple small ones left so that's all I have to report thank you
okay uh Tony here for a private tree services update I don't believe so no update so moving on to the next point Joe on Emerald lash Bo update uh Mr Vice chair commission members I have no
updates for you this month so it's here and W Pickers are working on the trees they okay that's good um next item on the account is uh on the
agenda is the big tree contest we voted last meeting to have the gko be the the tree species this year uh there are a lot of little genko trees in new home and if it's less than
an inch in diameter we don't want to know about that to measure as a big tree it should be uh big enough you can't put your hand around probably um it will be spelled out in the
handouts we're sending out submissions are due for the contest on the 31st of July this summer so anybody interested in looking up a relatively big tree it's not very big but in new home I haven't
seen one that's uh 4ot diameter or anything uh if you got one that's over a foot in diameter it's pretty good sized um okay we got a whole list of the
previous trees and we got a draft a draft of the the description for the big tree contest the only thing I would add and I didn't make it known was that the seed
is actually considered edible if you treat it right but we might not want to put it there because if you eat it when it hasn't been treated right it will make you sick probably so um we didn't put it in print and that's probably okay the fact that uh the outer
covering on the nut is uh bad smelling is pointed out in our description um which is which is reasonable if you plant a Seedling gko it won't make seed until it gets 20 or
30 years old so anybody want to say anything else about the gko handout I was interested in it so I read through it okay [Music]
um in which case we move on to the utility bill inserts which have to do with uh well we just need them to get printed up soon because uh they have to be available for for the
show right um so Mr Vice chair and Commissioners on this one we we will need some action to be taken that's um as there are two options here so in your packet there are two options for uh the printouts um that would go in both the
April Utility Billing but also be available at the home show for distribution uh so in your packet you see uh black and white print on colored paper as an option uh and you see the price price on that so we're we're looking at 6,500
copies total 6,200 going the insert 300 for the home show uh so that cost us $520 if we do white paper um and color print on those 650000 copies um the price is double so
yeah $1,040 has everybody had a chance to look at those in the package I'm looking at and we need to make a choice do we want to spend do we want to spend extra dollars for uh a color print of a genko
right uh seeds or the basically Black and White Edition on color paper and I will point out one more thing uh if you do look back at our uh budget for 2025 here both of these quotes on these printings are under budget they're under
budget yes okay um however potentially if if there are Savings in areas those funds could be reallocated other places is there any consensus on whether you want to have a white paper with a color print of a
tree or and fruit tree leaves and fruit or just the the colored paper with black black and uh on color uh paper you know I I would lean toward um the the color print it'll just
make the the color I would agree the white paper with the color print color print you pay extra for the color of the seed okay right I that's what I how what I would lean it just pops a little bit better okay how about you Jordy yeah
that's I've got I've got three to uh the remaining person on the on the committee here so I I I hear that uh we approve the white paper with color print uh photo and is
approved so we can take that to be our our vote moving on to the next item the home show how how is it I heard that uh it is being set up by Joey and
Company and we're not going to we're not going to participate in the setup is that what I heard or do you want us there to help you I'd be happy to get the setup going for for everyone so um yes so the home show is uh Friday March 28th and
Saturday March 29th I believe we have a typo here um as you see on on your agenda Saturday March 29 the show hours 4: to 8:00 pm. um those hours are longer than that I'm I'm going to I'm trying to look it up right now it's more than four
hours on Saturday the home show maybe Joe can do that while as I'm talking um but Commissioners what we typically have done for the home show is uh we have two Commissioners try to take a shift at together um and we usually
split that uh so Friday depending um sometimes is one shift sometimes is two shifts and Saturday is usually the one that's set up into two shifts because it's a longer um do you have the hours Joe yeah so on the 29th so on Saturday
it is 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. so instead of 4: to 8:00 p.m. it's 9 to 4: um so usually what we've done is a 9 to noon and then the 12: to 4: something around there um and what what we I'll do is
I'll send out a an email um probably within the next week you know breaking out shifts and um usually the Commissioners work it out on what they can cover in their schedules if they're able to cover and uh then materials are there to provide and where it's a great
time to promote um what's going on in related to the tree advisory council with especially the reimbursement program and the big tree contest this year is what you've decided to focus on this year okay so okay we'll we'll be
looking at our email to get that worked out the remaining new bus next item is the new business the first item is educational walking tours yes thank you Mr Vice chair commissioner so I had uh
individual uh send a request or an idea around someone that's closely associated with um tree advisory commissioner uh who had an idea and wanted to have this idea um brought to a meeting uh so the
idea is um with with the knowledge of um tree related knowledge and um on this commission especially if anyone was interested in offering neighborhood walks so it maybe be an eight block walk
uh or two block street or a square area in various areas of New Alm and during the walk the commissioner would point out better ways to maintain trees which trees would grow best how to watch for disease how often to water you know just logistically and point out real life you
know in in you know scenarios in our community um so that idea was approached um this individuals on uh involved with the legal Women Voters and brought it to them and they said they'd be very interested to participate in the walks um but really at this time it's just
kind of an idea not asking for any action but to see if there's any interest from Commissioners to potentially set up a pilot program like this Jordy you be interested I I would be yeah Lee
possibly possibly yeah possibly I think it's a good idea okay so so so with that interest would you like it to come back to a meeting and just to to logistically if if this would be moving forward um to figure out some
more details and parameters around that like I marketing and promotion would have to come along with some of it so people know what's going on um and we wouldn't just expect them to watch our tree commission meetings we'd have to do some additional promotion to get that the word out time of year when to do it
stuff like that MH probably want more than one person yeah mhm on the walk with you and uh you probably don't want 25 or 30 or more that would be yeah that would be rough too so what I would ask of Commissioners if if you have a great
idea on how to set up the program to send me those ideas um over email and I can bring them to the next meeting and see if the actual if we can form some type of you know whether it's one day or multiple days you know or something like
that okay good thank you and that was a favorable response to that item um commissioner reports Jordy did you have yeah just a little bit I'll have more um the next
meeting as I get it organized because I don't have it very well organized but back to the covered up program um if you were wondering there there were several phases to it the first phase was information that the U ofm did on plots
the second phase is the one you're probably most familiar with that's the one where I had the plot in town there was plots around uh Minnesota so some of that I believe they are still working on data but the original cover up they are starting to release information with
that and they are finding um some native flowering species and Native grasses along with some other management techniques are fairly promising at holding back the Buckthorn um so is what
they have said as far as grasses um Can Canada Wild Ry Virginia wild rye and silky wild Rye um have the best outcome as far as if they're planted in the right environment they can grow fast and
help to shade out Buckthorn along with some followup some of the wild flowers that have been shown to work is the White Snake root um be balm red Coline Virginia wildlife Waterleaf
um browney Susan and fig wart um and that's from their initial research with that um so they are finding that um depending on the lighting that you have in the forested area that definitely some of these native species come in
remove the Buckthorn immediately put these native species in and then do some followup afterwards to help keep the Buckthorn under control and kind of really help that revation process take place um so like I say I will probably
put together some graphs on the New Alm plot and then see what other deeper information there is in this so if you have any questions or anything specific let me know and I will try to find the answer for you thank you
Jordy are there any other reports no you know the only one other thing I can think of Vice chair is [Music] um the city of of new alalong with a a some volunteers uh did some programming
around National invasive species week that uh which was February 24th through the 28th just recently I don't know you may may have seen some information in the the journal um or online so that uh uh some of those were around Buckthorn
and some of the invasives we have Ash Emerald ashb um and uh trying to just bring awareness to that and try to pull resources together to um inform our community and and uh add some proactive measures to as we um have that continued
fight with invasive species okay okay the next meeting is scheduled for the 3rd of May 2025 at 4:00 here in City
Hall and if there's let's see you're supposed to be reminded that you're supposed to send all your ideas to Denita at the parks and wck Department there's no other business I declare this meeting
adjourned for