morning. >> All right. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Tree Advisors Commission meeting. Today is Thursday, November 6th, 2025. We'll call to order the members present.
Joe Sadim, city engineer. Miriam Waldner, commissioner Lee Canoff, commissioner. Greg Derson, commissioner. >> Paul Egglund, commissioner. Jordy Vite, commissioner, staff. >> Jeff Huffman, public works
superintendent. >> And we have guests today. We'll uh add him to the agenda. Uh Joe's will add to the agenda. But first, I'll seek approval of the agenda. >> And Mr. Chair, before you approve the agenda, can we uh make some
modifications? >> Yes, sir. >> Um, one would be adding Mr. Gardner um where the this commission sees fit and then adding under new business 6.4 would be um updates on city commission
commissions With the additions, I'll seek approval of the agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. With the additions, >> I second that. >> With a motion and second, look for all in favor to say I. >> I.
>> I. >> Any oppose? Same. We have our amended agenda approved. We'll uh add Joel Gartner to kind of uh the first part of five for our old business. So as soon as we approve the
minutes, which would be 4.1, seek approval of minutes from September 4th. >> I move that the minutes be approved. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion, a second to approve those minutes. All in favor say I.
>> I. >> Any opposed? Same sign. That motion passes. So, we can move into our agenda item now. And we have guest today. So, you want to introduce yourself, Joel?
>> Sure. Uh, my name is Joe Gartner. I live at 1401 South Pain Street here in New Home. And I volunteer along with my wife at the Pollinator Park and Flandro State Park. And I'm here today to just mention a few things that I thought would be
worth mentioning. And if if you'd like to have a bigger discussion, I could be here at the January 8th meeting to entertain more. Uh we've been working on buckthornne. You ever hear of that one? And uh wow. My
vision of of how to control buckthornne back when I was living out on a little acreage in Hector and even before that in Holly, Minnesota up by Morehead has totally changed. Uh I think there's a new vision. Buckthornne is going to be
with us. It's not going away. >> And there there are good ways to control it. And one of them is to this time of year the female trees have the berries and we've gone and my wife and I have
gone and cut probably thousands of them down and we're going to cut more thousands of them. There's a lot of buckthornne out there. The number of berry producing shrubs is a lot less than the actual shoots that are coming up. There are some uh berry producing
shrubs that have a circumference of that or even bigger, which means they're 30 or 40 year old. They've never been removed. During their whole lifetime, they probably have produced um you know, at least a thousand seeds a year that
the birds spread or they drop directly down and they they produce a thicket. So, we're trying to get rid of those berry producing plants and especially the really old ones because they it's unbelievable how many berries they have.
Uh, and of course the males don't. I have male trees in my yard, about 10 of them that are very nice trees. I'm not doing anything with them. I do have some standbys planted next to them so that when when those when those alternate
plants get big enough, I'll I'll be cutting the male buckthorns down. But right now, the male buckthorns are shading the ground, they're not dropping any seeds. I'm not disturbing the ground. So, and I brought some with me. Uh these are these are from really big
trees, but I of course I couldn't bring the really big tree. But uh if you got a really big buckthorn now and this is what they look like, those are males and pretty easy to tell the females. Got
to be careful not to drop here. They're just loaded with these little berries. And uh buckthornne of course has a kind of a thorny point to it. And this time of year it's really green. And of course
there's been ideas about how can we how can we control buckthorn. I'm not going to get into all of them but one of them is maybe it can get a fungus that would kill it. You know it's so plentiful that that opens up that situation maybe. And
we have noticed a lot this year a lot of the leaves are green that are have black splotches on them and we haven't noticed that so much in past years. Uh so thank you.
>> Um so my whole thing is uh let's try to promote that. Let's try to promote that we we try to remove the berry producing shrubs and and not only cut them because if you cut them they'll come back and they'll come back in fivefold or instead
of one trunk it'll be five. There needs to be some kind of chemical applied. We use uh a couple different chemicals. one that the park supplies and one that we buy at a local store. Uh and so we cut the
stump off and then we just tap around the cambium to control them. Uh so uh one thing is it would be nice if people had a list of alternate plants to plant or plants that can compete because a lot
of plants can't compete with buckthornne but there are some that do compete really well. Uh, and one of them are male buckthorns. If you have a male buckthornne, they're occupying a space that isn't available for the berry producing shrubs. The
birds don't come to them very much because they don't have any berries on them. And um so that I would like when I if I come back in January, I'd like to have a little list or ideas of what you can do
to um replace the buckthornne. The other thing I had was about this lovely picture here. I don't know what year was that done? 1860 early 1870. It was supposed to
supposed to reminisce back to that time even though it was probably painted later. Well, we have a little piece of native prairie left at the pollinator park. That's original prairie. And
a lot of that was original prairie uh maintained by fire and earlier by grazing. And once the pioneers came here, stopped the fire and the buffalo and elk were gone, the trees started spreading in there. And today we have
our beautiful valley of trees from that. But unfortunately, the prairie disappeared except for this one little piece um that's across from the impound lot at the Pollinator Park on North 22nd
Street. And um I've identified definite plants that indicate that that has not been uh tilled for a long time. And if it ever was, the plants came from surrounding
areas and repopulated it. So we we'd like to preserve that little spot. And along with it, there's tall grass prairie that's planted along the bike trail. And that's that's not native, but it is indicative of prairie stuff. So, it's
kind of a nice nice thing that we got this little spot, not much bigger than this room. Um, and for I don't know how it survived because, you know, why didn't trees grow up and it didn't do that. Um
there's been trees planted along the bike trail and there's most of them are we have like some um uh bur oak. Great. We have some aspen. Great. Those are nice additions because we don't have
them at at the pollinator park. Now we have some other ones though that over the long term um we need to do something about. There's two catelas and one ginko. And those are wonderful trees everywhere in New. But in this
particular spot, we really need to think about u removing them somehow because they just aren't going to work out. And so that's my opinion. You know, you can think about it. Um,
but I would really like to preserve that little piece of prairie and, you know, plant some more oaks, maybe some more aspen. Uh, maybe there's some other trees um that are fine. But, uh, those
two particular types of trees, you know, would have some problems fitting in. So, but that's about it. Uh, >> any questions, commissioners? >> Basically, buckthornne and a little native piece of prairie. That's it.
>> That spot is um next to the pollinator park. Is that part of city property? >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, that's that's a piece of the city. It it it butts right up to I think 20 um north 22nd Street.
>> We've had this discussion before about is it uh where does it lie tree commission or tree and shrub or tree shrub and prairie that we need to kind of keep a keep an eye on as we're paying attention to these locations? >> How big are your offending trees
diameter wise? Well, they they you um they were just replanted a couple years ago, so >> you know, they're >> they're they're big enough to move with a tree spade is what I'm asking. >> Yeah, they could be. I was thinking of that that would be a good use good way to do it. >> They could be moved with a tree spade to
a a better location. >> Yeah. And I'm sure at the time, you know, nobody I mean, there wasn't any I there's a few people that knew that spot existed, but it wasn't common knowledge like it is now. So yeah, if that's possible, that'd be
great. >> I would suggest that as a possible solution. Uh with trees dying all around town, I think you could find a place to move them to. Um >> yeah, that'd be great if that would work out.
>> I don't know. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Joe. This is the eyewear for book. Sorry. >> There you go. >> I was going to mention that today we've uh um
prior to Emerald Ashbbor, we had Ellen Vancur was was always trying to keep in front of Buckthornne and uh some of the other invasives. So, but I don't think that's going to go away anytime soon. But as soon as we are able to turn our
focus from the ashbor, we got to go back to some of these spots again. Any other questions? We'll if without any other questions, we'll move into our old business 5.1, the city reimbursement programs and budget update. >> All right.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair and commission members. Uh we continue to receive uh reimbursement requests for mostly uh EAB removals. Um couple new plantings, but as you can see, we are sitting on quite a surplus from the disease tree program
and also the reimbursement account as well. So, we'll continue to um process those reimbursements as they come through, but we'll most likely be looking to carry over that amount with the city council come uh the new year um
early next uh next year in 2026, but I'm happy to entertain any questions. there was kind of an uptick in the last few months and that I anticipate that will continue. >> Yep. I I would agree. Yep. Yeah.
Especially there was some early uh reimbursement requests where they had multiples and that's a lot of that after July 1st was that second round of uh reimbursements that went out. So, um definitely uh would like to keep getting the word out that we do have monies
available for those that uh have the disease trees that need to be removed. So, and take advantage of the program. >> With no other questions, we'll go to 5.2, park and recck department update. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioners,
uh wanted to touch on um ongoing ash inventory within our parks. Um within the last uh towards this end of summer season into early fall, we were sitting at a little over 60 uh 61ish trees uh
still in city parks that were uh emerald ashbor or infected with emerald ashbor. Um we are we have a contractor work now happening uh will be happening soon in the south German park area. We have eight more ash trees there. Uh kind of
near the skate park and and BMX track. Um so with those removed and some at North Park, we'll be sitting right under closer to about 40, a little bit under 40. Um so that number started I if my
memory serves me in the 180 or so. So um we're getting close uh to the end over the winter. our our staff will be taking some down as well that aren't um these the large ones, but um have seen, you know, deterioration over the last this
2025 here. Uh so I'd expect that number to probably be around 20 more or so after the after we get through winter here if winter serves us uh with the capability of doing that. So, in addition to that, uh our crews will be out trimming uh over the winter um as
well within parks as needed. Um and then uh maybe Mr. Huffman will touch on this a little more, but stump removals within the uh that the street department helps us with uh within the parks as well with those trees that have been taken down.
Any questions? Seeing no questions, we'll go to 5.3 public works update. Jeff Hoffman. >> Thank you, Mr. Commissioner and Mr. Chairs. Um, right now we've since this fall, we've cut out about 150 stumps so far and filled. So, and as of on today on the
list, I think there was about 30 stumps left to go. So, we're working on them and hopefully by next week we'll be caught up with those and with doing the ones in the park. And so, um, we removed three big trees by the fire station. Three dead ash trees there. We removed
them and four more up off of Westridge up there. So, but otherwise, if the snow stays away, we'll be starting tree trimming after Thanksgiving here. We'll start working on tree trimming. So,
that's all I have. Thank you. Any other questions? Uh if not, we would consider 5.4, but Tony's not present today. And then 5.5, the EAB update. Um Joe, you want to explain the relief
application, please? >> Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair and commissioners. Uh city staff prepared and submitted a DNR relief community forestry grant for removal of our remaining uh ash trees in city boulevards and city parks andor city
property. Uh so we went through submitted the grant application. We were figuring uh 294 ashries from the boulevard remain. These are estimated numbers and 88 from city parks, but that number is obviously less from the work that uh park and recck staff has been
been doing over the last time since we've compiled those numbers. Um within the grant application itself, we included the removals and the replanting um on a onetoone basis. So that's a total of 382 trees. Our ink kind match
would be city crew uh street department crews stump grinding. We're estimated about 573 hours worth of stump grinding for the 382 trees and then our project admin time. So our total grant request
was $362,900. Um uh I know grants were due I think some the deadline was coming up fairly soon here. Um, I did receive correspondence. There was some uh small revision I had
to make in the grant application and resent that off to the DNR yesterday. So, we will cross our fingers, cross our toes, and uh see where where we stand come uh grant award time. >> In the previous years, what was their
when was their awarding time? January. >> We would know by February. So, we would be able to turn or Yeah. January, February. So, our goal would be um turn around and get construction documents out and get uh bids for the project as
quickly as possible um should we be notified of an award. Y >> and then uh the grant uh um period would expire in I believe it's June of 27. So, we would have to do all this work within
that year and a half time frame. >> Commissioners, any questions? for Joe on that. Thank you for that uh for preparing that document again or that request again. We've >> Yeah, and I should note that Director Schugle and Planner Nisely also assisted as well and spent time on this as uh
helping prepare that. >> It was uh beneficial the first two times that we were able to use it. So, we made some big headway and >> and that's one of the selling points is that we were successful in our past performance. So hopefully that bears a
little weight in the review of the grant application. Okay, thank you. Our 5.5 5.6 sorry is the big tree contest. Uh there were four entries. The winner Austin Lorent and a GKO tree. So
we'll on his GKO tree we'll send a press release and then letters to the other contestants we'll say and that was the uh the big tree contest history is in there. That was the first time we had included ginkkos and it was also the
smallest >> number of entries there new home. That's true. So, that'll be your challenge next year is to uh uh either go back and visit another species again. Uh
or get creative. Maybe you'll try to find the biggest female buckthorn tree and the winner will cut it down. Just throwing out only if it's a female. >> Yep. Biggest female. Mhm. >> Maybe. Yeah.
>> All right. Uh, in 5.7, the neighborhood walkabout program. Joy, is this something for us? >> Yes, Mr. chair, commissioners, uh the League of Women Voters asked if if this could be back on old business and their
ask was just to um have the commission think of maybe in the second meeting of 2026, which is which would be the March time frame to think about if the commission at that time is still interested in the program and if so to
set some dates for 2026 at that to get provide for extra notice on on how that goes out. So, um, no real decision needs to be made today, but just to to put that in, um, everyone's minds if that is something that this commission would
like to continue in 2026. >> Everyone's nodding. Anyone comment? the last last fall we failed to uh get together with enough people to uh operate it and uh Greg and I particip
and Joey and only Joey's going to be remaining next spring. Would you be willing to do it next spring as a a former member? Is that's a question to you, Greg. >> Theoretically. >> Theoretically I I might be willing to do
that. I would like to uh spring would be good and fall would be good. I know summer was nice because it was u everything's leafed out really and robust, but uh and spring could be cold, fall could be cold when you're
trying to do a a walk, too. So, I guess it's just to have enough lead time is kind of the key. But I'm always willing to go walk around and point at trees. I could I'm I'm willing to do that as a former member. Uh if that
would give me enough status to uh talk. I don't know. >> I am sure that uh next year's commissioners will remember your name and number. >> You think so? Okay. >> So, no problem getting a hold of you. >> Okay.
>> But that was uh that was worth doing. And I think there was interest and trying to settle on a date or or making it cyclical would be useful. So any other old business? If not, we'll move to new business. 6.1 is election of
officers and I'll call for a nomination of the chairperson for next year. >> You can nominate. >> I could. >> Yeah. We got we got uh a motion to nominate Jordy, a second.
>> I >> and a second. So, just to be clear, it was Paul and Miriam first and second >> in case somebody questioned my work. >> Waving waving. Okay. Yes.
>> Any other nominations for chair? Seeing none, um, officially we'll close those nominations and vote. All in favor of electing Jordy Vite as as chair for next
year, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Same sign hearing. None. >> Jordy gets to serve as chair for 2026. Congratulations.
There's a binder coming your way. Has all the information in it. Then we need to call for a vice chairperson for next year upon the uh running out of terms of both myself and for Paul. So that limits the number of people available.
>> Lee, >> I believe Miriam is uh making a motion nominating Lee >> as a vice chairperson. Got a second. >> I'll second. >> Ah, Jordy with the second.
>> Since we have a motion and a second, we'll vote uh for that vice chairperson. All in favor leaking off as chairperson for 2026 say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Same sign. Hearing none. We
have our chair and vice chair for next year settled. Excellent. Then uh 6.2 determine the date of the meeting for January because the 1st is is normally the day. So I'll suggest
January 8th for that. We just need consent and agreement of the next year's three commissioners. They're nodding. So >> I think January 8th would be good. Yep, that's fine with me. >> So I'll set that as January 8th. that
first the first non-h holiday Thursday 2026 and then 63 and 64 I'll turn over to you Joy. >> Sure. Well um thank you Mr. Chair, commissioners uh you know this is always a bittersweet time for um outgoing uh
commissioners. Um first one is um chair deerson. will serve two terms on this tree commission uh and has done a great job as chair leading meetings. Uh so I wanted to express um my gratitude and um
how efficient and easy the meetings are for and your time spent on this commission. So I will present you with a certificate shortly. Um but I also want to uh applaud um Greg with a round of applause here.
And then the next one is um Mr. Igland. And Paul has done a a fantastic job bringing his expertise to um this commission. And I I think um I don't know if we've had a commissioner with more knowledge um regarding a lot of the
things we talk about that has sat on this commission. So I that will for sure be missed over over your three and a half years served um uh on this commission and uh your willingness to participate in what this commission does whether it's the walkabout programs and
um measuring of our big tree contest and all the things that go with that. So, thank you to uh you Paul as well. So, we do have some certificates for you. >> Great. Thank you. >> And I I should say the the mayor wanted
to be here today um but had a previous conflict where she could not make it today. but uh also wanted to um convey her gratitude to your time serving on this commission. >> Any comments from outgoing commissioners?
>> Any rebuttal? >> No. >> Thank you, Joy. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> You had uh 6.4 for us as well. >> Yes. So, um Mr. Mr. Chair, commissioners, uh wanted to update you
on some potential um updates to commissions. So our, as you know, um all of you have probably been recruited by our current mayor or a former mayor as that is the mayor's um duty to appoint our commissions. And one of the things that the mayor and city council has been
looking at is our number of commissions. and um not only the number but what the you know the business if there's a chance to consolidate anything you know I think um uh our city council for a long time has been in
huge favor of this commission as well as the mayor uh but one of the one of the things that they may be discussing soon is a consolidation where this commission could be housed in the within the park and recck commission or the business that this commission does with the park
and recck commission. So, I wanted to update everyone today um that uh that's on city council's timeline. They they may be doing a work session as soon as the next meeting in November, which I don't have the dates in front of me, but would be this the second or the third
Tuesday, November 18th. So, there may be a work session that's open to the public and open to commissioners if you want to attend. It won't be just talking about the tree commission. It'll be talking about all city commissions, but I I think that one's there. Um, I will say if that is something that moves forward
and the city council decides that um the business that this commission does will not be left aside, it'll be a huge part of what the park and recck commission would move forward and do. And I um but I don't want to jump the gun to say, you know, any thoughts on how that would
look and when that would take place. But just wanted to get that in front of everyone today that that is going on. So look uh check your uh for when commission packets go out and council packets go out. Um that that could be something coming up on a work session for discussion.
>> Commissioners any questions to that end? >> There are quite a bit of there are quite a few overlaps between offices and and those departments, right? So, it's certainly understandable, but we'll see what that how that plays out.
I guess I would say I think the worst of the EAB is through and having to thank you for the extra work that you gentlemen have done in that regard. uh that was quite a task to try to respond to as a city and a city with a huge
incity forest or a huge number of trees within the the the city itself. So that's been uh kind of a large undertaking for the last few years. So in that part I've been uh it's been pleasurable to have to uh deal with
it with people that are very interested in taking care of their town. So, congratulations on that and thank you for um working with us as we consider these trees within our town. So, any
other questions, comments from commissioners or others? We've got the date of the next meeting for January 8th, 4 p.m. in the city council chambers. Make sure you get those items to Nita ahead of time. With no further business, we'll see number
9.1. We'll call this adjourned.