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TREE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ACTIONS
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MAY 23, 2006
ATTENDANCE: Don Nelson, Chairman; Maribeth Becker (6:10 p.m.);
STAFF: Hal Alvord, Tree Warden; Paul Sotnik, Deputy Tree Warden
OTHER: Dianne Witkowsky, Spring Hill/ Hospital Area Association; Tia Sidey, Farm Creek Association; Pam Garrett, Harbor Shores Association (6:10 p.m.); Michael Mushak, Golden Hill Association; Dave Tracy, Norwalk Tree Alliance; Nick Overall, Eastern Norwalk Neighborhood Association (6:20 p.m.)
ABSENT: Rich Whitehead; Peter Viteretto; Laurel Lindstrom;
CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Nelson called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and announced that they didn’t have a quorum.
APPROVE MINUTES - TREE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING OF APRIL 25, 2006
REPORT - STATUS OF INNER CITY URBAN FORESTRY GRANT
a. Status of construction
Chairman Nelson said that he and Mr. Tracy have begun coordinating the effort to have the signs installed at Columbus Magnet School’s arboretum. Mr. Tracy said the holes for the large sign will measure 20 inches center to center. The posts and the mounts are ready for the signs to be installed. The contractor for the walkway was there recently, and all the excavation for the walkway is completed. The asphalt should be completed on Saturday with the possibility of Friday, weather permitting. They will notify the school to make sure it won’t be a problem to do it Friday.
Ms. Becker and Ms. Garrett arrived at 6:10 p.m.
Mr. Tracy said the large sign has been ordered, and the formats for the small signs have been approved. He said Mr. Nic Berkun is scanning in the line art for the signs. Mr. Sotnik said that the purchase order was sent on May 12 to Precision Sign Company.
b. Meeting with elementary curriculum committee
Mr. Alvord said that he and Chairman Nelson met with the elementary
school curriculum committee on May 16. He said they have received the curriculum
change, and it meets the requirement for the grant. Mr. Alvord said he will
followup with Mr. Chris Donnelly and get a written confirmation of the change
in the number of trees.
REPORT – 2006 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE – HOME DEPOT FOUNDATION
Mr. Alvord said that Norwalk won the Small City Category. 161 cities in the U.S. applied, and 16 were shortlisted and invited to submit final applications. Norwalk is #1 in the country. Mr. Tracy will be traveling to Las Vegas to participate in the award ceremony and pick up the check for $75,000.
Mr. Alvord said that several members of the Tree Advisory Committee and the Norwalk Tree Alliance were in attendance last Wednesday when the representative of Home Depot came out to do the site visit. Mr. Alvord and Mr. Nelson visited the Columbus School arboretum with the representative, and then showed her Harbor Shores, Elmwood Avenue, and Wall Street. The meeting was very successful. Chairman Nelson said they would like Mr. Alvord to make the trip to Las Vegas as Mayor Moccia is not able to attend due to a previous engagement. Mr. Alvord said he would be pleased to do that, and suggested that such a suggestion to the Mayor may be most appropriate coming from the TAC or NTA. Newspaper coverage will be released shortly, and a local awards ceremony will be held in the near future.
Mr. Overall arrived at 6:20 p.m.
DISCUSSION – STATUS OF TREE PLANTING PROGRAM
Mr. Alvord said there are 130 names left on the original list of 200. He said that there hasn’t been enough time to scan the aerial photographs or otherwise begin processing of the next batch of 30 or 40. He felt that they should really try to focus on the neighborhood approach, as the individual approach was time consuming and there weren’t enough resources. They are down to 12 from 30 on the list of properties that have already been staked for trees and are awaiting planting. Mr. Alvord said the experience they had with Golden Hill on Elmwood, as a neighborhood approach, is the way they want to go. They are following along in a similar way with Harbor Shores and the plan that Ms. Garrett developed.
Chairman Nelson said he noticed that the tree list was not on the website. Mr. Alvord suggested that the volunteers provide the tree list to residents when discussing the tree selection and best fit for the streetscape.
It was mentioned that copies of the fliers that Ms. Garrett created are now available in Spanish.
INFORMATION COPIES
a. Double Tree Hotel Letter
Mr. Alvord distributed copies of a letter he received from Mr. Chris Johnson of the Double Tree Hotel. He said that the City recently teamed up with the Double Tree Hotel for the successful Arbor Day activities at Brookside School. He said they will now work together on future Arbor Day activities at other elementary schools. He and Chairman Nelson spoke with Principal Liberatore of Columbus School to have the Arbor Day ceremonies there next year.
b. 2005 Tree City USA Letter
Mr. Alvord provided everyone with a copy of the official notification that Mayor Moccia received regarding Tree City USA.
Mr. Alvord mentioned the Adopt-A-Spot program, and how he and Chairman Nelson re-vamped the requirements for being a participant in the program. They developed an authorization document, they got Clean & Green to provide liability insurance, and they now require an approved landscaping plan. There are currently 51 Adopt-A-Spots in the City, up from 25 two years ago. There is one Adopt-A-Spot that is currently not in compliance with the landscaping plan that had been submitted. After some conversation with the sponsor, it was decided that if the display wasn’t taken down by Thursday evening, it would be removed by a City crew on Friday morning and returned to the sponsor.
DISCUSSION – STATUS OF TREE PLANTING PROGRAM (CONT’D)
a. Harbor Shores Plan
Ms. Garrett explained from the map she provided that she has been talking to the residents of the South Main Street and Meadow Street area, and they feel the city won’t do anything to improve the area. The residents also have an on-going complaint about some unfinished issues over a dispute that occurred with Hatch & Bailey several years ago. They attempted to solve the problem with some landscaping, but that doesn’t appear to be a solution. She said a resident, Mr. Bookard, owns a V-shaped piece of property there and would like to participate in the program. He would like to take the 60 feet on both sides of the property and have the city put in as many trees as possible. She asked if that particular area could be done prior to any other area in Harbor Shores so that they can use it as successful example of the program for the residents. She said the resident asked for dogwood trees. Chairman Nelson asked Mr. Mushak and Mr. Overall to drive by the area and take a look at the property in order to determine the feasibility of planting.
Ms. Sidey asked if there was a change of getting the Sammis Street planting done this spring. She said the underground work is done, and now they just have to feed the lines. Chairman Nelson said he will make a request to get it done.
b. South Norwalk
c. Guidebook for volunteers
REPORT – INCIDENTS OF ILLEGAL CUTTING
Mr. Sotnik said there is an incident of illegal pruning at 66 Cedar Street. The resident was arrested on April 27 as he was caught in the process of pruning the tree. He was fined $99.00.
Mr. Sotnik said they are still resolving the problem at 6 Lexington Avenue. He said the residents had cut a tree down, and they have a valid building permit to put in a foundation. They will not be issued any more building permits until they take care of the $99.00 fine and the tree replacement fee of $750.00. He provided a picture of the property, which indicated that there is not sufficient room for a tree to grow.
DISCUSSION – NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVITIES
Ms. Becker said there was a great turnout for their meeting on May 8th. Ms. Marny Smith of the Norwalk Land Trust spoke to the group about how to look for spots in neighborhoods that could be preserved and donated to the Land Trust. One of their committees is Zoning, and they are interested in having stricter zoning enforcement in place to preserve the neighborhoods. Their task force is meeting next week, and from that meeting they hope to have some zoning ideas to present to the CNNA meeting on June 15. She said Mr. Al Raymond is head of the Membership Committee, and he has done a great job in getting new people involved. She said they are involved in supporting the spirit of the West Avenue redevelopment plan, but they still have concerns. They are pleased that they can still be a part of the process.
DISCUSSION – NTA ACTIVITIES
Mr. Tracy said they have made a big effort recently on the signs for the arboretum. He said the educational brochures are close to being completed.
He said they were awarded the grant from the National Urban
Community Forestry Council. He said the amount of the grant was $12,000, in
the Category 3 High Efficiency Measurement Technology for GIS Based Street
Tree Inventories. He explained that it is a matching grant program, which
requires volunteer time and hours. This is a project to develop a way to inventory
trees by driving down the street with a camera on top of the car, then measure
the data accurately to locate the tree, and then enter the information into
the database. Most of the money will be used for hardware and software for
this project, which could take several years to complete.
NEW BUSINESS
There were no items for discussion.
ADJOURNMENT
** CHAIRMAN NELSON MOVED TO ADJOURN.
** MS. BECKER SECONDED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Carolyn Marr
Telesco Secretarial Services
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