CITY OF PICKERINGTON

TREE COMMISSION

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2007

 

REGULAR MEETING

6:00 P.M.

 

  1. ROLL CALL.  Ms. Carter called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M., with roll call as follows:  Mr. Goodrich, Mr. McKinley, Ms. Carter, Mr. Malone and Ms. Shelts were present.  Others present:  Ed Drobina, Diana Fuller, Linda Yartin, and several high school students.

 

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES of January 10, 2007, Regular Meeting.  Mr. Goodrich moved to approve; Mr. McKinley seconded the motion.  Mr. Goodrich, Mr. McKinley, and Ms. Carter voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 3-0.

 

  1. COMMUNITY COMMENTS.  Ms.Carter explained the purpose of the Tree Commission to the high school students.  Ms. Shelts and Mr. Malone explained to the students how the Emerald Ash Borer is destroying Ash trees.

 

  1. TREE DATABASE.  Ms. Carter stated that she has been working on the computer program for the tree database and that Mr. Goodrich has approved of what she’s done so far but more work needs to be done with it.  Ms. Carter asked how the city would prefer to look up the tree information.  Mr. Drobina stated that he thinks the city would need to look them up by species.  Ms. Carter asked if it would be species first and then the location of it?  Mr. Drobina stated that Gregg Ellis has inventoried all the trees.  Mr. Goodrich stated that our next step is to break the spreadsheet out into a database, something very small and simple that Gregg could pick up or build off of.  Mr. Goodrich stated that what he is doing now is looking at the database itself to see how to build it.  Mr. Drobina stated that Mr. Ellis has gone though the whole city and identified each tree, each address and caliper of tree.

 

  1. REPORTS.   

A.                 Street Tree Report

Mr. Drobina stated that January and February tree reports are attached.  Mr. Drobina continued that Mr. Ellis has been cutting trees down along the Diley Rd. corridor because South Central Power has to relocate the lines and we need to remove the trees. 

 

Mr. Drobina stated that Mr. Ellis has also counted the trees for the Spring planting which totals 125 trees to plant this Spring.  Mr. Goodrich asked which developments will get the trees and Mr. Drobina stated it would be scattered.   Mr. Goodrich asked when Spring planting would begin.  Mr. Drobina stated we would probably get prices from the landscaping companies next week.  He continued that if the weather stays nice it would probably be the first week of April.

 

Mr. Malone stated that they had talked earlier about replanting trees on Diley Rd. and the last he understood there was no money that was set aside for that.  Mr. Drobina stated that for the Diley Rd. project there was nothing earmarked for trees.  Mr. Malone asked if there had been any further attempt by the city to locate funds through ODOT for that.  Mr. Drobina stated not that he was aware of and that would be something you would want to do basically after the project ends.

 

Mr. Drobina stated the Mr. Ellis had three trees removed on Borland Street.

 

     6.    SCHEDULED MATTERS.

                  A.        Tree Preservation Update

Mr. Malone passed out a memo he wrote regarding the Proposed 376 Hill Rd. S (Heitmeyer) rezoning/development plan.  Mr. Malone stated the memo is in response to a proposal for a new development that is going to end up removing in the neighborhood of 345 trees from the site and this is with a fairly intensive tree preservation plan in place.  Ms. Carter asked if there was an ordinance for commercial development about having a certain set number of trees.  Mr. Malone stated in this case they will attempt to replace trees and will have to put a buffer of trees to screen Hill Rd. South.  Mr. Malone continued that we would have to negotiate a price with them because they have gone through and done a tree listing rather than have to pay for the privilege of removing those trees based on our ordinance. 

 

B.        Arboretum.

Mr. Drobina stated that Mr. Ellis has removed the tree guards from the trees but other than that nothing else is going on. 

 

  1. COMMUNICATION.  Mr. Malone asked the Tree Commission members to give a list of who wants to attend the Tree City USA program, which will be held at the Columbus Zoo on April 19, 2007.  Mr. Malone, Ms. Shelts, Ms. Carter and possibly Mr. McKinley will attend the gathering.  Mr. Malone explained to the high school students the importance of becoming a Tree City USA community. 

 

Mr. Malone stated we should discuss Arbor Day coming up next month on the last Friday of April, which will be April 27 this year.  Mr. Malone stated Margie Milnor, one of the original members of the Tree Commission passed away on March 9, 2007.  Mr. Malone stated that we did honor her while she was still alive with an award, but he would like to recognize Margie again in memory of her and all the work she has done.

 

Mr. Goodrich moved to nominate Margie Milnor to honor her on Arbor Day, Mr. McKinley seconded the motion.  Mr. Goodrich, Ms. Carter and Mr. McKinley voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 3-0.

 

Mr. Malone stated the need to find a scout troop of some sort willing to perform the flag ceremony for the Arbor Day celebration.  Ms. Shelts stated she would take care of that.  Mr. Drobina stated we would talk with the Mayors clerk about getting the Arbor Day Proclamation ready.  Mr. Malone asked about whether a tree had been picked for the Arbor Day planting.  Mr. Drobina stated that Mr. Ellis told him a tree has been picked, but he can’t remember the species name. 

 

 8.  OTHER BUSINESS

  1. Re-Appointments.   Mr. Malone stated that he has been on the Tree Commission since 1993 and there has to be a better way of doing the reappointments.  He continued when you fill things out in October and it takes until April before we actually get appointed, there is something broken in the system.  Mr. Malone stated that he understands that the committee that’s responsible for doing this had trouble getting a quorum together and missed a month or two of meetings but it still leaves the Tree Commission short 2 members for 3 months now, going on 4.    He said there has to be a better way of handling this.   Ms. Shelts asked if other committees were having this same lag.  Mr. Drobina stated they are.  Mr. Malone suggested starting the process 6 months in advance of their term expiring.  Mr. Drobina stated the city is unable to fill the position unless there’s a vacant position, so your position still could not be filled until it had expired.  Mr. Malone stated that in this case it’s not vacant positions but two renewals.   Mr. Drobina stated that even though you would probably be reappointed you still have to operate as if the position will be vacant.   Mr. Malone stated that’s true but the sooner we get it underway the sooner we find these things out.  Ms. Yartin stated that policy states if you are serving an unexpired term, then we do not advertise, we automatically reappoint that person if they want to serve a full term.  If you’re completing a term, we advertise and have to go to the Rules Committee and they make a recommendation to council who puts it on the consent agenda and then it has to have one reading of council.  The ordinance becomes effective 30 days after the reading.  Ms. Yartin stated that is by our charter.  Mr. Malone stated we have so many different staggered dates now that we are dealing with, we are going to be hitting this not just on an annual cycle but a couple times during the year.  Mr. Goodrich asked if Mr. Malone and Ms. Shelts have to be sworn back in.  Ms. Yartin stated they would be sworn in at Council next Tuesday. 

 

Mr. Drobina asked the Tree Commission how they would feel about quarterly meetings instead of monthly.  Mr. Goodrich stated he didn’t know if that would give them enough time.  He said every other month would be better.  Ms. Carter stated that we should share email addresses and in between working on the database we could email each other to stay up to date.  Mr. Malone asked if that was against the Sunshine requirements because it’s a type of working information instead of a formal type?  Mr. Drobina stated we could continue this discussion at our next meeting.

 

Ms. Shelts asked about litter in the community.  She stated that she has noticed the litter problem is really bad on Diley Rd. and wondered who takes care of that.  Mr. Drobina stated that we pick up some litter on 256 and on the right of ways.  He stated that it is usually picked up a few times a year.  Mr. Drobina stated that there are some groups in the Adopt a Road program that pick up trash along roadways several times a year.  Mr. Drobina stated he would check into it.

 

9.    ADJOURNMENT

            Their being nothing further, Mr. Goodrich moved to adjourn, Mr. McKinley seconded the motion.  Mr. Goodrich, Ms. Carter and Mr. McKinley voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 3-0.  The Tree Commission adjourned at 6:34 P.M. on March 14, 2007.

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

___________________________________

Diana Fuller, Administrative Assistant

 

 

_____________________________________

Ed Drobina, Service Manager