PICKERINGTON TREE COMMISSION
CITY HALL, 100
LOCKVILLE ROAD
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST
22, 2007
TREE COMMISSION
WORK SESSION
6:00 P.M.
The following Tree Commission members were present: Mr. Goodrich, Mr. Malone, Ms. Carter and Ms. Shelts. Others present were: Edward Drobina, Diana Fuller and one resident.
Ms. Shelts stated she has no problem with the first paragraph. It was agreed to leave the first paragraph as is.
The resident stated that he feels that the structure of the implementation of this plan is to react to the threat of the Ash Borer as it is coming. Ms. Carter stated that we are not able to control the movement of firewood into the city. The resident stated that we don’t want to tax the public funds by contracting 3rd party vendors to take down Ash trees and asked if we would use our own in-house people. Mr. Malone stated that staff does, on an as needed basis, remove existing trees as problems come up like wind damage, etc. Mr. Malone stated we do have that as a constant state of our regular trees.
Ms. Carter stated she feels that if the Emerald Ash Borer spreads within a ½ mile radius we should focus on removing the trees on the outskirts of town and work our way in. Ms. Carter stated that the way it’s worded now is the hazards first, trees in failing health and then the youngest trees. Mr. Drobina stated that we really shouldn’t put a time limit on replacing all the Ash trees because there is no way to know when or if the Emerald Ash Borer will arrive. Mr. Goodrich stated he feels it will eventually reach us but we shouldn’t put a time frame on it because we don’t know what the City’s budget will be in the future. Ms. Shelts asked how the sentence should be reworded taking the time frame out of the sentence.
Mr. Drobina asked if we even want the word replace in the sentence. Mr. Drobina stated it could read – the city would remove the ash trees on public streets as they become diseased and leave it at that. Ms. Shelts stated she would feel more comfortable leaving the word replace in the sentence because Gregg does replace trees that are damaged. Ms. Carter asked if we want to remove them as they become infected or before. Ms. Carter stated if we just remove the trees around the perimeter of Pickerington then there would be less chance for the Emerald Ash Borer to reach the trees in the subdivisions. Ms. Shelts stated she has a wait and see philosophy. Mr. Goodrich stated that we should decide whether to follow Upper Arlington or Granville’s plan. Mr. Goodrich stated that the purpose of this plan is to allow the City to have a plan in place so it does not bankrupt the city if it should become infected. Mr. Goodrich stated that our wording has to make that the primary focus. Ms. Carter asked how much the Urban Forestry could afford to spend each year. Mr. Drobina stated that he feels it will have to be a General Fund expenditure not an Urban Forestry expenditure.
Mr. Drobina stated we should state that the city has started a database showing an inventory of the trees and where the trees are. Ms. Carter stated we know the streets and subdivisions that the trees are on. Mr. Malone stated we should have a couple of sentences before we get into the specifics of the plan to show we are using information that we have and are willing to go back and review that as we go along.
Mr. Goodrich stated he thinks we need a separate section at the top titled “Approach”. Mr. Goodrich stated that is where we will explain how we are developing the database. Mr. Goodrich stated everyone should be clear on what the idea is to start with. In other words, are we going to mass clear-cut or are we taking only a back approach. Mr. Goodrich stated public needs to be able to look at that and be able to say okay, they’re not going to come through and take out every ash tree they see. Mr. Malone stated he agrees that we need to get back to the idea of explaining the first step in the process and then work from that to the particulars. Mr. Malone stated the first two sentences under Public Streets are very specific. He stated the sentence could read - the city will remove and replace all diseased ash trees on public streets.”
4. PRIVATE PROPERTY.
Mr. Malone stated that the first sentence should be clarified to state that if the tree is a hazard to the city we could require them to take it out. Mr. Drobina stated we should list an Ordinance No. that explains this. Mr. Drobina stated the sentence stating the city will take down trees on private property need to be taken out. The city is not allowed to do work on private property. Mr. Malone stated it should say - if you have any questions about them contact your city arborist or Tree Commission to get information.
5. WOOD DISPOSAL
Mr. Goodrich stated the second sentence should be taken out. Ms. Carter stated it should be replaced with a reference to find agriculture information, either the location on the Internet or a phone number.
6. POSTPONED WORK
It was agreed to add the word resources and to leave the rest of the paragraph as is.
7. BUDGETING
It was agreed to remove the whole paragraph dealing with budgeting.
8. COMMUNICATION
It was agreed to remove this whole category.
9. ADJOURNMENT.
Their being nothing further, the Tree Commission work session closed at 7:25 PM.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
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Diana Fuller, Administrative Assistant
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Edward Drobina, Service Manager