CITY OF PICKERINGTON

TREE COMMISSION

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2007

REGULAR MEETING

6:00 P.M.

 

  1. ROLL CALL.  Ms. Shelts called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M., with roll call as follows:  Mr. Goodrich, Mr. Malone, Ms. Carter, and Ms. Shelts were present.   Mr. McKinley was absent.  Others present:  Gregg Ellis, Diana Fuller, Andrew Bushman, and several high school students.

 

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES of October 10, 2007, Regular Meeting.  Ms. Carter moved to approve; Mr. Malone seconded the motion.   Mr. Goodrich, Mr. Malone, Ms. Carter, and Ms. Shelts voted “Aye”.  Motion carried, 4-0.

 

  1. COMMUNITY COMMENTS.  Andrew Bushman stated he had a project he wanted to present.  He stated he is with Venture Crew 1147 and he is planning to do an Eagle Scout project to replace the trees along Lockville Rd. that were removed.  He continued that he talked with the Arborist and got a brochure that explains how to plant the trees.  Andrew stated that originally there were trees along Lockville Road and they were removed 4 years ago to put in sidewalks and were never replaced.  He stated that he has talked with Mr. Bernie Fleming of Keller Farms and he has offered to possibly donate trees.  He stated Mr. Fleming has helped him plan out where the trees should be planted and they decided they needed 13 trees to replace the ones missing.  Ms. Shelts asked if Keller Farms is donating the 13 threes.  Andrew stated they are willing to donate all the trees and some of them are on order.  He continued that he would call OUPS to have the utility lines marked.  Andrew stated the plan is to install the trees the last week of November or the first week of December.  He stated the trees he is planting are Ornamental Flowering Crabapple trees and he passed out information about them.  Andrew stated he has already talked with the Safety Committee who approved his plan.  Ms. Shelts asked if he knows the size of the tree.  Andrew stated they are not tall at all and wouldn’t interfere with the power lines.  Ms. Shelts stated it would definitely be best to call OUPS and make sure there are no underground lines.   Ms. Carter asked why the trees were taken down and not replaced.  Mr. Ellis stated they had moved them along the creek and were going to bring them back but they were there several years and a lot of them died and they never replaced them.   Ms. Shelts stated he might want to let the neighborhood newspapers know about what his is doing for the community.

 

Ms. Shelts asked if there was a motion to allow Andrew Bushman to proceed with his Eagle Scout project to plant 13 trees along Lockville Road.  Mr. Malone moved to approve; Mr. Goodrich seconded the motion.  Mr. Goodrich, Mr. Malone, Ms. Carter, and Ms. Shelts voted “Aye”.    Motion carried 4-0. 


 

  1. REPORTS.   

A.                 Street Tree Report

Ms. Shelts asked if there has been any more vandalism at the Arboretum.  Mr. Ellis stated there has not.  Ms. Shelts asked if the tree tags were replaced.  Mr. Ellis stated he was waiting to hear if there was another type of tag that would be harder to vandalize to put by the trees.  Ms. Carter stated Mr. McKinley is checking into the different types of tags. 

 

Ms. Shelts asked if the city took the Ash trees out at the Indian Mounds.  Mr. Ellis stated there were a couple of dead trees but the owner took the trees out.    Ms. Shelts asked if the Ash trees had been infected by the Emerald Ash Borer.  Mr. Ellis stated the trees had been dead for a long time and not infected by the Emerald Ash Borer.

 

Mr. Goodrich asked if the trees had been ordered for the fall planting.  Mr. Ellis stated we contracted for about 125 trees to be planted.  He stated they should come in and be planted Thanksgiving week.

 

Mr. Malone asked what the water drainage problem in Simsbury Park is about.  Mr. Ellis stated there was a new drive put in which caused a drainage problem so the trees had to be cleared out.  Mr. Malone asked if that was a permanent situation.  Mr. Ellis stated that it is. 

 

     5.    SCHEDULED MATTERS.

                  A.        Tree Preservation Update

Mr. Malone stated he met with the folks proposing development of the Good property across the railroad, north side of the railroad tracks from Willow Pond.  He stated Mr. Ellis and himself took a look at what they are proposing to do across the street from the Ricketts up towards the existing apartments there.  Mr. Malone stated it would cover a fair land area but the main tree issues are along the stream.   Mr. Malone stated the trees along the railroad itself sort of screen it now but will be removed if they have to do some grading along there.  Mr. Malone stated they met to take a look at those concerns and posed that to the developer back when they first submitted this plan.  Mr. Malone stated their biggest concern is the stream because, to the City’s credit, they have a stream buffer that you are not supposed to get within a certain distance of the stream.  He stated that as it turns out the trees themselves aren’t very close to the stream and do not extend from the full buffer area so it is quite possible that a variance could be given for work within 50 feet of the stream without disturbing the trees.  Mr. Malone stated that one of the suggestions they gave to the developer to consider was a) putting a bike trail in along the west side of the stream, or b) that they might offer to plant trees on that side and they seemed very interested in that possibility.  Ms. Shelts asked if they would do both.  Mr. Malone stated that they probably would.  He continued that the trail is something that’s supposed to be a part of all subdivisions.   Mr. Goodrich stated that he believes Willow Pond has been set up to have that.  Ms. Shelts asked about the drainage issues.  Mr. Malone stated if they follow through with what we’ve talked about we should be in pretty good shape as far as the stream goes.  Ms. Shelts asked if trees would be lost along the railroad tracks because she appreciates them for aesthetics and also for the noise.  Mr. Malone stated you would have to plant several hundred yards of Evergreen trees very close together to get any kind of screening from the noise.  Mr. Malone stated it would behoove them to leave as many trees as they can.  Mr. Malone stated they were instructed to take these ideas in consideration and come back with a proposal to address our issues.  Ms. Shelts asked if they had given an initial proposal of planting.  Mr. Malone stated most of this was related more to clearing and building specs and they had not had their landscapers come yet.

 

B.                 Tree Data Base

Ms. Carter stated she is working on it and will send more information to Mr. Goodrich.

 

C.                 Arboretum.

Mr. Shelts stated there has been no new vandalisms and Mr. McKinley is checking on replacing the signage that was vandalized.

 

                 D.          Emerald Ash Borer

Mr. Shelts explained to the students about the Preparedness Plan created to address the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer in Pickerington.

 

Mr. Malone explained to the students the testing of the Ash trees that the Dept. of Agriculture is doing and the order in which the city would remove the Ash trees.

 

E.            City Beautification Campaign.

Nothing to report.

 

6.  COMMUNICATION.  Nothing to report.

 

7.  OTHER BUSINESS.  Nothing to report.

 

8.    ADJOURNMENT

            Their being nothing further, Mr. Goodrich moved to adjourn, Mr. Malone seconded the motion.  Mr. Goodrich, Mr. Malone, Ms. Carter, and Ms. Shelts voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 4-0.  The Tree Commission adjourned at 6:34 P.M. on November 14, 2007.

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

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Diana Fuller, Administrative Assistant

 

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Ed Drobina, Service Manager