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01-10-18 Street Tree Committee MinutesKALISPELL STREET TREE COMMISSION MEETING HELD January 10, 2018 Present: Members: Terry Richmond, Judy Rosefeld Cox, Barb Anderson, Tony Nelson and Rick Moore Staff: Fred Bicha The meeting was officially called to order at 4:05 pm by Terry Richmond. Public Comment There was no one from the public or public comment. Approve Minutes Members unanimously approved the December 2017 minutes. Tabled Business Terry reminded members there were a couple items from the last meeting that were tabled. The first being the Tree Cycle event and also the proposal of working with Flathead Valley Community College. Members discussed the future of Tree Cycle, if it should continue, issues with the lack of media picking up the event in 2017, location and route or if the event should change to include seniors. Tony made a motion to give Tree Cycle one more go. The motion was seconded by Judy. All members voted in favor. Rick volunteered to help locate and pick trees. Judy made a motion to investigate if it would be feasible to have seniors participate and all members voted in favor. Members discussed methods of exploring the interest of seniors and checking with Eagle Transit or the trolley for a donation of services. Tony suggested a PA system on the tour bus so that seniors did not all have to get off the bus/trolley. Current Business Strategic Planning - Kalispell Urban Forest Committee Work Plan Fred explained to members that he was looking for a motion to approve the strategic plan document he had compiled based on the last meeting. Fred said he would be adding what they had just approved regarding the Tree Cycle. Fred gave an overview of the document, as a refresher and for members who were not at the last meeting. Fred informed members the document does list working with the Flathead Valley Community College. Fred told members he had checked into the Home and Garden show and the cost for a both is $600. Members agreed this is too expensive to consider, however the Farmer's Market at $90 for the season is still a consideration. Members discussed having a booth at Farmer's Market part time and not every Saturday it is open. Judy suggested that possibly one of the nurseries has a booth at the Home & Garden show and would be willing to hand out brochures on behalf of the committee and city. Terry said he thinks Doepker has a booth and it was agreed that he would be the perfect person to promote the 50150 program as he is the planting contractor. Fred said he would contact Doepker and check. Terry asked if members were ready to approve the Strategic Planning Document with the recommended changes. Tony moved to approve the Kalispell Urban Forest Committee Work Plan with the changes. Judy seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. Arbor Day — 2018 Planning Fred distributed copies of an Arbor Day planning document. He told members he had listed out tasks and was hoping members would review it and volunteer for tasks. Terry said he would be happy to handle the sponsorships again. Members commented he does a great job at it and thanked him. Terry told members if they have names of potential sponsors to please pass them along to him. Tony asked if anyone would like to help him with the environmental stations coordinating and Judy readily volunteered. Barb asked to take the school coordination. Barb said she will contact and work with Bette on this. Andrea was nominated to handle the food again. Members discussed how the pizza and food worked out well last year. Fred said food came to $2.75 a person last year. Fred said he would handle the t-shirts again. Rick said he would wrestle Dave Jones out of the woodwork to handle the logistics. Dave was nominated to handle logistics. Barb volunteered Vick to help Dave. Judy asked what type of volunteers are needed. Fred explained that last year was the first year to have volunteers and they mainly planted trees. Fred said the point of having volunteers is to expand Arbor Day to the adults. Fred said he'd like to see groups like Park Side Credit Union and others who aren't passionate about and don't have knowledge of trees being approached to volunteer. Terry suggested The Young Professionals and Judy asked about the gardening club. Fred suggested the Garden Club come and lead a project in the garden beds at Woodland Park and the group look for volunteers to help staff their efforts. Fred said he had ordered 20 trees, however they didn't all need to be planted in Woodland that day. Fred said DNRC volunteers are instrumental in making the tree planting happen and are always welcome. Rick mentioned last year it was easy for DNRC to volunteer as they could walk over. Rick said he would take the lead on volunteers and Barb offered Vick's help with volunteers. Fred said he would take the media task. Judy agreed to take the Community Outreach task of asking the brewery to give away a tree seedling with every pint sold on Arbor Day. Fred told members he would start sending them documents related to the tasks they volunteered to handle. Terry said he would work off last year's budget. Terry suggested that this year he would hand deliver the thank you's with t-shirts to save the cost of postage. Members discussed the top three logos designed by the high school students, asking members to critique them so he could provide feedback to the students for revisions. Members made suggestions that Fred will forward to the students. Fred told members the vote will be done by email as the class will be over soon. Field Up Date Fred gave the update as Dusty was still in a flagging class. Fred told members that Dusty and crew are still working on 7I' Ave W and it is going well. Fred said he and Dusty have not had an opportunity to work on putting together a tree pruning workshop yet. Fred stated that Dudley is just finishing up pruning of the "duck streets" and has pruned approximately 400 small trees. Fred said he almost has the contract signed for removal of 90 large trees around town. Fred explained this is the biggest winter contract the city has and the trees are dead or hazard trees. Fred said half of the trees on the list were identified through the contracted partial inventory update. Fred said that the contract for the 90 trees removed is $72,500 and includes stump grinding. Fred explained there were three bids and that the local Whitefish Tree Service bid was the lowest. Misc. Fred and members discussed a boulevard tree that was hit by a city snow plow. Fred said he was informed and would be inspecting the tree in early spring to access damage. Fred also told members that Public Works seems willing to pay for the replacement if necessary. Terry questioned the next meeting being scheduled for February 14I' on Valentine's Day. Members agreed this would not be a conflict and agreed to meet. There was no other business and the meeting adjourned at 5:00 pm. Approved unanimously at the February 14, 2018 meeting.