Meetings

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 Meeting Minutes

Attendees: David Seymour, Karen Cadorette, Brenda Cagle, Linda Keeling, Christina Staubi, Kathleen McArthur, Evelyn Krueger, Franceska Urbin, Mark Meritt

Open the Meeting

bulletChristina Staubi opened the meeting at 7:02 p.m.

Minutes of Last Meeting

bulletThe minutes from the December 16, 2003, meeting were accepted with no changes required.

Greens Committee (Brenda Cagle):

bulletGreens Committee strongly recommends they have the responsibility each year of determining which trees are planted, pruned, or cut down in the village. Nothing should be done to any tree without first going through the Greens Committee. David Seymour is currently the Village Trustee who is responsible for all tree-related activity. He agreed that he (or any Village Trustee that has this responsibility in the future) will work through the Village Green from this point forward to make these decisions. David will also go over this with the Village Board to see if there are any concerns.
bulletA “General Plan for Yearly Operation” was presented to the group. In general, we should be focusing on improving the health of the existing trees in the village before planting large numbers of new trees. As a result, we believe that yearly plans should be created based on the following priorities:
  1. Replace any trees that were cut down during the previous planting season (in accordance with the Red Hook Village Tree Ordinance).
  2. Plant any commemorative trees that were requested during the previous planting season.
  3. Ensure that at least 3-5 new trees are planted each season. Therefore, if 3-5 replacement or commemorative trees are not planted, then plant new trees.
  4. Address the pruning/maintenance needs of trees that were identified as needing “emergency maintenance”, which is maintenance required to ensure the survival of the tree or the safety of the village. Trees can be identified as needing emergency maintenance during our planned yearly arborist consult or throughout the year as necessary (for example, due to weather conditions, safety concerns, etc.)
  5. Address the routine pruning/maintenance needs of trees in the village.
  6. Each year, reinventory 20% of the village trees (which will be the trees in one of the five village tree zones). Consult with an arborist on those trees that require a professional opinion. Use this inventory and consult to form the action plan for the following year.
bulletBrenda will find an arborist to look at the trees that were flagged during our tree inventory this past fall. Trying to get 2 estimates.
bulletNeed to determine who will pay for the trees that requiring pruning this year. Will the Red Hook Village pay for it, or will it come from Village Green funds? David will investigate.
bulletBrenda is working on our Master Forestry Plan and a presentation about the plan. Waiting to receive copies of other management plans to use as examples so that we can create our plan in such a way that it would help us when applying for grants.
bullet13 trees were removed from the village this past fall. We will not be replacing 2 of the trees that were removed from Abraham’s Park and 2 trees that were removed from Memorial Park. Therefore, we will be replacing 9 trees in the spring.
bulletWe were reminded of goal to plant 1 tree in Abraham’s Park each year. Perhaps this should be reflected in our Master Forestry Plan.
bulletChristina Staubi will be maintaining the tree inventory database.
bulletKaren Cadorette will be maintaining the map that indicates where we plant new trees.
bulletBrenda will investigate offering a citizen pruning program in the spring.
bulletDavid will try and get the highway foremen to start attending some of our meetings in an effort to facilitate a better working relationship with the Village Green.
bulletNeed to investigate an ordinance requiring utility companies to get permission before they can start their pruning efforts.
bulletNeed to review the Village Green Tree Ordinance to see if any updates are required.
bulletNeed to start developing a relationship with Central Hudson so that their pruning efforts to do not interfere with our tree planting efforts. Perhaps they can attend a couple of our meetings. David and Christina will send them a letter and try to set up a meeting.

Communications Committee (Mark Meritt):

bulletWill publish an article thanking those who contributed to the “Bakeless Bake Sale”.
bulletFor the next water bill, thank those who contributed to the “Bakeless Bake Sale”, mention the dollar value of the trees in the village, and explain that our focus for 2004 will be on pruning and maintaining existing trees.
bulletBrenda will finalize the press release that discusses the Cornell tree inventory and our 2004 master forestry plan.
bulletMark will put an update in About Town.
bulletMark will also put the master plan on the website.
bulletMark to update the donor page on the website with the names of those who contributed for “Bakeless Bake Sale”.
bulletDave and Mark will meet with the webmaster to discuss the costs of maintaining our website and the possibility of getting visitation statistics for our website.
bullet2004 Kickoff Meeting:
bulletTentative date is Friday, March 19 at 7pm.
bulletStill need to come up with the invite list.
bulletPurpose of this meeting is to re-energize volunteers and get them to renew their commitment.

Fundraising Committee (Evelyn Krueger):

bulletWe are currently being charged $75 a month to have updates made to our website. Need to determine whether this cost is justified.
bulletFinancial status:
bulletTo date, we have received $832.00 from the “Bakeless Bake Sale”.
bulletOur Village Green fund totals $5446.90.
bulletOur village budget fund totals $1873.16.
bulletEvelyn is going to wait a while before approaching Dar Williams about doing a fundraiser for the Village Green. Dar is having a baby.
bulletEvelyn would like to come up with inexpensive thank-you notes for fundraisers, rather than using our letterhead stationary.

Additional Business

bulletReview status of to-do list
bulletA suggestion was made to add Marirose Blum Bump to distribution list for our monthly minutes.
bulletIn light of Governor Pataki’s State-of-the-State address, where one of his goals is to focus on planting trees in urban areas, Franceska will write a letter to him introducing the Village Green Committee, highlighting some of our accomplishments, and describing our goals. Maybe this will generate interest on his part and he will want to showcase our efforts.

Next Meeting

bulletTuesday, February 17, 2004, at 7pm in the Village Hall.

Motion to Close Meeting

bulletChristina made a motion to close the meeting at 8:44 p.m. Mark seconded the motion.

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