This transcript belongs to the **Oakdale Tree Board** meeting held on January 17, 2023. [00:00] **Nick Cantola:** Your fried wood just like everybody but Nick here—I think we're on. Let's turn 35, so slowly petrifying. Yeah, double that uh on Sunday, so there you go. What's up over? I don't know. Well then we should probably... should we call this meeting to order? Um, I don't remember what I have to do for that, it's been so long. Uh, do you just have to call the meeting to order? And then I'm gonna... I'm gonna call the January 17th meeting of the Tree Board to order. First on the agenda is Pledge of Allegiance, so we should be that part time. [00:45] **Nick Cantola:** All right everyone, pardon the hat here, I'm not putting it back on. There you go. All right, so roll call. I'm just gonna go with the order that I've got here on the minutes from last time: Kathy Schrifels? [01:00] **Kathy Schrifels:** Here. [01:01] **Nick Cantola:** Mike Sarla? [01:02] **Mike Sarla:** Here. [01:03] **Nick Cantola:** Dallas Pearson? [01:04] **Dallas Pearson:** Here. [01:05] **Nick Cantola:** Nick Cantola? Here. Glenn Giacoletto? [01:07] **Glenn Giacoletto:** Here. [01:08] **Nick Cantola:** Marge Seikstetter? [01:09] **Marge Seikstetter:** Here. [01:10] **Nick Cantola:** Stan Karwaski? [01:11] **Stan Karwaski:** Here. [01:12] **Nick Cantola:** Mike Bender? [01:13] **Mike Bender:** Here. [01:14] **Nick Cantola:** Uh, Lauren Coda also here, City Forester. And Deb Muller, our liaison from the Master Gardeners for the county. We do not have is who's going to be our Council liaison—is it still gonna be Mayor Zabel? [01:30] **Lauren Coda:** So, I last I was told... at I'm not sure if it was a workshop or what it got discussed, they didn't have one yet. They were gonna later this month, I think they're going to make a determination. But I was told that somebody would be here today for it, but I guess not. So later this month I think Council is acting on who to make our liaison. [01:55] **Nick Cantola:** All right, well then next up is the election of Chair and Vice Chair members. [02:00] **Kathy Schrifels:** So I nominate Nick Cantola for Chair. [02:03] **Nick Cantola:** Then do I hear any other nominations? Do we need to vote then? [02:07] **Lauren Coda:** We do not if it's just one. Yeah, you do need to vote. We don't need to do a paper ballot if it's just one. [02:15] **Kathy Schrifels:** A motion to close the nominations for position of Chair? [02:18] **Stan Karwaski:** So moved. [02:19] **Mike Sarla:** Second. [02:20] **Nick Cantola:** Okay, um then uh all in favor of approving the motion to elect me as Chair again? [02:25] **Board Members:** Aye. [02:26] **Nick Cantola:** All right, any opposed? Okay, on to Vice Chair. [02:30] **Nick Cantola:** Then uh motion to nominate board member Seikstetter for the position of Vice Chair? [02:35] **Kathy Schrifels:** Second. [02:36] **Nick Cantola:** The motion is yours. [02:38] **Kathy Schrifels:** I think we need a first. [02:39] **Nick Cantola:** I moved that. That was my motion. [02:41] **Kathy Schrifels:** That was your motion, we're good. [02:43] **Nick Cantola:** Anybody else want to make a nomination? [02:45] **Marge Seikstetter:** Thank you. Why don't you know what I'm getting into? [02:47] **Nick Cantola:** I don't think... Can I get a motion to close the nominations? [02:50] **Mike Sarla:** So moved. [02:51] **Stan Karwaski:** Second. [02:52] **Nick Cantola:** Thank you Mike. All right, all in favor of board member Seikstetter as Vice Chair for the next term? [03:00] **Board Members:** Aye. [03:01] **Nick Cantola:** All opposed? Congratulations, Marge. [03:03] **Marge Seikstetter:** Thank you, I'm glad to be here. [03:05] **Nick Cantola:** We are on to the next one. Um, so we have two sets of minutes to approve. We have June 21st, 2022, which I was not at, and September 20th, 2022, which I was. Does anybody have any amendments to those minutes? All right, we are flying. Can I get a motion to approve those minutes? [03:25] **Stan Karwaski:** I move to approve the June 21st, 2022 as presented. [03:28] **Mike Sarla:** Second. [03:29] **Nick Cantola:** All in favor? Any opposed? Can I get a motion to approve September 20th? [03:35] **Dallas Pearson:** I moved to approve as presented the September 20th, 2022 approved minutes. [03:40] **Kathy Schrifels:** Second. [03:41] **Nick Cantola:** All in favor of approving? [03:43] **Board Members:** Aye. [03:44] **Nick Cantola:** All opposed? So moved. Then we're on to Old Business. Lauren, you have an update on Arbor Day for this upcoming season for us—the tree giveaway? [03:55] **Lauren Coda:** Uh, yes. So I can't seem to get a fruit tree this year. Um, okay they do have some plums, but all the edible plums I found were not in this zone. So I just... I can't come up with a fruit tree this year. I mean, technically that Honey Locust is a fruit tree... well, the public probably won't think that. I wouldn't eat that fruit if you wanted, it's not good. And I'm having trouble finding an evergreen as well. But I mean, this is the more tree-like one. I mean they do have enough Techny Arborvitaes as well, but that's a little smaller. I'm kind of a tree guy, I'd just as soon get a bigger one, but if you guys want to go with the Techny, I will, or not at all. I've got enough deciduous trees on here that we can give four deciduous trees away too. So what I'm looking for today is we need to... I want to get a direction from you on what species you guys want to have at the Arbor Day celebration. [04:55] **Nick Cantola:** Does anybody have strong opinions one way or the other? [05:00] **Lauren Coda:** On the pyramidal Arborvitae, when we have snow like we had a couple weeks ago, they get damaged really bad because most of them are multi-stemmed and they just... they'll end up on the ground. Techny can handle it a lot better than pyramidal can. [05:15] **Kathy Schrifels:** And I support that because I like the idea of a smaller shrub—almost more shrub-like than a tree. Like, I know it's not a "tree" board thing, but I just think more homeowners are going to have space for a Techny. [05:25] **Lauren Coda:** So if you guys want an evergreen, I can switch to Technys because there was enough Technys for us to give Technys away. [05:32] **Nick Cantola:** Be on board with that too. What do you guys think? Anybody opposed to that? Please give people an evergreen option. [05:40] **Dallas Pearson:** Just one question Lauren, since you have... have you already presented this to the growers so they were aware of it? So if you go back for a different one, will you need us to authorize an alternate so you can actually do things properly? [05:52] **Lauren Coda:** Well, these two Arborvitaes were the only ones I found, and I just found them on Friday, so I don't think I'll have any trouble getting them. But I just want to know if you needed an alternate authorized for you, that's all. Potential that they'll all be gone when I try to sign up for them tomorrow, but I kind of doubt it. And I really didn't see any good alternatives other than these two. Well, they were all little globes and spreadings and I don't... I mean, homeowners would love them, but is that something the Tree Board should be giving away? I don't know. I mean they're all lignified, it'd be fine. And if you guys want to do that, I'm okay with following that direction. You can't get any of the upright Arborvitaes, I think I would just as soon go with four deciduous broadleaf trees, but that's just me and I'm... my opinion can be changed. [06:40] **Stan Karwaski:** I wouldn't have that issue either. I mean, I've said for many years that Technys are over-planted and I think one of these years something's going to come in and affect Techny. So I would agree, if you can't get those, I would just do with the four. I would support the judgment on those. [07:00] **Nick Cantola:** I actually had a horrible idea of some type that took a beating during these heavy snows, but I believe many many years ago we added a Pine tree more officially. So some sort of Pine. And as Dallas pointed out, it would be nice to offer up some flexibility of an alternate on a Pine tree. I think it was really popular to have an alternative. So I'd support giving some flexibility beyond that Techny. [07:25] **Lauren Coda:** So if I may, this year when Baileys sent out their bare root availability, I ordered the day it came out and there just weren't any Pines or Furs. I try to get Balsam Furs every year; I just... they didn't have anything. Or the fruit trees, they just didn't have much for fruit trees either. [07:45] **Nick Cantola:** Interesting. That's because of the pandemic, everybody bought maybe? [07:48] **Lauren Coda:** And I mean that was back in August. If we had to do a Spruce, they have those. They had some Black Hills Spruce, yes. In the interest they had Norway Spruce as well. [08:00] **Nick Cantola:** I mean, I'd ten times out of ten would prefer a Norway Spruce to a Black Hills Spruce, right? If that's something we wanted, I can look for Norway Spruce if we wanted to do a conifer of some kind. That'd be all right. Like they don't have the same disease pressure as a lot of other spruce trees do. Like there's a Blue Spruce, just it's gonna die. Great, those have the same assets—it's going to be Lirula and mites and all that great stuff. Different diseases but same problems. All right, I'll prioritize Norway Spruce and then Black Spruce after that just because I do think people would like to have a conifer option. Sorry to make more work for you. [08:42] **Lauren Coda:** Nope, that's fine. Okay, or when I say Black Spruce I mean Black Hills, right, so it's a White Spruce. Yes, White Spruce. I know what you meant, thanks. You don't want Black Spruce. Okay, so I think I have good direction on that. [08:58] **Lauren Coda:** Let's welcome City Council—oh yes, new Mayor! For an update? [09:03] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Not yet, I don't think. Let's finish this and then we'll come back to an update. I'm in no rush, whenever whenever we have time. [09:10] **Nick Cantola:** Yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge that. Thank you, the Mayor. I missed that, I'm sorry. [09:14] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** No problem. No, I waved at you but that was about it. [09:16] **Lauren Coda:** Um, other than that, let's see—so we were at Old Business, Arbor Day. So the date is... hang on, I got a calendar here. I think it's the 29th. I lost my calendar already. So last Friday in April is Arbor Day. We always have our celebration the first Saturday after that. [09:35] **Board Member:** 28th? [09:36] **Lauren Coda:** Okay, April 28th is Arbor Day. And then I'm planning on going with the same times we had last year which I think was 9:30 to 11:30. If I remember right, well if it comes down to it I'm still working on tablets or whatnot or the double line thing. If it comes down to it I do have the headsets that I'll bring and we have five headsets that my tree crew uses. So we can have one person at a table checking off a list and two people on each side of the line. So I need... if we start at 9:30 I need you there at nine o'clock. Council wouldn't have to show up till... well no, nine. If you show up at 9:15 that'll be enough for a quick rundown. And 9:15 for Council as well. [10:25] **Lauren Coda:** The tree bags—the new receptionist at Public Works has some ideas, I just haven't hooked her together with City Hall yet to discuss them. So we're going to keep moving towards that. Hopefully we'll see what happens, but I can get them for like 17 to 18 dollars a piece. So I'm gonna keep pushing forward, we'll see what happens. [10:45] **Nick Cantola:** Sure be nice with these drought years. [10:48] **Lauren Coda:** And I think that's about all I have for Arbor Day. [10:52] **Stan Karwaski:** I have a question on that. The White Oaks, is there any plans on sweating them? [10:56] **Lauren Coda:** We usually sweat them at the Public Works facility. We get them usually like the Thursday a week and a half, maybe Wednesday a week and a half before the event, and we throw them under plastic in our building. [11:10] **Kathy Schrifels:** So Lauren, is the arbor tree going to be online so everybody will pre-register? [11:14] **Lauren Coda:** And yes, it'll be online again, pre-registration. And that's what we're trying to hook up that purchasing watering bags on that same system. I just don't know if I can get it to happen still, but it sounds more promising than it used to. So I'm pushing forward on it. But yep, it'll be online, there'll be possibly 15-minute sign-up slots. I still have to discuss it with City Hall if they wanna go with 30-minute sign-up slots or 15-minute sign-up slots. [11:45] **Nick Cantola:** But yeah, yeah, I think the consensus was that the pouring rain messed up the time slots. People just came when they felt convenient rather than... [11:55] **Lauren Coda:** Right. Hopefully it'll be a little more smoother. Yeah, I... if the weather's better I'm sure it will be. That was the first time that a lot of people came out of their time slots and I think it was the weather. But I'm going to be prepared with at least the headset, so if we have to have dual lines you won't have to cross traffic at all. Anybody have any other questions about Arbor Day? [12:20] **Kathy Schrifels:** Can I just ask Deb, will we plan to have the Master Gardeners and have a booth then? Probably that 9:30 to 11:30 as well in the back? [12:28] **Deb Muller:** That's a good question. [12:29] **Lauren Coda:** Um, we need at least four just to be safe. Just so I can if it comes... yeah, I mean we'd probably be better off with six. [12:40] **Kathy Schrifels:** And how do we get the little trees? Are they from the DNR or the Watershed? [12:45] **Lauren Coda:** So last year I actually bought them because we could not get DNR seedlings. Two years now we've had trouble getting DNR seedlings. They've had some nursery disease issues and the pandemic no help to get them out of the ground, that kind of thing. We'll see how this year goes. I ordered enough seedlings again this year to not have to utilize the DNR. But it's if we get them in time—last year we got them just in time. So we'll see. I order them from Washington Conservation District as well as I order some from Schumacher's Berry Farm, which I think is where Washington County gets them as well. [13:20] **Kathy Schrifels:** Well, those go over really well and people like them, you know? And they come up to that tent and... [13:25] **Lauren Coda:** Yeah, and it worked well to get people to stop at the Master Gardener station. And I'm hoping to use that same thing with the water bags—I've been hoping the people checking people in will give some kind of a token to them and they'll pick the water bags up at the Master Gardener station. [13:40] **Nick Cantola:** We're good. Um, we've had Cub Scouts there the last couple years. [13:45] **Lauren Coda:** Yes, and they usually call me in the spring just before. So I don't know for sure if they'll be there. I try to accommodate them if I can. [13:55] **Nick Cantola:** Be worth reaching out to some local tree companies to see if they want to send out representatives too? [14:00] **Lauren Coda:** Um, I... it wouldn't be a bad idea. Do you have some suggestions for me who I should contact? [14:05] **Nick Cantola:** Yeah, I mean I'm happy to reach out to people too. [14:07] **Lauren Coda:** Yeah, you could do that. I don't have a problem with that. [14:10] **Kathy Schrifels:** Okay, well one year we also talked about having Gopher... Gopher State... is it One Call? Somebody from... is it Excel? Or I don't know who runs that program, but the state, you know, to remind people to call. [14:22] **Lauren Coda:** Yeah, Gopher One. Is that... am I... yep. Gopher One. Yeah, call before you dig. [14:27] **Kathy Schrifels:** I think that would be great to remind people to, you know, call before they dig. [14:32] **Nick Cantola:** Yeah, I can reach out to them Lauren. And if you want any of us to make these phone calls to help with your workload, we'd be glad to do it. [14:38] **Lauren Coda:** Okay, if you want to assign us, literally delegate... yeah, delegate please feel free. All right, okay, I will... you're volunteers, I will get back at you with that if I need that. Sure. Okay. [15:00] **Lauren Coda:** Then next up is New Business: Spring Planting. If I may, spring planting dates. I don't know how I lost my calendar already, I had a printout. So I was... I had a hard time getting all the plants last year for our spring planting, so I wanted to push it back after Mother's Day this year. But that was now I'm starting to think I want to go a different way and plant some trees, so it wouldn't matter when we do it. If... I guess we can go to the overhead. I did add this to your packet, you have it with you. [15:40] **Lauren Coda:** So on the "Growing Shade"—I don't know if I think I've mentioned the Growing Shade application in the past. The Met Council partnered with a couple other agencies on the Growing Shade app or program. They have an environmental justice portion which is basically low-income areas. And our highest environmental justice area is that northeast quadrant of 40th Street and Highway 120 (Minnesota 120). And that voting environmental justice area is a voting district and there's a pretty significant canopy cover on the neighborhood including that voting district. So it's got one of the highest canopy covers in Oakdale actually, it's like 37 percent canopy cover. But it's according to Growing Shade it's still an environmental justice area, and I presume it's because of the Section 8 housing there. [16:40] **Lauren Coda:** So I propose that, you know, we could plant a lot of trees there. Those green tabs there are spaced 50 feet apart, so we could put 29 trees on that road right-of-way right there. And since we're a Tree Board, I'm thinking maybe we should plant trees instead of plants. The other thing is City Hall is asking me to redo the planting, the native planting around the front doors of the Discovery Center. They want it to be a little lower and a little more inviting for the front doors and the spring... or the planting around the flagpole, the Nature Preserve sign out by Hadley Avenue there at the entrance. So we could use that and have a spring planting. There's really no... there might be a little bit of room for trees around the front sign, they'd have to be under the power line trees so they'd be smaller stature trees. But that's something, I mean we could have that as a spring planting as well. And then there's the other idea coming back to Walton Park here—there's still a few areas I'd like to redo at Walton Park here. But anyway, my preference is the environmental justice area tree planting. So if you could give me some direction on which way you guys want to go tonight on that, that would be helpful. [18:05] **Kathy Schrifels:** Can I ask at Walton Park what what were your thoughts? [18:08] **Lauren Coda:** So there's an oak tree we removed from from the Veterans Memorial out here off of Hadley, which is just wood chips underneath it. There's a rock border. We've added a bunch of good soil there, removed that oak and there's nothing growing underneath it. I thought we could put a bunch of natives underneath that. And along the tot lot there's a planting that's low-grow Arborvitaes that's pretty nasty... some of that kind of stuff. [18:35] **Kathy Schrifels:** I have noticed that and I was actually wondering about planting some trees in there for shade around that lot because it's so hot in the summer and no shade for us parents and grandparents. [18:45] **Lauren Coda:** So there's some rules against how close trees can be to tot lot places these days. I'd have to check with the Park Superintendent to make sure. We might have to be two trees across the path maybe. [18:55] **Kathy Schrifels:** Okay, okay. Well thanks for clarifying that, it helps to weigh the options then. [19:00] **Board Member:** Would the city have to buy the trees for the number one, your preference? [19:05] **Lauren Coda:** I would... we would invest in those trees, but the Tree Board has a budget and I use that Tree Board budget to buy for the spring planting every year. [19:15] **Board Member:** Great, great. And that wouldn't be all the same trees, right? [19:18] **Lauren Coda:** We would have... no mixture, correct. Monocultures are always good, right? And a lot of those trees will cover my EAB plantings. I give residents an option when we cut down their ash tree on the boulevard—if they don't want the replacement tree, I'm going to put it somewhere else. And this is an area where I could put many of those trees. [19:40] **Kathy Schrifels:** So if we did the number one spot, where would we meet and where would we eat? [19:45] **Lauren Coda:** That is a tough question, I haven't thought too much about it. The two roads to the east, there's a lot of parking on those roads actually. One of them here, Gershwin, and the other one is Goodwin I think. There's a lot of parking on those roads where we could park for the event and then we could drive back to the Discovery Center for lunch. We might lose more people that way between the planting and lunch, right? But if we had a takeaway lunch... or a takeaway lunch, yeah. [20:15] **Stan Karwaski:** Mr. Chair, these planning ideals I think are great ideals. The one here on the multi-housing along 40th Street, right across the street is the park. Oh, that is... you're ready! There's a pretty good-sized parking lot there. And I'm trying to go by memory—there may even be a little bit of a shelter, you know? But regardless, there's probably some picnic tables and such. What I was going to say, I believe the county has an investment in here through the CDA, and it... you could reach out and say "Hey we're doing a planting project," maybe they would contribute some money. I'm not privy to once they make the investment in the housing if it becomes all of a private sector, but it's worth asking. And it'd be too worth checking the... I assume you'd get their blessing? It's in an easement area, but... [21:15] **Lauren Coda:** Yeah, I haven't reached out to management at the apartment complex yet but I plan on doing it. [21:20] **Stan Karwaski:** Yeah, what I found is this site has a lot of relative green space compared to most affordable housing, so this would be a great addition. And there's statistics that if you add greenery and trees that improves people's quality of life. So I think it's really important in a multi-family area to kind of provide some greenery. That'd be a nice addition and it it would always beautify the street and the other surrounding neighborhoods. So the other areas are good too, so thank you. [21:55] **Marge Seikstetter:** Is there going to be any issues like with power lines or I mean anything underground utilities right there? [22:00] **Lauren Coda:** There may be utility issues underground, I'm not sure. About power lines, I don't think there are, but there may be underground utility issues that we will have to... we might not get to squeeze in 29 trees because we have to work around some things. I don't know, I'll have to do locates for the site and figure that out. [22:20] **Nick Cantola:** Doesn't look like there's lines in the aerial photo, but there's also a big blue line in the way so it's possible you traced it and it covered it. Well, I support... I just like to, you know, voice my support for this plan. I agree with the environmental justice piece of it and I think that's a great idea. And then maybe we could plan right ahead for doing this other... out at the Oakdale Park and the Discovery Center entryway and you know, because that's going to take some design work, which this is more a little more straightforward right? To just order the trees, plant them. The other one we could be working on this year, the design, and it's a little more complex. So plan for that for 2024. [23:05] **Lauren Coda:** Yeah. And then Stan's right, that Goosebump Park across the street from this one looks like it'd be an ideal spot to like park and have lunch or whatever. Good, and I think it does have a pavilion if I remember right. I don't know if the pavilion has power, but that shouldn't be an issue the way we're dealing with lunch these days. Look it up, it's got ball fields, parking. [23:30] **Board Member:** Yeah, there's ball fields. We play some kickball afterwards, it'd be fun. Soccer. [23:35] **Lauren Coda:** If it doesn't have a pavilion I can always set up tents. [23:40] **Nick Cantola:** Line—it's not so evident on your picture, but you can sort of see an orange line. It looks like a like broken-up concrete but it's not. The walkway... do you have any idea? Is there a sidewalk? [23:55] **Lauren Coda:** And it's not in... it's a private sidewalk, it's not in the road right-of-way. [24:00] **Nick Cantola:** Okay, but this is to the north... to the north of that of the walkway on Google Maps anyway. You can see it more clearly, but there's the sidewalk that's along near the road and there's this looks like broken up concrete. There's a lot... it's an orange line. [24:15] **Lauren Coda:** So north of 40th Street you're saying? [24:18] **Nick Cantola:** It's on the north side of 40th Street by the apartments. You got the roadway, you've got the sidewalk, then you've got this line of something, I don't know what it is but... so it looks like, you know, that that may be something that... to my knowledge it's roadway, grass, then there's a private sidewalk and then more grass and then this object. [24:40] **Lauren Coda:** Huh. Okay, I'll look into that. [24:43] **Nick Cantola:** Yeah, what you need from us on that Lauren? [24:45] **Lauren Coda:** I think so, yep. All right, then everybody okay moving on to commissioner updates? [24:50] **Lauren Coda:** Yeah, can we go back a minute? Yes, we're going to go back. Dates and times—are there preferences to before or after Mother's Day for sticking a bunch of trees in the ground? It's probably six to one, like whatever works best for you. I don't think it matters to me. You guys have any preferences at all? [25:10] **Nick Cantola:** Mother's Day this year... so yeah, if we did it the weekend before Mother's Day it would be this week I think, the weekend after the tree giveaway. [25:20] **Lauren Coda:** Yep, we should maybe space that out a little bit. Okay, so we'll go after Mother's Day then? [25:25] **Nick Cantola:** Yeah, okay. [25:26] **Lauren Coda:** Save some digging and you know, I can try to have my crew do some some drilling in our forehead auger. Yeah, that helps so much. Thank you, yeah we have a 36-inch auger for that. A bunch of fun digging holes when we were out there in the dog park—we enjoyed that, guys. Some were pre-drilled, it's always a gift. Thank you, you're great. We certainly don't... we can do events two weekends in a row, I just was trying to give everybody some time to recover from the tree giveaway. I appreciate that. [25:55] **Lauren Coda:** Okay, you guys are okay with waiting till after Mother's Day? [26:00] **Stan Karwaski:** I personally think the earlier the better if they're bare root. Absolutely yes. Who knows what the weather is going to be—if it's hot and dry and windy it's pretty tough on a bare root tree. [26:12] **Lauren Coda:** That's true, good point. Could we do before Arbor Day, like middle April? Is that too early sanity? March... is it that's here some years? Early spring last year was late digging through the snow. Okay, sorry, I think that's probably weather dependent. [26:35] **Nick Cantola:** All right, May... the week before Mother's Day works for me. May 6th. [26:40] **Lauren Coda:** That is yeah, we can just do that. Is that good with you and your crew? [26:45] **Lauren Coda:** It is fine, yep. [26:47] **Nick Cantola:** All right, I'm okay. Gardeners needed always. [26:50] **Lauren Coda:** Yeah, yeah supervisor, yeah. Proper planning techniques for the kids if any as you can get proud probably at least six... we'll do four if we need it. More experienced adults is probably better time. So probably nine till noon, lunch at 11. What was the date? I missed it. [27:10] **Lauren Coda:** May 6th. May 6th, okay. 9 to 12. Show up at 8:30. Yeah, no later than 8:45. What was the date again? May 6th. Okay, or the Saturday next to May 6th, the sixth-ish. May 6th, okay thank you. [27:30] **Nick Cantola:** Do we have any commissioner updates? [27:32] **Stan Karwaski:** I've got one... two items. He won at our County Board meeting today, our environmentalists came up and announced two really neat projects like what they're sharing because they're consistent with the things we accomplished on the Tree Board. They were both grants—one was a 50,000 grant to do an Oak Savannah in Lake Gemel Park and that we're going to take out some trees that aren't native and then kind of restore the Oak Savannah, which is really what a lot of Washington County was at one time. The other one was a 22,000 grant—this covers about the whole cost of the project. And I think that Savannah was about 30 acres—don't hold me to it, I think no actually 20 acres in the designated area in the park, if you don't mind me asking. [28:20] **Lauren Coda:** Oh, that's okay, don't worry. [28:22] **Stan Karwaski:** I couldn't really say, I didn't retain that part. It's such a big park, you know? But they've been doing restoration for several projects of... so it's making a difference. The other was at Pine Point and a smaller park and they they're doing 22 acres of prairie restoration, which was kind of a tillable farm area with really poor soil. When the county owns land, they'll lease the land to a farmer and they might make a thousand dollars on like 10 acres if it's good land. This they were actually getting like 30 for the year because it was sandy and such. But again, but there were grants available. I know Lauren and in passed over the years we have gotten some grants and maybe maybe there's a way through... I know the grants are given out through the Watershed District, there's smaller grants. And if Lauren keeps his eyes open for grants, it might be harder for cities to get them on smaller projects, but it's one way to control control costs. But I thought it was neat because the county keeps improving our larger parks on larger scale projects. [29:30] **Stan Karwaski:** The other thing I wanted to announce that I mentioned a few years and the longest we're on TV... as a fellow member, I think when we started this was in 1996—I was not on City Council, I was on the Park and Planning and we started a Tree Board and Jane Klein I think was the last person to retire and I've decided in the next month or two I'm going to do a formal resignation and retire. When I got on City Council in 2001, the City Council said "You can still be a member of the Tree Board," and then when I moved through City Council I've been kind of liaison, and I was fortunate Mayor Zabel and and the Council allowed me as a citizen to be a Tree Board member the last six years as a commissioner. And I... we've got a great Tree Board, you're strong, you've got strong membership. It's just... there's just too much on my platter and after about 26 years and starting from day one on the Tree Board, it's been an honor to serve. Um, if if it helps a few of you said, "Well I just don't want to be committed to contributing," I am still going to show up at tree plantings and buckthorn removals, but it just allows me that if I'm committed to the Tree Board as an official member, I I want to give and I'm not sure I can keep being on on the hook to contribute. So it's it's time to step aside. If you want me to be... a few of you mentioned in a Emeritus role where I if it helps the cause of the Tree Board to be in that capacity, I'm open to that, but as far as a formal member, I it's time to retire. So good news, bad news. [31:10] **Nick Cantola:** Well, thank you for your long long years of service and you're always welcome to come dig holes with us. [31:15] **Stan Karwaski:** Yes, always always. [31:18] **Lauren Coda:** Well, who's gonna have to follow that? Oh yeah, exactly. I do have an update but... [31:25] **Kathy Schrifels:** All right, yeah Stan we're going to miss you so much but we're going to look for you at all those volunteer events, so thank you. Um, I did hear yesterday um about two updates from the Master Gardeners and I'm not sure Deb if you... this was news to me. But the Watershed District apparently got a grant for a young man I think out of Americorps to do like a tree inventory, and it's a county-wide project to my knowledge for Washington County. Tim somebody—I have his name at home, I didn't write it down. But anyway, so he's paid for I guess and it's going to start doing... I'm not sure if it's a canopy or actual looking at trees, but I just heard about that through Anna Barker who is one of our Tree Care advisors. [32:15] **Kathy Schrifels:** And then the other one which is interesting is we're starting... the Master Gardeners got a grant, a small grant for like 10 grand I think, to put in a gravel bed out at the Fairgrounds. And the idea is to make the Fairgrounds... they still have to sell the fair Ag Department or Society, making a tree track making the whole Fairgrounds like a giant tree track and start planting different, you know, diverse trees out there and helping to educate the public about that. And so anyway, more to come on that, but the gravel bed has been approved, it's started, they're working on it. They have space and it's part of or adjacent to our Master Gardener garden out there, our Ferris Garden we call it. So that was just interesting news on the tree front I thought so in the county. And I don't know Deb, had you heard about this? This was kind of new to me. [33:05] **Deb Muller:** A few notes that came from... [33:07] **Kathy Schrifels:** Yeah anyway, more to come on those two grants. Very good. [33:15] **Nick Cantola:** We do have um one update. We have a new member with us tonight, Mike Bender. You know, just introduce yourself and that just you know to like say your favorite color or anything like that. [33:25] **Mike Bender:** Um, I'm Mike Bender and uh um I applied last summer to be on this on this board and um one of my rationales is that I've... I've had 45 years in the industry, in the horticulture industry. Very cool. And uh I'm retired now and like to give back so. [33:45] **Nick Cantola:** Well welcome, welcome, we're glad you're here. Welcome, take Stan's spot. Can you tell us what what kind of when you say in the industry what did you do? [33:55] **Mike Bender:** Um, I started out in landscaping and then went to landscape design and sales. From there went into management and then from there I managed a garden center which was Park Nursery. Oh sure, it's it's now Hedberg Nursery or Hedberg Landscape out there. And then I went to work for for Baileys. I spent 18 years at Baileys in a management position there. [34:18] **Nick Cantola:** Awesome thanks. I might have bought a tree from you at Hedberg's, it's possible. Awesome welcome. Thank you. Anybody have anything else? Oh but don't forget the Mayor! [34:30] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** And the Mayor, yes! Nothing? All right. Mr. Mayor? Good evening everybody, it is nice to be with you. Just a few updates from the City Council: So we finished the 2023 budget and property tax levy at our at the end of December. That is always a huge lift for us, but we could not do it without our staff and all of their hard work. You know, most residents don't know that staff is working on that pretty much 12 months of the year so it is an ongoing thing and it they really do all of the legwork for us so we appreciate that. [35:15] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** January has been a challenging month for snow operations at Public Works as you can all imagine. They have been quite busy. The city continues to stress three ways that residents can help our crews out: Number one, abide by the winter parking restrictions. So no parking on streets from I believe midnight to 5:00 a.m. or anytime it snows more than two inches. That's a big help to, you know, get the the plows through the streets and get that snow cleared out of the way. Give the Fire Department a hand by digging out your fire hydrants if there's one in front of your home or next property over. That can save valuable time in the event that there is a fire emergency. And right now we're experiencing this with thawing temps—clearing that snow and ice from around the storm drains can be a big help to get water off the streets and down where it needs to go. So if you can, if residents can give us a hand with that, that would be very helpful. [36:10] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Final item—development continues at a robust pace around Oakdale. The City Council has recently approved projects at the Forefront campus, Willowbrook, and a vacant lot just to the north of HyVee. So there are a lot of projects going on, we will see a lot of excavation crews this spring. So it's very exciting time to be here in Oakdale. So with that, I am happy to answer any questions you might have. [36:40] **Nick Cantola:** Got a quick question. You're talking about the storm drains. Does Oakdale have an Adopt-A-Drain program? [36:45] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** We do, and our Environmental Management Commission is very involved with that. Of course residents are invited to participate in that as well, but our EMC Commissioners they have some promotional videos out there, you know, educating residents on how they can get involved, you know, what they can do with that whatever they clear out of the drains. So I believe all those are on the city YouTube page, so residents can check those out as well and of course information on our city website. [37:15] **Nick Cantola:** Thank you. [37:16] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** You bet. Any other questions? Stan, I see something on your mind there. [37:20] **Stan Karwaski:** No, just congratulations. [37:22] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Oh thank you, thank you. Yeah, so at our first meeting in January all the newly elected officials took our oaths of office and I'm excited to serve with uh Andy Morcomb who was elected to his first term, Susan Olsen who was re-elected to her second term, and I'm doing a four-year term as Mayor. So we do have one vacancy, we'll be talking about that in the next few weeks on what we're going to do with that and how we want to go about filling that chair. So residents should keep an eye out for more information about that. Any other questions? All right thanks everybody. [38:00] **Nick Cantola:** Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. End of our agenda, which means I need a motion to adjourn. [38:10] **Stan Karwaski:** So moved. [38:11] **Nick Cantola:** All in favor? [38:12] **Board Members:** Aye. [38:13] **Nick Cantola:** All opposed? All right, that means adjourned early. Good job everybody else. Stan, you can rest a little.