Based on the context provided, here is the transcribed meeting with speaker names identified. **[0:00] Nick Cantola:** On air, we are on air. I'm going to call to order um the—it's not September anymore—what's the date today? **[0:11] Board Member:** January 21. **[0:12] Nick Cantola:** January 21st um tree board meeting to order um so we will do a roll call of everyone present um. **[0:20] Michael Bender:** Michael Bender, here. **[0:22] Laura KD:** Laura KD, here. **[0:23] Dallas Pearson:** Dallas Pearson, here. **[0:24] Marg Sager:** Marg Sager, here. **[0:25] Mike Scara:** Mike Scara, here. **[0:26] Glenn Jaalto:** Glenn Jaalto, here. **[0:28] Nick Cantola:** And I am Nick Cantola, I am also present um. Do we want to go—uh, Tim, do you want to go around like do we want to go all the way around the room and get everybody on record here or are we just are we good with us? **[0:41] Tim [Staff]:** I think we're good with just you. As far as I know in the past, we've gone like around the horn. **[0:48] Nick Cantola:** We'll just do this um okay uh next up on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. **[0:55] Group:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. **[1:12] Nick Cantola:** Did everyone have a chance to look through the minutes from last time? **[1:16] Mike Scara:** Yes, and I have a correction. **[1:18] Nick Cantola:** We've got a correction. **[1:19] Mike Scara:** I have to find it... oh, it's um on the open forum, old business, paragraph A. The second paragraph there it says uh the requirements for a five-gallon potted shrub. That should be a "number five." They don't use gallons anymore, it's just number five. **[1:33] Nick Cantola:** Thank you, Mike. Any other amendments? Okay um then I would look for a motion to approve the minutes as amended. **[1:40] Marg Sager:** So moved. **[1:42] Dallas Pearson:** Second. **[1:43] Nick Cantola:** Thank you um. All in favor of approving the minutes as amended? **[1:46] Group:** Aye. **[1:48] Marg Sager:** Oh, the approval of the agenda! **[1:49] Nick Cantola:** Oh, we missed the approval of the agenda. Son of a gun, I went straight to the minutes. Okay um well the minutes are approved um and then I guess I would look for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. **[2:05] Marg Sager:** So moved. **[2:07] Dallas Pearson:** Second. **[2:08] Nick Cantola:** All in favor? **[2:09] Group:** Aye. **[2:11] Nick Cantola:** All opposed? And we will use this agenda going forward. Next up is item seven, Open Forum. Yes, I don't have anything for the open forum. Tim, did you have something you wanted to bring up or are we like opening the floor? **[2:29] Tim [Staff]:** Just opens the floor. **[2:31] Nick Cantola:** All right, we've got an open floor if anybody would like to comment on anything that's not on the agenda. **[2:40] Dallas Pearson:** Close the open forum! **[2:41] Nick Cantola:** Right. Well, since no one is coming forward to comment, I would—do we need to move to close the open forum? We just close it. We're going to close the open forum, move on to item eight, which is tree Board review starting with subsection A, old business, and item I, the 2025 work plan. So we worked through this a little bit informally. I guess, Tim, what would you like to see from us to formalize the 2025 work plan? **[3:14] Tim [Staff]:** Yeah, well after that I realized I got to update all of this um I suppose I'm trying—I was looking through it. I know basically all the updates and then um is there anything that you guys would like to add to it? I would propose that since—do you have the area already selected for the Buckthorn removal in Walton Park for the year or is that still TBD? **[3:39] Nick Cantola:** I was planning on finishing up Walton Park here. **[3:42] Tim [Staff]:** I'm—sorry, it was Walton Park this year, right? And then it was then we'd be going back to the Discovery Center potentially next year. My plan was to finish this upcoming October event, finish Walton Park rather than jumping around. Finish the location that we started. We basically got halfway done. Myself and Lauren went in there and did some more clearing for two days after the event, Monday and Tuesday, and we chemically treated all the stumps and everything. So it'd be nice to finish up that unless there's a more pressing area or we do tackle the project of the forest garden. **[4:18] Nick Cantola:** Yeah, I think finishing what we started is probably a good idea. **[4:21] Marg Sager:** I would agree. Let's get it done so we don't have to worry about it. **[4:23] Tim [Staff]:** Yep. **[4:24] Dallas Pearson:** One suggestion I might make is—as we discussed, this is last year's information—but you do know the trees. So it might be nice to read into the record for the public to know what trees will be there since our next meeting is close to the time. **[4:40] Nick Cantola:** Good call, Dallas. Thank you. **[4:42] Tim [Staff]:** Yes, I have that actually under my—under the Arbor Day, which is right below the work plan there. I was going to bring that up but um yeah. So the four trees selected are the Japanese tree lilac, the Kinder Crisp apple, the Eastern white pine, and the River Birch, which will be a combination of three clumps and single stem. **[5:06] Nick Cantola:** Wonderful, thank you. Well, yeah, I think we've got a pretty good handle on what the work plan will be like. We know the location of the planting, we know the location of the Buckthorn removal. Then it's just a matter of what other stuff we want to do, working with other advisory bodies if any. **[5:22] Marg Sager:** Maybe I missed it, but where is the spring planting? **[5:26] Tim [Staff]:** Bethke Park. **[5:27] Marg Sager:** Oh, Bethke, that's right. Thank you. And all those trees are—or you're going to use up the ones that we have at the...? **[5:34] Tim [Staff]:** Correct. Right at Public Works. **[5:36] Marg Sager:** Public Works, yeah. **[5:37] Tim [Staff]:** Yep, gravel bed and just a bunch of B&Bs that we have planted out. **[5:42] Nick Cantola:** Perfect. 100 trees. We won't be doing all 100 trees that day, will we? **[5:47] Tim [Staff]:** No, you guys will take care of some, we're going to do some afterwards. But I'd like to get in and do somewhere between 20 and 30. Perfect. We'll have all the holes pre-dug and everything. **[5:59] Nick Cantola:** Awesome, cool. **[6:00] Tim [Staff]:** I left a—it's roughly probably six to eight yards of mulch or chipped wood there for us. We can ring all the trees and everything. **[6:09] Marg Sager:** Cool. Will they be all throughout that Park? I mean, the locations—have you kind of figured that out yet? **[6:15] Tim [Staff]:** It's mainly—if you go by there you'll see—it's mainly off Stillwater Road or Boulevard right there. Yep, off that'd be the South entrance right there. That's where it kind of opens up, and I would say roughly, you know, that 10 to 15 we can put right in that front location there and then disperse the rest of them evenly out the East and kind of South or West, excuse me, and Southwest end of that park has some bigger—a few bigger cottonwoods and whatnot. So just by taking out some small, you know, 6 to 8 inch in diameter dead ash trees, that's not the ideal spot to then replant. But yeah, there's still some more room down there as well. **[6:57] Nick Cantola:** Great. And we'll be reaching out to North High and Tartan here to try and get some students? **[7:02] Tim [Staff]:** Yeah, hopefully more than the Buckthorn removal, although those two did help out for the hour that they showed up. **[7:10] Marg Sager:** Well, the ones that we had last spring, there was quite a few. **[7:14] Nick Cantola:** Yeah, at the spring planting last year there was a ton. We had a good amount. Most of you even had appropriate footwear, which was good. **[7:23] Nick Cantola:** And of course we welcome the public to come and join us. **[7:26] Marg Sager:** Right, the more the merrier! Anyone out there that wants to come help. **[7:29] Nick Cantola:** Yeah, super fun. You don't even get that dirty. **[7:32] Marg Sager:** And people have brought their—I don't know—over 10-year-olds or over 12-year-olds? What's the—is there a rule about how old the kids have to be? Anybody know? **[7:42] Nick Cantola:** I've been bringing Simon since he was like three. **[7:45] Marg Sager:** Oh, okay, never mind. **[7:46] Nick Cantola:** Hopefully there's not a rule, right? **[7:48] Tim [Staff]:** I don't think as long as they're supervised by an adult. I don't think there's a limit. **[7:53] Nick Cantola:** A guardian, yeah. Okay, good. Excellent. Fun to have some kids there, I think they really learn a lot. **[8:00] Marg Sager:** Is there any other questions or comments on the work plan before we move on to an update on the tree giveaway, which we already did? I would have one question at the bottom, number two. I think this came up in the fall. What should we as a tree board do to increased Public Communication related to tree board events? Is there a responsibility that we have or is this a city staff responsibility? I'm not quite sure on this communication piece. Is this like creating brochures or...? I'm not quite sure what that means. It's pretty broad. **[8:38] Tim [Staff]:** Yeah, I guess maybe even coordinating with myself and we can—I can relay that to the correct City staff for different stuff they can post on their website and whatnot. If you guys want our assistance in content creation like videos or anything like that, we can help with. **[8:55] Marg Sager:** I was thinking that too. We didn't get any videos or—I wasn't aware of anyone taking pictures at the Buckthorn removal event, and that's the only event I've been a part of. I do think that'd be a good idea and that would help us. Not only pictures but like Nick said, some good live videos would be—I think that's been typical. I mean, not necessarily at the Buckthorn, but I know I was interviewed twice at the spring planting the last two years. Somebody came around—same guy, I think—and asked me some questions and I know I was on a video somewhere for those two events. But maybe do you have to request that from City Hall or somebody to get that person to come out? **[9:40] Nick Cantola:** I'm not sure. I think they even had a drone. It was kind of cool. Remember the drone? **[9:45] Marg Sager:** Yeah! And so those would be great and then to put them on our Facebook page or whatever. I don't know how often they update the website but that kind of thing. Social media... we have a handful of experts up here who'd be happy to answer questions that people from the city might have about trees, tree care, tree maintenance, tree planting. **[10:04] Marg Sager:** Well, and I'm thinking about that TV show, the cable TV... is that not going on anymore? That's when you got interviewed for— **[10:12] Nick Cantola:** Oh yeah, I did do that a couple years ago. Was it Frank? Who was Frank? **[10:18] Tim [Staff]:** I don't think he does that anymore. Okay, that's not available. **[10:21] Marg Sager:** Well then, all the more reason to get some PR at our events specifically. I think it would be good. We can get that videographer there, whatever his title is. **[10:32] Nick Cantola:** Thanks, yeah, that'd be good. Next time I'll make sure they interview you. **[10:35] Marg Sager:** No, pass! **[10:37] Nick Cantola:** Seems like a vice chair job. I had my two turns in the highlights. All right, what else? Yeah, I think we got a good handle on what we're going to be working on in 2024-2025—here it is now. Um, yeah then... did you... so I know we jumped the gun a little bit, Tim, on the tree giveaway update. Is there anything else you wanted to add about that? **[11:03] Tim [Staff]:** Yes, it will be held at the North fire station, a drive-thru event. And then it sounded like they could—we could put like the Master Gardener booth and whatnot outside in the parking lot. Once they get their trees and go through the station there, then they can—we can put signs up and people can pull into the off to the side of the parking lot there, and then they'll be going as directly towards Castle Elementary as they leave. **[11:28] Nick Cantola:** Okay. And will we have City staff directing traffic or will there be like Oakdale PD out there managing it? What's the plan there? **[11:37] Tim [Staff]:** I know for sure City staff. We will keep it moving and put Jeremy in a shiny vest and have him stand out in the street. **[11:45] Nick Cantola:** Get him some air traffic control wands! Yeah, okay, awesome. **[11:49] Marg Sager:** I'd like to talk a little bit more about what I talked about the last time. All the people that don't show up. Because there was a huge waitlist and only one person from that waitlist showed up and got a tree. But I mean, there was a lot of trees left over for being accounted for so fast. And I kind of like what Dallas said. If we don't do it, or if they don't pick their trees up within two years, then they get put on the waitlist. Because I think a lot of people, because it's free, they just put their name down because it's something that's free. So I think we should watch over it a little bit more and not just—even though I know those trees get put to good use and they're not wasted, but as we heard, there was a big demand for trees. Let's make people take them. **[12:35] Nick Cantola:** So is there like a followup to people that sign up right before the event so they don't forget? Like, "don't forget you know the tree giveaway is there." **[12:43] Tim [Staff]:** I don't know if there's a reminder sent. An email? Anybody know? I know you weren't here but, you know, that would be a great idea. **[12:51] Nick Cantola:** Especially if you're signing up a month ahead of time, which I think we are three weeks anyway. You know, to remind people. Just a quick email. Since I believe the sign up was only your name and possibly phone number, it would have to either be text or email. **[13:06] Dallas Pearson:** They have to get the email address to text you know, but a lot of services are sending reminders. **[13:11] Marg Sager:** Well, and especially since we're moving the location here, right? That brings up a good point. You'll probably want to put up a sign down by the park saying "location moved this year" because people will be remembering it being there. **[13:25] Nick Cantola:** Excuse me, are we doing the same like time slot sign up where people can sign up for a tree and a time slot? **[13:31] Tim [Staff]:** Correct. Okay, because that fluctuates depending on weather. If it's bad weather, they all come at once, it seems like. **[13:38] Nick Cantola:** Well, Tim, is that something you can ask the staff to do as far as a reminder? **[13:42] Tim [Staff]:** Yes. **[13:43] Dallas Pearson:** Did you say that, Dallas, that they just leave a number? **[13:46] Dallas Pearson:** I believe my memory serves it was merely their name and a phone number for the sign-up. So in order to alert them, we would either have to sign up for some kind of a text service or ask for their email as well. And I just don't remember if there was an email. I don't think it was. **[14:03] Tim [Staff]:** Okay, I will look into it. If there wasn't an email, maybe we can add that to the form to send out a reminder. **[14:10] Nick Cantola:** Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. Anybody have any other thoughts, opinions, contributions on the tree giveaway before we move to new business? Well, hearing none, I would say let's move on to new business which would be the election of the board chair and vice chair. Are you open for nominations? **[14:31] Marg Sager:** I will open the floor for nominations. I nominate Nick Cantola for Chair and Marg Sager for Vice Chair. **[14:41] Dallas Pearson:** I'll second that. **[14:42] Nick Cantola:** Oh, seconds are not required, but we do appreciate the support. Says on the thing. **[14:48] Dallas Pearson:** Good reading! **[14:49] Nick Cantola:** I'm pretty good at reading, yeah. Any other nominations? Feel free to offer. **[14:54] Board Member:** I like the talent we've got, so I'm happy. **[14:57] Nick Cantola:** Okay, all right. Well, there appear to be no new nominations, which means I need someone to make a motion to close nominations. **[15:05] Board Member:** I make a motion that we close nominations for chair and vice chair. **[15:10] Nick Cantola:** This one does require a second. **[15:12] Board Member:** Second. **[15:13] Nick Cantola:** Second. All in favor? **[15:14] Group:** Aye. **[15:16] Nick Cantola:** All opposed? Well, do we still need to pass out the ballots, Tim? **[15:21] Tim [Staff]:** I don't believe so. You could do a vote of acclamation. **[15:26] Dallas Pearson:** I move that we have by vote of acclamation installed Nick Cantola and Marg Sager as per the nominations. **[15:35] Board Member:** Second on that one. **[15:37] Nick Cantola:** Second. All in favor? **[15:38] Group:** Aye. **[15:40] Nick Cantola:** All opposed? Motion carries. Well, thank you guys for continuing to trust us. We will do the best that we can. All right, on to section nine, staff liaison updates. Tim, what you got for us? **[15:54] Tim [Staff]:** Well, what could we possibly not have talked about yet? Yeah, this fall here after the Buckthorn event, we've been doing a lot of stump grinding and restoration on those stumps. Then we kind of started getting into the later on in fall—after the event, probably towards the end of October, early November—and we started—I requested for plow routes clearance pruning for all the plow route drivers. And I got a good-sized list. So we've been going around doing a lot of that. Even still, we get them every time they go out and do a little bit of snow removal or salting, one or two of them will hand me a list of different addresses. I had mentioned before that Lauren and I were in there and we cleaned up some more after the Buckthorn event and then chemically treated all those stumps. And there is still quite a bit to the Northwest, kind of as it goes around the ball field there. So I think it'd look really nice next year if we could finish that little stretch up. **[17:01] Dallas Pearson:** Just a question—since it seems like the ash borer has struck—how many are you in the process of removing? Do you have to remove them on residential or just on Oakdale land? And is there a program in process? **[17:15] Tim [Staff]:** Yes, we are tackling right now kind of the higher priority trees on our GIS system. But no, we are not removing or doing anything with the privately owned trees. **[17:25] Dallas Pearson:** Is there still a discount for citizens with Rainbow? We had a program. Is that still going? **[17:31] Tim [Staff]:** Yes, for 2025, specifically for treating. Not any removal, just treating. We are also doing kind of finishing up any summer work orders that we had that required some frozen ground or frost in the ground to make access to a lot of the backyards where we have property on ponds and whatnot. Trees that have fallen. We've cleaned up those trees. We had a few during storms fall directly into backyards. We cleaned them up, kind of left the piles there, and then we've been going in now with frozen ground so we do the least amount of damage to the yard. We go in and clean those up. We've been kind of finishing those up. We have one in a pond that we're kind of trying to figure out what route we're going to take. Then, as I spoke about earlier, the Bethke Park reforestation project. We were taking down a lot of those ash trees in there getting ready for the spring planting this year. We refurbished all the walking paths through there with the chips that we got from the ash trees in there. They look really nice, really thick. We put it on there thick because it'll settle a little bit and move around in the wind and storms. So we have a little bit to finish up on that on the West end and then that should be done I would guess in the next few weeks now that we have some weather we can work outside again. I mentioned earlier also the species that we have at the Public Works building. We have some Swamp and Bur Oaks in our gravel bed that we're going to use in Bethke Park along with those B&Bs on the North side of our shop there which are Kentucky Coffee, Ohio Buckeye, Ironwoods, and a couple Autumn Blaze. And then recently we've been going through—just had a list going from when I started in the middle of July—of all the oak pruning that needed to be done as they came in, along with the plow clearance on the plow routes. And so now we've been going after—now that the Oak Wilt window is closed here for quite some time now—we've been doing a lot of oak pruning. We get quite a few from townhome associations that abut our property that we hold off on. And so those are kind of tedious, just access. You get the longer units and you have to, you know, prune a tree that's in the middle of that you can't get equipment to, so it's all by hand. And so they're a little tedious but we are working on a lot of that. And in the next couple weeks also along with that oak pruning, we're going to be doing a lot up around the Discovery Center building and the other three—the schoolhouse building and kind of the storage shed down towards Hadley there—clearing all the limbs that are rubbing on those buildings. **[20:25] Nick Cantola:** How long do you anticipate that taking? **[20:27] Tim [Staff]:** A day. Yeah, a good solid day. And that is, yeah, along with some other obviously still taking work orders. They come in, I get calls almost every day, different things we go out and check out. That's it for updates, I think. **[20:41] Nick Cantola:** Awesome, thank you Tim. Board members, any updates from you guys? **[20:46] Mike Scara:** Yeah, as I talked about a little bit earlier, I was watching a webinar in December and they were talking about mitigating storm water runoff and talking about the types of trees that work better for doing that. You know, whether they've got pubescent leaves as opposed to shiny leaves, the type of limbs, type of bark, if the tree is more upward growing and stuff like that. And as I was watching this, I kept thinking about a few decades ago there got to be a big push with people planting rain gardens for doing the same thing. And this would be a nice thing to piggyback on that—to capture some of that rainwater so it doesn't go down in the storm sewer. **[21:28] Nick Cantola:** Do you have any species recommendations for us? **[21:31] Mike Scara:** Well, Lyons... I keep thinking about like white spruce, but you'd have to be real careful where you plant them because if you're trying to do runoff and the plows come by with salt, it might do some damage to the spruce. But some of the Oaks, because of their bark, would be good ones like that. But it's just—I mean, it was strange because I knew all this stuff but I never thought about it for holding water or rainwater for storms to run off. Because I don't know if any of you have been in a spruce forest when it's been raining, but you don't get wet because all the rainwater is being held in those trees. So I thought it's something that we could maybe look into a little bit more and maybe promote it. Especially—you know, I wouldn't do it on flat ground because that's going to settle in, but if there's slopes. And when we were talking about earlier about redoing Highway 120, I know there's quite a few slopes that slope down into 120 and that might be something to look at there too. **[22:29] Nick Cantola:** Yeah, thanks Mike. Thanks for being willing to take on sitting through those webinars and reporting back. We appreciate it. **[22:37] Mike Scara:** Some of them are worthwhile sitting through. Some are about the 50 different kinds of wasps... **[22:42] Nick Cantola:** That sounds really cool too, though! **[22:44] Mike Scara:** It gets old fast. I do have a question if we're done with that topic. Tree track—and I know we talked about last fall—we finished one-third of the tree track out there at the Discovery Center Nature Reserve. Do you think you're going to get to any more of that? **[23:05] Tim [Staff]:** Have done! There we go. It just has to be sent into Laura and make the maps. **[23:11] Mike Scara:** Gonna do the maps? Awesome. **[23:13] Marg Sager:** I think this guy needs a round of applause. He's done a lot of work. Really, seriously. So those maps are a huge improvement and it's a full page, 8.5 by 11 instead of a trifold trying to read that little bitty print. And people will come in, or I hope they put some out front, for people to come through and then learn. And we've had really good comments. We did a couple of these tracks with the public last year and it's very, very well received. People are very interested to learn about the trees out there and recognize them any time of the year. So thank you for doing that. Really appreciate it. Mike, you went above and beyond. **[23:55] Mike Scara:** Well, thank you. It was easy. **[23:57] Marg Sager:** Okay well, easy for you. So thank you. Gold star! **[24:02] Nick Cantola:** Laura, Mike, anything from you guys down there? Anything that end? Glenn? Dallas? Okay um yeah then moving on to Council Liaison updates with our new Council Liaison. **[24:19] Kari Moore:** Hello Commissioners! I am really excited. My name is Kari Moore, I am one of the new council members and since the board last met, I believe Council has passed a budget. We are in the middle of a whole lot of new development, some of which I think you can see driving through our community, some of which is still kind of in the pipeline. We've brought on new city council members, so a lot of exciting things going on. I don't have anything specific to share with you, but I'm willing to stand for any questions. **[24:55] Nick Cantola:** Wonderful. Have a good night, you guys. Thank you. We're stoked to have you. Welcome! That is the entirety of our agenda. I move to adjourn. **[25:06] Board Member:** Second. **[25:07] Nick Cantola:** All in favor? **[25:08] Group:** Aye. **[25:10] Nick Cantola:** All opposed? Well, hearing none, I will adjourn the January 21st, 2025, tree board meeting. Official. All right, thank you chair. Mr. Chair, first excellent.