This transcript features the **Oakdale Tree Board** meeting from January 16. Based on the context provided and the internal dialogue, here is the attributed transcript: **[0:24] Nick Canela:** I am going to call to order the January 16th meeting of the tree board um we'll start with a roll call uh here we have Mike Bender here Glen GTO here Dallas Pearson pres Marge Sager here Mike Sara here I'm Nick Canela I am here uh in attendance we also have Deb our Master Gardener liaison we have mayor zabel and we have Jim filling in for Lauren tonight that's everybody okay um Pledge of Allegiance then to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic it stands one nation under God indivisible with **[1:12] Group:** liberty and justice for all. **[1:22] Nick Canela:** um item five here approval of the agenda um does anybody have any changes they want to make to that before we approve it and move forward we need to do there I move we approve the AG agenda as presented second all in favor I I all opposed all right did everyone have a chance to review the minutes um from our previous meeting I found a uh a uh typle in it on page six number B second sentence that is supposed to be massabi chair not Wasabi not a spicy Cherry that sounds cool though Wasabi Cher got it that's that's **[2:09] Nick Canela:** a new plant I guess that's how these things happen I think just like typos that'd be a cool plant name I'm using it all right uh so can I ask can I ask a question about the me minutes is that appropriate can I ask a question about that um just it's the section um about the policy and operations about the word Hazard and nuisance I tried to read through that and understand what the conversation was but um it seemed to me like that's almost like a legal thing that the lawyers the attorneys for the city would be able to Define what's the best word to use in there Hazard or nuisance and um maybe I'm just misunderstanding because I was excused for that meeting can anybody like two cents what what that was the result of that **[2:58] Nick Canela:** conversation do you remember I remember September it's a long time ago mayor Z's on it though I can jump in here because I was honored to join you guys in September thank you um the Crux of that conversation was you know in regards to EAB and what the current language in the city code directs staff to do in terms of mitigating it on private property um this is something that every city is trying to get their arms around current language in the city code I think uh I think the language is Hazard well hey Jim do you know no I I'm not gonna put you on the spot um the question was whether that that we should change the language in the city code to be either more clear or whether the language is adequately clear enough um **[3:46] Mayor Kevin Zabel:** the recommendation from me representing the city council was that the language is clear enough it does provide enough detail and direction to staff um to make or to mitigate EAB on private property um but but you know there was a little bit of wordplay conversation there you know could we be more clear do we need to be more clear um in the end it sounds like the treebo decided you know what we probably have enough in there to to address the underlying problem that we're trying to get at okay that okay I maybe part of my um confusion is in um section e of that um the minutes third paragraph the first sentence in mayor zel's opinion under the city code nuisance is defined as presence of period so it's not defined in the minute **[4:31] Marge Sager:** so I'm like okay maybe I should have gone to the code and read it um but then I don't know then it just sounded like well maybe we should go to Hazard because that's very clear it's going to hurt something where nuisance is like excuse me a pain in the something Factor um so you know that to me then just reading this I thought oh the maybe the outcome is we should go to something that's a little stronger word like Hazard because that's going to hurt person place thing whatever and nuisance is you know rubbing on someone's roof I don't know Hazard could theoretically create like a legal obligation though like that's the yeah you know and in the context of emerald dashboard you know um if a tree is dying but not fully dead or **[5:19] Mayor Kevin Zabel:** in danger of falling on somebody's fence or house should the city have remediation efforts or abilities to take care of that we do Under the definition of nuisance because our efforts as a city in promoting Public Welfare Health all of that is you know containing U invasive species so under the current city code by simply identifying the presence of EAB the city can force remediation even if it's not harming a building or a fence or anything else because we are trying to contain it got it y That's I I was looking at it from a different perspective so thank you for clarifying that and that's helpful um yes that was my only question about the minutes thank **[6:05] Nick Canela:** you um okay so we have one Amendment uh changing Wasabi Cherry to masabi Cherry the correct spelling um other than that anything we need to address in the in the minutes well there is then in that third paragraph of section e um there's something missing at the end of the first sentence nuisance is defined as the presence of something's cut off there yeah it probably just needs like an ellipses presence of EAB yeah or whatever right they're underline whatever that means a missing word or sentence so but I don't know if you can capture that off the recording or how um how that would be amended there's a missing something **[6:52] Nick Canela:** just ask for it to be amended to include the word EAB presence of EAB well but that wouldn't be the only nuisance though there's other things that would categorize a nuisance that's just one of them mayor zel do you remember what you were intending to say there's a recording of this chair members of the board um I mean you know in that conversation we had talked about I think it was oakill well I think there are three nuisances to find under the tree ordinance it's EAB it's Oak Wilt and probably probably Dutch Elm um and so it is confined to those three okay doesn't mean it couldn't be expanded in the future but for current enforcement mechanisms that is what is prescribed under the code yeah okay very good thanks would be an opportunity to add something like presence of tree **[7:38] Jim (Staff):** defect and broaden it we talk about that later okay all right okay um what would you like to see done differently with the minutes then March would you um clarify what that nuanes defined as and if it's those three things you just mentioned then um add those would you like to have would say like presence of parenthetically condition would that describe that well enough for you like if we were to like well he just made said the big three diseases right those are the nuisances um Mr chair one recommendation I could make is just saying Nu nuisances as defined by the city code okay perfect that way it goes back to whatever is in there there yep thank you would like that to then read policy change **[8:24] Marge Sager:** recommendation from quote presence of nuisance at defined by city code perfect thank you that would make you happy yeah we just want to make you happy I was trying to understand and it struggling with it thank you all right okay all right well then can I get an approval can I get a motion to approve the minutes as amended so moves second all in favor all opposed minutes are approved as amended um all right then uh item seven open Forum anybody have anything they would like to bring up before we move on to **[9:10] Marge Sager:** Old business I could bring one thing up um from the Tree Care advis State Tree Care advisors um and the tree Steward program which used to be called The Citizen pruner program um there's been an effort made to work with the Watershed um I guess it's wcd Watershed I don't know what that stands for exactly wcd Watershed District here in Oakdale um for the whole Washington County um to have a Washington County based tree stward program so some training and then that the Washington County um Watershed District would um supervisor coordinate that program so there was a meeting a **[9:57] Marge Sager:** week or two ago with Jay rigs who's um I don't know if he's what his title is President whatever executive director of that organization to try to uh move forward some training so we can have more residents um in our community in the county trained as tree stewards that you know pretty much just do pruning on our feet not on a ladder um it's a developmental pruning things like that so free program but sponsored by um the U ofm Forestry Department and looking for an organization Oakdale had one of those trainings some years back I don't know if any of you were there I was there um some of the staff were there um uh but you know and lawren in introduced **[10:44] Marge Sager:** it a little bit I do some pruning um through that program with for with and for Lauren and the in the city of Oakdale but we're look looking to um grow that Beyond well within and Beyond Oakdale across the whole County so it just heads up uh there should be some training coming up where we're knocking on wood about um in the next maybe six months or less uh to get some training going on for people who want to and love love trees and want to prune awesome okay good pruning is hard to find yeah yeah lots of practice anybody else have anything they'd like to add during the open forum **[11:29] Nick Canela:** well we can move on to um uh old business we'll get an update on the tree giveaway I know we've got most of the trees that we wanted to look for available Jim you got an update for us I dok um Mr chairman Commissioners thank you um quick update on the uh tree giveaway trees this year we were able to order three of the four trees that were approved through the tree board the last meeting um we were able to get the the Buckeye the Ironwood and the yellow wood trees um the contender Peach was not available this year so currently we have two options to fill in for that one would be a a bur o or the second one would be a honey crisp **[12:15] Jim (Staff):** apple so I guess we'd be looking for the direction on that all right well thoughts I would like to open the floor then to the Commissioners and see what you guys think I've got opinion but I don't want to influence you guys I would choose the the oak over the honey crisp um honey crisp has not been known to be a consistent fruiting fruit tree that's one of the reasons why you don't get you yeah you can't buy from garden centers anymore some of the new apples coming out from the U so that's my opinion Glen Mar go ahead I was just going to ask is that because it hasn't been tested long enough I don't I don't know what the reason is they're saying it's got to be a certain soil etc etc I **[13:04] Mike Sara:** mean i' I've had a honey crisp for for 15 years and a and a zestar for for 10 years and the zestar has always produced and I've gotten apples once off of the honey crisp so okay and the reason I ask is you know a lot of the public asks we they want fruit trees and we've had past couple years we've not been able to get any fruit trees so you know there could be a pent up demand for more fruit trees but if it's not a good selection then is technically a fruit tree March well that's true really be the rationale is because uh when the pandemic happened everybody was buying fruit trees because they wanted because they knew how tough it was to get food so they wanted to grow their own so even small fruits were **[13:51] Mike Sara:** totally sold out great okay um yeah I I I'm not going to then move forward with the tree you know the apple tree suggestion if it's not recommended as a variety Mike Bender I I lean to the Master Gardeners on the board as far as their opinions okay I guess for myself is just I go by uh one of my former colleagues at 3M they own a she and her husband own an orchard in Wisconsin and uh just from my talks with her uh kind of in agree with Michael is that um honey crisp is is maybe not a terribly suitable tree for **[14:40] Mike Bender:** the average homeowner who doesn't really know how to take care of it properly to get it to to to fruit and uh I'm of course I love Oaks anyway so um just from the whole standpoint of looking at who the trees are going to I think uh most people homeowners they want to have uh to be able to not have to go to Great Lengths to be able to uh take care of a particular tree because it might be a little more difficult than just leaving it alone and let it do its thing so yeah I've been clined to go for the oak goal so okay Dallas how you feel I go to the Oak just because it's **[15:25] Dallas Pearson:** Oakdale we have a dir of Oaks around with you on that one we also like if you start up uh on Hadley up by 10th Street and come down past city hall there's like I don't know aund some crab apples the crab apple there's just and we've been we've given away crab apples so much at the tree giveaway I would just be inclined to not give away any M species I know that an apple is different than a crab apple but right I think that we has the have we had oak on on the giveaways lately I think we gave away bur last year swamp it was a swamp Okay swamp white but yeah I'd be totally happy giving away a bur I think that'd be cool I love those things think I think the uh crab apple **[16:12] Glen GTO:** trees are because they're low underneath the uh power lines and they stay small totally there's and they're they're the great a great tree in the right spot there's just so many of them and that all if we give away more they're all just going to get apple scab so not going to do that add to the pressure okay well I think we're all pretty much in agreement here that we want to go with we would recommend going with um the Baroque rather than the honey crisp apple as an option thank you yeah thank youbody have anything else they want to add about that before we move on okay well uh the next thing listed here is the election of uh our chair and vice chair positions so at this point I will would **[16:58] Nick Canela:** need uh to open up the floor for nominations I'll nominate since he won't do it himself Nick Cantola as chair and then Marge Sager as Vice chair we need a second if anybody want to oh second oh they're not oh we they do not require a second but you can to show support okay so um I make a motion that nominations close that one we probably need to Second for second all right all in favor I I all opposed all right then uh do we need to vote then if there was no all right vot you could vote by acclamation on this one since there's no other nominees all right well then it's us then March we need to have a vote we're just GNA go then right vote of acclamation everybody **[18:03] Nick Canela:** says okay then all all in favor uh yeah all in favor all opposed motion carries thanks we are flying through this agenda you guys um I have one question on the old business do we have a date for the tree giveaway is that confirmed should be every day it it is after day after Arbor Day right yeah day after Arbor Day okay all right thank you I didn't uh April 27th Deb thank you okay that the calendar now okay **[18:50] Nick Canela:** um Jim uh do you have any updates for us as staff Lea on sure I have a quick update um couple updates on what the crew is up to they're still working on some emoral dashboard removals on boulevards um when those are done they'll be moving into the parks in the modow areas and the parks um continuing working on those it's one of the good I guess benefits of the weather we've been having this year is it's allowed the the crew to get out and do more of that work um it's also afforded the opportunity to have some work from some of the other departments divisions at Public Works help out um the street crew was helping with doing some stump grinding in December towards the end of December when the weather was still good so cool um good progress is **[19:38] Jim (Staff):** being made on that um and the other thing I have to update is the tree City USA application and the growth award have been submitted um they've gone through State approval and they're at the Arbor Day Foundation now so we haven't heard anything back on those yet but um they've made it through the state approvals and onto the Arbor Day Foundation I think that's all I have I'm available for questions if anybody has any I can try to answer them thank youbody have any question is that just an award or is there a monetary amount with it the growth award that's just an award it recognizes our efforts so it's um it's a lot of work it recognizes the efforts that you folks on the tree board **[20:24] Jim (Staff):** as well as the the city staff has put in to the commitment to trees primarily the city staff it's with the treade board Direction though so it's couldn't be done without without everyone that's awesome I look forward to hearing more about that when we find out that we got it any other questions for I have a question um I I know there were two people interested in our vacancies and um is that gone through Council and What's the timing to get that person who is replacing Kathy on on the board do we know I I believe we still need to **[21:10] Jim (Staff):** schedule interviews with them before they can go to the council oh okay so I'll work with Lauren on that um later this week okay I was hoping to meet one of them in person I don't one but the other lady sure yeah excellent thank you awesome uh commissioner updates does anybody have anything for **[21:39] Marge Sager:** us I guess if anyone wants a a copy of the um growth award uh from the Tre City USA um it's available it's many pages those 85 categories um to look at but if we think about you know our work this year um and maybe select a couple it items that we could uh work towards maybe um you know that could go in the meeting minutes and then at our next meeting we could talk about U maybe a couple potential things that we can work on this year should we come back to the next the March meeting with some ideas right and I'd be glad to bring forward a couple suggestions I've looked at that a couple times and yeah please um yeah I'll bring forward uh but I think it'd be good for you to just kind of glance through it because there's just a lot of cool ideas and things that um I think as **[22:26] Nick Canela:** a community and growing um our impact in the community um there's things we could do that would be um fun and cool for the citizens and do you have quick access to that um yeah well yeah because if you want you could send it out to us that would be sure I can just should I just send a link to to the board members yeah that'd be great yeah I will do that I I think Mike already has a copy but um and Glenn because we talked about maybe working as a sub team of this committee but I'll send it to everybody it would be good for you all to just take a look and yeah oh I like that one let's work on you know and then they're all worth different amounts of points again so you have to strategically think about well if we need 10 points what are the things that can get us there and not just this year but next year and maybe in the next **[23:12] Marge Sager:** few years handful of years so we don't do it all in one year and then you only need T so okay I'll send that to everybody Deb you too oh right do we have a date for the spring planting that's another question it's not on the agenda but it probably should have been um my bad that's right totally I don't have any information on an available date okay right now I I believe that the plan was to plant more trees or at least what Lauren mentioned at um the Buckthorn event was to do more trees along 40th to continue that project we did last year and go further um it would be East and North I think on **[23:58] Marge Sager:** um that road but U maybe 40 more trees that's a like a low income yeah area that was housing yeah to continue that but we do need to pick a date if we want to for Master Gardeners we need to recruit and you know spring gets so busy it's earlier we can get something out to try to get some supervisors would be good right speaking of Master Gardeners what is the requirement to get um for like an event to get um volunteer hours to qualify for that I'll let Deb do you want to so like we had talked earlier we had talked earlier about maybe having like members of the tree board lead tree tracks like like a guided tree track like could we get some master gers to volunteer to do **[24:44] Deb (Liaison):** that if they needed volunteer hours is that something that would qualify definitely okay actually Sally menzer Nature Center just uh is building a tree TR right now um we they use some of our information to model theirs on and they are going out with um uh guided tours once a month is their goal is to have like at one Saturday a month have a guided tour and um that is um Tony manzer came and talked to our tree Squad from Washington County Master Gardeners and um that is definitely um accountable hours uh for us as Master Gardeners anything that's you know applicable to our role so in educating the public so totally um that would be something that we could do an Outreach for Oakdale as **[25:30] Marge Sager:** well as as Tony manzer is doing out there so that's a great question um we still we just need to get the mechanism we need to do like a train the trainer yeah i' be like Mike we'd pull you out there and like help you could help us do a train the trainer um set up something and all of us could attend Master Gardeners we could invite them to attend and then try to get it set up on a regular basis yeah to do a walk from the East to the west or you know the whole walk could be the track would be a long track if you did the whole thing but we could do a east to west or west to east and um something like that but I'm not sure if our literature is our map is current does anybody know Deb do you know yeah we need to get the map updated **[26:16] Marge Sager:** I think first um and make sure our maintenance looks good and then I think we could go to train the trainer and then effectively ruce that as a public service to the community that's that'd be a priority would be to get that the literature the map and and there hasn't been Maps apparently at um the Discovery Center recently so that needs to be updated and I think that's a communication thing with the staff here yeah we could do it cool probably get a growth award for it okay what **[27:04] Deb (Liaison):** else have a set time of May to planting as we do for Arbor Day perhaps I was looking at the calendar and Mother's Day is not good which is always the Second Sunday so the second weekend would be out and this year carton's prom is the first weekend of me so I suggest we name the third weekend in May as I'm amendable to that and it wouldn't be an issue every year yeah right so I think what Deb is referring to is trying to get a regular schedule for all of these three events so that we can have probably clearer communication to the public and to the schools um if we set **[27:50] Marge Sager:** these up you know every um tree giveaway is the Saturday after Arbor Day every spring planting is the the third Saturday in May and every Buckthorn event is whatever the second Saturday in October so that we can you know I don't know if you guys heard at the end of the Buckthorn event we found out that the school made a mistake there because there were hardly any students there this fall um they came on the wrong day to the wrong place oh no and they she the guy the young man I talked to said um he was pretty sure was um the teachers just posted the wrong information because they apparently put a calendar out with all these volunteer events that the students can come to and it just had the wrong day in time and **[28:36] Marge Sager:** they all went over to Walton Park on the wrong day and we weren't there so they went home so we learned that and uh I think that's a good idea that Deb has to try to be um have a rhythm to it and then the teachers and you know we will all get it on our calendars earlier than later yeah so if if that works for everybody that's I think a proposal on the on the floor I don't think we need to vote about it but Lauren of course would want to you know have two cents and yeah I we can absolutely recommend that to Lauren that we we pick a specific was it third Saturday was your recommendation most obvious yeah well probably a big a big push for this is to get it in the **[29:21] Deb (Liaison):** Oakdale update because it's missed now the publication date yeah um for the spring and so W it's really then hard we just have social media left yeah that's true you know which is good I mean it's great it's maybe 75% but a lot of people still read those yeah it needs to be in print I totally agree okay thanks Deb thank you Deb yeah it was a great suggestion anybody have strong feelings about that I think it's a great idea I think it's good to re establish a date yeah just makes perfect sense Rhythm we'll recommend that to Lauren then thanks okay um I think uh all that's **[30:08] Nick Canela:** left then is a council update mayor zel please good evening Commissioners uh nice to be with you again congrats Nick and Marge on your reelection to leadership roles uh not too much from the city council so we always canel the second meeting in December every year around the holidays so that means we wrap up the budget before that so end of December we adopted our 2024 operating budget and tax levy um some highlights of that uh Oakdale will be hiring three new police officers um as part of the budget one additional Public Works employee desperately needed they have a lot of work going on as we grow um you know we also just have a number of development items going on in in our community we can see it all around us um and so our budget reflects a lot of those changes of a growing community so **[30:55] Mayor Kevin Zabel:** um I'm always happy to to talk budget with anybody if you ever have any questions please feel free to let me or any of the council members know um otherwise you know like I said development is hot in Oakdale in the East Metro right now um the bus Rapid Transit project continues to move forward we've seen the opening of the helmo andberg overpass over I94 um I think tomorrow the Fourth Street Bridge closes tomorrow yes yes they they gave us two days they delayed it a little bit but um that bridge is being removed and replaced as part of the the bus rapper Transit project we'll finally have dedicated pedestrian walking space on that path um which is a a huge huge um bonus for our community that has been a problem for a long time so um that will be a headache um for a **[31:41] Mayor Kevin Zabel:** lot of people in our community we ask for everybody's patience but um it is definitely a better product coming out on the other side so we are excited about that I'm sorry is that it's going to be a couple of years isn't it no it'll be done by I think November they have it slate to four so just one construction season so it'll be done yet this year so um it it's pretty amazing how they can just build those bridges off site and slide them into place and then they're good to go so um I know the a lot of people were astonished at how fast helmo bilenberg went up over I94 a couple weekend road closures and and they had those pieces in place so um it doesn't I don't want to say it doesn't take a lot but it definitely uh can be done a lot faster than it used to be so um other than that not too much from the city council front so I am happy to answer any questions you may **[32:29] Mayor Kevin Zabel:** have nothing wow we do like that new overpass we've we've taken that a number of times now we really like that yes having two access points into our neighboring communities is definitely a change but a very positive change so um you know we wouldn't have that overpass if not for the bus Rapid Transit project um so it has been uh a beneficial project already and we're excited to see what additional comes out of it so thank you great great thank you okay you're just cooking down this agenda that is everything that is listed before we bring this meeting to a close does anybody have anything else they need to bring **[33:16] Nick Canela:** up I move to a journ seconded all in favor I all opposed well then this meeting is adjourned the gav it was exciting yeah you did it gav get it's there I know thanks good job congratulations on your your railroad Rail Road into very exciting thank you for Lauren um you know I helped him with that EAB this is since we got long as you guys keep trusting me rather have version this is I'll get tomorrow we should voice this off M next year that's what I think we **[34:03] Nick Canela:** should all right I got to be the heavy hand here send that link to all the Commissioners oh I was wondering nobody said no to that okay I who do I send it and then we can get it out to the Commissioners commun what I I kind of was like really all right perfect I will do that I no I want to go to jail I understand and I as soon as it was said thank you for weighing in on Stu appreciate it very much but we will be sure to get it out okay that'd be great thanks right coming from a nursery guy it's nice to hear which plants are no good so I can't send that link to you guys okay okay okay