8-28-07 

Members present: June Hutson, Roger Vonder Bruegge, Jenny O’Toole, Susan Renard, Judy Wickersham, Paul Loida, and Bill Ruppert.

Guests: Janna Allen, 435 Gill Ave., and Gerald DeWulf.

I.                    Call to Order: the meeting was called to order at 7 pm.

II.                 Citizen Comments:

III.               Secretary Report: the minutes from July 24, 2007, were approved.

IV.              Chair Report: Bill Ruppert

A.     Bill Ruppert sent an email to Claire Budd to add the tree manual draft to the city’s website.

B.     Bill Ruppert reported that he also sent an email to the Mayor this morning regarding a letter he sent August 5 inquiring about the status of a tree protection plan for St. Joseph’s site. The Mayor responded that he passed the letter along to Mike Brown asking to put it on a work session in early September.

C.     Jay Turner, owner of Custom Tree, a tree care company that does the contract line clearance for the City of Kirkwood, contacted Bill Ruppert about the Bradford Pears on Washington Avenue west of Kirkwood Road. He is concerned about them because trimming those trees within the present line clearance policy would reduce them to stubs. Bill Ruppert said he would like to invite Mark Petty [Director of Kirkwood Electric] to our next meeting to discuss this and related issues. Susan Renard asked if it would be appropriate to draft a letter regarding the Bradford Pears recommending removal. Bill Ruppert agreed that this was a good point and we can further discuss this with Mark Petty.

D.     Dan Klein, a resident who lives at Holmes and Argonne, contacted Bill Ruppert about the trees along Holmes. Dan Klein said the residents along Holmes received letters informing them that Holmes would be completely rebuilt jointly with the City of Oakland, and he wanted to know about street tree preservation plans. Ken Yost [Director of Public Works] reported that he has a very long file on this matter, but the design phase has not yet begun. Bill Ruppert said he will do some checking on this matter.

V.                 Council Liaison Report: Councilman Joe Godi was not present.

VI.              Community Department Guest: Mark Petty will be invited to the next meeting.

VII.            Activity Reports

A.     Planning & Zoning Liaison: Roger Vonder Bruegge. Councilman Joe Godi is on a council subcommittee to study infill housing.

B.     Jr. TreeKeepers: Paul Loida.

1.      Volunteers have been identified to work at the schools this year. Priscilla Ward will be at Tillman and Maxine Gillman at North Glendale. Jenny O’Toole has not yet heard from the principal at Robinson.

2.      Paul Loida has requested financial statements from the city’s Finance Department so we will know where we stand regarding funding. We will continue to stick to local groups for donations.

3.      The Greentree Festival Float theme was discussed, and Susan Renard’s suggestion of Smoky the Bear was approved. We need 3-4 trees to use on the float. Bill Ruppert said he will call Rob Emmett [at the Missouri Department of Conservation] to find out if he has any posters or handouts that we can use.

C.     Kirkwood Tree Survey: Susan Renard. Bill Ruppert asked Susan Renard if she would be willing to take on the leadership role in the annual street tree survey, and she agreed. June Hutson said she has not yet received the final reports from Curt Carron on last year’s survey. She thinks we are starting the 3^rd round for the city, so we will be surveying the first quadrant.

D.     Greentree Festival: June Hutson. The St. Louis Arborists Association will be providing a lot of the literature we formerly supplied about trees. June Hutson said she applied for a parade permit, and we have been assigned #37 in the parade. We’re listed in booth #25. Bill Ruppert said we’re in the community area. He said we need the Arbor Day flag for the back of the booth. We should also bring the KUFC flag and figure out if and where it might be used. Judy Wickersham said she will provide a binder with the current drafts of the Tree Code and Landscape Manual for the booth. We will need only one person per schedule shift from KUFC to work in the booth because representatives from other councils and commissions will also be working. Bill Ruppert sent an email to Murray Pounds [Director of the Parks Department] about planting a tree in the park for our official Arbor Day ceremony. Bill Ruppert asked if we should be working within some kind of Park Master Plan, but Murray Pounds was not certain if he understood. A Paw Paw tree has been selected for the planting this year. It is a nice understory tree. Bill Ruppert said he will pick one up from Forrest Keeling Nursery.

E.      Kirkwood Tree Code/Tree Manual: Bill Ruppert. We are waiting for a council work session.

VIII.         Commission Items: Public tree impact requests

A.     435 Gill Ave. Janna Allen said a new water line next to the driveway will tear up the root system on the Locust tree. Also, she said the White Pine on the property was overmulched and was damaged in last December’s ice storm. She requests permission to remove both trees. Bill Ruppert passed around photos of the trees. He explained that the City of Kirkwood does not have a forester or a horticulturalist on staff. Requests of this nature are forwarded to this commission. We review them and make a recommendation to the Director of Public Works who will make the final decision. We try to complete the review process within a month. Right now there is nothing in place to compensate the community for any trees removed by citizens. There was some discussion about whether the trees in question are city trees.

B.     806 Elm Tree. Monterey Custom Homes sent a letter to the Director of Public Works requesting removal of a Sweet Gum tree. Roger Vonder Bruegge said he looked at the tree and it appears to be healthy. Susan Renard asked if trees are given a value in our street tree inventory. Bill Ruppert said no; they are given a rating but not a valuation. He asked if we can take a look at these removal requests and get back to him by early next week.

IX.              Old Business

A.     Bill Ruppert said the America in Bloom Awards Program is coming up, September 27-29, in Rockford, Illinois. He said he will be attending with Judith Brauer, Margie Terpstra, and Mayor Swoboda.

B.     Bill Ruppert handed out copies of the old KUFC calendar from June 2003. He would like to develop a new calendar that is on target with current activities, and Judy Wickersham said she will work on that.

C.     Bill Ruppert said he would like to defer a review and discussion of the “Care of Public Trees in Kirkwood” draft. He said we need to have some discussion of this at the Council level. We do not even know if the Parks Department will follow the Tree Code. Roger Vonder Bruegge asked if we have any say about the trees in Kirkwood Park. Bill Ruppert said it’s important for us to invite Murray Pounds to one of our meetings to discuss these issues.

X.                 New Business: no items.

XI.              Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 25, 7 pm.

XII.            Adjourn: the meeting was adjourned at 8:38 pm.

The City is interested in effective communication for all people. Upon request, these minutes can be made available in an alternate format, such as audio tape, by calling 314-822-5894.