REGULAR MEETING OF February 19^th, 1998

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE OKLAHOMA OPEN MEETING LAW THE AGENDA WAS POSTED February 16th, 1997. IN THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING AT 723 SOUTH LEWIS

The meeting was called to order at approximately 5:35 pm

Both sets of minutes were approved.

A digital camera was borrowed from the Electric Department, and a group picture was taken before the meeting for the Stillwater Tree Board web page.

A. Discuss the Airport Planting Plan

Discussion

Carrie gave an update on the planting at the Airport scheduled for Saturday, March 21^st.

The planting will start at 10:00 a.m. and will employ the volunteer help of the Flying Aggies and the OSU Horticulture Club. We will be planting a total of 49 trees, all of which will come in 5 gallon containers. The water availability on the parking lot islands has been provided by the Water Department. They will be boaring new water lines to the islands that need pipe bibs. The Tree Board was concerned about the Airport’s plan to put an Airplane on stilts in one of the parking islands near where we have plans to put some of the trees. It was suggested to go ahead with putting trees in the area and either move the trees or have the trees replaced if their plan happens. Carrie said that the planting design would not suffer by moving the trees down the island and would also allow room to put a plane in that area. Other issues discussed were possible sponsors for the planting. Dr. Hennessey has suggested approaching several sponsors to reimburse the Tree Board for this planting. The Board asked if placing a sign with the sponsors name at the Airport would be a possibility. Carrie answered that putting a sign inside the building showing appreciation would be a better idea and more acceptable to the Airport.

Outcome

Tom Hennessey will take the finished planting plan design done by Mike Shores and try to acquire some funding sources for this project. In the meantime Carrie will work on further organization of the project in terms of mulch, staking, and water distribution.

B. Update on the Stillwater Neighborwoods Program

Discussion

Carrie updated the Board on the Neighborwoods Program. She said that since the last Tree Board meeting the total number of trees ordered from the target neighborhood has doubled. The total is now 74 trees. Carrie explained that the plan for distributing these trees was to have all of the trees delivered to Carmike Theatre where they could be separated out and delivered to the neighborhood using tags to mark delivery points. The date set for this was Wednesday, March 17^th. Time was not discussed because Carrie has not yet gotten confirmation on the order that was sent. The Board was concerned about the distribution of mulch to the home owners. They decided that to ensure these trees do get mulched, 2 cubic foot bags of cypress mulch would be delivered with each tree. They decided that asking the sponsor to buy the mulch was the preferred method. Tree planting instructions were also discussed. The Board thought that the instructions should be simple to understand and short.

Outcome

Carrie will try to get the sponsor to pay for 2 cubic foot bags of mulch for the delivery of the trees to the neighborhoods. She will also try to get confirmation on the tree orders so that Carmike Theatre will know what size of vehicle to expect (semi or trailer) for the delivery of the trees.

C. Discuss next year’s budget

Discussion

Bryan started the discussion with the topic of changing the current position for the Forestry Coordinator to full time. He mentioned that the Community Development Department has recommended the change of the coordinator position to full time along with the purchase of a truck to facilitate this program. Bryan wanted to make sure the Board understood that if the position was changed when the budget year changes that Carrie would not be able to take the position even if she applied due to the fact that she is a full time graduate student. Carrie is scheduled to graduate next December (hopefully). So if the position was held at half time until January it would be possible to consider keeping Carrie if she is interested at that time. Tom Hennessey asked what we could do to support the Community Development Department suggestion to the management team. Bryan suggested a presentation to the City Commission. The budget from last year was reviewed in terms of format. It was suggested that we could change the format to more of a line item type of budget with categories such as total plant material purchased, design costs, advertising costs and so on. In this way the Tree Board could show significant improvements in terms of benchmarking for each year. Currently the budget is done to show which programs have been successfully completed, but if we continue these programs from year to year we need to be able to show significant improvements in them. Carrie suggested that we add design costs to the budget year particularly for the entry way planting grant that will be available this summer. The Board approved of this suggestion and an additional amount of $1200 will be added to the proposed budget. Other specific changes to the budget included a possible increase to the current public planting budget of $7000. An exact amount of additional money was not decided on but should be related to a goal of how many additional trees we would like to get into the ground.

Outcome

The Board suggested that we use both formats to try to explain the way we plan to achieve improvements in our program while at the same time giving them an idea of what each program is about. The Board also suggested that a list of accomplishments from the previous year be included in our proposed workplan budget.

V. Miscellaneous Items from the Staff- none

VI. Miscellaneous Items from the Board-

Tom Hennessey mentioned that the trees at the David Payne Memorial needed to be staked.

Bob Gaiko mentioned that the front of City Hall could use some help in terms of landscaping.

Outcome

Carrie will provide the staking material to Tom Hennessey to stake the trees at the David Payne memorial. She explained that the front of City Hall is Parks and Recreations responsibility. She will mention to John McClenny that something could be done to improve the looks of the front of City Hall in the winter time.

VII. Adjournment-

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:00 pm