 Hi Hello, hello Can't hear you Alan You should be a little now I can hear you was my fault While waiting for people I'm gonna just oh there's nine people in the Ha, let me switch them over Be right back Well Henry's doing that. I just want to remind everybody that this is a live session now I'm Chantry committee meeting so this line this zoom will be recorded and viewable again after I believe they post them after at the end of the day of Friday, so You can rewatch it later like You're muted Henry all I said was hmm Hi everyone Let me just drag up the agenda Are we being recorded Alan? Yes, we are we're live Welcome everybody we have some guests we have Guess we have four people from the committee five people from the committee, so we have a quorum. Oh Sarah's here six. Okay, good Yeah So yeah, we'll do quick review of the agenda then we'll open it up to some of the guests that are here I'll share my screen just briefly with the agenda and kind of everyone see that so We'll move forward with the people who are here Visiting and then we'll proceed with the other topics and everyone's welcome to stay and participate as much as they want But at least to get started will will give you the opportunity to go first So I'm gonna stop sharing and we'll Go to that okay So I'm Henry Lappin. I'm the chair of the committee. Let's go around Shashana I'm Shashana King committee member since I think 2018 ish Ellen Ellen kiter and I am also a committee member for I think the past three years Sarah hi, I'm Sarah Lawler I've also been a committee member for three years Okay, and Britt I'm Brit Crow Miller. I think I'm just past one year as a committee member Julian you still here hi. Yes. Um, I my name is Julian Hines I am a committee member and I do the social media and I'm technically the vice chair Okay, and I assume everyone knows Alan snow, but you can introduce yourself, I guess Alice no tree warden And then we have visitors Sharon Hey everybody, thank you so much for having me. I'm Sharon cherry the director of the Jones and Henry I didn't know if you could promote Jess and Rachel. I Promoted her. She didn't take me up on that. Let me see if Jess is Try again. Okay Henry do we have someone taking notes? Julian offered to do that. Okay Sure, yeah, no someone else would like to You can do it so great All right, so Sharon you introduce yourself Rachel former committee member Hi, I'm Rachel a flare former committee member And with pressure design and working with Sharon and Jess and many many other people on the Jones Library renovation update And Jess pressure design Working with Rachel Hi, Sarah by Robert and Robert So my name is Robert Ryan. I'm a citizen of Amherst and a landscape architect okay, and there's a few people who are Hidden does anyone else want to speak? Okay. Well, let's move on. Is everyone here for the library all the guests? They are so Bob parent is a town of Amherst. He's capital projects Planner and Jenny Hamilton is the Chair of our capital campaign Okay, so I'll let you take over this part of the meeting I have a quick spiel. I thought I'd share with you and just a little bit of background and and then I'll hand it over to Rachel and Jess so in Your knowledge we probably have about 15 minutes for this if we need more we could do that, but Okay, this order would be good. Yeah, sounds good So in April of 21 Town council voted to approve this project for the Jones library building and This vote was a culmination of more than a decade of careful planning and Consultation to make sure that Amherst libraries serve the needs of all of the residents The project calls for expanding the children's room Providing a much-needed teen space Dealing with the inadequacies of our special collections and English as a second language facility and making the building accessible for all Amherst residents it will make the library a model for Sustainability through the purchase of off-site renewables. It will be net zero While preserving and restoring the unique history of the Jones building in addition the expansion renovation project will address the serious maintenance And structural problems which plague the Jones in order to pay for this project Which is now estimated at forty three point nine million the town will have to bond for only fifteen point eight million and The remainder of the cost will be taken care of by the MVLC grant Which is the largest grant that they've ever awarded and our capital campaign and to date the trustees and friends have secured over 37.6 million dollars toward this project We expect to go out to bid in January of 2024 Sign a contract with a general contractor in March and then spend 18 months operating out of an interim space While construction occurs and then we'll celebrate our grand reopening in December of 25 so that's just a little bit of background information the architectural firm that we've been working with is Fine gold Alexander architects out of Boston and they have contracted with Berkshire design group And so I'd like to hand it over to Rachel and Jess Thanks, Sharon And also we should note that In terms of jurisdiction for the public shade tree committee, this is purely a courtesy presentation There aren't any trees within the Jones library property that are jurisdictional to the shape public shade tree committee There are some public shade trees in the right away out front that will be protected throughout construction So we're excited to share with you the process where we are at And also get your input on our current tree Species selection and see if you guys have any other thoughts that we should be thinking about So I'll share screen And talk about the site today and then our vision for where it would be headed Everybody see my screen, okay So this is an aerial view of the plans and generally as we're talking today This is this is kind of our home base. We'll be looking so north is up south is down on the bottom of the page Amity Street along the front Existing Jones library the red line is the property line On the west is the Amherst Amherst Historical Society building And and the north is the CVS parking lot and then we have the works cafe and the fire station To the east of note with the public with shade trees in general. We we know that the Historicals Museum strong house has the one of the oldest sycamore trees in the state. It's a heritage tree I know there's been a lot of effort to help keep that tree vibrant and thriving and we walked walk the site with Alan Because of February going through the plans and talking about the trees And we were surprised to hear that the roots for this tree extend all the way Probably all the way to the edge of the existing library building as do the Norway's Norway spruce So our plans taken to consider protecting those trees protecting that root zone And staying out of that area and if the contractor does go in that area They have to first get permission from the storkles the society and in addition They'd have to put down timber matting to help protect the tree roots in that time And as we were starting this process We were Hold up some of the old postcards That were created shortly after the library was constructed and then just seeing how in those early early decades what the landscape was like It's interesting how there are you know trees planted very close The building which can be a problem long term for some of those beautiful shade trees when they're really close and When we start to grow into the structure and foundation That's one thing that we're wanting to avoid and then from site photos on site We can looking at the front of library. This is the Norway spruce we were talking about that would be protected There's an existing this is public shade tree Norway maple There's another maple and then a London plane and then another tree Which we weren't sure if it was a mountain a Korean ash or if it was a crab apple here right on the corner And then up against the building black gum tree black gum. Okay. Thank you Then up against the building. So that's those are the jurisdictional trees out front Once we cross the sidewalk were completely on on Jones library property. So long the Existing front of the building. There's some Chinese dogwood and a pagoda dogwood And then lots of lilac bushes and rose bushes kind of overgrown and challenging for the library to maintain Um, this is a view of that beautiful Norway spruce on the historical society property and big swooping branches That would be protected throughout construction And then some existing dogwoods again on the on the west side of the library and some shrugs And this is a view of that heritage sycamore tree So that's the front of the building and then in the back The landscape is Kind of like a little bit more roly-poly back there You know, it's low at the CVS parking lot and the entry to the library today Is down low, but then the historical society is six to eight feet above that area And then in the middle, there's a big mound up and we were walking the site with Alan Um, he was showing us the age of the trees and then the relationship the grades and we believed that the actually This area was cut down with the addition in 1993 Um, so in that area there are there's an old maple an old oak tree They're thriving The oak tree is actually thriving because its roots have grown into the sewer pipe so we didn't um earlier we did a like a A video scoping of both the drainage and the sewer lines out back And there's definitely a root intrusion into the sewer line and the sewer line is not of a size or a material that could be used long term So that's one of the things we had to consider as we were looking at at the plains This is a proposed view of what we anticipate the front of the library to look like when it's complete Um, so out front. These are the public hammer shade trees still in place still ruined thriving We'd be one of the issues in the back one of the trees is really struggling the pagoda dogwood Has very few branches on it. The other one is growing into the building and creating maintenance issues So one of the requests from the library staff was to have a tree that would provide shade for them outside of this area Um, and so we're proposing um oxy dendrum Sourwood tree good native out here to provide shade and provide some seating We're going to keep the chinese dogwood on the two corners of the building And then out front we would be proposing Two new yellow magnolia trees out front to mirror the building We would be taking down the Princeton Elm And um, I'll show you in more detail on the plans In addition, um, so when we're looking at the trees here, we're looking at trees in general that could handle hotter temperatures that are projected with climate change. So they're both northern and southern adapted um, and also thinking about um seasonality and habitat and pollinator support This is a rendering view from from the corner on amity and north prospect street um The renderer Took a lot of license and showed us trimming the tree. So I would just like to clarify You see this image. We are not trimming the norway springs. We're not doing that But they did this so that you could see what the building the addition would look like on the building And then this is a view on the backside of the building. So the CVS entry It's a new addition to support that much needed program that Sharon was talking about um, we have an open sight line to the to the Entry down there And then that area that what I have mentioned before that was really polly where the historical society is up and the pathway is down Um, we're actually going to be cutting cutting the grades down and creating a storm water Area on site. So again with climate change um We've seen the numbers for a hundred year storm increase The what we use in terms of design and engineering So we're planning ahead always for the hundred year storm making sure that we're not with any project that we're not releasing more water Off property than we were before a project. Um, that's our due diligence So the standard for that used to be six and a half inches. So six and a half rainstorm would be a hundred year storm And the regulations have changed in this last year. So now we're we're sizing things for 11 inch rainstorm almost double You know, and you think about those big rainstorms that we had in the last couple weeks Those were six inches so you can think almost twice that amount is something that we um, we are Required and we're happy, you know, really happy to support What that means for this project though is because the site does take fall the storm water Off of the historical society's property. I'll show you on the plan That this area um in the area of the crease roof size We needed we needed more capacity to hold things on site. And so the Creating it as a feature that also could support um pollinators and other habitat could be a place for garden Stacking those layers and functions or something that's really important to us Um We're also going to be reusing as much as we can landscape materials on site So there are lots of beautiful goshen stone on site That are in walls and paving some granite pavers out front So we'll be integrating that into stone benches and also stepping stone paths In the north garden and then granite bands and veneers. So again trying to reuse things on site It's really important to the project And so just helped us put together a catalog that was there on site And we did a lot of number crutching to see where we could put these and how we could integrate that into the paving Um our palette that fell out front is much more restrained kind of keeping with the historical aesthetic in town and in new england So we're looking at mostly evergreens with a little pops of color little Splashes of white and purples and then those accent magnolias that we were talking about at the front Again trying to minimize the amount of perennials and weeding and mulching that would be required for the project And then the north we took inspiration from for the woodland edge and wetland gardens with barracks and mosses and ferns And we'll be interspersing bulbs and other perennials in there some sedums for that sort of low textured seasonal feel That also couldn't handle the dry and the wet Um so out front this is an enlargement of the front plan again. So the main we have a new main front entry We have a fully accessible walkway that parallels the building now It's under five percent. So we don't need any railings It's fully accessible to the front and to the the west side We have a new children's courtyard area out directly off of the children's room. So You know families and children can read or have some of those amazing Programs that this that the library offers to kids of all ages out there in that area will be surrounded by A dwarf border dendron that maxes out about four feet high the cunningham way Um, we'd be embracing that existing chinese dogwood and then that be framed by the by the buttercup magnolia Proposed sour wood tree and that corner for shade and at the back We had these are the new new main walkways to the north entry and one of the comments we got from From the public was that the When needed something softer that the straight lines were less desirable So we interspersed a walking meditation walking loop through the garden of the stepping stones that were reusing from materials on site We have seeding boulders at destinations along the garden And then we're weaving in different types of bowls and crown cover In this area, we're going to keep the existing norway maples of the north corner of the cvs Property and then we would be and we'd be protecting the existing maple by the existing shed but we were thinking that we would Try to find trees again that are southern adapted could handle the wet feet can handle the drought So we're looking at willow oak Swamp white oak and sassafras In this area to provide shade long term and a little bit of color with the proposed from the tree There are some existing trees on this circle property again up high that have grown into the library And that's something that we would be coordinating with The circle society to trim them properly and protect them during construction And so this is what we just saw that view now looking at the plan. So this is a view Looking from the cvs lot towards that new main entry So you're standing here at the cvs lot looking towards that new north entry Love a stormwater garden Over here would be the swamp white oak existing shade tree the new sassafras the existing birch trees and the new willow oak And then that view from the front again looking this way towards the jones library The oxy then drone sour wood the new magnolias and the existing cameras public shade trees So I think that's kind of the overview. I mean how many questions I had um two questions One is um, it looks like That back wall is going to get very very hot that area you have seating back there But I didn't see any trees shading it because of the rain gardens Um, are there any trees in that area in the back in the center? Probably should have kept sharing. Sorry So you're talking about this area here I can't quite see it. I'm on the other way Yeah, that this wall here Yeah Then to the right in the picture in front of that. Yeah Yeah, this area will be actually pretty shaded by the building. It is a three-story building. It's going to cast quite a bit of shadow um We do have a sassafras here And the maple here one of the challenges and I could share Let me see if like if you guys can see this. Let me know if you can see this Can you see this okay? Yeah, these are um We're about 75 percent through through the drawing. So we've got You know a mock-up of what the constructions that would be but in that back area. Let me show you the utility drawing It's everything that's happening underneath that beautiful garden so, um We've been calling it Colloquially the stormwater sandwich. So we've got rain garden on top And then we've got stormwater storage underneath Um here below the rain garden So the rain garden water will filter into here and then infiltrate into this and then give it And it gives it more time to infiltrate below or go out to the city system So that's what side those two things together are helping with that with that under your storm So when we're when we're placing trees in here, we're trying to avoid that That area so that kind of eliminates putting a putting a shade tree here Or or here and we've got a lot of drain lines coming out of the building from the roof And then drain lines leaving the building So that's one one of the one of the factors and really trying to Integrate integrate shade into the area But this area on the north side we do think will be pretty heavily shaded by the building itself just by its mass And it faces north anyway, so it shouldn't receive direct sunlight correct correct Yes And one question I had for both my minutes answer the public knows How many total trees are planned to be removed from the jones property here? And how many trees are planned to be added after the fact? I would need to count for you. I don't have a number off hand Is that something that you could do while we're talking? Yeah, okay Yeah, yeah, it might be helpful to have Total inches and dvh removed Just to give us an idea of the size of the trees coming as well And I had one other question you mentioned the princeton elm that was going to be removed Is that one of the shade trees out front or? Yeah I don't remember where that is it's in front of the library, but not a public shade tree Okay It was um, it's princeton elm planted at an arbor day event back in probably 2010 2009 around there It got pretty pretty busted up by the october 2011 snowstorm and We you know rebounded pretty well, but his some very poor branching characteristics Because of the way it was damaged That's growing just fine. Yeah, go ahead. It is. It's only jones property not the public way Yeah, I just wanted I mean thank you for the presentation looks Like a lovely project with lots of thought Having gone into it I just wanted to clarify so the the very large oak tree Currently kind of backed by the cvs parking lot those oaks are going to be removed correct? Yeah, let me let me pull up our Our demo plan So you can be really clear about what what's happening So you're asking about the trees in the back, right? So this is the existing rear of the library now here And that existing asphalt walk with the little millstones. Yes Yep This is the existing maple that we're going to keep that's by by the shed And then this is the existing oak that's growing into the sewer line That's the sewer line. Oh got it. Okay. Yeah, additionally the addition Extends about halfway into that into that crown so be it'd be really challenging to save and And you know not Not a given that it would be able to be saved if we Took him out took him out that much root someone from that tree Um Then this this tree Um Is up high so that as I was saying the really fully landscape. This is high. This is low. This is high again Maybe two three feet higher than the walkway Um, this is a beautiful tree. Um But it is for that's for that climate change adaptation 100 year storm 11 inches of rainfall Um, this area needs to needs to drop down to be a bowl to hold and collect the water rather than being raised up And so that once we change the grades in that area Um, we have to we have to remove that tree because it wouldn't be able to withstand that change in grade So we're dropping it down another three feet below below the sidewalk level to hold all that water I this may be a silly question But I'm curious if you all have done a calculation to see what a tree of that size would absorb in terms of runoff and if that is equivalent to The water to be held in that planned basin Yeah, we haven't done that calculation. Um, so that I guess there Might have two thoughts on that one is that is an interesting calculation And would love any resources that you would share for us to do that there's also The the regulations and the storm water standards with the state that we have to comply with as due diligence and so Unfortunately, the only way currently that trees engage with the state standards is in calculation of water runoff And cover so trees are factored in when we look at our watershed analysis map We do have to put in the areas of the tree canopy upslope and on site the pre and post For that for that calculation As far as an individual tree and what it pulls out with its roots, that's not factored in it's purely Erosion water runoff velocity how it's considered so in terms of What we would do as a standard care and standard of practice It's more about what those state standards are You know, but we're happy to look at you know, what that What that what those trees might be pulling out if you can direct us to that resource But it's not something that would be a regulatory Feature in any of our any of our applications That it and and I think we can calculate that using the i tree. Um, I canopy resources Online pretty easily so maybe I can go measure that and get back to you with some numbers on that just you know I understand it's it's separate from the regulatory restrictions, but It might be an interesting calculation to consider I'm wondering about this water being held is Is that like a normal thing to want to hold the water instead of like get it into a sewer or something I'm thinking like mosquitoes like, you know stagnant water Yeah, that's a great question the the existing storm System today at Jones library. Let's go to them. Maybe the Sistine conditions plan us a little bit easier to see um The any of the storm drains on site today Go underneath The retaining wall to the fire department alleys to the fire department alleys down from the Jones library fight and grades continue to drop along North pleasant street So this drain system goes out to the main storm drain system for the town which is already kind of near capacity So Any of that any of that water that we'd be increasing You know with the bigger footprint and the increased crease water flows that we anticipate from climate change All of that we really don't want to crease anything going into the municipal system about what's today In terms of the mosquitoes that is always a big issue. So one of the This the subsurface system we have it's below grade is not a place for mosquitoes Um, and then the rain gardens are designed with a special media. It's like a it's 40 percent 40 percent sand 20 percent compost and 20 topsoil That mix is a really quick dry material And the systems are designed so they don't all water more than more than 72 hours But both systems we've seen draining within 24 hours of a storm effect And one question I had is will there be any trees In that specific area either to be planted or to be capped that will help intercept some of that storm water Yeah, we have We have the Swamp white oak We've got the sassafras and we've got the willow oak. Those are all trees that that love love water And they they should get pretty large in time too Willow oak is not hardy now and in this area like you'll have serious dieback Um, it would really struggle to survive in in amherst Maybe another 15 years So we're a little too aggressive and too aggressive in our climate change selection um If you have any ideas About something else that we would be using there We appreciate it And we should be thinking about for them for the willow oak The tulip poplar could be interesting. Um, they're quite effective with carbon sequestration, right allen and You know, they grow fast and provide shade quickly. So might be something to consider Sarah I had a question. Sorry. Um, rachel I had a question Did two questions did bursary design group do an analysis of the intercept of the second oak that's being removed for the storm water That intercept the how much water it's pulling out. Yeah, did you calculate that intercept? Because it's over 2000. I'm sure it's over 2000 gallons, you know a year Which overall isn't that much on the whole project probably but um No, what was the other question? Um, we didn't calculate it because we Regardless of what it what it does, we'd still be held to the same storm water standard And we didn't have anywhere else on site to put the water We have to be 20 feet away from the edge of a building We can't have water going back in to the basement of the library Okay, so that is my next question. Which was did you investigate putting The storm water cells under the pavement? But you can't have it within 20 feet, okay That's where we originally thought And then also there's an electric duct bank for a lot of buildings in the area that goes through there And we weren't able we weren't able to get that get that to work We did also introduce some subsurface piping out front underneath the lawn area to again help with that We have a subsurface pipe in this area also to again help reduce the size of that footprint in the back And that takes mostly the roof water from the building. So today a lot of the Downspout gutters actually just flow freely on site and we're actually intercepting those two And and taking them so again minimizing the amount of um mosquito issues on site And just a curious so this is you know, beautiful beautiful landscape plan Lots of plants As somebody who knows maintenance Um Maybe this is a question for sherry is is this Sharon sorry, um I mean has maintenance costs been factored into this. I mean, this is huge. This is a lot of maintenance. I know storm water um Gardens are not maintenance free by any stretch of the imagination Again, no jurisdiction here, but I'm just it's it's going to be a lot of maintenance Is that the fact of the new project those costs? So I know berkshire design group and the architects have been very aware Because I think we've made it very clear that we need this to be as low maintenance as possible um We haven't talked about what it's going to take starting on day one, you know, once rachel leaves us um She may have to visit us once a week to help. No, honestly, I I actually would love Thank you for asking that question and I would love rachel to help with the answer Yeah, out front we it'll definitely be easier than what's there now. Um, we've got simple simple plantings that don't require trimming You know, they max out at the height that's wanted We're gonna, you know, reduce the amount of perennials and beds that require cleanup and the rest is Is lawn The library could use a no mo fescue which is just challenging to establish so that's something that we can talk about On site if that's something that's desired Which could reduce the amount or out of maintenance and and mowing We've had success with that in town on other projects It just takes it takes maybe an extra season to establish in a lot of tlc up front, but it's something that um You really only have to mow like once a year my question about maintenance or more Concern if you will would be we as a committee already Have a lot of stuff we're doing and also a lot of stuff that we put on the plate for alan's department and i just want to make sure that when This if this new project when it moves forward that tree and grounds isn't being then asked after the fact to come and maintain it Yeah, thank you for the question. No, we um Yeah, the library takes care of this this property. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate Yeah, and then out then out back we have we have the shade trees we talked about um, we are proposing a mix of Like she we're going to use sheet moss in the areas where the where the stepping stones are and then we have a mix of Different types of varieties of kerricks as a under as a carpet throughout throughout the site And then we have both plantings throughout there. So the idea is that there shouldn't be cutting or or trimming or maintaining There will be initial investment needed in that establishment period Just to keep the weeds out while things are growing in That definitely will be needed and then the the stormwater features themselves will need inspections Three to four times a year to make sure they're working Um and that no maintenance is needed I just want to say one more thing. Um And again, I think I think it's a really lovely, you know, generally speaking, uh, lovely proposal um, I do think it's such a shame that those large oak trees have to go and I I um I don't have a sense of how old they are and alan maybe you do if if we're talking about like a hundred, you know 150 year old oak trees There are ways to design with trees like this and there's a really lovely project Um, it's actually a library project that I'm familiar with if if you just google Uh, portland state library, you'll see this beautiful library built around a large tree And so, you know, I just I just want to put that out there that there are ways to preserve large trees old trees Um, and it's a shame that that hasn't been I I guess it probably has been considered, but it's a shame that that type of project is not an option. So I'll just Let me just say so we've been working on this project for 12 years now. I kid you not. Um, but So rule number one when we sat down with the architects and the landscape architects we said you need to save as many trees as you can and And we pushed back several times. Um, you know, originally the the the One that's living in the sewers, you know, we were we that one didn't surprise us But because it was so close to the building We didn't know it was living out of the sewers. So, um So when that had to go that didn't surprise us that much the others like the one that you're talking about That's high up on the mound That that was a that was a bummer and we did push back and then they explained They did all the math and the storm water and the storm water coming from the roofs in the strong house And and they were just like it just can't happen Sharon. So um, so I I had my morning period So I I totally hear what you're saying. Um Yeah, but I think you know once Jess comes back with those numbers the number of trees being taken down versus what's being planted We're definitely planting more than we're taking down Are there any more questions or comments we should probably move on? We have a long agenda I just want to say Thanks for the presentation the plans look really nice. Um, I know how much work and thought goes into projects like this So I really appreciate your efforts And I wouldn't be mad about seeing two swamp white oak back there. Um, I think groupings of plants are lovely The oaks are some of the trees that we were just talking about being sad about removing Um, and they're one of the best trees for pollinators and it's gonna, you know, fulfill the needs obviously you already have one in there Um, I don't think there's a need to have to try to have a ton of variety in such a small space. I think um getting the sasset brass in there and then having two of the same oak trees would would totally be fine and and look totally Great There I think you're uh, your partner there should come to every meeting. It's just so lovely. Thank you Thank you. I'm solo right now. So we're Doing dinnertime on the fly but thank you. I And robert you have your hand raised Yeah, I just want to reiterate I think that the team did a great job with the plan and I'm I'm sad about the oak tree too But I realized the challenge they're faced with with Regulatory because the storm are managed you have to you have to handle that water on site. You can't you can't move it off Site, it's the law now the law has changed. It's different. And so unfortunately you have to dig down So it's it's sad about that oak. I'm sad too, but I think it's it's a reality of that site I would put that that oak at about 75 years old approximately Sort of looking at the size of it and the age of the buildings around it because it doesn't predate the buildings That's for sure. So I I gotta say that's sort of that range. So I like the swampland oak idea too I think that's a great one to to bring more oaks back there and also one that could take the water as well So great job. My my students have been working on this that you may ask for Many different studios. So it's nice to see the final plans. They'll be thrilled Thanks If there aren't further questions, I'll thank you so much for the presentation I'm personally looking forward to the new library, but uh, yeah, it is hard to see the trees come down Thank you. Thank you all so much for the time Thank you for allowing us to answer questions And if you have more questions that you think of tomorrow or tonight when you're laying your head down Reach out to me. No problem Thank you. Thank you for sharing that was really great Thank you. Okay Thank you, and you're all welcome to stay if you want Okay So back to the agenda. Are you guys ready? Let me just Shrink you down so I can see the agenda at the same time There we go. Okay um Why don't you everyone email me your hours for the month? And I'll put that in and Can we approve the september minutes? Any comments about them? No, so all in favor of Proving the minutes And I guess there's two abstentions or anyone opposed Can't remember if I read them. I'm just like I And because I wasn't there in september Okay, it's good. Yes. I I uh, I vote to Approve the minutes It's good to read the minutes, especially if you miss meetings because I I did read them and I couldn't remember if I had or not But I'm looking at them and I I definitely did so yes Okay, so the minutes are approved. Um, I read them, but I can't approve them because I don't know Yeah um Things I have on my list. Um Phyllis whatever name is from the gazette Bill Lacher Yeah, someone reaching out to her to tell them about the the work day on saturday and about the um Tree tour on the sunday two weeks a week from sunday, I guess I could send her an email. I believe I did last time Um Yeah, and then um Oh, there's uh, I guess alan will talk about this But the mass tree warrants and foresters are having their dinner on the 19th if anyone wants to go on the 12th The war out of a burrito is having a tree walk at four o'clock. I'm planning to go to that. That's this thursday um should be fun and uh What else to have? Oh, we need to talk about the mary maple table. It's on the agenda. Good. Okay And then the only other thing is maybe alan can talk about the elm zigzag soft lie I mentioned that the last meeting but it'd be good to get more information about that. It's a new invasive pest of elms So that's all I have right now. Um, julian, do you have anything? I think so, no Okay So alan over to you Um, can you hear me? Yeah. Um All right, so no tree hearings on the agenda that I'm aware of We started printing out some of the Tree protection areas on the common the north common project so we're Two by four is up with the contractor install the two by four is around the trunks of the trees and then we're installing these filter socks that kind of Filter tubes that will define the no-go zone around the trunk flares around the dripline of the trees And then we're going to pour more mulch in there To you know help mitigate some of the compaction that's already there So we hope to have that finished this week They started doing the construction down on Boltwood where they're putting in a new sidewalk that runs along boltwood on the north end of the north common And then they're going to start doing the work on the inside of the the common They're not Planning on fencing off that air at all during construction for what I understand. So it's going to stay pretty open And their equipment pretty much is going to stay off of You know the trees which is going nice Some of the trees there are going to have will have root impact from the project We minimized it as much as possible, but there will be some Definitely some tree roots being impacted by the project, but I think it's going to be okay Four of the trees that we preserved uh We on kelagav we have one project left of the sidewalk renovation there on kelagav Next to the unitarian church We supposed to be putting down perky pave and we had a hard time finding a contractor do that. This is a rubberized Surface kind of like the rubberized playgrounds, but it's actually it's firmer it is porous And it's going to be applied around the trunks of the trees, you know instead of asphalt we're putting perky pave down so the trees can um You know get a little oxygen Get some water and not have asphalt over their roots. So we don't have to impact the roots as much Next to the trunk of the trees we have About six trees seven trees going in at the the new west street roundabout on the palm rowing west palm array Um So that we're waiting for them to finish the stamping they're doing this who's driven through there You've seen they're stamping the asphalt with this textured brick-like surface so that It's kind of defines the road from the Non-road, but yet air is where you can actually still drive a vehicle in the center of the roundabout there For big trucks and stuff to drive on so uh, so that's the logic of having all of that extra paved area there Yeah, the extra paved air that's not part of the you know regular driving is four large trucks that have to get through there Yeah, I didn't understand why that wasn't being planted and was just more impervious surface area, but that makes sense The same thing on the triangle street roundabout. There's a middle section there that is stamped On great. It's a little better when it's planted out. So it will triangle one. You don't you don't notice that much I must say the plantings around the triangle street one are really maturing nicely and You know another 10 years 15 years. It's going to be well treated over there. So The other thing that is nice about those little areas is if you're Um, maintaining the roundabout it gives us good place to park stay out of traffic. Um, or if you're broken down or whatever um And then uh, I did Uh here from uh Sharon sherry that they are they're interested in um, if you're still looking for a home for the table very maple table the library would love to um Give it a home in the new building. So Just throwing that out there um I think that's pretty much it Um, we do have two students talking at the western master year this intermeeting It's the 19th Very mass and they're going to talk about their research projects around training some uh Training that people how how different companies miss valleys train people And i'm doing a terrible job describing this and then uh I can't remember what that one is. I apologize. Um, it was a tough one to plan I'd hope to have four people four students there. Um, but That cancelled last months and then some people couldn't make this one. So we just have two students talking about uh Come mingle with other community Shady community folks tree carry industry folks tree ones if you want to At the blue bonnet All right, thank you Thank you, alan um treasurer We have no change To our account. It is uh the same as last month Which is nine thousand three hundred fifty five dollars and twenty nine cents Thank you And social media Any news on that shashana julian No real news to report All right So on to library trees. Do we need to discuss that more? Are there any comments that people didn't make during the presentation? um It's a little loud on my end and I wasn't sure if I missed it or not, but um, is there anything That's planned for the use of the wood of the trees that are coming down either on site or in the library Um, or is that something we should should suggest? Um, I can think of like obviously it could be used in uh Art projects or something like that like we did with the merry maple Um, but I was wondering if it also could be used outside in the landscape like a stumpery I don't I know that there's a lot of Uses going on. Um, but have Right, it's a good one having um, you know wood available on site Creates habitat and especially in a rain garden if we're trying to attract pollinators having You know be hotels in places where they can over winter and all that sort of thing is very beneficial um, so either in the building itself or an art project in the library or just left large cooking in the landscape, um, but I I didn't know if anybody heard or something like that. It's very loud That was I have not heard about that, you know use but um, it's a great idea You know, there's a lot of dimensional lumber in those two oak trees. I mean, it's there's straight trunks, so If there's no metal in it You know, they could make tables all kinds of stuff we made um for use inside the building Yeah, so they're not since they're not public trees We don't really have a say over where they go or what happens to them. Um But I guess I I mean, I would be happy to reach out to them and be like a community liaison As I did with the merry maple wood Um, I don't know if I can accommodate like massive, you know, like, you know, 10 foot pieces of trunk, but it could also be interesting to um Like offer to run a workshop Making little like pollinator houses as you suggested sarah at the library and I I think that would be great I would be happy to do that too So maybe I should reach out to Sharon um And when is that when is when did they say construction was going to start Going up to bid in 2024 so 2024. Okay Yeah, that could be really fun I have a book coming out next year called old oak actually for kids and so It could be really fun to do something around that. Um around the same time So maybe I'll reach out to Sharon and um also suggest like community You making the wood available to community members and in some way even if it's small pieces or whatever there Whoever's cutting down the trees is willing to do So you could include me or cc me britt if you reach out because I'm interested in helping One question I forgot to ask is a contractor going to be removing those trees or will that be the dpw so Right now as far as I know it's going to be You know the library where dbw has not been directly asked to do Julianne I'll just offer on projects like this typically when it goes out to bid The demo is included as part of the construction. So it's going to go to a company who's going to do the whole thing And they might have subcontractors who specialize in tree removal for trees of the size But it would all be under the same bid for the whole thing So it's like one big bid rather than call up tree company x and demolition company y Yeah, right right when the library goes out to bid it will be for the entire project and then It depends on who applies for the bid. It might be a team of people. It might be a huge company that does everything it depends on who um puts in a Proposal, but it would all be included in the project. Definitely okay Yes, so if you can spread those messages to the library at contact Sharon That's great And then let's see next The workday is coming up Saturday Alan do you have trees? No Now we're just we were just supposed to be doing uh getting their prep for it and putting down mulch. We don't We have to have species. We you know You know, we're going to talk about species and then we have to get bare root stock And then we have to have probably a a day in november Where we actually put the bare root stock in the grow bags and and lay it all out so Yeah, we're gonna be spreading mulch and putting down landscape cloths and maybe putting some stakes in the ground to support the the trees Um Are you guys gonna mow it and weed whack it and everything before saturday? Yeah, we're gonna run a mower down there and knock it down Okay, because it's really as you saw in the photos. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm down there frequently. Okay. It's very overgrown So it's supposed to rain on saturday that might change but what tools should we As committee members be bringing with us that would be useful just Uh, well, we're gonna be moving woodchips Uh, wheelbarrows. Okay hit forks iron rakes Really Might be putting some stakes in the ground for to support the trees Once we get them in it's like because they're being grow bags and they could blow over Yeah, got it. Well, we've been fixing the fence Someone's gonna be fixing the fence I don't know, you know, we don't have um, you know, we need to put up some kind of Temporary fence around the inside, you know, um, because the whole We don't need the whole corral area. We only need a section of it. So, um, Some kind of snow fence or something um Or rabbit fence to keep rabbits out, uh, you know You know voles and moles might be the bigger problem there But if we keep the grass down um And keep the trunks exposed and just to root roots grow bags covered The trees should be okay Maybe we want to use some of that orange fencing. But was it kind of hard? Yeah, that's what I was thinking someone to call it snow fence or construction fence Yeah, we you know, we need to know how many trees we plan on growing. We haven't discussed You know, we're gonna do 10 five species 10 each We're gonna, you know What kind of commitment are we looking at here? I think we talked about doing three species 10 trees each So 30 30 trees Yeah I think that's a reasonable amount we can accomplish And there's a guy who lives on um high street Who I just um dug up some sass-fress trees from his yard and planted them here But he has a number of seedlings of um Uh tulip tree Paul peal he did talk to you at one point now So I'd be happy to dig those up to put them in if you think that would be appropriate Yeah, you know, I was thinking like as far as species go We can't buy for some reason it's very difficult to buy a shag bar quickly I can't I can't get one Locally, so you know It's one species that we don't plant a lot of because we can't get it and I have had a number of requests for it I mean it's good habitat tree But um or pig nut shag bark Significantly Well, we can grow them from nuts. I did collect a number of shag bark hickory nuts Squirrels have been planting avocados in my yard So they've been picking through my compost pile and I was doing a walk around the other day and like three avocado trees growing in my yard Climate keeps warming they might So winter I have scored planting my hazelnut trees. I found the third one now Yeah, some other oaks too. It'd be nice to plant some of the other, you know Nice oaks that, you know, maybe You know, we can generally get oak trees like, you know, white oak, swamp white oak red oak, pin oak, but um You know, do we want to look at sawtooth? Do we want to get some of the other? um Species that we don't see a lot of you know Chestnut oak or scarlet oak. Chestnut oak. Yeah, chestnut oak Yeah Do we want to decide that now or Yeah, I mean as soon we make a decision the sooner I can start reaching out to uh growers who have bare root stock that I can purchase This month, you know for next month so Somebody want to make a proposal of three species? So I have shag bark hickory tulip chestnut oak Those three I like it it might be good to have a variety of sizes Right because one of the things we encountered with the tulip trees when we were trying to give those out was that People didn't want something quite so large Well, these are for street trees street trees, so then there's no people don't really have much of a say Well, they do but it also yeah, I mean some places you can't plant much trees But I think the smaller trees are easier to get Maybe I don't know is that true on You mean for see far every day events and stuff like that. You mean no no for buying for street trees If we you know, these are going to be trees that we save money by planting ourselves Should we plant us should we get? Um, I guess Brent was suggesting we maybe do one smaller size tree And I'm saying maybe not because those are easy enough to get Yeah easy to get but they're still expensive You know, so I mean if there was a you know, if you wanted a filbert, you know, if we wanted to grow more filbert trees That's not something we get a lot of at nurseries They're kind of a medium-sized tree Yeah Which one should we take out to get that in? Let's take out the tulip because they are readily available in the area Okay, but um They grow fast. I mean they would be ready to go in like two years Yeah Hickories are a nice option. I think I have a hickory in my yard and it's dropped lots of Nuts and they're just popping up all over the place and they seem like they grow pretty you know, pretty not as fast as a tulip tree but You know reasonably fast It's a hickory Turkish hazelnut and chestnut oak Sure I'm favoring nut trees here, but that's not a bad thing Catalpas are are catalpas native Yeah, yeah catalpas are a nice I don't see those at nurseries, but they're a beautiful large tree that seem like they Pop up all over the place too. So Would it be good to have a tree in there that um, like there's always like that person that Complains about you know, like the tree dropping Stuff like acorns or whatnot and um, I'm worried that if we have all nut trees Alternative for like that person Yeah, I understand kind of some kind of maple Maples aren't doing too well, right? Yeah, the sugars are definitely Yeah, we could do a red maple I like that idea and non like a just a native Iseroo room, you know non cultivar Yeah, seedlings if possible, but I know they'd be hard to get but So there's some genetic diversity um Well, we have to make a decision and we it's 20 of seven I'd like to end by seven if at all possible Well, we could do 40 trees instead of 30 trees Okay, let's do that Sure, okay 40 trees red maple Turkish hazels hickory and chestnut oak Sure chestnut oak sounds good Okay All in favor Okay Okay, good. Thank you. Good All right. So see you Saturday. I believe my son and his girlfriend are gonna come join us and help us So that'd be nice They're strong young people Okay, town tree inventory, what are the next steps on that? I have people that interested may be helping and we can help Yeah, so I don't you know, I apologize for not making it to the last event Saturday event I don't know what you ended up accomplishing Um Sure, where we left off with it, but we have a lot of streets in town to inventory um And I I guess I need to know from the committee, you know after doing those two kind of inventory tests Learning experiences do you feel it's something you want to take a bigger bite into um, I mean just do people have the time to Hit the roads and and inventory trees Yeah, I would like to do it. Um, I feel fairly confident. We had a bunch of questions on julian. Did you send them to ellen? I don't know about the app. So, um I can do that right now though, uh Would you prefer if I text them or email them to you ellen? Emails good. Okay, great Yeah, we had a couple of issues with the app and then we're wondering Um, if this is the app, we're actually going to use and they're going it's going right into the inventory or how that's going to What's the interface? Yeah, so, um the app that Daplona has introduced the committee to and that's what you used on the second event as well You know, it does not interact directly with our inventory. So, um, we have to you know, take that data and then try to Get to merge with our tree inventory data. So, um, it does not give you a point You know, you can't drop a point On a map you get a latitude longitude. Um, which can be off by, you know, five feet Pretty easily So you get you end up with points all over the place. Um, when you start looking at it in gis So that's a problem and then converting the data so that it matches up with what we have in our in our tree inventory It doesn't seem to be It's a great app for for doing stuff, but it doesn't seem to be From what I say with my conversation with that jis folks Probably is not ultimately going to work for us but there is an app that, um as we the company we use right now for Gis Does make a free app that can be used. Um What we were hoping to get was a bunch of data that you collected The last time around If someone wants to if I can get ahold of that We can see how it's going to Much work is going to take to make it work with our inventory. He was excited. He's like, this is great Um, let's let's try it. You know, go ahead. Send him out collect a bunch of data We'll pull it in and then see how do we can work with it. Um, so If I can get that We'll see I think I think we just need to use the app that as we offer For free and you just download it onto your phone basically and Go around and collect that that way Yeah, I want I just wanted to add so I have a UMass student who's working with me and one of her tasks is to Do some research on kind of best practices In Tree inventory work and talk to dave and kind of figure out like what is the model that might be useful for our committee to use And she also wants to develop An engage like a community engagement plan That mobilizes, you know, however many volunteers we need including Leaders who are forestry students at UMass who can kind of you know lead little cohorts or little groups of folks In this updating so she's working on that. I'm going to get an update from her on thursday this week And you know, if we have the technical side down, you know, whatever whatever app we decide to use, you know She and I are kind of strategizing on the on the Other side of things like logistically. How do we make this happen? So I will provide an update when I chat with her That's something that the committee thinks we want to do in the spring I have to have that I have to So we have the inventory has the the management plan or forestry master plan or management plan That I need to work on And then we have the actual three inventory part of it. So Come June I need to have everything wrapped up So I gotta Ship away at some stuff this winter and then in the spring really hit the ground running with the inventory Yeah, I was I can do that Is it something the contractor as well? So Okay, what I missed that I said, I could also I mean like for the majority of that work I could I could Go out and hire an individual to do the inventory And then leave certain areas for the committee to Try to fill in, you know the areas No, I think um, we enjoyed when we were out doing it and I think um I think it's a good project for the committee and it would bring in some outside people to help also um I assume we can't do it in the winter because we can't The questions that we don't always know the answer is like species without leaves Yeah, I mean you can definitely do Treatmentaries in the winter time as long as you just have to know how to do Trid Yeah with twigs and buds and bark. So So maybe we should wait till spring, but I think that's a great thing for us to do Wait, would anybody want to meet like for a cup of coffee someday or something and kind of just Really it's difficult to do it on zoom to You know really look at how we want to organize people and data, you know collecting stuff like that Sure Yeah, I'd be happy to help with that I'm less helpful on the data side of things but on the people side of things And then on the the broader, you know urban forestry plan Um anything that I or this student can be helpful with That you're going to be chipping away at Alan. Just just let me know. I also have her working on Looking at those public housing areas in Amherst and kind of scoping out what might be possible there as a first step Followed by potentially like community engagement with folks to see what they're open to to see what's possible And to hear what they're interested in And she was working on one other thing I can't remember what it was but but I'll have updates on on that front and again You know, she's kind of just doing some research coming up with ideas Obviously, all of this comes to the committee first before anything Happens, but you know, the idea was after this meeting with Dave Bloney Arts to Get some UMass power behind, you know getting getting some of this work started so great Great, definitely Um, all right, so let's um I'd be interested in that anyone else and then we can just set a meeting with alan Okay, so why don't the three of us alan and brit and i will we'll plan a meeting and we'll we'll do that Okay I'm happy to help alan if there's anything with the management plan Um, reviewing the old plan updating it whatever new ideas you may have or the committee may have I'm happy to help with that also Okay, great. Thank you, sir great Okay, um Town tree tour we've picked the date october 22nd. Is that still good with you ellen? Yep, okay, can can we pick a time to meet and do the walk the route before Sure It's coming up soon. Yeah, let's um Let's talk after the meeting Okay, all right So yeah, keep it on your calendar get it on your calendar get it on the public media on the the social media That sunday october 22nd at 1 p.m. 1 p.m. Okay Okay UMass interns brit you already brought that up The mary maple table should be donated to the library Do you want to make that decision now? If they'll take it Yeah, alan said they were interested Okay, they want it before the renovation Or is it gonna sit in my barn for two years? I don't care Burns a disaster but just curious and I would say we should also try to get if if we go that route a little plaque Or something that goes on it that says What what this is Should it go to the library or just special collect? I'm I guess special collections isn't they they won't want it Yeah, I would ask share, you know ask share and share if if they want it then When do they want it and uh If they're going to Do we want to just write something up give them with the table and have them put the You know plaque on it or make the story up Since I have to email Sharon anyway, and since I have the table I can I can Ask about that as well and start that conversation if the committee thinks that is a good You know home for it Yeah, I think it's a good home I would maybe want to just have a condition on that it's a Sort of long-term permanent loan, but if they didn't want the table it should go back to the tree committee to Decide what to do next Is everyone in favor of this Yes, I'm in favor of that long-term loan idea so that Yeah, it would come back to the tree committee if they decided that they didn't have room for it or something like that in the future Okay, would we need like an mo u then or something? What's an mo u Yeah, like some kind of way to keep that information alive even if the directorship of the library changes and the tree committee changes and yes I could go on It could go on something like underneath the table the bottom of the table or something Like a you know permanent loan from published history committee If you try if you try to chip this tree you'll like ink all over you or someday Chip this table, okay, okay, so I write labels for a living so I can certainly write a label for it Like I said, Britt will talk to the library Ellen will make the label All in favor of this Okay, good All right, um Seven minutes to seven anything else we need to talk about There's no nothing new on state level initiatives on my end Significant tree ordinance Anything new no solar bylaw group julian Nothing and the love letters mary maple love letters I haven't done anything with that Yeah, we have a lot of things we're planning because it's almost too much for the committee but um, I think getting the nursery started and Getting the table off of the agenda and things like that to be great. So I think we've made some progress Anything else anyone else want to say anything? um, I'm just worried about the tree tour if we just Advertise through social media. Is that going to be enough? Do we need to put flyers up somewhere or Is there any other way to generate interest? I think if you get it in the indie with art keen Um, if you send that if you if there's a blurber write-up or something I can send it to art keen Yeah, I think the deadline is wednesdays. Is that right for Wednesdays or thursdays? Yeah, it may be it comes out. I know it comes out Thursday at 9 a.m. Okay Okay, I could write something up and send it to you brit Okay, should go to the india should go to scott reisbach. Yeah I can send it to both of them. Julian you mentioned sent to phyllis And then um, you can go on the town website. Should go on our website. I can put it there and go out Bennett already sent it out with the last e-newsletter and there'll be at least one more before then so Okay Put out the wrong date for the workday on that but then he could So I think that that's probably good If someone wants to make a flyer and put a few up in town that would be great, but any volunteers At that's plenty. I don't think we need to fly or if we're we're hitting those other Okay, yeah areas. I think the indies a good idea Okay, good All right, so, uh, yeah Shoshana and julie and get that up on social media as soon as possible Yeah Making a little thing for it. Um, or should I put it up separately? I'll write something up. I'll send it to the group. Uh, great. I'll do that tomorrow sounds good. Um I just wonder if we need to say something about it Being you know Just in case some of the same people are you know, it's going to be the same Tour it's just at a different time of year Yeah, so, you know referencing, um, you know the trees we looked at in The spring come see how they change in the fall or you know something to to let people know it's the same walking route You know, it's not a brand new tour. I just don't want anyone to be disappointed I don't think anyone would be disappointed, but you know, it's a good idea to do that. So Yeah Good anything else No All right. Well, thank you all don't forget to email me your hours for the month And we'll see you saturday Thanks everybody Thank you. Thank you The meeting's all done Bye. Bye