City of Edwardsville Beautification and Tree Commission met January 30.
Here is the minutes as provided by the commission:
Present: Chris Farrar, Wilma Jene Bond, Dave Sirko, Larry Lipe, Benna Denue, Dennis Pluta, Susan
Bautsch, Bob Pfeiffer, Zyann Kinney, Kim Schoenfeld, Ann Christine Link (SIUE representative
student from Germany), Merideth Perkins (certified arborist, Urban Forestry Conservation, Davey
Resource group.
Absent: Barb Giardina, Becky Standefer
Call to order: Benna Denue chaired and called meeting to order at 6:32 pm.
Reports:
Minutes from November 28 approved with motion from Larry and seconded by Dennis, all in favor.
Budget: David Sirko presented report with 85% spent out for the year.
Guest Speaker: Merideth Perkins (2 years working with Davey) spoke to us about Davey Resource
Group (15 years in business and group worked for Missouri for last 10 years) and what the group could
offer in help to our city of Edwardsville and managing our status as a Tree City USA. John Davey
started business with interest in tree care.
We are interested in having someone help us with our Arboricultural Specifications Manual.
Merideth stated that many cities don’t like lists in their Manual where trees are banned. She said a list
of different trees with pros and cons might be helpful.
Zy asked about planting trees in pots and moving them indoors in winter. Merideth said size of tree
would never be significant where a tree planted in the ground would be providing shade after 5 years.
Bob talked about Main Street being narrow with narrow sidewalks. 3” diameter trees are great but then
grow into 6” diameter trees which push up sidewalks and they cause significant costs to repair and
replace. Merideth suggested possibly thinking about Bradford Pear and cutting after 4 years or
perhaps planting a Columnar Seedless Sweet Gum for Edwardsville Main Street small spaces.
The Arboricultural Specification Manual should include a green space component stating what we want
and what we have. It needs a plan so we can tell residents what we’re doing vs. reacting to every
concerned resident, alderman.
Benna acknowledged that EBTC needs help with developing our city of Edwardsville Arboricultural
Specification Manual.
We decided to table the meeting’s agenda because meeting was running late.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.
Next meeting February 27, 2018
https://www.cityofedwardsville.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01302018-1148
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