September 06, 2022 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Welcome to Google meet, enter the meeting. Thank you. You're joining a call with four other people, but hopefully they'll, he seemed, I mean, as much as he is like, this is not gonna be fun. This is gonna be an uphill battle. He's not the, you know, he was relatively positive.
I told him to talk to his neighbors and work with them and that they can sign owner affidavits and I'll come in under one permit one, you know, cost, you know, have engineer, you know, see if an engineer will come out and take a look and give them a recommendation of what to do. It is just a pipe drainage is what it looks like. But Rick can go do a assessment upstream or downstream. They didn't say they wanted that. But
Right? Which it's not an emergency situation. He said, it's a sinkhole. It's not threatening a, a driveway, that's it. But it's not affecting his property, but he wanted to come in and help the neighbors and figure out what was, cuz they're gonna have to get access. It will start affecting his property. And he wanted to get ahead of it beforehand. And when did we need permits and so forth? And I was like, if you, you know, they're probably gonna be over 500 square feet. So I was like probably getting new permits and we don't know about this pipe. So they're kind of permit.
Right? Well, they moved to that shortcut thing. Right. And that messed all of our stuff up. So like working in Bluebeam, it ties to all these things in Google that we use to stamp and letter templates and so forth. And now they're gone again. And I'm like, where do I go find them? I have to remember to go find
I've got somebody from Bartlett tree delivering something to me like in mere minutes. And so I see on the agenda that I'm on for like one 15 though. I know there's unless you have something contentious going on, I'm probably not gonna have a bunch of public comment ahead of me. So I'll either need to duck out real fast and meet him and come back and maybe be elsewhere on the agenda slightly or something.
You doing well? Thanks. Good to see everyone. Everyone missed everybody in August, but it, you know, it's always nice to have a little break and Amy something I realized we didn't put on the agenda that we might wanna put on our next agenda we're potentially at today is an annual retreat. Just start thinking about that. And when, if you want one this year and when you would like to plan it for
Perfect. I think September we can talk about it in October, cuz we'll still have, because we moved him to the beginning of the month. We'll probably have a December meeting, but we last year and we worked better to not have the January one cuz that'll be like January 2nd. So it's like right there. So, but thank you for the reminder. Let's try to remember for
Nancy, do you have the OBS booted? Ready to go? Awesome. Thank you. All right. We're we're about three minutes out from starting. Looks like Cecil's join us. I don't see him, but I see that he's joined. Ooh, only have a caller on the line today. So wonder if we'll get some public comment.
A caller may my neighbor from some work that Alen had done on duke that I didn't get a chance to put on the agenda, which I was gonna put on next month. So that may be what that is, but I'm not sure he said he was gonna call, but I just couldn't get it on the agenda. Quick enough.
I'm doing okay. I had ed over to my house to look at a Walnut tree with a double trunk that my neighbor has been concerned about because one of the branches is leaning on his phone wire and I've since gotten three estimates about what to do with it. Whether to cut it down or to cable it, the first bid was 2200 to cut it down. The second was 3,300 to cut it down. The third was to save me money. He could cable it for 2,400 or cut it down for 7,600. I'm waiting for a fourth bid.
We are live. All right. Well welcome everybody to the September, 2022 meeting of the Asheville urban forestry commission. My name is Amy Smith. I'm the chair of this illustrious group. So we'll do some introductions to start us off. I'll just go kind of around the commission members as I have you on my screen here. So we'll start with Sharon
Well, it's been a pretty typical August that we just finished out, you know, all the usual running around, getting fallen trees out of the road and taking down dead winds and that sort of thing. And I've begun working on my planting list for next spring. Got about, I think it was eight CBD tree locations that are on the list so far. I tend to prioritize CBD because of urban heat island effect. And that's about it for right now. Unless you have any questions.
Okay. All right. Is there any other questions for mark? All right, thank you. Okay. So I guess Chad and mark, we have you on here. So in light of actually some tree falls recently, we invited you both to talk to us about the tree removal process. I know this is a bit complicated because of public and private land issues, but I don't know if you all wanted to start off this conversation with some information and we'll see where we end up.
Okay, well, Chad, you want me to go or are you going or what sure you, if you want to, and I can fill in gaps or whatever, mark. Okay. Well, the removal process is not super complicated until you run into private property or NC D O T roads or whatever, which is what occurred in the most recent situation. You're speaking of otherwise, if it's just city streets, you know, the tree is either brought to my attention by a citizen who lives next to it or behind it or whatever. Or I notice it while I'm driving to go look at one of those trees that some citizen called me about and the tree's evaluated for its structural condition and it's amount of live leaf area. And if it looks like it, one that needs to go away, then it, a work order is generated by me and the tree is put in the queue and I've had essentially one functional tree crew for the last three years.
So the queue's really long and we work on them as soon as we get to them according to priority. And that's about it. If we're talking about the situation specifically on Merriman, the tree was brought to my attention and I went and took a look and compared the appearance of the tree it's it's stem angle and the height of the branches above the road, compared that to Google street view images from, I guess, going back to 2008, I think is when they started doing those, those, that photography. And it was EV evident to me as the tree is moving. And so I got in contact after a certain amount of difficulty with folks from the church, let them know of my concern though. I later learned that somebody from the forest service, I can't recall if it was state or federal had gone out there and done an exist AO examination of the roots and found them to be fine. The tree failed at the roots. So I don't know how much experience that person had with the resistor graft or, or whatever. And I don't know if they did any kind of photography comparison, but yeah, the tree wound up failing at 3:00 AM. Luckily if we, because we can't really tell the state, okay, we're gonna shut down highway 25.
You know, there, we're also in the process of trying to reach out to D O T and trying to work out some sort of process by which we can coordinate on these things. It's not uncommon for me to absorb work on trees along D O T rights of way. For example, we just got done doing another year of wooding on the sycamores out at beaver lake that's highway 25. Those aren't my trees, but I don't want them dropping branches on passing cars and, you know, runners. So, you know, I jump on that grenade. And so anyway, hopefully our attempts to communicate with D O T will bear fruit, so to speak soon. And so we can work out some sort of process by which we can work with them on these situations. Does that cover everything?
Let me add a little more, just, I guess, complexity to this entire. So like mark said, he was contacted and he reached out to the church because the tree was rooted on private property along airman avenue, N C D O T S 25. So within that same timeframe, I actually received a call from a D O T supervisor that had been contacted by someone con with concerns about the tree. And they immediately called me because this was actually one of the treasured trees from the treasured tree program. I don't know what five, six years ago now give or take.
And first thing he said, he's was, you know, unless I'm directly directed, I'm not touching this tree with that sign on it. And I mean, I can understand why because of that. And, you know, with all the other complexities, D O T route private properties, so on and so forth, I picked up the phone called Eric Eric Bradford at Greenworks. I said, Eric, you know, can you offer some advice here? Because it was one of the treasured trees. Eric made some phone calls. I then I think my next phone call was from ed I'm. I'm assuming Eric probably contacted him. And just like mark said, the church had contacted someone to do some investigation of it turns out a resistor graph and verbally, we got a clean bill of help from, for that tree.
I think ed was promised a report that he never received. And ed, you know, was going to send that on to me once he got it. But I mean, if he doesn't get something, he can't send it to me. So within a matter of a few days after that, I don't remember the exact timeframe. Like mark said, the tree fell at 3:00 AM. Thank goodness. It was 3:00 AM on Marman avenue, not 3:00 PM, which would've been tragic. So really what in post conversations with mark and ed and I talking about this situation, Ed's suggestion was maybe we come in front of you all today. Kind of like the old, I don't know if anyone remembers maybe Cecil, you may, but the old citizen review committee, I think is what it was called when there was a call on a tree to cut or not cut and somewhat controversial.
And I know this one's in, in hindsight and there's nothing we can do about putting the tree back up, obviously, but not so much of was there anything done right or wrong, no fault findings, what we're looking for. But more of like mark said earlier, procedural, because we do have the ordinance in chapter 20 that says public works director can order it to be taken down, but this one was, was complex and that it was D O T route not our route. It is city limits. So I mean, it's, it's a complex issue there. And like mark said, we have reached out the D O T I asked them, I was like, who do they want at the table to discuss this, you know, future issue of such issue of this kind of complexity. We haven't got that lined up yet, but that, that is something we're we're working on. So really, like I said, what I'd, you know, just kind of throw out to the commission today is, you know, your thoughts on future, I guess, among these kind of issues and ed, I see you got your hand raised.
Yeah. There's, there's one more element to this whole discussion that I wanted to mention, and that is that it, the tree was pretty visible to people in the community as well. And there was a lot of chatter on next door neighbor about the tree and that it was, it was leaning further and further. And when the tree eventually failed, there was more chatter about the city, not doing anything about it, you know, even though the city was, and it was a complicated issue, but I guess there is for, for lack of a better word, folks are pretty gun shy about trees falling, especially after the incident that occurred at Biltmore. And, and, and, and so they, there was, there was this expectation that grew out there that the city somehow respond to this event in a way that assures the community, that it doesn't happen again, because if the tree had fallen at two, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the outcome could have been a lot worse.
Yeah. Well, we'll continue the discussion, Don. Go ahead. Thanks. First. I wanted to say thank you to mark for taking care of trees that are not really under your purview and owe you a debt of gratitude for that. And also, so this is, as you said, a complicated issue, and I just want to assure you that the treasured trees program well, its aim is to honor and recognize trees in our communities for building awareness and protection for trees that doesn't offer any legal protection. And I know you know that, but I'm just also stating this for the record. So if you, I appreciate you reaching out to Greenwork to Eric to talk about this.
And also, you know, if a tree needs to come down, whether or not it has a plaque on it, it needs to come down and we don't have any say over that. So of course, it's, it's your call? It's a shame. I mean, I'm glad no one got hurt or worse when the tree fell. And at the same time, it's, it's, it could have the effect of people actually taking down trees more so than protecting them, because they're afraid that trees are gonna fall. So I wish, like you said, hindsight's 2020, but we can, you know, work together to make the best decision for all involved.
And Don, I just wanna say, I, I appreciate what you said about the treasure tree program. We know that if one of those trees becomes a hazard, you know, we don't leave it just because it's a treasured tree. I certainly get that. And I appreciate you verbalizing that, but, you know, I, I, I brought that up just for the fact that, you know, I know mark and I, and city employees are aware of that and you know, the importance and the significance of trees, but I'm, I was glad to see that D O T when they noticed it, like, whoa, wait a minute. This is not something to be taken lightly kind of thing. So, but no, I do appreciate you verbalizing that.
That's great. I'm glad that they placed some value on that. That's what we're hoping for. Yeah. It was at least noticed. That's a good thing. Yes. Yeah. And, and Greenworks is a partner, you know, in, in this and people do contact us about, even if it's not a treasure tree about a hazard tree. And so I really appreciate the open lines of communication we have with your department. Thank you. Thank you, Cecil.
I didn't see the discussion on next door, but I hope someone corrected anyone who thought the city should have taken care of a tree on public, on private property. I mean, people should know that that the city doesn't control trees on private property. The other thing is I have, as I mentioned, just ahead of the meeting to those of you who are here just ahead of the meeting, I have immediately confronted this in my own property. The question of whether to try to save a tree or which could be maybe cabled and maybe saved, or have it cut down, because if it's splits, it's a double trunk that's splitting at the bottom. If it's splits, it will destroy my vehicles, maybe my house, and maybe my neighbor's house. It's a tough, very tough decision to make. I mean, I am obviously the reason I'm here is I wanna save trees. I particularly wanna save my own trees and I've got magnificent old Walnut tree. That is a threat. So what Don was talking about, you know, will people be moved to take them down rather than save them? I'm hung on that right now. Thanks.
So this brings me to, we cannot possibly know all the complex questions or answers we're gonna get through here, but it brings me to chapter 20 and putting in there. I don't do social media, but I do will answer three questions on next door. And I did read about that and I was following, went and saw some email stuff going on and knew that behind the scenes, there was a whole lot of stuff going on. So I'm thinking as urban forest commission goes on that we're probably gonna need some kind of social media guru to respond to certain things when necessary to let the public know that this is being handled and that we have some kind of methodology in chapter 20, giving a few scenarios. I mean, we cannot possibly come up with all the scenarios, but in this case, we've got a private tree, NC D O T it's a hazard, what's our flow chart.
And do we have, like, let's just say, Chad bandy is our contact and he contacts his contacted NC D O T. And we've got some kind of order. So that in the future, when we get something crazy like this, because we will, it'll just have a different iteration that we've got some kind of flow chart with it. And then for me at the bottom of this social media is, I mean, I don't do Facebook or any of the other, so I don't know, but I do believe that like me on TRC, we may need somebody that monitors our social media to come if we need to, I don't know if we need to or not. And let the public know that this is being handled. I'm not sure that's necessary on our part, but it's a discussion I think we could have. So that's my 2 cents on that.
Of the situation? Well, there's drill two, two, I think two issues at hand, the first is what Cecil was alluding to and that's, you know, does the tree stay or does it go, and, and there's a, a, a very good process or protocol that exists that should be followed. And it's based on national industry standards, NCAA 300 part nine, which is the risk assessment standard and markets familiar with this and, and mark you're, you're you're track qualified, aren't you? Yeah, yeah. I'm just renewed. Okay. And I'm, I'm tracked qualified, but, but, but when, when there's a, an issue at hand, that protocol should be followed and it answers basically answers a question, should the tree be removed or not based on the likelihood of the tree's failure and the consequences of that failure and, and whether or not that risk can be mitigated some other way.
So, so there is a decision process there. And with future revisions, chapter 20, I really encourage the city to adopt that standard as a methodology for determining hazard, cuz it's a very effective protocol. The second, the second issue is when we're dealing with multiple ownerships in this case, private owner, D O T, but a public perception that the city has overall responsibility for public safety, that, that there's gotta be a protocol in place for making emergency decisions under life threatening situations and where, where the city can make a call to remove the tree. Even though the city may not own it. If, if that tree can potentially kill somebody as was this case. And, and again, I think that this as Sharon was suggesting that requires a rapid form of communication, a communication tree, but, but some way to move quickly and, and mitigate this risk when it exists. And again, that's a revision of chapter 20, I think.
I routinely send out certified letters to private property owners who have trees that are determined by me to be an, a non tolerable risk next to our roads. And if they take no action, we remove those trees. You know, there's nothing gets in our way when it's our road, the, the problem with this being DOT's road and a four lane highway really hung me up this time around because trying to close DTS traffic lanes without their blessing or participation, you know, the state doesn't doesn't take well to cities telling them what to do you might have noticed. And so that's where I, I really want to have some sort of communication and process protocol in place with D O T because I want us to be good partners on these kind of things. I mean one so that, you know, I'm not necessarily taking care of their work for them, but also just to keep people safe.
I, I think there's gotta be some sort of rapid response element to this too. Sometimes waiting for a certified letters to get delivered and people act and, you know, get through trees. And that process can take weeks where clearly this whole series of events transpired in about two weeks, if not, well, I, I know from when I first looked through the tree to when it fell, it was about a two week period. So I, so, you know, maybe a discussion with D O T on how we can act quickly in a situation like this and, and the city needs to think about it is the certified letter enough, do you redirect traffic, you know, close at least lane? I, I mean, I don't know what the answer is to that.
No, when the situation dictates, we, we don't, you know, stick with the 30 day nastygram, you know, so, you know, we're, we're aware that time is of the essence in a lot of cases. And so this last one really had me wound pretty tight and I've had communication with the property owner, you know? So the, the 30 day letter, that's usually the icebreaker, you know, with someone that I can't go and reach any other way, or it's a, a situation that, you know, is fine to, to last until we can get to that tree in our, you know, high priority to do pile.
Yeah. See, so that's a good point because as many of you I'm sure are aware that D O T is happy to basically have us maintain every road within the city, except for us primaries or primary routes, you know, numbered highways us 25 in this case and interstates. So, and you're exactly right to see. So a numbered primary going through a city is not unique to Asheville. I mean, it's probably every municipality in the state.
So I would recommend that the policy working group work with city staff to put together the protocols that ed and Sharon has suggested. So we have some movement on this, and I believe ed that when we revised chapter 20 and we got to the assessment portion of that ordinance, that we did include that assessment protocol that
All right. So Patrick is suggesting that the policy working group be the body to take this on further, for more discussion, ensuring that as a group, whatever we can do to assist and communicate with city staff to, you know, work through these issues and avoid them in the future. So I dunno if we wanna vote on that, or if everybody's just good with shuffling it on over to the policy working group, I'm sure the working group is good with dealing with that, but I just wasn't sure if anybody else wanted to be a part of that, we could change up that configuration of people if we needed to
Amy before, before any of that, I I'll just add that, you know, if myself or mark can be of any assistance on that of, you know, what is city policy capability, so on and so forth, we're happy to be involved. And then also as we have response from D O T about follow up conversations, cause I, and like mark said, I think the action is pretty clear when it's cut and dry, it's gonna fall in our road. You know, this one we're bringing in another partner, it's bring that's what makes it more complex. So as we have those discussions, we're happy to report to the policy group policy committee, or if need to come back to the whole group, you know, we're, we're happy to just let us know.
I appreciate that, Chad. Yeah. I, I take that for granted. We know how to get ahold of y'all so we can do that. But if you're already in communication with ed, for example, he's on the working group, feel free to loop me in on any of those messages for coordination, but yeah, we know how to get ahold of you guys. And what we're talking about is the working group has proposed revisions to chapter 20 and worked through some of those already that we're hoping to work with public works and others to get some of those revisions implemented. So this would be working together with that piece and if need be clarifying things like you said, for communication and, and whatnot. So
I would like to, I would like to ask mark, if I can establish that my Walnut tree will fall on the road in front of my house. Can I get the city to remove it instead of spending 2200 to $7,600? Well, if I see a notch face cut in it, pointing it toward my road, I'm gonna get suspicious. Okay.
Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. So's not there for that. All right. Any last comments on this or questions as a note, we did have this as an item in new business as well, but I believe that this will suffice for the conversation for this particular issue. All right. So as we meet for the policy working group, we'll see about, you know, a look backward, look forward, how we can coordinate the different groups on this issue. Really appreciate your time. Chad and mark
I mean, not really. So not really. Chris Collins and I are working on creating what is called the PDQ. So it's this document that we send to HR that then helps establish the roles and responsibilities from that we're pulling from the job description that y'all so back up, job description ed, and I think Amy and a couple other folks were really instrumental in helping develop the job description with us. So we're taking that, putting it into our HR form and working on getting the physician established at then, which point we can post the position and start the interview process, a recruitment process. I think Chris and I target is to have that up and rolling hopefully by the end of the month. So I think our goal is posting by the end and month. I know we have a work session on this tomorrow to hopefully complete the documentation that our HR needs to be able to establish, like how that fit in our organization for other people's roles and responsibilities and how do they align to make sure that they are classed correctly, that sort of thing. So that's where we are. Any questions? Yes.
Probably not. So the fee in Lu, I pull this report and I can show y'all, I'll actually share our document loop, but I pull the report based on issued and or closed, which is our minor subdivisions. It's the way. So like a project that has gotten to approval and is, you know, going to happen. And so I'm giving you real numbers, not numbers of projects that may not move forward, that sort of thing. So I think that the CBD projects that we've seen come through, haven't gotten to final construction permitting, which is where we're still not saying those numbers come up yet.
It is we don't require this. They can, they get assessed at the final when the planner's on is their kind of final step. Cuz sometimes it's a moving target a little bit and then they have to get paid before we issue the permit. So that's, it's kind of one of those final steps. It follows the same as our sidewalk, fan Lu and other processes where right. It's kind of lasting before we issue the permit.
All right. Any other questions for Nancy? All right. Moving on to old business. So we have our working groups that are still in operation. So the policy working group let's start with, I don't know, Patrick, if you wanna talk about the seven 19 revision and the possible issue along the gro park in golf course,
Oh, from Catherine can't remember her last name. Sharon, do you remember? No, I don't remember the, I don't remember the, did it come through on the email? I don't remember seeing this. Okay. Okay. Otherwise I'd have looked it up on the bunkum county GIS to see if it was private or if it was public. So I think, I think we resolved that issue in terms of, I believe that Mark Foster Wade in on that and we, you know, let the constituent know that, you know, seven 19 is not going to protect every tree in the city of Asheville and that, and that, you know, it, it really is geared toward new develop new development. And so the last I heard from her, she reluctantly accepted those explanations. And I don't know if you have anything additional to add.
Y I remember it now it was a development on Patton avenue, but not Grove park. Oh yeah. That's why that was a development that, that ed was involved in with Greenworks or the tree protection long time ago, walking the property with them. But that development happened before even 7 11 3 happened. That's right. So that was a, that was down on patent, down on lower patent. So yeah. And I sent her emails, I have all the information, I accelerated it, send her all the violation reports. There was no violation. So, and that's because all of this occurred the development way before anything was in place.
Okay. So we don't have a specific issue. Okay. So then backing up the policy working group is working with the city to go through revisions to seven 19, the tree canopy protection ordinance. So that'll be worked on and amended soon. So we're currently working with the city on their revisions. Anything else there from the group on chapter 19 or article 19? Pardon me. And then chapter 20, as I mentioned previously, we already have a revision ready. And we have been in communication with public works as hopefully the primary city department to work on revising chapter 20 Patrick.
Yes. You know, I sent Greg Schuler the link to the existing version of the chapter, 20 revision that ed and I and the policy working group worked on. I didn't get a response from him, but responding to his email responses to you, you know, ed and I, and the, and the policy working did an initial revision of chapter 20 last year. And we had one meeting with staff from public works and from DSD to go over that revision. And as I recall, there were only two issues that were raised by public works. One had to do with our initial language that would allow the city to mediate disputes between property owners related to trees, trees at risks, et cetera. And there was some legal concern by public works that the city should not get involved in those kinds of discussions. And then the only other they raised was we had replaced references to the director of public works and the director of development services with the urban Forester and public work said, you know, that's a big assumption there and they weren't comfortable with going ahead with any kind of ordinance amendment to the city council with that change because we may or may not have an urban Forester.
So on the bank of that ed and I went back and revised chapter 20, again, to address those concerns, which we finished in January of this year. So with the possible exception of heritage trees, and I honestly don't recall whether we got into that in that initial meeting or not we've addressed the concerns that they raised. So, you know, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not sure really what the hold up is on chapter 20 other. We have a short meeting with staff from public works in DSD and they gave, they give us the green light on that revision and push it forward to the city council.
Yeah. I'm not, I'm not sure that we're ready to make the recommendation yet. There's a couple of things we need to reconcile, particularly that heritage tree issue, which really crosses over into chapter 19 as well in, into the canopy amendment. So we need, we need to create some, we need, we, I, we need to rehash that. And then I, I need to double check the, the section related to trees at risk to make sure that we've got that language right. So the policy committee needs to circle back one more time. And, and quite frankly, I would prefer to offer the recommendation with public works, buying into it. It makes it a lot easier. So we need a little more.
Yeah, well, and it was it's so far, it's been a positive email thread. The most recent communications with public works. So we just have to keep, I, I don't wanna say pressure, but the, the urgency around it to keep it going. Appreciate that reminder, Kim, thank you. Any questions from the rest of the group on the policy working group work? All right. The budget request working group. So we actually haven't met since we had approval of the urban Forester at the city council meeting in July, July. So we met after, before I, before I think I I'm confusing the dates probably, but regardless, we had made one big step forward with the urban Forester being approved and hired. In one thing about that, I was in a meeting that a, somebody suggested that the urban Forester's contract was just for one year. And I talked to Ben Woody and clarified that it is a permanent position.
Obviously it's funded one year at a time, but if you hear any chatter out there from the community that have concerns, that it's not a true commitment from the city, that is not true. It is a permanent full-time position that'll be hired in and, and ongoing. But that leaves open the question of, do we have more requests that we want to continue the budget request working group going forward for next year? So I wanted to open up for discussion if we're ready to talk about that now, or if we wanted to, you know, possibly think about it or anyway, where are you all at with future requests for next spring in, in summer,
Just thinking too, it'll be care and maintenance of our existing trees. The program for that is deeply underfunded. We have a backlog of, yeah, I don't know how long mark was saying it was really long and I'm not sure what the cure is. If it's more funding or more staff, which requires more funding. But I think we should consider that as well as we're looking at funding opportunities.
Well, in the, I guess had mentioned earlier in the last three years, I've been running on one tree crew, essentially just kind of a conglomeration of the pieces of the two tree crews. We've not been able to attract and retain people to fill those roles. You know, we, we get applications sometimes from people who are not very desirable candidates for one reason or another, and the people who would know what they're doing, or, you know, have any kind of previous experience or, or whatever, especially, you know, positions, you can't just train them up to the level. They should be in that position. You know, like a lead climber, for example, that person has to have years of experience. You know, you, you can't just teach them, you know, when they come to us. And so, you know, we, we had our position study and everything here recently and, you know, there's increase in pay, but it's, it's still not keeping up with the market. But then again, even the private sector is having a heck of a time attracting and retaining good people for their positions. We're not the only people the help wanted sign hanging out. So I would, I would love it if we had more assets to put toward this stuff, this stuff to, you know, make the maintenance of our trees, caring for our trees. But it's a bigger situation than just, you know, what we've looked at so far in what y'all were saying.
No, not really. I have a contract line and it's been getting better some years lately, but contractors charge twice what it costs us to do things. And my contract line will usually, you know, cover around a dozen work orders or something at, you know, twice the price of us doing it. And that doesn't make a very big dent in my to-do pile. My to-do pile for high priority work is two years deep. That's, you know, your, your dead trees next to a road next to somebody's house, that kind of thing, or line of sight problems at intersections where people, you know, if somebody runs a red light, somebody's gonna get bounded kind of scenarios. Those kind of things that happened to
Well, yes, don't even get me started on the mowing program. Yeah. That we've had such a trouble with this year, you know, the medium priority stuff, which is, you know, things that, yes, that would be good management for us to take care of that situation. That kind of thing, you know, you're looking 3, 4, 5 years, that kind of stuff. And, but we also have an urgent pile, which luckily isn't as thick and that's things like extremely fragile dead trees next to the road. For example, like Ash trees, I don't know how familiar you are. The group is with Ash trees. You know, as soon as Asian or Emerald Ash border kills an Ash tree, it seems like instantaneously, it turns into this brittle mess and stems. This thick, you know, can break off pretty easily with minimal wind loading or anything. And so I put things like that, you know, real high up.
And we were able to get to those, you know, far quicker than two years. And then just stuff that just falls outta the woods, you know, three times a week, or, you know, a lot during thunderstorms that we can spend all week cleaning that stuff up after a thunderstorm. And that's putting us another week behind on, on dealing with the things we really need to deal with. So I would love it if this stuff was faster, if I had more people, but we gotta figure out a way to attract them is, you know, the punchline, honey. Well, I don't know. Maybe you try it.
Got a punchy group this afternoon. Just had a question maybe to address in the committee, but with funding for say a tree inventory, would that come through? Like which department would that come through? Would that be through public works or development services? You know, when we did the tree canopy study, it was channeled through public works because we were under that at the time.
That's a good point. I would think it would have to be public works as well. Okay. But good. I hadn't really thought about how that part would work, but so currently, if I remember correctly, the budget request working group was Patrick, Don ed and Cecil. Does that sound correct? Everybody, if you all remember you were on it. Okay. Did anyone want to discontinue participation in that working group or is there a big, good there y'all are on it. Okay. Patrick, do you wanna jump in?
That's very sweet. I am out of time to take on more. Obviously I'll be working on that in the background with my current role, but personally I won't be able to, but you know, this might be something that we do. We'll get to it farther down the line, but we are missing one member when parents step down. So perhaps our new member will have some time to pick up on some of these initiatives. So it's up to you, Patrick. We don't have to have four people on a working group. That's just the maximum,
Okay. Sounds good. So obviously the budget request working group can formulate your working plan as you see fit, but it sounds like the urban force master plan as a whole, the tree inventory as a subset or potential separate piece to the plan. And I do like the idea of at least talking about how to help the city with care and maintenance of existing public trees. So, but you guys can work on that. We have a little bit of time, but as we know, it comes really fast when we get into the crunch time of budget request next year. So,
All right, good. Okay. Which actually brings us to the, the last two working groups, the fee and Lou and urban force master plan that are Zoe and ed. And I, we met a couple weeks ago now and we talked about with the urban force master plan in particular that tree inventory being, you know, really the next step. It can either be bundled with the plan. Typically the contractors that help write and formulate and coordinate and urban force master plan also do tree inventories. Many of them also have the software that helps manage those inventories going forward. So that would E definitely be a piece of it. It could be broken out if city council, so choose to fund parts and not the whole thing that could be a piece on its own, but we definitely agree that that is a recommendation for funding. And as a group, we're also working on a scope of work for an urban forest master plan, you know, not every single detail, but what is the broad outline and the key pieces that are necessary so that we have that as a document for this group, for the urban Forester and moving forward for talking points for budget request.
So we'll get that shaped up before we need it for budget request time. And then for the fee and loop piece, we talked a lot about, you know, what do, what would we do with this money? You know, what are some of the top priorities we talked about? You know, what we've talked about in this group, a lot, the land acquisition, tree planting, things like that. The other piece of it, though, that came out of that was what we don't have as a city is a framework that can be used to make those decisions. And so that's something that we're gonna try to at least get something together. This involves many departments, many stakeholders, anyone, when you talk about money, you know, 10 people will have 10 different ideas on how to spend it. So a framework will be the, the help, right? How do you make that decision? So, Sharon,
Yeah, that's what I was gonna suggest. The last council meeting, I don't know whether camel remembered or not, but we had a major development come through that they were showing to the city and what they were gonna do. And Sage Councilwoman, Sage Turner asked if fi and Lou monies could be used for the trees. And she wasn't aware that 7 11, 3 would apply and seven 19 would apply. And so I thought kind of an odd request that she would ask if they wanted to U use fee and loo money. And he said, no, because it was obvious that he didn't know fee and loo money. And nor was it an appropriate question for the development process, which got me to thinking that, do we have a framework? Do we know who's going to the order of things who gets to assign monies to whatever development and can anybody ask to say, Hey, I, I need some money over here to do this tree type of thing.
So it got me when I heard her ask that what shocked me. I went well, because I'm not part of that group. I didn't know whether we'd even gotten to the part of what's the order of things. So I was glad to hear you say that so that we could like inform everybody down the road, that this is not available to anybody to just ask. We have major criteria that I have to go on. Not that you can't ask, or we don't want you to ask, but it's gotta fit into the parameters of what it was designed for.
Yeah, you're exactly right. Other than how the ordinance was written, there is not a framework in place and that's what makes it complicated. Cuz you know, we're hoping to put this together because it won't be just the UFC obviously deciding, you know, there's gonna be so many other people and like you said, other potential uses that maybe we're not envisioning off the bat. So yeah, it has to be broad and flexible and yet specific and targeted. So we're gonna see what we can put together and then we definitely will bring it to the whole group for input. We want it to be something that can be taken to the rest of the city as something that could be adopted. So, but it's coming, it's not gonna be fast, but if anybody has ideas, you know, if you're up late at night and something comes to you about how this might work, send me an email. I'd love to know Kim.
You may already have this on your, to do list when you're reviewing fee in Lu, but has it been under consideration that if a development commits to fee in Lu and then for whatever reason, the project doesn't go through to certificate of occupancy, when will there be a notice sent that that fee in Lu is no longer gonna be going through the pipeline would be I think an important matter for consideration.
Yeah, I think that's, I don't know if it's exactly like that, but there is in the reporting we get there is what do they call it? Paid and assessed. So there are categories of probably coming and already here. So yeah, we, or I personally don't consider it to be there till it's there. So, but yeah, exactly good point. We can't plan for money that is not there. So any other questions or comments on fee and Lu or the urban forest master plan? All right. Oh, one thing about working groups. So I talked with the policy working group about having a, like a lead or a communications lead, basically. I mean, I don't personally mind if there's a leader of every meeting or anything like that, but I do think there needs to be someone in each working group who is the communications liaison, primarily with me, so that we can report back like for agenda work and stuff like that. So I believe in the policy working group that was gonna be Patrick. So just somebody in the budget request working group will need to take on the, the role of leader just to keep the communication flowing. So that as a group, we know what's going on. And then I'm happy to do that for the two groups that I'm in for fee and Lewin, urban forest master plan. But that's just something I really it'd make it easier for me to know, like who I can go to for an update for those groups. Patrick,
I don't. So, no, not a yes or a no, as far as I know it is generally, you know what, in our interpretation of it it's possible, but when it comes down to practicality, I don't know who will say yes or no to that. I dunno that doesn't really answer your question, but I don't think an official determination has come down on that.
This may be sort of an off the wall type question, but when we were talking about the urban forest master plan, ed mentioned that there are funds in the inflation reduction act for urban forestry. And so I was wondering if, if we were to pursue some of that funding to fund parts of that plan, who would that go, who would actually apply for that type of grant? I mean, would it be the urban forestry commission or would it be a city entity? And is that a possibility?
Yeah, there's 1.3 billion in the act that he spent over a period of 10 years. And, and I had a conversation with the us forest service just last week and they, they told me that their intention is to target larger cities, major metropolitan areas first with the funding. So, you know, places like Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, but there'll be subsequent waves. I, I probably, I don't expect that we'll probably see money for a year or two coming out of that, but then subsequently we will, and the money will be delivered through the us forest service to the state forestry agencies. So the North Carolina forest service, and then subsequently it'll be available to grants, to cities and non-profit organizations. So in, in this case, Greenworks would partner with the city of Asheville for, for the funding.
You know, I, I wouldn't wait on the promises of that money being available and money is matching funds. So the city would have to either an anti up anyway, or we'd have to use a lot of volunteer hours. But when you use volunteer hours for a project like that, you begin to compromise the quality compared to what you'd get with professional resources. So, so my advice to the group is that we just push ahead looking for funding to do this locally. And, and if that other money comes available, then we'll be able to fund implementation of the plan. And, and it'll be to our advantage, cuz we'll already have a plan in place. So
Not, not right away, but it's possible. And, and it's really to our advantage. And I think one of our arguments to, to develop the plan because the money will be coming and we'll be better prepared if we do have a comprehensive plan, we'll be ready to know how we need to spend it and where to spend it best. So
What do y'all think about having a fund development committee as part of the urban forestry commission that I don't know if any other board or commission has such a thing, but seems like there should be coordination and probably beyond just Greenwork for a, you know, in partnership with the city to apply for funding to help support this. Not ever all the funding will come out of the city budget. You know, that's why we've been waiting so many years for the urban Forester and urban forest master plan. But if we could raise money jointly that might help speed things up
Work. Okay. Cool. And so, yeah, I like the idea of, because that also meets one of our goals that we've talked about in the past of coordinating more with other nonprofits, you know, we, we had RiverLink here and was some good traction there. So, you know, perhaps that could be where we branch out to those other relationships as well. All right, Zoe.
Right. I'll put in a plug for this Thursday. There is a river redevelopment summit at new Belgium starting at 10, 10 to noon. If anybody is interested in, I'll be there. I don't know what it's gonna be about, but it sounds exciting. So see if we can start some of that coordination between the trees and rivers.
Good working group discussions. All right. So next we have the boards and commissions realignment, just a brief update. I, I know Sharon and I've been trying to stay on top of this as much as we can. It's a shifting target, but where we stand right now is the city has in writing committed to pull back from the idea that any boards and commissions will be eliminated or merged for now, the city council committees are going ahead with their realignment. It's just a change up of how city council and their committees work. They're setting specific goals and work plans, which is wonderful. And I actually think that's something that as a group, we've done a good job of in all the years, I've been on the UFC. We have had clear goals and plans. And so I think my takeaway from the commission realignment is to keep working till they tell us we can't to, for some reason we're gone, but to continue with having clear goals and plans and communicating those to city council through our liaison, which we are very thankful for being here as much as she is. So I dunno if there's any other questions or comments around that,
Sorry, I couldn't get my hand up. Some of you may be getting in email is survey about questions on what works and what doesn't work of the subcommittee group that I'm on on surveys will meet in person and talk over what should be sent out, ask the survey questions. So if you get it, be honest and fill it out to the best of your ability, because it's the only way we're gonna find out what works and what doesn't work with boards and commissions. And I mean, I'm always saying that we work great. Everybody knows we work great. We're, we're fabulous board and commission. So, but there's a lot of them that are not. And so we've gotta find out where they're failing and how they're failing so we can either dismantle them, regroup 'em or change the tactic. So when you get it in the email, please fill it out and send it to wherever it's gonna go back. So thanks.
Thank you, Sharon. That's right? Yeah. Be on the lookout for the survey. All right. Anything else? Good. So the duke energy Rankin street project that we, we had a big discussion about it at our last meeting. Currently that's on hold. I don't personally have any other information about it, except for that. It's just a big pause. I don't know of any plans in any direction on that project, except for that. It is not right now. So I dunno if anyone else has any other updates, if anything comes through, I'll certainly update everybody as I hear, but I don't have any other information other than nothing right now. Think that's where it is. All right. Haley's gonna update us briefly on the remote meeting policy. We talked about that for a moment at our last meeting, but there's a update from the city.
So it sounds like later this month, council is going to be voting on kind of like a final decision on the policy of whether or not we're gonna move forward with an option for remote meetings for boards like ours. I think the more quasi judicial boards and that sort of thing are gonna be required to meet in person, but is my understanding that advisory boards will have a selection between remote or in person. But the catch here is if you agree to remote meetings, then you you're locking yourself into that policy for a year. Our meetings would be held remotely. So that's something we kind of wanna discuss and see kind of where we land. So when council votes later this month, if they do decide to move forward with that option for remote we'll, we'll know what to tell the city clerk's office that we've decided.
As I have advocated repeatedly in these meetings and elsewhere, I, I recognize that in person meetings give a lot of feedback from facial expression and so forth that it's different than online, but at the same time, if, if the tree commission, the urban forestry commissions intent is to green the city, I don't see how we can argue for everybody driving to a central point when we can do this. I mean, I think our discussions here seem valid. I think they work out. I think we, we are able to achieve group decisions and, and thinking, and I think we gotta quit driving as much as possible. That's my point.
Thank you. I believe what I read in the last email that came from the city is that we would have, and I don't think we're required to do this yet. I think it would be our next meeting. If I'm not reading it wrong, city council decides if they're gonna follow the policy or implement this policy, then the advisory board has a chance to vote. And it has to be a two thirds, majority vote in either direction to either be in person or remote. And then as Haley said, if we choose remote, you have to commit to it. I assume if you choose in person either way, it's a commitment for a period of time. So at this point, I don't think, you know, we can discuss, but I believe we have, we should. Anyway, wait until that city council directive to actually have a vote. So any other questions at this time, all right, we'll wait and see what the council decides and then we can decide for ourselves. So in the meantime, just decide where you stand personally on, on what you prefer. And we'll talk about it at the next meeting. Nancy, this came out in the email that was sent to y'all about this update, but there is public comment options at the boards and commissions meeting on September 13th at 1:00 PM. And it's in that email. So,
All right. Last old business, steep slope, tree removal. Obviously we talk about this a lot. So we put it in the old business. So it's such a can of worms because we're typically talking about private property, but there are specific ordinances that, you know, require, you know, certain outcomes in steep slope. But when there's violations, it's not exactly clear. That's where it gets muddy. But Sharon, did you wanna talk about the specific issue that came up and we'll see if, if there's any action we can take as a group.
Yeah. Ricky, are you still there? I see your shining face, but not in person. Yes. I am listening all along. I know you can't escape me. I do know that in the last meeting we talked about all the planners like elk mountain may not know that that is a steep slope B because it's kind of plateaued on the top. It's not like Bo catcher mountain it's up or down. So unless you read the plans and know that it's on a steep slope, it won't, it won't, it won't be a specific notation. So therefore a planner may not know. And I think is what may have happened on elk mountain. I'm not sure that they had to do a design for trees that they had removed. And they just went in and they got an okay to remove trees just at the footprint, but they moved trees outside of their footprint.
And so that means it's a violation. Again, it's kind of like our sunset problem that we had. How much of a violation, what were the levels of disturbance that were allowed? Because the plans are single family dwelling are generally not as detailed as they are for more complex plans. And one personally, I'd like to see that change when it's on a steep slope, have more of what is required and that the new planners that are coming in know what those requirements are. And I think working with Ricky that he's making some changes on this, and I don't know whether it's, we need to do another subcommittee over here and at USC to draft up what we think is best that the city can use. I don't know whether you want us involved or whether this is an inside job on yours. And then I've got the questions on also, how did, what was the outcome of elk mountain? So that's a lot of, a lot of stuff from Sharon as usual.
That that's fine. So, Sharon, I think you're right with what you said about elk mountain. And so I, I, clearly we went out there, me and Kathy went out there and done a walk of the site, got down in there and there was not anything malicious. I'll say that with the intent of the, the, the owners that actually building the house. So it was actually owner builders. They let walk the site. I, one of the things that came to light and when me and Kathy were walking, this site was that, you know, people do draw these plans on flat pieces of paper and intended to, or not. It seems like sometimes we get forced compliance. Like they, they show like, I mean, literally when you started looking at it, they allowed like two foot of grading around the foundation wall of a house, which when you walk the site, that's, that's impossible.
Like there, there's no way to really do that on flat land in Wilmington that you'd probably grade two feet around the house. Right. So I think we need to go back and probably try to figure out a way to say, you need to incorporate into a site plan that it's seven or 10 feet from a foundation wall that you have to spec out a grading area. That's at least seven or 10 feet from the foundation wall. And then that is your assumed grading limits. You can't just dash out a line. And so the plan was correct, but it wasn't feasible on the ground. And so they, they, they did, it really did here. They, they STR tried to stay very tight, but there's just no way that you can grade and dig the footers that you need on a slope and not have tree roots come out or something being impacted.
And so we, we did, I think in the end, there are about 1500 square feet over because there is a big right of way. And some of the area that was graded was in the right way. So that doesn't count. So it does make it look larger than it actually is. Cause I was very concerned when I heard your complaint. When you take pictures, it, it looks very big, cuz I've seen pictures from Kathy when you get down there and walk the site and look at the plans and you start looking up from the bottom, you're like, it's not quite as bad as I thought it was. And so we're, we're gonna be working with them to try to get some sort of remediation it and I'll pick back up with Kathy. We've had some staff turnover. I'll just tell you what part of the reason why me and Nancy hadn't got I urban Forester.
We've had several people quit. We've had delays getting HR. And so we're, we're trying to now we're moving a lot of people around. And so it is just been one of the things that we've brought on a new enforcement coordinator and since we've met last. So some of that, those duties that were me and Nancy solely have shifted over to that enforcement coordinator. So a few things have happened in the past couple of months. That's that's been a lot that's been going on. So I'll, I'll check back in, but there, there is remedial action that is need to be taken to say that. So it was a violation. Remedial action is needed, but we appreciate being made aware of that issue
Real quick before Cecil, is there anything that we can do to offer, you know, to tighten up the, tighten up the plants or the single family dwelling so that they know? I mean, I know it was a Homer bill homeowner builder, and I know a lot of the problem was related to that. I also know because they were down deep down in that gully, they had to get equipment in and out to get equipment in and out. They had to remove a lot of trees to get, to get access in and out of there. So I do know that they had some access issues as well. So is there any way that we can make it easier or make the single family homeowner that's coming in and building in these areas is happening on Booker everywhere, where they're taking the trees out in steep slope, zone B and taking everything out and are gonna evidently put things on pylons in kones like my house is and you know, can leave her out so they can look at Innsbrook mall.
So, sorry, sorry to throw that in there because he took out hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of trees to do that, which is his right to do in a single family dwelling. But was it within the scope of steep slope? B I doubt it. I called you in the beginning when he did it. I told the owner that if he went down and did his plans and did it within the steep slope criteria, he wouldn't hear from me anymore, you know, do it right. And you'll, you won't hear from me and ask you, do you have permits to remove these hundreds and hundreds and hundreds year old trees on here? So I think that's education, I suppose,
I think education, as you said it and making us aware and, and also letting any community groups that are interested in knowing about tree removal that they can contact us. Cause I had over near park avenue and south Asheville down in near Gerber village, that area, they, there was confusion around Kenco tree down. Do they need a permit to trim the tree? Like what what's going on? So there there's a little bit of misunderstanding or, you know, 20 different people have 50 different ways of understanding what the rules might or might not be. So I think just like y'all are doing redirecting people to talk to us directly so they can get that information from the horse's mouth. And also letting 'em know that, you know, I told 'em, I'd be willing to sit in on a zoom meeting if it's after hours, that, that we'll be glad to help do a little bit of education and talk about specific problems or what is right.
What is not, I'm not arborist and hopefully we'll have one. And I think also we need to go back and I mean, ne can talk further, maybe figuring out like when there's an angle of the slope, like how much area around the footprint of the house should be designated as a grading zone, you can force it on a piece of paper and tell me, you're only going to grade two feet and make it work by the numbers on the plan, but we need to have it just to say, no, I don't care. If you say two foot, we're going to say 10 feet because it's a 28% slope. And if it's a 50% slope, we're gonna say 15. So if there's a formula out there that we could just apply, you know, quantitatively, that might be good information for us to, just as a policy or ordinance, just to say, we're going to assume this, you can't force a compliance by lying to us on paper. And that's you, you nodding your head something there.
Yeah. So I think if there's any resources out there, I know y'all are very knowledgeable about that just because it, it, it just is what it is. We're we're we occasionally run across. And that, that is what this case was shared. I think that if the designer, they had very good plans, if the designer would've just like, really just to put some reality on the paper we could have gotten front of, or they could have gotten front of and moved the house position, done a smaller house, adjusted the design can levered something, you know? Cause of all the teachers I got out there, there, there was trees that, yeah, there were still standing, but the critical route zone had been violated. I mean, straight up them they're dead. They don't know it yet, but they're dead. And, and maybe they will recover because trees sometimes are resilient. We know that, but there's probably some compromise. So I think that, that, that's probably the two things I think we need to work on. It's just getting people connected to us directly in that. And I know Cecil had something to say before we jump to ed.
Yeah. Regarding reality on paper, when these kind of discussions come up about planning versus what's on the ground, I'm constantly reminded of two hotel plans that came before council. When I was there, one is across the street from the habitat for humanity restore. That plan came through with Palm trees illustrated in front of the buildings. And then the other, other one was the hotel near the Grove park. No, the Grove arcade, which came through with Seagul flying in front of it. And it made it very clear that none of the architects involved had any clue about Asheville.
Yeah. I mean all in all, I'll say that I feel like that we get it pretty right. Almost most of the times I think we we've, you know, Sam was doing a fantastic job in the review of that and, and actually moved over to my, my shop as of three weeks ago or four weeks ago. But we have Tyler who was working with me, who is now moving over to take Sam's place. And Tyler had some, he has some experience with Grady and RO control state out in the field, actually on the ground doing that work for state D O T projects. And he's been doing some zoning work for the past since October. So I think we're gonna have a good employee in that steep slope review RO control review under Nancy's side of the house. But I think we just need to refine and get in front of some of these plans further Amy. So we just need to tighten up maybe a checklist and maybe it's something me and next, try to work on the next few months and get that. Maybe just see what y'all think of that I think, but y'all, y'all keep pointing out these issues to us and we appreciate that cuz it brings up concerns.
Yeah. I'm back. I'm sorry. I that's, I was looking something up and I lost the screen and yeah, I was gonna suggest a checklist, but there's, there's really two, two things that if they're shown explicitly on the plan, you could solve a lot of these problems. One is a very detailed grading plan down to two foot contours, which, which they should be able to generate. And then the second is critical root zone overlay on the grading plan. So with those two elements, you'll be able to calculate the percentage of the critical root zone that's being impacted. And if there's anything more than 20%, the tree should be considered destroyed. And it's just a simple process like that. That would, and, and I do that all the time with plans on building construction sites. It's really not that difficult if you have a good civil engineer and you get those grading contours, you know, that tree root overlay will, will give you the information you need. So
Yeah, I'll just say that we, we worked through this process just to save this critical route zone. We've had Nancy orchestrated some training earlier this year for us out in the field, very eyeopening. A lot of staff got to walk sites, you know, we've, I'll just teachers, we've been out to a couple final site inspections and we've caught some TCP areas that have been violated and got plans. Amended got corrective action before we accepted that area. So just let you know that we're, we're out there looking at that. And we just expertise to Ed's talking about we, we are learning a lot and, and we're discovering for some stuff with street trees, street trees, things are being claimed for credit. Things are being planted in the right of way. We've discovered a lot of, of actions that were maybe on the design side and the review side that are not quite working out. Like they should be according to the practices that ed you specifically have mentioned. And so we're starting to bend that curve already and have been doing so over the past year. So just know that this is a lot of information y'all provide to us is very helpful to our teams.
Anything else? Okay, good. Thanks Sharon. And yeah, we, we literally cannot stop bringing you the issues cuz that's what we hear from, from the ground. So yep. We'll do that. All right. That's it for old business. So for new business, we have the Merriman avenue tree issue that I believe we have hashed out unless anyone wants to jump in there again. Otherwise we do have an opening for a new member, so that opening has been advertised through the city. Please let anyone that you think might be a good candidate know so they can apply. Previous applications do stay in the system as well. So Don and I will be getting a batch basically when after a month passes and they forward me the applications I'll get together with Don and we'll look through them. If anyone else has a burning desire to be a part of that selection process, let me know. I'm happy to loop other people in, but basically as a group, we go through those. And honestly, we're really looking for semi-professional credentials. You know, I mean we definitely like active citizenship, you know, citizens coming in and talking about it. But because we're a specialty group, we do look for some level of specialization in urban forestry. Again, not that it's the only requirement. Believe me. We look at everything, but we'll put together a recommendation. That'll come through and go to city council Sharon.
I'd like to recommend that we have someone that can read plans. I know urban Forester, I have hope will do TRC, but I don't see that in the future, but it'd be nice to have someone that worked with urban Forester. They can also look at plans as well and just know what's going on. I mean, it's been really advantageous for me to be able to be on TRC, look at plans and talk to everybody. I'm afraid that once it goes into an urban forestry, it will just go into that department and be gone forever and just follow a process because none of us will get a chance to look at the plans in the preview. We only get it in simplicity after it's gone through its process.
As a member of the boarding commissions committee, it would definitely be helpful when the chair is asked to make recommendations or if the group would like to make a recommendation as a whole. And if you have a very specific skill that you're looking for, someone to bring lived and professional experience to go ahead and communicate that as well.
Yeah. I don't think that specifically plan review was in the, the current iteration of what we're looking for, but, but if you know someone again who has that skill, they're welcome to apply to the opening. All right. Thank you Kim. Anything else with that? Okay. That was all our new business Dawn. Did you wanna go over your Greenworks update?
Nope. It's it's there in the agenda. I was just to review, oh, I do. I do wanna say something so you can see, we have our tree giveaway, which we're renaming our tree adoption event on October 30th. And it's going to be at the bunkum county sports park where we have our tree nursery and orchard. And from 10 to two, the signup will be online ahead of time and spaces still quickly. So be on the lookout for that or, and let your folks in your neighborhoods and community know about that as well. That's open to all Bonham county residents. And then we have a, I guess called more of a lack of staffing update. We decided to move ourselves away from AmeriCorps volunteers so we could reduce the amount of turnover each year. And that the energy that goes into training folks to run programs that are really above an entry level AmeriCorps positions skill level to begin with and to replace those positions with permanent staff.
So we had a person in AmeriCorps was working on community forestry for the past four or five years. And we're changing that to a, a permanent position full-time yet we are carefully designing the position to meet our growing needs. So we haven't even posted it. We're not close to posting it right now. What that means is that our capacity to carry out our programs is reduced. We're still doing, and we still have to take care of our 4,000 tree nursery and our orchards and get programs. Yet we are not taking on any new efforts. We have a lot of requests come to us about either trees of concern or areas like properties that are going to be developed. People concerned and wanting to save those properties. We just don't have the bandwidth to really respond to the degree that we may have in the past. However, once we do get a community Forester on our staff will have much increased capacity. Our treasured trees program is all volunteer right now with some staff support, as it has always been. We do appreciate that sort of effort. We have our tree protection task force as well. So we rely heavily on volunteers, but we're ready to take our urban forestry efforts to the next level and to do so. We need to increase our staffing. So I'll keep you posted from that.
So thank you. When I was talking to Jason Walls about the Rankin street project, he indicated that he may have someone who might be a good fit for our group, but I have not heard back. So I'll follow up again and see where that goes. But as, as of this moment, no new news on that front.
I wonder if we could close off Ranken street and, and build the, the duke power plant the thing closer to where it is now, but the slope to Lexington depends on who owns that property. The city owns the street, owns the street there. Oh, owns the street. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and that street is, is not particularly important as far as I can tell it's one.
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