Tree Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Perfect. K. Today is February 11. It is 06:32, and I am calling the tree board meeting to order. Brian?

How's it going?

K. So we have four of us. So we've got our forum. Did everybody get a chance to look over the agenda for this month?

Mhmm.

And do I have a motion to approve said agenda?

Move to approve. Second.

Perfect. Alright. All in favor?

I.

Gotta take notes too, so my apologies. Things might be a little slower. K. Did everybody have a chance to look over last month's minutes? And if so, do I have a motion to approve that?

Section. There's a knob on the on the right side.

A knob. What do I do?

The the inward, there's a paddle.

Oh, I see that. Okay. There we go.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometime I don't know what

does nothing for you, but

Must be, like, the the art of a meeting of, like, being the tallest person at the the table.

You're exactly right. It's all about showmanship. Okay. We don't have anyone from the public. We are the only participant in there, so no public comments. So then I will get right into business. Alright. Tree Talk newsletter. This one is not overly concerning because we have April 1 as our next deadline. Yeah.

So it's just something that we would have to finalize or maybe at least, like, finalize topics and who's gonna write them by next meeting so that we can have it done by the end. So I think the obvious is that being that's gonna get published on 04/15, we should most certainly have a little blurb about Arbor Day Earth Day in there because the timing is just right, like, two weeks before. And then does anybody have any ideas, something that they they're excited to potentially write about in that?

Someone mentioned crap apples last meeting.

Okay.

And are we talking about

tree stalk?

Oh, tree walks. It's time to start putting those on the schedule.

You're exactly right. I did not put that from this meeting.

Definitely have to finalize those dates by our next deadline our next content deadline.

So we should have that in that in the next yeah. I see exactly where you're going. So alright. What I will do is get with Tom here and see if he has any, like, suggestions on days he wants to do. I know traditionally, we've kinda always set one before that we can advertise at Arbor Day, and then we tend to do the the dot poll for, like, the June 1.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's

Are we good with with keeping that same format?

Sure.

So I don't see if Tom has a park or anything that he wants to highlight for May. We'll advertise that in the April newsletter and then do our dot poll. Perfect. Thank you for bringing up the the tree walks. I appreciate that.

You decide to do spring snow crab apples? That's our street.

Oh. How's it going, sir?

Bragging about your beautiful trees.

Well, no. I'm just saying like that.

Hi. What's an airport?

Oh, airport meeting? No. They're on a would have been another night.

Yeah. We're always tree advisory board is always the second Wednesday of of each month, and I you're not you're not the liaison to that.

No. I'm not that liaison. I could look it up. Oh, no. You're okay. Give me one sec. Well, I'm team with the town of Erie.

Camera, though.

Oh, let's see. Nice airport.

And I do know they have some vacancies on their board. I think I saw that posted on social media, the airport adviser.

Well, I think they advertise all the boards even when there's a renewal of Just three of us.

Oh, no. I see what you're saying.

Yeah. So I'm almost there. Airport. Third Thursday of each month.

K.

So then if you go to the if you go to the main town's website and you click public meetings, it'll list off the meeting. And the reason I mentioned is is sometimes it'll be canceled.

Yeah. So okay. Okay.

But it is in this exact room, sir, so you have the location correct. Yeah.

Cool. Thank you.

Yeah.

Great.

We agree.

They were a little do you wanna discuss, like, planting trees? Like, how to properly plant the trees? That kind of been over used in the tree to talk to you so I

don't know that we've done that one. You know, I have to go back and reference the that spreadsheet I put together, but I don't think that's done in

the, like familiar.

Proper ways. No. I think that would be perfect, and that could potentially segue where maybe it's, you know, the bulk of it is talking about that. And then underneath is like, hey. If you're considering planting a tree this year, here's our great tree rebate program.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Spring snows are amazing, but my I'm, you know, I'm very opinionated about trees. They're really overly planted, but they don't Oh, yeah. Yeah. Issues with them, but I gotta I do. Fantastic.

I have issues. Oh, okay. It spreads suckers like crazy.

Sorry. Which one?

Spring snow.

Spring snow, crab apple, the white fruitless one.

Every year, this is probably not the right thing to do, but I take a Sawzall, shave them off.

That's the easiest best thing to do. There's no stopping once they start suckering.

Oh, yeah. It's everywhere.

I highlight wanna that then, and it's a bit

But the thing with them is that they're they don't bear fruit.

I guess. I have one too in that front.

Wary rose crabapple. It's a pink flowering fruitless crabapple.

It needs be. What about a redbud too would be a good highlight for I your love I just don't see enough of them.

No. There you go.

To, like, try to get some public engagement done in our newsletter. So I wanna ask people for their, their red butt pictures, like pictures of the red for you right now. Ask. Like, can we do that? Would that

I think we would just have to coordinate with Tom and then whoever sort of coordinates the social media stuff, but I don't see why we couldn't be, like, hashtag tab red butt or something like that and, like, share the love. Get a

community involved in that, Richard. Yeah.

And incentivize them with a random drawing Mhmm. Of something.

Oh, yeah. That's crazy. Yeah.

I think we I think we did that a couple years ago.

I don't remember being part of that.

It's it's I forget what that let me see if I could find the web page that K. I think it's on.

I think that would be fun. Yes.

I completely

More work for someone else that has to put it together and advertise it, but

Yeah. We could potentially I I think it would only really work if we had help from the town, and that might be something because, you know, I know they're trying to get more engagement across the town in general. That's why that gal did that little interview with me back in the fall about what the tree board does and put a bunch of stuff on social media. So I I would think this could potentially be right up their alley. And just on a general sense, engaging more with people and, like, getting a feedback and a conversation, I think, is really beneficial going forward. And this could be a fun way to start, especially if we're hitting it in that April 15 time frame. The redbuds are either gonna be blooming or just about to bloom Or with this weird winter, they may have just passed, but that is just because of the

crazy So

it would have to be like, well, it's kinda right around the corner, and time's flying by. So if we're if we are to, like, put a picture of, like, the winner or, you know, what whoever we wanna highlight and we need the content by the first, that means we're gonna have, like, a maybe two week window, like, say, between the March to April for people to submit, you know, to submit pictures.

What if we just, like, advertise it in that April newsletter and we say submit your pictures and then on, like, June 15

next one.

You get a bunch of love from, yeah, on our next newsletter and then the town can, like, blast it all over their social media.

We actually

can say, like, and so one best redbud picture in, you know, Erie.

You're

getting some attention on the social media.

And we could ask for different types of pictures too. Like, you know, if we're, like, if we're looking for a specific issue that we might wanna highlight. Because sometimes we don't have pictures for the newsletter, and Tom requires us to provide pictures along with content. So I don't know.

Yeah.

Problematic trees or, like, it doesn't have to be just pretty flowers. You know? Sure.

But maybe the pretty flowers is a good way to start because that's

a little more engaging.

But it's because then I love where you're going

with that.

Like, eventually, like, it gives Tom more ammo and understanding of what's going on, but I would see the pick flowers are just more universally loved that that could start the engagement. And if they see the feedback and they see the reception, all of sudden someone gets, you know, praised on social media, maybe they're more encouraged the next go around. So maybe the problem and problems, I think, become more obvious as we get in the summer. So maybe it's a perfect segue that that's what we're doing in the summer where it's, that that we highlight something and then talk about issues with trees. Sure.

I like it. Sounds great.

Alright. Perfect. So that would get us the bulk of the content. I mean, if we wrote down our favorite tree

Arbor Day Earth Day.

Instead of plant trees and then Arbor Day Earth Day. I'll take the Arbor Day Earth Day. Is anybody else willing to take one of those other subjects?

Sorry. You said we're gonna do what now? The

Highlight a tree. Trees. Mostly like a red bug. Yeah. Talked about a prairie fire, crab apple.

Prairie rose.

Prairie rose.

It's a fruitless. It's a Schmidt J. Frank Schmidt introduction. It the numbers are not that big, but I I venture to say

I think it isn't there a prairie fire too. I swear That is one too. But that's kinda It's a pink.

It is. But it's not as grower friendly, and it's Sure. They're not as

I don't see them around very much.

No. Their look is nice. A gradient is a better pink flower if you're okay with fruit.

I'm happy to do that, how to properly plant a tree.

And if they should say we're adding a the rebate program as well?

I think we should

can be short too.

I think it should go if she's gonna write about how to plant a tree, I think it should go, like, perfectly at the bottom being like, hey. If you are considering doing this, please follow these links for more information on how to get, you know, at least part of this tree paid for it as long as you follow, you know, x y z instructions.

Okay. So we have four topics.

Well, I can add the, the rebate info to the bottom of my

Yeah. That could just be a sentence or two.

Okay. So you're doing proper tree planting and the rebate program, and then you said you were doing Arbor Day. I can do my best with the prairie rose and see how much how much information I can find on it. If you have any pictures, that would probably be helpful. Would you happen to have anything?

It it I haven't seen it planned enough because the numbers have not been available in huge numbers until this year. But

Okay. I'll

start website.

So that's exactly and Schmidt does an amazing job. Yeah. When you Google Prairie Rose Grab Apple, the first hit is J. Frank Schmidt, and they do a really nice description of things. And they're very, like, retail user friendly. Here, you can even, like, download a data sheet or a bench card.

Alright. I'll do that.

So we need these written by April 1?

April 1. Yeah. So we've got, what, seven weeks or so. So we'll we'll check-in next week I mean, next month. But Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then they'll they'll put it out on April 15. We just gotta give the town about two weeks to get it all pulled together. Okay.

Does anybody have anything else to add about the Tree Talk newsletter? Perfect. Alright. I'm gonna hop into planting the future and then, also, like, the fifth grade tree poster contest. Brian, you had the idea last month or, I guess, I wasn't here, maybe two months ago to start, like, trying to go see if we can get more contact information on the school's website.

Mhmm. That worked, like, arguably too well. We, at this point, I sent out so I I grew our contact list from, like, 30 to, like, 90, all first, second and third grade teachers and principals. But as of right now, we have see. We had six teachers say or sorry. Five teachers say. So we have and it's basically almost all the schools. We've got Meadowlark. We've got Soaring Heights. We've got I forgot to write down what school Heather Huntington is from. What's her email address? It might

tell you. It might. No. It doesn't.

I I meant to put this in my notes. Probably.

Is yeah. You're probably right. They don't put it on there.

No. But I can find it on that spreadsheet that I've been keeping. No. I and I had that thought. I was like, maybe this is too many, but, you know, we're gonna give it a try. And within, like, forty eight hours, a lot of a chunk of them had responded. And I think what was almost more fun is her name is Caitlin Massey. She's at Meadowlark. She found us because of the newsletter. Yes.

So the newsletter got somebody. Yes. Which was absolutely fantastic. So they they made some suggestions on, like, path because only four of them want us to come in, which makes things a bit easier on our end because I know, you know, they're all asking for that same sort of March, April time frame, which can often be a little difficult.

It's usually spring break is what throws it off.

Right. So Erie Elementary, her name is Winnie Hunt. She asked that we just drop off the kits, so I will take care of that. She wants them dropped off at, I think between eight and 08:30 in the morning on April 13, which works perfect because my sub's at Red Hawk, so I can easily go over to Erie Elementary and then run over there. So I got that one. The others had suggestions on days and time that they were asking. Would it be easier I'm just realizing now. I wrote down all the suggested times, but it might be easier just to send an email to the entire group and see if this can all work with everybody. That way, you can actually, like, look at your schedules. Would that be easier than trying to go over?

Good. Yeah. Because I can't see

Are we looking, like, after spring break for this?

Exactly. So

because that'd be, like it'd definitely be really quick if we did it before spring break. Right?

Yeah. Exact yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Like, one of them was the week of March 25, any day between 12:30 and two. It's the same exact week for Soaring Heights. Actually, one wants in, like, a week, and she has done it with us many times before. Ariana Tasker, where is she from?

She was my kid's teacher.

Yeah. So where we Islands? No. Yeah. She used to be at Soaring Heights. Okay.

We had

her

at Soaring

Heights. Yeah. 3rd 3rd.

Yeah. So If

I don't give that name, though, I'd ask her. Uh-huh.

Yeah. She's weird.

Red Hawk too at one point.

Does she just want does she just want the kids?

No. She would like it. And it's four classes all at once. It's 92 students all at once. Wow. I was and I warned her. I just kinda said, like, yeah. February, like, we don't have a problem coming in. The only issue is, and this is just an education thing, is if you bring the tree home, let's say, at that point, they might be if they're home six weeks later, that's early April, and there's still the chance that it could freeze outside. So just keep that in mind. So as long as they're educating them on that, I don't see a problem with that. Than the seeds.

Yeah. I don't know.

We should be able to I mean, the seeds hard were dried last year. So if we go to the right catalpa, we should be able to find them, I think.

Did Tom have because Terry harvested a bucket last time.

Yeah. So I would have to go with Tom and then make sure.

Yeah. Go with Tom and make sure they germinate. Options. Yeah.

Okay. No. And I I'll be able to make a day next week happen. I it gets tricky for me as I get into, like, March and April and stuff. But alright. What I'll do is I'll coordinate with Tom to see about, like, are we ready? Do we have the seeds and everything? Yeah. And then I'll I'll I'll send out to the group all those suggested times and see if people can can jump in. What date? What day? She said any day the week of the seventeenth, February.

Yeah. I'm out of town

until Tuesday. Monday Monday is a holiday. Monday is President's Day.

That makes sense. She said the seventeenth through the twentieth. Yeah. I think that acknowledged at that point.

Each day thereafter. So

Tuesday, I'm booked.

If

you need help, I'm I'm open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday so far Nice. Till they start grabbing.

I'll look in my backyard and see if I got some seed pods laying around.

I don't

I don't know if I

I don't have any.

This one, we are pretty good about picking them up and accomplish them.

Yeah. Yeah. I could do any day except except Wednesday because I gotta be in Fort Collins that day. So

you said it's seven schools, but one of them is four classes? You said five

schools. Schools, but that one that wants next week is

We'll go.

Four classes all at once. All of them all of them have multiple classes, but they're gonna do it all at once, which means that we often if it's four classes, we may have, like, eight teachers that are able to help us. Right. Yeah.

How are we doing with the kids? I think we have, like we had, like, 12 or so.

Ton of kids.

So that'll probably take, like, eight of them or so with what we have lined up right now.

Each kit can do, like, about 30 kids. Okay. So I think that would just be four kits

at that per classroom.

It's one kit per classroom, basically. Okay. Yeah. And there's four classes. I think and that could help if we do one early, and then we just try to pick up the like, they would be done with their kits before the teacher that wants them on April 3. Erie Elementary wants them on April 13, so they would definitely be done by that. We could have that back in time. And then Soaring Heights is actually only one class.

Wow. It's the first time they're doing it.

Yeah. It's a car a gal named Carla Sanders.

Did Blackrock respond?

Blackrock did not respond.

I'll check-in with

But at this point, I

You probably

I hate to say it, but I I don't know that I'm gonna push hard to anybody else. Like, last year, we were a

little down.

I felt bad that we didn't oh, no. That was sorry. Heather Huntington is the third grade teacher at BlackRock. She did respond. I misspoke. 10.

Did Caitlin Massey is she on that list? Yes. And that's Meadowlark? Correct. Okay.

Yes. And her and I were going back and forth today. Great. Yeah. She's the one that found us on the newsletter. That's cool.

I don't know if we did Meadowlark or not before.

It's right up their alley.

Okay. Alright. Yeah. Like I said, I'll get with Tom, make sure that we have the seeds and everything, and then, try to find a way. So you could potentially help on maybe, like like, Thursday next week if it works?

Yes. Yeah. I could throw that on my calendar.

So maybe I'll I'll when I ask Tom about the seeds, I'll throw out, like, hey. Would Thursday work for him? Like, if we could get him or Terry or somebody and then the two of us, I think we would have plenty of people. I mean, unless Yes.

What time of the day are these at?

That's an important part, isn't it?

So yeah.

It's usually the morning. Usually, like, they I think they try to do them first in the Yeah. In the day. K. So it's you here, like, nine ish, I think.

Like, before

I've checked my wife's schedule. Yeah. It's fun. It's good. Yeah. I'd like to. Yeah.

And it is like, when I the first one I ever did with Tom, it's like, we we we have a rough idea of what we're gonna do, and, you know, we're gonna definitely plant some seeds. But for the most part, you just kinda, like, follow the kids' interest. Are they asking questions about a certain thing? Let's lean into that. And we talk for ten or fifteen minutes, and then we plant seeds for ten or fifteen minutes.

That's

The if you have enough, bring more of the pods than you think you need Okay. Because the kids like to break them apart.

Yep. Okay.

And it's fun. You can't argue with that.

Yeah. Get a little sharp, those little stingers. Yeah.

Totally.

Yeah. So she did not Ariana Tasker did not specify a time. So, yeah, I think I think you're right. It's usually morning works better, but she made mention that that is when they are doing their planting part of the semester. So Okay. Or plants part of the semester, so it'd work perfect.

That's what school is miss Tasker at the time?

Highland. That's

Okay.

So either right now, my Thursday or Friday could be open. Perfect. Or at least I can book I'll book later on in the morning so that I could do that first and then roll off to a job. I'll get

with Tom then first thing tomorrow morning so you can get that so that you you don't have to wait and make sure you're scheduling because, you know, then Yeah. And even if Tom just come and, like, pop in and see how it goes. But, again, it's it's very fun. Yeah. Have to life hard.

My son because

Yeah.

She's I'm, you know, I'm the one in charge of him Yeah. Until three.

So We we understand. Can't point.

I love talking to the kids, but your son is more

I guess I could bring on things too. So

You might be just chasing him or I

might be chasing him. Yeah.

Alright. And then I it was really funny to me because then I did the same thing and, like, you know, got a lot more email addresses and contacts for fifth grade teachers because Saint Vrain Valley School District on their website is really good about being like, so and so, here's their email, and here's what they teach. So it keeps it short. They're not giving too much information, but just enough information for what we needed. So then I sent out the information about the poster contest to, like, I think, thirty ish context and Wow.

Crickets. And Really? Single thing including some of, like, the art teachers that had responded last year. So I'm gonna give it another go here either this week or next week and send out another round and, you know, spell it out to them. I mean, we're not in a total crunch, but we also don't have a ton of time. We I think we have, like, another six weeks or so to get those submitted. So I'll reach out again, but it yeah. It was just bizarre to me that

Wow.

They responded so well for one. Yeah. And then And last year, we had pretty good we think we had three schools for in for the fifth grade poster contest. And I even made mention of, like, hey. Or the winner for the state came from Erie last year. Like, let's make it

two years in a row.

It might be early for them. Okay. It might be. When do they have to be did did the Tree Coalition release their okay.

Yeah. And I I gave Amanda actually emailed Tom and I, like, a month and a half ago, right as that stuff came live and said, here, you know, let me know if I can support with anything. But I should go back through my emails and see, like, when people responded last year.

What's the theme this year?

Let me go if I can find the email I sent to everybody. There we go. Healthy trees, healthy communities.

Oh, I like it.

Yeah. And then March 21. So yeah. What's that? Right about five to six weeks or so. So it yeah. It is coming up sooner side. And, actually, Amanda is in the picture that's on their website. Did you ever meet Amanda? She was actually in May I think you replaced her on the board. Did I? Yeah.

Before I forget, I I the last meeting, I forgot to ship it with the team that that are planting the future logo is on hold because of the town of Erie. I don't know. They don't wanna

It's We're going I think it's going through a logo, like, trying to button

it up tighter.

Okay.

So it might they might have put it on hold. I don't know that for sure, but it might be because of that.

Yeah. I think that's what what Tom said.

Yeah.

So I guess it's on hold for now, but I still want to make that happen. Yeah. I wanna see it on our website.

Tom's exact words were there's a push for more concise branding across all departments, divisions, and programs while communication works on defining what that means and how we apply it. No new logo crests are being approved. So I'll keep you posted if anything changes. But for this year, I would anticipate moving forward with your new name, but no logo. Sorry.

Alright.

Or Trela or the town

logo. Trela.

Yeah. The Tempoku. Yeah. So it fits. Right?

K. But I you know, on the positive side, yeah, I completely agree a logo would be amazing. And as we move into the future, yes, but to see, like, how many students we talked to last year, and it's gonna, like, essentially double this year, I think we're we're headed in the right direction in planting your future for sure. And next year, my son will be in first grade at Red Hawk, so we will definitely be at Red Hawk. Does anybody have like I said, I'll send out another blast to all the, like, fifth grade teachers, art teachers, and principals of Erie about the poster contest.

Does anybody have any other suggestions on something else I could do to make sure that we're getting the message out? Social media push. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. We've seen that the newsletter, and that's a form of social media worked. Yeah.

You could ask Tom to I completely agree. You know, and the town put out a blurb about it highlighting that the winner came from Erie last year statewide.

So Yeah.

And do they get something? Is there

a credit?

Yeah. They I don't remember what they received, but shouldn't be on the Yeah. They received the website.

Card. So it was young Lord? Yes. It was not

well, that's what we gave them.

That's true. Did they get something on a state level? Maybe that. I don't know.

It's it'd be interesting to hear that.

Yeah.

Let me find that.

Well, I'd I'd like, would we have to get permission from the parents to name the student, or do we just say a student from Erie?

We just say a student from a certain school or whatever.

And that's what I said in the email because, yeah, I think it gets complicated. Like, yeah, I'm sure most parents don't want kids name dropped, and it's probably the safer thing in the long run.

It'd be cool to post the picture, though, of the poster just to have a have an image to put out there if we're using social media. Right?

Oh, you're right. And they should actually already have a copy of that picture because they put together a little flyer that we had at Arbor Day.

Meaning, stuff that's posted on their website.

Oh, and it's posted.

That's it. That's the That doesn't say town or city.

Town feet.

Oh, he says it. Yeah.

It's just say it.

You go.

Done. Done and done.

Let's see. Where do they win?

They they gave away 27 $2,750 between the first, second, third, two honorable mentions, as well as gift cards to each of their art teachers to purchase art supplies.

Right. Right. It's got it's right there on their website.

Nice.

So, Jason. Yeah.

He's looking at it. It's on the screen right now.

Yeah. So, I mean, whatever's on there.

We talked about, like, making stickers out of that design. Can we?

Oh, that's a cute idea.

For for Arbor Day? Yeah.

We've we've definitely have a budget for it. There you go. Alright.

So stickers with

Let me yeah. I think

that design would work well with the sticker.

I agree. It's yes. I completely agree. Alright. Let me on the sticker front, I think that's something that we could all handle ourselves, but let me just make sure that that's okay with the town. So it might I always send an email to Tom the day after

Yeah.

A meeting.

So get a hold on that image too.

And that stuff usually can get printed really quickly. Like, I've been doing a lot of marketing things for my business, and it's amazing that I can create one, hit print, and it's in my, you know, on my doorstep two, three days later. So it should be a quick turnaround.

And it would be smaller, so it's not like we would need to have a, you know, like a high quality image for it. I mean, we still have to have a decent size file. But

Yeah. We'll just I think if we do that, you guys gotta help me remember that we should reach out because I have the parents contact. So reach out to the parents and be like, here. Do you want some of these? This is good for you guys too.

Yeah. That's awesome.

So here's your answer. First place, $500 plus professional framing plus recognition ceremony at Denver Botanic Gardens.

Mhmm.

Second place is $2.50. Third place is 125.

My goodness.

Yep. And then the winning student's teacher receives recognition at the Botanica Gardens, a project learning tree online training access code, and a $250 art supply gift card.

Is that information included in anything related to this?

But it should be. This will help us because if that teacher sees that I have a little skin in the game to know.

So that's on when you did you do you know refine that?

No. Not the not the specific part that you just said.

So if you go to this page and you just hit the Oh, okay. Yeah. And so looks

Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. I should

If I get some clicks then Exactly. For a while.

Well, said you were looking for teachers' emails on the same brain website. Are we able to, like, narrow it down to our teachers?

Yes. Mhmm. No. That's what the Boulder Valley is just they are a teacher here, and all I was able to do is reach out to, like, the principals because Yeah. You have no clarification. Saint Vrain is amazing at being like, so and so, here's their email first grade or Jim assistant principal. So they made it really, really easy to peel for that. So that was a 95% sure your idea, and that worked really well. I'm glad that you expanded upon it because you

you got a much better reaction than

I ever did. So I I was shocked. And I even had the thoughts, maybe this is too many. You know, I blind carbon copy one email. Was, like, 90 people. At least you come in and was, uh-oh. Like, this might be too much, but I I six is I think it's perfect, especially because one doesn't or sorry. Five because one doesn't want us to actually it's just four that we have to go in. And if we get one out of the way next week and then it's just three in that, like, spring break time frame, like, that's very manageable. Yeah.

I really wanna come to those.

And then, yeah, we get to tell the whole council at our biannual report that we doubled it. So Yeah. No. This this is fun. And

Oh, that's coming up too.

March? No. September. Yeah. Yes.

Oh, I don't know if that's on your finance agenda. Let me see.

Well, the last one was September. So

get into that on other business. But

they usually send me send us all, like, an email, like, a couple months before that.

It's not on here yet.

So we'll have to keep an eye out for that.

If it pops up, I'll let you guys oh, here it is. Really? July 28.

Okay. Oh, no. I don't feel like I'm behind

the clock.

Plenty of time.

Mistakes. So

it's you know? Be twice

a year, but I didn't know. Right?

That's Yeah. That's right.

I like what?

So it's July 28. Don't We don't We and so far but this is July. I mean, I'm sure there's gonna be more on general business, but all that's on here now are the presentations. Cool.

Alright. So, yeah, we'll dive back into that. Maybe we'll start talking about that in May

Yeah.

May meeting. June. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And it's even a happy week. Finalize everything in July, and it's still two weeks after that July meeting. Okay.

Next one. Arbor Day.

Arbor Day Earth Day. I have just a couple things to say, and I was gonna turn it over to you guys because I know you guys have had a couple meetings with it. Last week at ProGreen, I connected with the designer up at the tree farm, and this may be the year we finally get the tree farm to come out. He really wants to do it, and it's just a matter of convincing the owner. And I'm gonna go hang out with the owner on Friday morning and try to put it in his ear again why this would be beneficial.

He always fought back on it because it's a crazy weekend for retailers. I am gonna make the argument that, you know, just one or two people sneaking away for, like, three or four hours will be worth his while in the long run, especially because the tree farm wants to they wanna promote more of their design services that not everybody knows that they do.

Mhmm. Wow.

So it could work out really well. So hopeful that way. Did you guys at your last meeting talk about SweetCow? Because they reached out.

Yes. So we talked about inviting suites. I think did you tell me you talked to them? Do you have a contract there?

You met the owner when I, like, walked up one day.

Okay. So if you have a contact, send it to me. If not, I plan to just show up and buy some ice cream. What's

her name? Yeah. Because we started the conversation because she was they had just cut down the tree in front of that place because they were getting ready to redo everything, and she was lamenting on that tree. Okay. So we'll have to check-in and see if she's happy with the new tree.

Okay. So, yes. Sweet Cow is interested. They they do have a minimum, which we're, I don't know, a little bit concerned about that, but I I'm curious to see if they met the minimum last year. I I don't think it's usually an issue, but as usual, I'd rather support Town of Erie businesses and prioritize them. And if they're interested, I think we should give them a chance. And if not, then we just go back to Sweet Cow.

I've completely forgotten about that conversation because you're spot on. Yeah. Sweet Cow is a great company. Don't get me wrong, but somebody that's actually blocks away

Yeah.

Fits our mission a bit more.

They're gonna take over. People love Sweet Cow.

Do they?

Yeah. Okay.

Because they're over there in Lafayette. Right?

Yeah.

Yes.

I don't know. Sweets is pretty darn good too.

It's hard to beat ice cream when you're going to an ice cream shop. I don't know that I've ever left an ice cream shop disappointed. This is bad.

That's it. I'm gonna have to go try both of them.

Yeah. Maybe we just gotta get the town to pay for us to do a taste test. Yeah. K. But then I think you guys have had some planning meetings. Like, how do you guys feel? Is everything going well? Is there any way that the rest of tab can support you too?

Well, there were some questions about, like, funding and stuff like that.

Yeah. Some

Absolutely.

So we've got another meeting tomorrow at 02:00 with Karen, rest of the crew.

Tom is going to join you on that meeting. Great. Told me earlier.

So we had a lot of questions that probably could

have answered. He did answer a lot of them on an email. Did you see it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Recording in progress.

But I think one of them was the, I guess, the survey that we sent out. The participants mentioned that they would have liked to have one more chair, we're considering renting 50 chairs additional this this year. So, of course, that would come out of our budgets, and we would probably just go half and half with SAB. Yeah. But that's that's one of the additional expenses we're looking at.

We're actually getting a lot of applications. There's been I had, like, 50 emails that were, like, related to applications. Okay. So there's there's definitely a lot of interest. And I think this year, because of that, we're probably gonna have to spend a little more time vetting the interested vendors because, you know, again, we should it they should definitely be relevant to what we're doing, but I think we should prioritize town of Erie businesses. So we'll have to, you know, review them and We'll make decision after tomorrow, though, for sure. Now that

now that the vendor applications are rolling in Yeah. Fairly alarming rate.

Yeah. They're coming in.

That's good. Terrible. Terrible of interest.

No. That speaks to the way that we know this this event has been building year after year. So, yeah, if there's any way if I could help that or help with some of those emails, please let me know. And I completely agree just like we were saying with suites. You know, we love our local Boulder County, Weld County stuff, but I think, ultimately, it makes more sense with our mission to support Erie business first.

So Tom did suggest a certain percentage for each category for, like, the types of businesses that we're having. So, like so that we don't have just, you know, a bunch of planned Yeah. At all. Yeah. Boots. And so just he, yeah, he gave us a percentage just to try to balance things off. So I think that's great. And then it's it's just going to be one more thing to consider as we're vetting all this. Well, how many do we have? Well, are they in Erie?

And Yeah. So it's Okay. It's a good thing, though, that the event is becoming more popular. I suspect we're going to grow, and and it'll be even more difficult to pick who we want. Which would make it easy for us planning the event because we're not gonna have to be chasing people who are gonna be coming to us. So I like it. I'm happy with it.

Well, it sounds like it's maybe building to a point where, you know, in the near future, 90% of the people are coming back. They've already been here. So there's not as much vetting. It's just like reaching out and saying, oh, good. You're already coming back, and we're only trying to fill a small amount of spots.

On the flip side, though, I think that just adding new vendors also makes the event more exciting. Like because if it's, like, the same old thing every year and the same old people, it's like and, you know

Oh, you're right.

We do wanna support the eerie people, of course, but, like, we gotta throw some new things in.

Yeah. No. Actually, that that's that's

really good.

And especially with, like, with, like, the food trucks too, it's exciting to have, you know, new New food. New food. So I found a really good one. They're setting up at the liquor store there on on

Oh, that one. Like, it's a that black trailer?

Or

Yes. So I talked to them already, and they're definitely interested. So I'm gonna send them the official invite. Nice.

I

But I've heard it's delicious. So

No. We we have our family has made a big point to try to go there. We haven't yet because I swear it's, like, two posts a day on the eerie Facebook page about how amazing that place is. They're, like, berria tacos and stuff. So that I had that in the back of my head. I'm glad you're, like, 10 steps ahead.

Nice. That's awesome.

That'll be amazing. Testing. Yes. Okay.

I'm based on taste. Yeah. Exactly.

And speaking of the food vendors, Tom did mention that in the survey, got some feedback from the food vendors that they didn't really like all the competitions. So I I don't know. I wonder if we want to do less food trucks or what. But I this year, I plan on inviting I think it's Tom's Coffee. It's like a you know? And they're it's a pretty big truck. So if we have that and we have ice cream, like, how many food vendors do we really wanna have in addition to that? Because Just a couple. Yeah.

Like Two sleepouts.

I think we had four last year. Right? I should know because I organized them, but I don't remember. I think it was four.

Should've focused on my own business.

It's like many, many moons ago.

So maybe I don't know. I'll talk to we'll talk to Karen tomorrow and see see what she thinks, but just a consideration to have less and I don't know. So that they're happy with the with their sales too.

I mean, the flip side is I think it draws more people in if there's a bit more variety, but I completely understand their side of things where If they get this if they come in.

They're just one of two options. Yeah. I want them to

be disappointed with their sales too. We're like, oh, we don't wanna go. It's not worth it. So and then also last year, they they were kinda, like, over there away from all the actions. So then there's that in addition to the competition between them. So

No. I know I should have done a better job as the emcee of promoting those and, you know, they because I I would say something every time I got on the mic, but every I was only in the microphone, like, you know, once an hour.

And then

So I should've popped up every twenty minutes. Yeah. That was another thing without speakers in the back. I'll do a better job this year making sure they know and hop and on even just to say, hey. We've got some amazing local food trucks going to sport. And I also foresee, especially with the nature of soccer, I mean, coffee truck might be the biggest hit of all.

Mhmm.

That that's, I think, a no brainer. Awesome one.

Maybe in the future, we can have a DJ and have them call out good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, if the event is growing, why not? I mean, why not have music and make it fun? You're fantastic. Yeah.

Yeah. You could.

So I really like the idea of getting the DJ.

But, I mean, to the point of exactly that, and you mentioned the chairs and stuff. I mean, this is all part of the reason why we asked for a bigger budget and we were approved for this year. So we've got money to spend. I just found out earlier today that we're we're only being asked for $750 for the fruit tree rescue. So and I know that was part of our our asking for more money. So Mhmm. We've got some money. And if it's gonna help grow the event, that's exactly what we wanna do. Mhmm. That's awesome.

Yep.

It would be fun. Yeah.

Have you guys talked about better speakers yet as, like, a speaker system or at least, like, having one towards the back? We

did not talk about it, but I will put it on my my notes.

That's and that should be a purchase that is per for use by multiple, yeah, boards and events.

Because if we could just have two or three more speakers spread throughout there Yeah. That would be a game changer.

So we would just split the cost between the boards is what you'll send?

No. Itself because we were done with it.

They're under parks or something. Yeah.

Alright. Well, they come home.

He'll be here tomorrow. But

I'm of the opinion, and correct me if you guys disagree, but if we had to put some of our budget to the speakers, I think it would be worth it. Because I I truly do think that was a big hiccup last year of people, whether it was the raffle, whether it was random announcements or the food trucks, you know, or, like, you know, your booth was so lively and happening that, like, it even though you were close to the speaker, I think you said it was hard to hear because there's just so much action. So it was, like, for all the right reasons. And if we had, like, one on each corner and then I'm on this corner

On that note, though, if we do get a DJ in future efforts, they bring their own speakers.

Oh, yeah.

They bring

all that. Yeah.

So then you have them m c it for you, and you don't you know, the town itself probably needs a better PA system in general, but we would look

I mean

The DJ would cancel out the need for it for the

I I would start with first asking what the town has.

Mhmm.

You're right. They already have. They already might. They got a house. They might already have a system.

Well, didn't we use what the town had last year, and it wasn't Nice. Enough?

It's like that all in one thing, though. It's like a a microphone and a giant speaker, like, all attached

to me. There.

And it's like your home karaoke

in your ear. Ear. Your

Without the ball.

Yeah.

I I was right there, and I and I was I could see people speaking into it, but I heard nothing coming at me. And, you know, everyone else was beyond me. So, like, you you had representative representative Joe Neguse up there knowing

that he was out there.

Yeah. That was pretty special to get to him. I I keep seeing over the last year since meeting him that day, all these clips of him up on the, you know, floor of congress making some amazing points. That was pretty special that we got him. This Tom asked me to I'm sure you guys will look at this tomorrow too. Here is what they think is the finalized poster for it or flyer. K. So he just asked if, you know, if we had any critiques or anything on it. I looked through and I thought it looked great.

I think

it's fine.

It's great.

I think QR codes are brilliant and easy and answer a lot of questions quickly. And, yeah, this is what we can put up in, you know, businesses, windows of businesses throughout town. We could put up in, like, the rec center, the library, you know, post on social media and all that good stuff. Yeah. So

We need to get that going. Is he gonna is he printing out a bunch of that for that? He just wanna get our approval first and then okay.

And the town could print these. So then, you know, I think and I'm sure you guys will talk about it at that point just to spur we there was at one point, I think on the master spreadsheet that I'm sure you guys have been looking at, we we put in a bunch of, like, locations that people went. Like, I know Art had a lot of success running around a certain businesses off at two eighty seven.

And all We'll talk about it tomorrow. Yeah.

And all the businesses downtown seem to support, have no problem throwing it in the windows there. So cool. Yeah. If you guys think of any critiques or, like, Nathan, if you think of one, just send it to the group and

Yeah.

They'll be with their special event meeting tomorrow. But they can make those tweaks, and then we'll start hanging out.

So I guess we should email Tom and ask him to print out? He's gonna I think

he'll be at the meeting. So just give your final thumbs up, and then I think just give him a couple days after that. She can probably have a chunk ready. I I kinda think it's probably a little early to hang them. In my head, it, like, almost if you give people too much time, they, like, stop thinking about it. So to me, I think we, like, aimed at, like, March 1 Sure.

And get

them in that March, then it's that perfect corner. It it you're right. You're right. And we're gonna blank two more times, and it's gonna be there. But Yeah.

Sounds good.

Okay.

You might be able to help us with this part, but do we how do we invite the mayor?

You can do that.

I'll just

Tell him, be there or be square.

He was there last year, he gave some great, great words. And then it's typically I'll send a note to Emily to see if she could potentially get our congressman again because that that's her, and I know she had tried so hard many years and finally made it all happen last year. So I'll get with her. Can you send me the flyer PDF? Or just if you're sending it to tab, then I'll get it also. I'll just forward it to you right now before I forget. Okay. But do keep in mind that there's potential that they make some tweaks tomorrow.

Yep.

Sure.

Yeah. I guess it should be finalized by tomorrow, I guess. Yeah.

I

I mean, it's I think as far as I know, it's final unless something comes up Yeah. Tomorrow at the meeting.

Yeah. I thought it would I thought they did a great job.

Yeah. That's great.

Oh, and I already set up the the backup with the library too. I got a confirmation from Ian. So that's set.

I don't think it's ever gonna snow or rain again in our states.

That's the day it's going to.

Furious.

And there may be a part of me that's happy because, boy, do we need it. I've run my sprinklers, like, twice already this year.

This is ridiculous.

Yeah. Like, you can blame me. I somehow have two snow blowers.

Perfect.

Never yet. I've used it for that much.

Yes. Was one of them brand new this year?

They both were brand new last year. One of them was it was too good of a deal, I thought the batteries matched and then the batteries didn't match. And so we're

all Sounds interesting.

That's if I could just

Just try to sell it now. I love my

Yeah. Exactly. Good luck with that. Dust dust blower.

Just to drive it up to

So when did it come in? I added a cool potential from the from the town, Taylor Ingram. She's the recreation supervisor in cultural arts. So they're the town is starting the Erie Public Art Collective, and I think that would be a great place for her to to advertise. So, hopefully, she can join us. And since it's art, I'm hoping that she can help us with activity with the for the kids, like an art activity. I mean, usually, that's a little tricky to fill. So if she can make it, that would

be amazing. Yeah. That'd be great. So

what exactly is that program or that that group? The Erie Art Collective, you said?

I guess the town is trying to gather art for the town, And I've I'm volunteering for it, so I will find out more about it.

It's a great poster contest.

Yeah. Exactly. We can tie it in with that. So so I I applied for it. We'll see if they take me.

That's not that someone just bought a house in Old Town right there on Briggs, maybe, like, two blocks before you actually get to downtown. And it's some, like, coming soon, eerie art studio or some is it affiliated with that? Don't think so. It's on the east side of the road, yeah, maybe two blocks before. It's the house that used to be, like, an old rail car, like, built around it.

But we we started talking about this with the Canary Trail

Yeah. Yeah.

When we were walking around, checking out the locations, and we were talking about how cool it would be to have, like, rotating art. And yeah. Yeah. It's so great. Awesome.

Yeah. Keep us updated on how that's going because I that's such a cool thing to do.

I hope she can make it.

Yeah. Yeah. And you're exactly right. I mean, spearheading the kids' station would take a bunch of pressure off our back, and I think, you know, I'm sure if she could do it really well-being that that's her specialty and then promote her own self. So that's Mhmm. I love open all around.

She's a town employee. Right?

Mhmm.

I think that's more of a art in public places position.

Okay. Okay.

You know, for outdoor like, Connecticut Public Art. Okay. I see where you're going. Yeah. So maybe or maybe not.

I don't I don't know. It's worth asking

Yeah. Or asking if she has resources Yeah. That she might know of.

And she may be better connected with all the art teachers of this town at that point. Okay. Cool. Alright. Do you guys have anything else to add about Arbor Day Earth Day twenty twenty six?

If if you're sending out invites, if you you that remember that email I sent out about those stands? Yeah. That company has repurposed materials down in Lafayette. Mhmm. That might be interested in exhibiting, but I don't know if you wanna ask any additional vendors or exhibitors or not. That'd be on the sad side. Stand. No. To to they they have a very large yard and building of stuff that they pick up from industrial, you know, commercial industrial companies and resell.

Mhmm. Kinda fits, recycling.

It is. It totally fits. It fits on the

Yeah. Yeah. What sorry. Where are they?

So if you go down, you know, Hundred 20th right before you get to South Boulder Road

K.

Mhmm.

There's a timber place. K. Oh, yeah. They're they're behind there.

Okay. There's all

the way back, and it's called repurposed materials. And they've got a building, and then you walk out in this yard, you're like it's got rolls of, like, turf, master turf that came off playing fields.

Wow.

Basketball court flooring, street sweepers, scrub brushes, floor mats that you know, like Yeah. They just Yeah. And those stands. And so they have pallets of these stands that were used for hand sanitizers. Oh. And they use it for signs, and there's they're have you know?

Great way repurpose method. Yep. Okay.

Nice heavy duty stand. So Are they newer? What's that?

Are they on the newer side?

What's that?