Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

The City of Joliet's Tree Advisory Board. I'm Rita Renwick, chair. I'm calling the meeting to order. I'll call attendance. Karen Fonte? Here. I'm here. Betsy Satcher? Here. Mary Schoenheider? Here. Jim Testin? Here. And Ron Van Dyke, Jr. Is absent.

Approval of the minutes. The last meeting we had was 12/05/2024. As always, the agenda packet on the city's website has always has the agenda and the minutes from the previous meeting. So that's where you can always look before the meeting to to check all of that out. I did bring a couple of copies of the minutes with me. Does anyone need me to go over those? Or can I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. All right. Satcher moves to approve the minutes.

Second. Second by Mary Schonheider. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Are there any citizens to be heard on agenda items? Hearing none, we'll move on. The first item on the agenda is election of officers, president and vice president. We usually do this in February, but we didn't have a quorum. So I would entertain motion for the office of president. I motion Rita Renwick. Right. Karen Fonte moves that Rita Renwick be president. Is there a second?

Second. Betsy Satcher seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. We need a motion and second for vice president. Do I hear a motion?

Who's cure I'm curious. Who's the vice president? Ron?

Currently, Ron I think currently, Ron was VP. Here before I go. Right.

Can I motion for you to Sure? I motion Jim Tustin.

Alright. Jim, it's been moved that Jim Tustin be vice president. Is there a second? Second. Betsy Satcher seconds. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Jim is the VP. Thank you, Jim.

Yes. I appreciate that.

You're a Yeah. They're our third VP, which is, you know, we're spreading that responsibility around, so that's great. Okay. We're going to try to move through this quickly. Please, if you have a question, and I'll ask if there are questions.

The Tree City USA application, which we always turn in by the December, I received an email on March 25 that we were approved. This always gets turned into the State Department of Forestry, and then it goes to the National Arbor Day Foundation. So this is our thirty fourth consecutive year of qualifying for the designation of Tru City USA. I'll be including that in our press release that I sent this information to Rose Maria DeBenedetto, who's the PR person. So we'll work on getting that out along with any other information that relates to Arbor Day and our designation as Tree City.

The CNAIB grant that was finished last year, everything got turned in by mid December, and that was the big project on Infantry Drive. But it also had a second part to that, which was planting and refurbishing the Chicago Street entryway. And we were allowed by CN and AIB to list all the plantings that would be going in there. Jim Tiber worked on that. It's going to be, I think, 15 trees and another thousand plants.

So that was included in the entire grant, which we had a $25,000 grant, and $2,300 was used to pay America and Bloom to participate in their program. And then 22,700 was reimbursed to the city for all of our expenses. And they approved of that, even though that work won't be done until this coming year. So that was very nice that they did that. And I'm looking forward to the Infantry Drive project.

There's a group there that I'm going to try to reconnect them, because they said they would form a little, you know, gardening, landscaping group because many of them had been doing that independently. Mhmm. They were, like, clipping flowers off and, you know, pulling weeds and doing things. And then when we got together for the grant, there were 13 people, and some were in that that neighborhood HOA. And they're in they're interested in continuing that, which is great.

The growing contract, you know, we've been waiting and waiting for that to be put out. And there's been, like, a moving deadline on that. Originally, we were talking about having that in place way ahead of time because whoever gets the contract for that, you would think you'd have to have some time ahead of time to do it. But last year, it was difficult in the fall to designate all the planting spaces. They had trouble because somebody had to do that and find all those spaces.

I can't remember if it was 400 trees or 600 trees in the fall. So because we are now going to have an inventory of all the city trees, which is the next item on the agenda, the decision was made to have the growing contract go out for bid in the summer so that when the inventory is underway, which should be underway soon, they will have the planting spots designated through the inventory, and then they'll be able to plant easier.

What's the inventory done?

Well, the inventory yep. I'll just move on to the next Okay. The next item. That that Inflation Reduction Act grant, which I have met with Greg Ruddy and Christa Desiderio on that, they still they're talking to people at the Arboretum and the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, and those people believe we will still get the money that we were, you know, designated as awarded for the grant, Inflation Reduction Act grant, which is $216,000. And, you know, there I was concerned that that would be pulled back.

But they said that the people there at the Arboretum and CRTI believe they will get that money. So we were awarded that last June. And so they went this is a it's it's professional services to do the inventory, so they didn't have to actually have a they did request I guess six consultants were solicited. Three of them submitted bids. And nothing was I guess you don't really have to have a public opening

of any bids for this kind of thing.

But Greg Ruddy told me that six were solicited, three were submitted. Great Lakes was the lowest bid, and they are qualified. And they actually were the people who did that initial partial inventory, and they did the urban forest management plan for the Cathedral area when we got that grant So several years they will be doing that. And I've been told that once they once all the paperwork is signed for that, their services, there will be a meeting to determine how we're gonna make all this work. Because part of it is to have community meetings to get input from disadvantaged areas of the city, and I'm hoping that those areas will be inventoried first so that when we have a meeting with people, we can tell them what's being done and the importance of trees, that kind of thing.

Then you're supposed to have a meeting to inform them. Once the inventory is done, you're supposed to have another meeting to let them know what was found, like how many planting spaces are there, how many disease trees, how many need to be removed, that kind of thing. And you're supposed to get input from people in the community about that, what they want to see in their community. And then at the end, you're supposed to have a final meeting. And I know I've talked to Betsy, and we talked about Noel Park possibly being a site for that. And, I mean, I don't know if the Spanish Center, if they ever have a space for meetings or not. I'm not sure.

But

That's a lot

of We That's a lot

of meetings. A lot of meetings. But I do know that the junior college, they were asking me in the fall already when can we be involved. Because they wrote a letter of support for the grant, and they want their students and their department to be involved. So I'm hoping we can use them. Because honestly, I I said we would help, but you know, it's a lot of work. I mean, hopefully, somebody else. And so this meeting that's gonna take place, hopefully, will divide up some of the responsibilities.

And if we could allow for people to just give input online somehow would make make it easier, I think. True.

Yeah. I mean, we should find an easier way to do it. I originally thought because I asked for 50 trees for the east side neighborhood group. I asked for 50 trees for the Spanish center, like saplings for Arbor Day. 50 trees for there's a HOA that Jim had been working with that was planting they were planting trees around the edge of their detention area because it was eroding.

So I was supposed to get river birch for them, and then we had trees for the school. But my thought was if we had the trees for the East Side Neighborhood Council, a meeting, mean, would be a way to get people to come to a meeting and talk about the importance of trees. But I think it's not gonna all come together because trees are supposed to come in April the week of April 14 is what I asked for. And we all I volunteered to

bag them. Again? Yes. I

did volunteer for that because last year, were put in pots, and that was just hard for kids to carry home. Yeah. So, you know, when I find out for sure when that's coming but the the 50 trees for that HOA, they'll just go into a bucket, and that person who heads that up can take care of them. Rita. Won't be quite as many trees.

Do you know that we approved that the budget for the inventory? We did a budget amendment at our our last meeting

Right.

To approve. I didn't know if you guys had

Well, yeah, I was I should tell them unless you wanna tell them. I mean

Just that it became it came before us on Monday Right. Do a budget amendment for the the approval. It was let's see. 2025 City Juliet annual budget for the citywide tree inventory and water contract to Great Lakes Urban Forestry Inc. In the amount of $307,395. So we did approve it.

Right. Excellent. Yeah. I I did look that up, and and it was like the budget had a 154,000 in it. And so there was a ordinance that was passed that increased added another 155,000 into that.

And they also took into account that that grant was still outstanding.

So Right. So they have enough to maybe to cover it if need be.

Right.

Yep. Because and, obviously, you don't get the money until later. I mean, they did talk at one time about doing partial payments, but you really don't know what the status is of anything right now. So it's it's good that it's covered. And really, it would be it'll be such a positive thing because they're supposed to come up with cyclic pruning, a cyclic pruning plan. You know? And if all of that is done, I mean, it would be it would be the way things should be. You wouldn't have to worry about spot trimming and removing

one more time. And in that, I don't have the full report in front of me. But in that, there's a certain portion of that money to be spent focused on the underserved communities for the pruning and for the tree placement. Right. Okay. Was this a a recent council or two council? It

was just

a couple days ago.

It was Monday.

Can pull it

up and

see online. I just can't get it pulled up on my phone. I wanted to say it to you more completely, but I just couldn't get it pulled up.

Right. It is it is in there on the agenda. Don't think they first. They don't have the minutes. You know, they don't have the minutes and all that done yet. It is reports. Yeah. It is listed on the agenda for March 31. Okay. So you can look at it there. Yeah. It's exciting that it's going to finally happen. And I had worked with Steve Lane from Great Lakes quite a bit on that initial inventory and urban forest management plan. I mean, I worked with him a lot. Now I don't know if he's gonna be the same person who's gonna be doing that for

Great Lakes, but there's

a Phil Graff who's kind of ahead of that. Maybe you know him.

Red Cross. Yep.

Yep. So it's a good company.

Process wise. So it sounds like there's a number of steps because of the grant to get the inventory done. It's gonna be after at least part of that inventory is done before we actually end up doing the growing contract. That's what it

sounds like. I mean, I I I personally think, why don't you just do the the growing contract would just be how much you're paying for per tree of a certain caliber and diversity and all those things. So that overlap of Yeah. So I'm not time. Yeah. I I just have a hard time believing we'll get it done and have a fall planting, which is what the plan is, but that seems like a lot.

It it does. There's a lot of steps in the

Yeah. And what contractor can come up with all of that? But there is $250,000 set aside for trees to be planted in this year's budget. So, you know, do you like, in the past, we did a thousand trees a year. I don't know exactly how they'll decide how to you know, we aren't gonna last time, we got trees for $205 a tree planted in the ground, diverse species, two two and a half inch caliper.

That's good. Yeah.

That probably will not happen. Yeah. But, I mean and we did that for ten years. It was a five year contract and then extended five years at the same price. We really did well. But, of course, we lost probably 10,000 trees through the ash borer. So, you know, it was a it was good. Alright. Any any other questions about that that inflation reduction act grant? Yeah.

It it does it is connected to meeting with the community. We'll have to figure all that part out. So the Arbor Day celebration is at Edna Keith School. Betsy went over there and picked up the posters. I went over and met with the principal.

We chose she and the grounds person chose a spot for the tree. Ron Van Dyke has been designated as the person who will he volunteered Arbor Tech to plant the tree. So he's been asked to select the tree. The city's gonna pay for the tree. It's always been donated, but this year, we don't have, you know, connections. So the city's gonna pay for the tree. We still have to choose what kind of tree, and Ron says he'll be back maybe the April. So Just as long as they're

on the list.

Right? The list? Right. They have two silver maples and a locust right now Mhmm. In the area in front of the So They're not Anything else would be really good.

Anyway, Leticia Walton is the principal there. She's very enthusiastic. The celebration is 10AM, Friday, April 25, and I'll have to work on getting making sure we invite the mayor of city council. Whose district is that? Do you know Betsy? Is it Susanna. Susanna Ibarra. Okay. So, normally, that would be the person who would come. We would hope the mayor would come. Whoever would like to come would be welcome to come. Alright. How are we doing for time? We're doing great.

Don't forget the costume. The tree costume.

Oh, the tree costume. And, you know, the wonderful part of that is that ever since we stopped wearing it and asked the school people to wear it, they've had so much fun with it. So we'll do that again. We'll see who will wear it this year. Any other questions about Arbor Day? Well, the posters. Oh, yes. The posters, we have to choose. And we can we can decide how many and how to do that. Normally, we have, like, four students or, you know, five students. And are

we Invited to the

They April 15 is the city council meeting where we'll they'll be invited. The proclamation has already been the adjusted proclamation with all the right dates and everything has been given to Janet at the mayor's office. And she is will have that ready to be read that night. So we'll have the Arbor Day proclamation and the poster contest winners that evening. Those are things we spent the proclamation and having a celebration all necessary to be a Tree City USA.

So a new board member. I reached out to people at the Will County Planning Department because they had been looking for a place to create a garden in town or something. So I had some connections, and I talked to a Bridget Rohr, who I think is on one of

the Yeah.

Commissions planning and zoning, whatever. Because she's still is, like, the school. Yeah. She was going to ask around. I was trying to find somebody from, like, the Spanish Center area or somebody from because we have so many people from the West Side, and we're trying to get people over there involved. And she could not come up with anybody. She was asking around. I did contact I did email Cesar Guerrero and Cesar Cardenas, but nobody got back to me.

Would be a good one to know. Susanna would be a good person to ask.

Who Susanna. Susanna. Susanna. I mean, we've got Betsy representing, like, that side of it. You know?

You think Susanna also She just has so many connections, though.

Okay. Yeah. You know? And if that doesn't work because we really need that extra person to get a quorum, like, in when everybody's gone to Florida or whatever, we can't get a quorum. Otherwise yeah. I mean, I like Andy Neil, I talked about

We don't know if he's still interested.

We don't. I haven't talked to him about it at all. I mentioned it, but that was when we were doing the project. I'll talk to Suzanne.

There was a gal at the prairie planting at which Gina somebody, but she's a west sider at the

I think. Yeah. The people who were at that no. Not The

prairie planting at Buzzantine Park, Gina. I don't know. I think she's a website. Right. Okay.

Well, so that's the next I'll try talking to Susanna. Is there any other business that we need to take care of? Jim, I'm gonna ask

you about those. Did you at all look at those

tree tags? We probably totally forgot.

About the

They are the arboretum. Mhmm. We need to work on labels for those trees. Oh. So if you

could Follow-up.

Hit that again. Yep. Because, you know, there are a couple of signs there that say, talk about the arboretum, and they're there for people to look at the examples of trees that they could have in their, you know, on their property, but not all of them are labeled and not all of them are Yeah. Decent labels. And so we need to have a good form of labeling them. And then we'll need to talk to Jim because I do not know all those species that he has there. No. Some of them are, you know, not the normal.

So It's in the old mills. Yeah. It gets it gets tricky. So

Right. So but we we should just work on that so that

Yeah. I'll follow-up.

Right. Anything else that we need to discuss?

Okay. Do we need any formal action regards to posters? Or

No. We really we haven't done any. Like, we don't vote in our meeting for the posters or we're always so thankful that a school decides that they will host this celebration because when you know how much principals and teachers have going on, you know, to be asked to do one more thing and, you know, it's just

Oh, I or just the process has kind of changed. We now just pretty much go straight to the district, and they farm it, you know, put out the word, and then somebody volunteers.

So Right. That's what you did. You went to Teresa Rouse or the superintendent. Like I'm

missing some school districts when I do that. I might have only sent it to Joliet has several. Don't they have a couple school district? No.

Well, yeah, the city of Joliet. Yeah.

Because we have miss some.

We have some in Plainfield and in Troy Yeah. I believe.

Yeah. So I next year,

I'll try to

be better hitting all of them.

We we have gone far west Yeah. To those schools in past years. We've been doing it for a long time, so we can make sure that we reach out to them. Okay. I I have nothing else. Any public comments? I believe we can adjourn. Do I hear a motion to adjourn? I motion to adjourn. K. Fonte motion. Second? Second. Betsy Satcher, second. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Alright.

We're

adjourned. Thank you.