Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

Are you ready? Sure. Okay. This is Rita Renwick. This is a Tree Advisory Board meeting for Thursday, June 4th, 2026 in City Council Chambers. I'll do the roll call. Karen Fonte? Absent. Eric Moon? Here. Rita Renwick, I'm here. Betsy Thatcher? Here. Mary Schoenheider? Here. Jim Teston? Here. Thank you. Um, the first order of business is approval of minutes from the April 2nd, 2026 meeting. You know, these are always under meetings and agendas on the city's website. Um, they always posted at least two days before. So these were posted at by three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon. And if you do the agenda packet, it has the agenda and the minutes from the previous meeting. If you just do the agenda, that's all you get. So you can see the minutes by going into that. You have to download and then open it up. Are there any corrections or additions to the minutes from April 2nd? Hearing none, I'll ask for a motion to approve. Motion. Second. Eric? And second by Betsy. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. There are no citizens to be heard on agenda items. And Peter may be having difficulty getting here. So we'll kind of go along to – and everybody's got an agenda – So we'll go to the first item on the agenda and come back to him later. I actually, I reached out to, we've been looking for a new tree advisory board member because Ron Van Dyke, Jim's term was up. And did you hear anything about them reappointing you?

Yeah, reappointment was complete.

May 20, May 19 or something.

I know, squeak by.

So Jim has been reappointed. And I reached out to Ron Van Dyke. I wasn't sure. I thought maybe his term was up, but it wasn't. So I reached out to him anyway and said, are you able to make the meetings? And he's like, no. I mean, his travel and business commitments have made it so that he hasn't been able to make it for, like, at least a year. And so he turned in his resignation, basically. That answer, you know. And so then we needed a new person. And I think I did mention it at some point, but nobody got back to me. I had thought of somebody, and I did ask Andy Neal. And he was a biology teacher at James Stewart. yes JJC and he was enthusiastic about being on the board and so I turned his name in to Janet the mayor's office manager and so he just has to fill out the application hopefully you know The way that's done, according to the ordinance, is a person's name gets suggested by the mayor, and then the mayor turns it in to the city council, and the council votes on it. So hopefully he'll be on board. He said, I like trees, and he did come to our walk last year. A few events. Right. So, you know, and we always... I mean, Karen has expressed an interest. She said if somebody else wanted to be on, she wouldn't mind being off. And so, you know, I kept trying to find more people from, like, the east side. But I haven't been successful. And maybe it's because I'm not from the east side that I can't find people. But, you know, I guess go with people that will, you know, are enthusiastic about doing it. So... That's where we are. Um, so maybe by the next, I would think by the next meeting, we would have him on board. So now, um, Peter is here, our arborist. And so we'll, can you give us a rundown on what's been going on in forestry? I don't know if you have to, yeah, we have to get up, uh, or you can, I mean, you could sit up here with us. and just click one of these on. Is it on? Did you get caught in traffic?

Oh, yeah. In terms of Arbor's report, I don't really have much updates. We can't hear you. In terms of Arbor's report, I don't have an update for retrieval we've been doing, but for the Oakland's grant... We could definitely use help with that. The main thing is just canvassing the neighborhood. So I have a map that I can share with everybody and flyers. And it's just getting people to sign up is the main thing. So we have about 40 to 50 potential planting spots. So I know they're there. It's just a matter of fact of getting people to sign up to volunteer and actually come out day of. Because if we request 40 trees and nobody comes, well, it's going to be a long day. But the previous grant we did a couple months ago, a month ago, was pretty good. We did about 20 trees. And Mary came. It was a good experience. We knocked it out before 12 o'clock. So everyone was happy. So hopefully we can duplicate that with more volunteers this time.

Is it in the cathedral area? Is this the one on Western, Campbell, that one? Yes.

It's kind of...

I think you sent us a map, I think. Yeah, an email.

Yeah, it's Western Ave down to Oneida, and then South Rainier Ave to North Central. Do you have flyers? Yes.

I'd be happy to, you know, pass them out. I live there. But am I allowed to do that? Oh, yeah.

I think so.

Because I know, like, with political stuff, you can't do that. Well, just don't put it in a... I know this is just true. Don't put it in a mailbox, you know.

I didn't do it.

It was just knocking on the door, and then they answered them via the flyer. But I have a couple now. I've also put more out. But yeah, that's for the grant. And then Fever. So I had a question about that because we are

We talked last time about doing a beginning, like a level one arboretum for the Broadway Street Greenway Route 66 park. And I don't know if those trees were surveyed because they are city trees. And I don't know if we found out whether those had been surveyed or not.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

I mean, is there a way to find out?

I could reach out and see.

We should be able to I would think I mean because they have to be maintained also Right Figure them out That's good Because we did commit as a board to do a public meeting or something when all the results are in. In fact, we were supposed to be doing three different meetings at the beginning and the middle and the end. Because some work has been done, right, on the east side, like trims and removals?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, I know the contract, the two contracts we had for pruning and rubles, pruning ended in April 30th was the cutoff date for that, and then rubles are ended this month. So as they happen, I'm checking to see. And that's Arbor Tech.

Okay. And so that's all the ones on the east side? it's all in that the delineated area that was covered by the grant okay that's good I mean we should Oh for what for his the open lands thing I don't I thought he had a date

it's in september okay i'll have to i could send a reminder or is it on your flyer no but i know it's in september okay it's a saturday right saturday in september

So right now, do you have any idea, like when the survey is all completed and it's all in some kind of format that is accessible, will then the city, is the plan for the city then to go out and do like growing of, you know, contract growing or contracts to plant trees every year like we had been doing?

So we're working on... advertising that we do plant trees. A lot of people don't know that the city plants trees. So it's just fine if people want a tree as opposed to just planting them randomly. Just because watering is the main thing. So if we plant a tree and it doesn't get watered, well, it's kind of a wasted effort. So whoever requests a tree, and we're working on a form, an online form for people to submit as opposed to a paper form, So those that want a tree, definitely request a tree and we do want a lot quicker.

I mean, we were planting like a thousand trees a year, which was, I agree, difficult to monitor all of that. But a lot of them make it. I mean, I've got, I think there's like eight new trees on my street that I think people watered at first and They all seem to be doing okay.

The watering is so important.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. If people want a tree, that's a good tree.

So probably the idea would be to get more advertising out so that people would turn in requests for trees?

Yeah, once we have that form online and it'll be on the forestry page, it'll just be a lot easier because now it's a form that you have to either manually fill out and mail in. which is kind of a pain, or email it, which is, I mean, not that bad, but it's kind of a whole process to do that. So I just want to make it a little easier to do that.

So the hope is that's the way we're going to replace trees in the city by request?

Yeah, and as trees get cut down as well, if there's room for a tree, I usually notify the homeowner if they would like a tree. Just going back on, if I plant a tree and they don't water, well, I could have planted that tree for someone else that would. So that's kind of the new process.

Right. Okay. And, I mean, another thing we always tried to do was, like, cyclic pruning. We always kind of advocated that, well, we will have some input into the – We'll have a management plan, right? That's part of the... Yep.

That will be... Yeah, they're working on that as well. They sent an email update a couple days ago and saying that they're still doing it, just because it's a lot of data. Mm-hmm. But that should be also coming soon. I don't have a date. I haven't told us a date yet, so... Okay. Hopefully, maybe by the end of summer, hopefully.

I mean, they did the last one, so... We just want to make sure it's not exactly, you know, I mean, all the data will be different and more complete for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah. Do you have any idea yet? You don't know how many trees yet? And I guess the numbers for the east side was 10,000 trees and 5,000. Planting spaces, something like that. I'm not sure. I think Great Lakes gave that information to maybe that Ryan Sweeney from CRTI that's the grant administrator. So. Okay, anybody else have questions?

Yeah, only from me going back to the accreditation for the Arboretum. I think we need 25 trees, and hopefully they're picked out of the survey. We had talked a little bit about doing a QR code or something to map them out. Have you gotten any information? Not yet. Okay. I think the first thing he asked is to see if we've got the inventory. Yeah, that was the main thing we were waiting on to see.

That way we just don't do double work if they already got in as opposed to redoing it. But we're hoping to go through there and kind of clean it up a little bit. I know there's some trees scattered around there. I know there's a lot of oaks as well, so hopefully we get a curtain in them this year. We'll get it figured out. Hopefully once the day is in, that way it's going to be faster since it's all there. And then it's just making an online map, which won't take much.

And do you see, just from my own information, putting together some of the information, some strategic plans, other things that go with that, Do you see, or maybe Rita, you've got some insight, too, is it something that's just approved by Public Works? Or is it something that's approved by this board? Or does it actually have to be something that goes to council to go through an accreditation process?

And that I don't know. I'd have to look at the form. Did you see the form online?

Yeah. Yes. And that's what I'm wondering about because it is an accreditation. Right.

I don't know if it's like the Arborist Association or you know what I mean. I think maybe some other entity other than the city. I mean, I would think the city would have to say, yes, we want to do this.

That's what I'm thinking about. The accreditation itself is a different body, but we need approval here to submit.

I would say probably we would recommend it. Then it would go to probably the city council. Okay. And then the more formal.

Okay.

Yep. I think that would be the process. And so I don't know. I mean, we could just start working on an inventory or see if there is an inventory. And then maybe for our August meeting, we could have something i could have something put together ahead of time that would be uh we could vote on good a recommendation and then process it that way perfect deadline yeah you can add it to the agenda for sure that sounds good anybody else well thanks to the advertising is there a way to get something in the local newspaper And what about like it's an open lands grant and the idea that people can apply for a treaty Have you I mean do you want us to do something like I could try to do a press release? And get it through the city or would you do that or what do you think?

This one, we're hoping, is a little bigger than the previous one. So this one will have some kind of press release just to get more attention. And then hopefully after this one, it's kind of like a snowball effect. And then other people can kind of just set up their own grant. And then obviously I will be involved too to kind of help with the planting locations and what not. So I will work with Oakland on that. But this is kind of just to get everything rolling.

okay so will you do a a press release or you want yeah i will submit all the information okay because i think people would jump on that i mean it's going to be fall which is a good time to plant trees you know um but i do think that would be great yeah and then the planting location too um

kind of outline the main area we're planting it, but if they're like a block extra away, I think that's okay too, as long as it's not past the south, you know, rain and a half. But if they are outside the boundary, hopefully I can let us know as well. Sure.

Sounds good. I think anybody else have questions? Okay, thanks for coming, braving the traffic to get here. Okay, so we are on to a summer public tree walk. We did this last year, but we did it late in the year. So we didn't have, yeah, most of it was us. I look back, and the last time we did a pretty successful one was in August of, I think, 23. I brought that flyer. It was August 16th. We did it on a Wednesday at the Broadway Greenway at 6 p.m. We had the arborist with us, which we could have, you know, I don't know, availability for evening things may not be... But I think we got permission for him to come that time. And then we had the, it was called the Trees and Treats. That was the time that we gave people a $1 coupon. They could go to the ice cream place right there on that Route 66. I know it's not. I don't know. Because it's owned by the, I think it's owned by the city.

Or it's leased from the city, I believe. It used to.

Yeah.

Rich and creamy, is it? I don't know what fits right there.

Yeah. I noticed that the other day that it wasn't open yet. Well, we don't have to do that. But I think, I mean, what do you think for timing? That August. was pretty good. I mean, I think we need to start way ahead of time.

Way ahead. It was later and later in the day, which is so we could have it after work.

In August, it was fine. When we tried to do it in the fall, the time had already changed, I think.

And I think we did it at 4 o'clock, which people want to do.

Right. So what do you think? Do that week in August. I think it's, let me look at the dates. So, I mean, we did it in August, and if we did it the same week, it would be in, like, August 18th. We're probably going to try to do something in October for October Fest. October event. So maybe... I mean, I almost think July is too soon to get it planned. I mean, what do people think?

August is a good time.

I think August is like 6 p.m. on a Wednesday again. Do you think the 18th sounds good? Kids won't be back in school yet, I don't think. It might be close to when they go back.

That's the day that our kids go back. Oh, really? Well, it isn't the same as everybody.

Or you can do it the week before, but maybe the 18th is.

I think it's fine.

All right. So should we just say that's what we're going to aim for? And unless there are conflicts of some kind, I'll try to start setting it up with the city. I noticed that, I think, I don't know if it was Open Lands or CRTI, somebody was doing a walk around the block, a tree walk around the block or something. And we did that at one time. We actually did my block. But Bicentennial, or not Bicentennial, you could do it at Bicentennial Park, but there aren't as many different kinds of trees. But the Route 66 park has a lot of parking, which is, I think, really good. So... All right, I'm going to put down maybe August 18th on a Wednesday at 6 p.m. And it will be information. And usually we try to do something about how to prune trees with low-hanging branches, how to mulch. And it's kind of not the best example because the mulch there is piled really high. And I think maybe trees were planted kind of high. Because sometimes if you try to dig down in the mulch, you actually reach soil. I know people were commenting that one time. So if we do that, which part of our responsibilities and goals are to educate people. Then we talked about Oktoberfest. We would do that planting with open lands in September. And you said, Eric, that... It's October 3rd. October 3rd.

From 1 to 6. My theory is maybe there's, you know... Is it who? Is it tree board?

Is that a Saturday?

Yeah, it's a Saturday. And then they'd be at a house and give out oak trees to... people. I would pick this, there's five houses, so I would do the centrally located one, and then people can come back after the event's officially over, because they didn't beat drinking. Sure. So, it might not be The first house, they might not want to take an oak tree with them. They might say, I'm going to come back, you know, and they can check one off and put their name on it or whatever. Yeah. There'll be about, you know, 300 people there.

Wow. Now, I think I could talk to CRTI and see, like, they did the Earth Day thing at Trinity Services, and they brought 10. I mean, they were mature trees, you know, very nice trees. They were, like, four feet tall. And they planted one there, and they just gave them to people who wanted them.

It was... Yeah, I went to an event at the Farnsworth House where they were there, and they had a bunch of oak trees. Gave them all away. Yeah.

So I think that would be a good event.

Yeah, October 3rd. details on where the house will be sure not decided yet but it'll be somewhere in the cathedral district right um and it'll be fairly close to where are you doing this yeah

And we can have a table there with information. And we could have information.

Almost everybody that goes to the beer walk is interested in improving the neighborhood. It's probably like 80% people who really care about this kind of thing. So 20% of people who live elsewhere just want to come to the cool land.

Well, and I'm thinking maybe by then we would be able to have a public meeting about the survey and all of that. At least that's what Joe talked about October having things done by then. The tricky part is I don't know who will make that presentation. I mean, we said we would help out with that, but I don't know that the contractors are a obligated to give a presentation to the public. So we have to work on that. Because I think they would be the best to do that, unless they stick you with that. I mean, I don't know. But I think they've been doing that in all the different grant communities. So it would be better if I think they could do it. We have to do it.

I could always do a summary. And if you'd like to present too, I'd give you all the information. and then you can come up with a presentation maybe.

If you'd like to attend the October event, the Catholic Beer Walk, you'd be more than welcome. You probably would be comped as a volunteer for the event.

Yeah, but we can, we can work on those things. Um, but I do think we have to get started early because to get approval for all of it. Yeah.

Where do we get the trees for October?

Well, that's a good question. I can talk to, well, I can talk to Ryan Sweeney with CRTI because he got all those trees for that other event, or I can request that we order saplings. which I would think you could get saplings in October for oak trees, don't you think? I'm sure. But I think, like last year, the oak saplings or seedlings that I ordered were very small. And I had one that was very straggly, and I've had it in a potting soil. And it has leaves that are about this big now. And I've had it in that. for, you know, since April. So it's not doing much very quickly. So, I mean, maybe that was what was available, but I think I could have gotten taller, you know, I think I ordered 18 to, 12 to 18 inch ones or something. And maybe that we could get bigger ones. But I'll talk to Ryan Sweeney and see. Because, I mean, an open lands could even have something there too. We can work on it all. But you're going to be doing, you're going to be repeatedly doing this kind of thing, right? For what? Oh, doing the grants. But you're saying you're going to do them and then hopefully turn it over to.

Oh, for tree planting? Yeah. So I'll kind of keep it moving until it kind of catches on its own. Okay. So.

Sure. All right. And by then the city should have that. easily filled out request form online, which would be really great. All right, I think we can, anybody else have more to say about any of that? So other, new or old business, not for final action, Arbor Day was great. You know, your crew was really, that was a nice, a very, very nice tree that they donated. And I couldn't believe that they got it all in the ground before the kids came out. I mean, they were only there, like, it seemed like 20 minutes before the thing. And they had the whole dug, had the tree in there and everything by the time we were ready to plant it. I'm hoping they're watering it. well you know you know what i actually know the person that okay does things for them he also uh works for pilcher park part-time okay his name is terry awesome and they were saying oh and in fact i could i can talk to him and make sure that he's yeah right um so any recommendations for any changes for next year it is kind of a flurry of being very busy for like a month.

It's always good.

We did.

We did have a lot of posters.

We always leave it up to them. We tell them they can involve as many or as few classes as they would like. And even for participating on that day, you know, some schools have like 600 kids. And it's, you know, then they have to decide. But yeah, I thought the event went really well. And a lot of you came. Betsy, you came, right? And Mary was there. And I think Karen was traveling. Was she there? Oh, she? Yeah. Yeah, we had the mayor and Jan Quillman, Pat Mudren. And the mayor. And the mayor. And I think somebody else, too. But it was well attended.

Right.

Yeah, they did a great job. Now, we haven't, I think we only asked the Joliet Public School District 86 this year. We have not, I think we didn't reach out to There's Plainfield and Troy districts that are in Joliet. So maybe we should try next year. We have done them.

What about the high schools?

Yeah, we've never involved the high schools.

I think there's enough elementary schools.

I don't know. I think in that case it would be maybe an environmental club or something. Yeah. We, years ago, we did that with an environmental club at the high school. But we haven't done it with them. And, you know, we could do some type of activity.

More so west, I would say. Central. Yeah. Central's kind of landlocked there. Right. A lot of concrete there.

Yeah. That's true. There would be space at west. Anyway, I mean, we could always do a few things, but...

I tend to not want to overcommit myself to doing things.

They're very enthusiastic about it.

That's for sure.

Also, did we get the Tree City USA did you get all of the materials? They sent it to Cedarwood Drive. Yes. They did. So we have what? We have stickers that say 35 years, right? And the city did, they did do a press release, but I think it was only picked up by one paper. It wasn't in the local paper. It was in like the Daily South Town or something. Because I was in touch with the, I think it's, is it Samantha that does the media stuff now? I don't know. I should know her name.

I think it's like Samantha Thompson.

Anyway, the day I asked her about it, she said, oh, somebody showed her and it had just been printed in a different paper but not ours. So, you know, 35 years as a tree city. Well, they do, yeah, they're trying to fill the paper with stuff.

But, you know,

And I have all of those plaque things that we've had through the years. It was all on the wall downstairs. And that got taken down when they painted. And I don't know quite what to do with it. Talk to you about that. Well, we had a big plaque that said Tree City USA, 1991 is when we started. And then we had sections of where we had each year that we... But the big plaque, when it was taken down, was broken. So I gave that back to, I think, the city manager's office or something, and it would have to be reordered. to get a new one.

It has to be inside though. In a box? I don't know.

When we had it there, we had 35 years worth of... So each strip had maybe five years on it. And it was downstairs in the hallway. But then I would sometimes hand in the little year tag and then it would get misplaced and so we would we would have to refurbish that whole thing i don't know where we would put it i thought about by something apart but they already have quite a few plaques and things uh something something to work on something more to work on any other business our next meeting is august 6th so um I think we pretty much covered everything. If there's no other business, I'd ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion. Second?

Second.

Jim seconded. Eric? Motion. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. We are done.