HomeMy WebLinkAboutTree Minutes 021020CITY OF GALESBURG
Parks and Recreation Department
Operating Under Council – Manager Government Since 1957
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Tree Commission Minutes, February 10, 2020
City Hall, Galesburg, Illinois
Meeting was called to order by Tony Oligney-Estill at 4:00 P.M.
Roll Call: Present: Members: Pat Trant, Millie Allen, Debbie Steinberg, City Arborist-Ryan
Creek and Director of Parks & Recreation-Tony Oligney-Estill
Absent: Ann Pennington, Jane Easterly
Minutes of January 13, 2020 were approved.
Arborist Report:
• The Arborist report was approved.
Old Business:
• The Tree Commission has decided on planting two trees at the library his year for the
Arbor Day Celebration in April. The exact location where the two trees will be planted
has not been identified yet. Arborist Creek will work with Commissioner Easterly to
identify the exact locations.
• Director Oligney-Estill met with the Forestry staff on February 10 to discuss the state of
the trees. The list of trees that need to be removed has decreased from around 55 trees to
under 20 trees. There is about four to five weeks of tree removal work left. There is about
a week of tree trimming and a few weeks of stump removal. At the pace the Forestry staff
are working, all of this work should be completed sometime this spring.
• A suggestion to have residents with tree concerns or issues to come before the Tree
Commission was discussed. There were a few reasons why, in general, this would
probably not be received well by the public as well as add a layer of bureaucracy. The
Commissioners agreed adding more bureaucracy is not what they wanted. The
Commissioners also agreed that having residents that want to have private work done to a
terrace tree in their yard would be good reason to have someone come to the Tree
Commission. Director Oligney-Estill will work with the secretaries to make sure this
information is passed along. Moving forward, the Tree Commission will review any
requests for private work done on a terrace tree and make a recommendation to the City
Arborist.
• Director Oligney-Estill was not able to find a Word version of the Standish Park
Arboretum map. Commissioner Steinberg said a PDF version of the map was fine.
Director Oligney-Estill will email Commissioner Steinberg the PDF map of the Standish
Park Arboretum.
New Business:
• Eileen Castro with the Galesburg Public Library attended the Tree Commission Meeting.
Eileen talked about ways the Tree Commission could possibly work with the library on
educating people about trees. It was agreed that the Tree Commission Arbor Day
CITY OF GALESBURG
Parks and Recreation Department
Operating Under Council – Manager Government Since 1957
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Celebration will be at the library. The tree plantings will be set at a later date but either
the evening of April 24 or the late morning on April 25. Another program the library is
interested in pursuing is a historic trolley ride. The history would be of the trees in
Galesburg. The library is looking for someone that knows the history of trees in
Galesburg and is willing to share his/her time. Arborist Creek is going to peak to the
former City Arborist to see if he would be interested in this program.
Citizen Comments:
• Lynette Lombard and her husband Tony attended the meeting and wanted to know if
trees could be planted on Cherry Street just south of Main Street. Ms. Lombard brought a
diagram showing were five trees were removed on Cherry Street over 10 years ago and
wanted to know if trees could be replanted there to add some shade, reduce the heat in the
adjacent buildings, provide some greenery and make the street look better. Director
Oligney-Estill said he would contact Downtown Council to see if Cherry Street was part
of its responsibilities or not. If it was not, adding trees to Cherry Street would be added to
the list of locations to plant new trees. Director Oligney-Estill will follow up with Ms.
Lombard once he has more information.
Meeting adjourned at 4:38 P.M.
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Tony Oligney-Estill, Director of Parks and Recreation