I mean it's top high and like and I produce like number three or something.

I don't know.

So it's right.

I think you want to put a red post.

I see all the things.

Are you here for now today?

You can sit in this where the papers are.

Oh, I see.

And what's your answer?

Andrew Boyd.

Do you split your last name, please?

E O I's employed K-I-N.

A I S.

K I S.

I N.

I.

I.

Well, the tree board.

Yes.

I'm uh colleague of Aaron's as he could probably guess and he's looking up a sun somewhere right now, but yeah.

Told me there's a meeting today, and it's not interesting, so it's a tracking.

For the four.

Yeah, and for the fourth.

I hope he's not soaking up the sun here.

Okay, I'm sure it's not anywhere he goes, but yeah, that's great.

Yeah.

I'm sure there are cooler places, but okay.

And we know that Paul we have we heard from Paul Johnson.

I uh did very briefly.

Okay.

So uh and then Chris hope he's doing really well there.

Do we know if Chris is coming today?

Chris is on kind of.

Oh, okay.

So we do have a form of a week, but like one more minute.

Yeah.

I'm uh two of those are parked with park trees.

They're the ones without these sheets on the front.

Are this dying trees?

But on Don Manningly way, are they ashes too we know next time?

We've actually are uh we covered them yesterday.

And uh, broken out the topic one, that's how well we're while we're there, we're not sure what it comes down to, but we didn't know we're a very busy street.

I've never heard of a cucumber magnolia.

Really?

I have one.

A bunch of them walking.

You planted a little bit.

Well, maybe I just don't know that they're called cucumber magnolias.

But do they I'm assuming they make a big fruit?

No.

No.

No, they're they're fruits for only about that big, compared to the magnolia fruit.

They're deciduous.

Okay.

And uh actually, I say, I just give them what we're dealing with.

Um like I have no, I have concern on this right there.

I think that these right here.

I don't know if you can.

I got real concerns, I think we're taking the editor.

Huh?

So uh we have some visitors here today, uh, requesting this one.

So which one is that on the structure?

South out.

Yeah, but just this one right here.

What about the other two is red?

Yeah.

They're not a really high priority.

The red, the ones that are strictly, but uh, the other one.

Iowa street, one of the east Iowa.

Yeah, sixteen twelve software.

Oh, and also thirteen fifteen, southeast full of the best is back to game.

Yeah.

Do you want to hear Iowa?

Separately.

I'm sorry.

They're they're here on Iowa.

No, on Alvard.

Let me see how while you's nine fourteen.

There's a lot on Albert.

What is the I can make one or two?

Yeah, I understand.

I don't know.

Sorry to interrupt you.

No, that's okay.

Bia, can you hear us?

I mean I see we've got a tree.

Sorry.

See if we've got a tree there already.

Do we have something here?

I don't believe so, but well, it looks a little deceiving.

There is a tree within the vicinity on both sides.

Um, I don't see one there.

Well, there's one that goes back to the Google work.

Okay.

Oh, there we go.

Bia, could you speak again?

Sorry, our volume was down.

It's okay, yeah.

Can you guys hear me?

Yeah, great.

Okay.

I just want to make sure it's working.

We haven't started yet.

Okay.

Okay.

I don't hear an echo.

And it looks like our meeting is recording.

All right.

We ready to get started?

I believe so.

Thank you everyone for while we get through our technical difficulties.

This is the City of Evans Military Advisory Board meeting.

It's July 2nd, 2026.

It's 9 02 AM.

Do you want to go first to our visitors?

Before we do our other business?

Okay.

Do we need to do election of officers first?

Does it matter?

I don't know how it matters, but we'll do that afterwards, it seems like.

Okay.

All right.

So if you guys would like to come up to the podium and state your names.

I feel so special.

We're visitors.

Do you have any visitors?

Um no, we don't.

Oh well, we feel fortunate then.

Uh I'm Ann Basin.

I live at three eighty five South Alvard, and I'm the president of the Alvard Boulevard Association.

Julie Blevins, two fifteen South Alvaro Boulevard, Secretary of Avna.

Thank you for joining us today.

So I don't know how you guys do this.

Do I talk first or you talk first?

That's okay.

If you just like to tell us about your concerns about the structure of the um, so uh our concern, well, we we have ongoing uh concern.

We've we've uh our association works very closely with the city of Evansville and have for many, many like 30 years.

Um trying to keep our association area, which is uh Lloyd Expressway to Washington Avenue, uh Alvard Boulevard.

Um keeping our our boulevard pretty, the trees uh well maintained, the curves, the grass, all the things, right?

Um, so over time we've obviously worked with a lot of different folks with the city, different uh parks department folks, uh different arborists, different, you know.

Uh so um our latest uh concern, and and in this this one obviously spurred us to this point.

We didn't know that there was a tree committee for many many years.

We just actually found out from Paul uh who's no longer with us, which sounds like he died, but he didn't.

No, we don't, yeah.

You know where Paul went.

Anyway, he's fabulous.

Um he was helping us uh uh get a little bit of a uh a foothold on the maintenance of the trees, because we have beautiful large shade trees.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of you know dead things, and then there's just whole dead trees, and um there is a master plan for the entire boulevard that was approved by the city of Eddinsville, and you know, we're trying to work through that, right?

So this particular tree that um I think you already said something about it in the 200 block uh on Tuesday night, and this has kind of been a concern for a long time, and again, all the way you know, way way back, and then long lots of conversations with like Steve Schaefer and Paul and different people and Sean.

Um, some of these bigger trees, things that like exactly in this particular tree, this has happened a number of times actually.

We've had a lot of rain, like my rain gauge by my house had seven inches of rain over the weekend, and then we have this blast of heat.

So then we have trees that, you know, suddenly, not during a storm, you know, unexpectedly snap and come down.

In this particular situation, because we are part of the Greenway Passage, um, we are heavily pedestrian friendly street.

Part of the reason that people pay top dollar to buy those homes.

I agree.

So um, we had a young boy, little one, and his dad, who literally had just walked past it when they heard a snap.

Dad turned around and that came down.

And we have some photos just in case you guys didn't see how bad it was.

It literally, the branch that came down landed on it was you know this way, but the the bulk of it spanned from the boulevard all the way up into the front porch of the lady who just bought her house on the boulevard.

It was massive.

If they would have been 30 seconds back, they would have been crushed.

Darby Hurley, who is another neighbor, was just walking out the door with her two-year-old grandson.

They had been using his little blue car and running up and down the street for like I don't know, a week, he's all hooked on this same spot.

She was in tears because she would have been out there.

Um, and then there was a third neighbor, and I can't remember who it was.

So a lot of people were very, very upset by this.

This was a tree that we identified a good while ago as having a lot of issues.

This is a tree that honestly 25 years ago, a large branch fell out of it like this big round and crushed a car like a clown show right in front of my next door neighbor's house.

Like the wheels went out like this.

Um he was at the Harper School with his child, and he had parked his car there and it crushed his car.

This is many years ago.

Um, so you know, we're concerned about the safety of this.

Um, and we and you know, we talked a lot, and it was on a list to have some maintenance done, and it's been on that list for a very long time.

Um, and we know that the city has um constraints, financial constraints, but I guess we came down here to say, okay, we understand that we you know the bucket truck has been been broken now for a couple years.

Um, is there anything we can do as an association?

We have members that are literally, I mean, they're beside themselves worried about uh a child being hurt, somebody standing underneath the tree with their dog or something.

Uh and not just that tree, there's a number of trees that are on this.

We've never seen the list, but it there's a maintenance list, I guess.

Um, and then there's a removal list too.

Um, but we're really concerned, and we're not trying to say our neighborhood is more important than other neighborhoods or other trees, but we feel like because our neighborhood is a lot of pedestrians, a lot of people walking dogs and running and all that, that it, you know, where are we on that list?

And what can we do as an association?

We you know, we've had people literally literally come up and say, can we hire a private contractor?

And we know that we we've read the the the rules, and you know, we said, you know, we can't really touch the trees, but is there a way that we as an association can get permission to hire a private contractor to better take care of those trees because it's a beautiful street, but the ice storm kicked our butts years ago, um, and none of that stuff has been groomed or I don't even know, pruned sure, whatever to save those trees.

I mean, we lost a bunch of trees during that storm, but then the ones that were remaining, they're slowly dying because we're not doing anything to save them, and you know, again, we get it that the city doesn't have money, you know.

Uh, the governor kind of ham hands tied or whatever that's saying.

Hamstrunk, yeah.

Yeah, and and so a lot of cities are don't have the money.

Um, but you know, like I said, we're just concerned, and like in this particular case, even even to the nano degree of, you know, in situations like this, can the city not come out and put like like little stakes around it and ropes around it and say, This is dangerous, don't stand under it.

Right.

Because I have neighbors now, they're sitting looking out their windows going, hey, don't don't get under that tree.

Move move down the way with your dog.

Right, you know, because they're fearful.

Yeah, rightfully so.

Before you came to the meeting, I had discussed the tree with you by phone, and I had told you at that time that what we would try to do is at least cut the deadwood out of the tree to make the area safe temporarily until we can cut the rest of the tree down later after board approval, of course.

Um, so uh that that's our game plan is to make the area safe temporarily until we can come back and get the rest of the tree down later.

Um, which is fantastic.

I mean, you know, it happened.

Now we've had this, you know, limbs have been falling out of this tree for quite some time.

Yeah.

Part of our problem, I mean I'm very I'm over on Ruston, so I'm really close to your area, and part of the problem that our neighborhoods in that area is having is that these trees are coming to the end of their lifespan, sadly.

Um, and um, so it really is kind of an overwhelming task to try and care for this many trees.

Um and as you know, if you talk to Paul, you probably know the parks department is they have all of the parks that they care for, and then they have all of the boulevards that they care for too.

But um, Sean, what about um their request to seek a private contractor to take care of this?

Well, I I would have no problems with that as long as we make sure it's uh somebody uh tree company is licensed by the city.

Um I'm glad you brought up the ice storm too, because uh we almost almost got caught up with all of our work orders last year, and but when January Ice Storm hit, we literally spent four straight months working on nothing but storm debris from January to March, and then the whole month of April because the April storm.

I don't know if you remember the April storm last year, but that knocked us pretty good too.

These are all the work orders that I have now that are tree removal work orders, these are all the work orders I have now that are tree pruning work orders, which includes Alvard Boulevard.

Um, and then there's also this long list of trees that we're looking at today for tree removals that's going to add to this.

And you're and you're on your tree is on this list that we have before us today.

I guess it is very cumbersome to manage and figure out what trees take priority over another, especially when we have thoroughfare streets that that take precedence, uh like Lincoln Avenue and Washington Avenue where we have some tree removals that are scheduled for at this time.

We have uh alleys that are overgrown or trash is not being picked up.

We have streets like Burkhart and Newburgh Road where the vegetation is growing over the edge of the curve that we have to prune back that way vehicles don't get scraped up and cause accidents.

Does the city ever use private contractors, or do you guys try to just do it all yourself with 12 guys?

Right.

At this point in time, we don't use contractors.

Okay.

I was just curious because I mean we see private contractors all the time.

Your neighborhood is uh a common target.

So one of the first things we did, so we're in charge of all public trees to keep people from being able to just cut them down whenever they want.

Right.

So there are a lot of fear mongers, and your neighborhood is one of the targets from the tree companies, so it's no wonder your neighbors and you it seemed like have this fear of trees are gonna fall on me because they're constantly being preyed upon to cut their trees down in their property.

Which is a little bit of a travesty because what draws you, as you just said, to high market values for your property, and three of the four of us up here live in your neighborhood.

Yeah.

Okay, my wife walks under those trees every day.

But we can't live in fear that trees are going to fall on us, and that's part of our job is to preserve the canopy.

Because the canopy's what draws us.

So if you guys have a plan that you want as a neighborhood association to do the trees privately, and you bring us that plan, we will probably approve it.

So the tree in question, based on the Arbor's comments, we're probably going to vote for that today for the tree in question.

I would rather see you go tree by tree as you have this fear.

Oak trees by their name.

Is this an oak?

I don't even know.

Yes.

Oak trees by their nature.

This is what they do.

You know, as as photosynthesis occurs, and I'm not a scientist, but I'll pretend to be.

How's that?

Photosynthesis occurs, then those limbs that aren't getting the sun begin to die back.

It's just the natural order of big trees.

What we look at on trees are one, are they staghorning?

So today we have you saw all of us really reviewing this long list of pictures.

And one of the first things we look at is staghorning, is it dying out at the top?

Your tree is not dying out at the top.

I looked at it, okay.

So limbs falling out.

I think it's un, I think, and my wife walks under it, and I love her more than anything on earth.

So I think you've been, I think you're being a little bit over fearful because the tree companies go not door to door in your neighborhood and and tell I know it for a fact, and tell your people all this tree in their yard.

They know they can't cut this tree, but they tell people, and so that fear particularly develops as we get older.

It's unfortunate.

And people have this phobia because they've seen one tree fall that it's going to fall.

First of all, the boulevard, I lived on the boulevards.

You know, again, my wife walks on it every day.

Occasionally I do, I tend to go a different direction than her.

Um but the boulevards are probably much like the park.

It's sort of like if a tree falls in the forest, does anyone hear it?

And so the boulevard, I understand you got houses next door, so that's probably not true, but the odds of people that don't have dogs being in that boulevard when a tree falls, is like probably scientifically a million to one.

But I understand your fear.

So we're gonna deal with that tree.

And if you guys have a plan and you want to deal with the neighborhood association, bring it to us, we'll probably approve it.

Okay, so that takes care of your your two concerns, I think.

I hope.

Could we get a list of who is licensed?

Okay, that's on our website.

It is on the website.

Yeah, we work very hard for that because people are preying on, and we still have people come from out of town and prey on.

We don't have the names of any particular, okay because I don't know any tree men.

So if we'll look that up, we've spoken to any trees.

Yeah, we work very hard on that.

We have an arbicultural standard, we have there's a lot of work we've done on this, so uh it's all it's all there on our website.

If we if we approve to for the true removal, of course.

So we haven't done that yet.

Right, right.

I'm saying if you bring a plan and it's and it's proper and you want to do it privately, I'll bet you we pass it.

I'm only one vote.

I and I would highly recommend going with a company that has a certified arborist, which is gonna shorten the list quite a bit.

Um, you can also find um, you know, someone to give you a tree health assessment, which I know it sounds like Paul gave you an idea, but you can definitely get um so if we hired an arborist to do an assessment of each tree on the boulevard, that would take credence to your committee.

It it would be persuasive, it wouldn't be uh, you know, arborists can agree, just like disagree, but you know, that would that would go a long way.

That's Sarah's point is yeah, if you wanted to do that, I think we would embrace it probably.

Okay, so before Paul left, he mentioned to us um it's how we there was a form or a uh procedure that if we wanted to come to you and present a specific tree.

Is there a form, or do we just come to you with a concern about specifically?

We've never had anybody fill out a form to come to the meetings before.

So we work with neighborhood associations, so they they give us a form.

We have a list of A to S today.

Okay.

Um and then the city gives them to us and in different departments.

So we're every month.

I mean, our primary job, and we hope you'll help us on this, is to plant two to three to one for every tree we remove because canopy's important.

Canopies isn't as important to our quality of life as the fear of an oak tree limb falling on someone, and that's something that we have as an association pay for and when we lose a tree we do plant a tree.

We replace it and we work with the list provided by Sean in terms of the more um the ice resistant shade trees.

We've really tried to develop a nice canopy on the boulevard there's no such thing as an ice resistant tree okay.

Yeah that was we were given an ice resistant list and a canopy list and we worked with that for many years they were from Sean so I mean that's that's what we know by um and they're trying to balance the oaks to the maples to to create a beautiful boulevard with different species of trees that work well.

And and you've succeeded it's awesome.

And so the tree in question you saw Sean and I talking about it.

I pulled it up on Google Earth and there is indeed another canopy tree next to it and so what Sean's proposing it'll be on the agenda um we'll probably pass it at least you got one vote.

Okay so going forward if we have a concern about a tree, because I do we do have one in the 100 block it's a hackberry that's half gone would we well to try to work with you guys first to see and Sean you can look that up it's in front of it's right in front of Harper.

It's like in front of 10 South Alboard but the whole side of it is gone.

Okay.

Um just approach you all monthly with a specific concern and see if we can work with you first and then find out from Sean like where where the trees on Albert Boulevard are on your list and then we'll go forward and look and see who the licensed of urban forestry from the City of Evansville license or uh website is you call down to useful links that's the link of um licensed tree pruners for the city of Evansville.

And that means they've gone through the training class and it means that they have insurance.

So correct one thing could we no I'm a little bit confused because over because we have emails dating way way back about you know hey that we're going to maintain this we're going to prune this we're going to take this tree down things like that.

Um is there a way for us to is there a on that website is there the list of the trees that are on the lists no because if you if you have a plan and you you have uh we'll sit down and work with you on that our our I represent keep Evansville beautiful to help form this body and and care about canopy and if you leave here with one thing from me it would be to uh reduce the fear of your neighbors that trees are going to drop on them.

I don't think everybody's losing their mind thinking that's a misconception.

But I think that really got their attention particularly because of the people who are standing there when it fell it was a very scary situation for them.

I don't think anyone's really fear mongering or anything like that because honestly like I said I don't even know any tree companies per se except for one that parked their trucks in the boulevard and we had to call 911 to have them m remove the trucks.

So we all that's on the website we'll work with you on everything you everything you've talked about we'll work with you on and then we appreciate you planting trees we would ask diversity you hit it and diversity is important but we sure hate to see Alvard or St.

James or any of the boulevards end up all dogwoods or all red buds and not have the canopy on the list.

Yeah because the canopy is important and that's why that's why people live there and indeed as Sarah said the oaks are dying out some of them are just dropping limbs they're not dying but you know it's it's an issue and the boulevards are perfect habitat.

So the ones you're going to see most of them today we have they're in not the best positions where the sidewalks are too close.

Your beauty of your place is the sidewalks in front of your house is not uh fortunately the sidewalks aren't in the boulevard.

Now I know that's where everyone goes with their dogs.

So going forward, then is there not a um preferred list?

I so I would say this, keep this in mind about the list.

That as a nature happens, as life happens, a tree that might have been close to the top will get bumped down if there's you know sudden something suddenly happens and and that's going to take priority.

Yeah.

Okay.

This time of year our priorities are changing every single day.

I think you're referring to the list, the approved list.

We were working with these two approved lists, and then you said it doesn's no predict exist, and we're like, well, do you mean appropriate?

No, no, no, I didn't say it did.

No, no, no, no, put words in my mouth.

I didn't say that.

I misunderstood.

I'm sorry.

I think I think Mike thought you meant the list of trees that were going to be working on.

Just going forward as we try to look at planning ice resistance.

Do I not do we not need to be concerned about that list anymore?

So we look we really try to get, like you said, trees that grow into beautiful canopies.

We we don't plant things like dog woods, red buds.

Um we really try to steer clear.

We've probably planted 25 trees over the last 20 yeah, that's what I thought you had, that's what I've seen.

So that's good.

We'll work with you on all that.

Um, you know, in terms of will the city hand you a plan for maintaining from Washington Avenue to Lloyd Expressway, Alvard Boulevard.

No, we won't.

Yeah, we just can't do that.

And envision why.

How many boulevarded streets are there in Evansville, Indiana?

Well, I mean, we'll probably 40.

We will take ownership.

Yeah, that's perfect.

And really, and try to work with you guys because that's what we want.

We want to maintain the ones that we can replace the ones that die or are removed and help them grow straight and beautiful.

I think we'll I think we together we've just kind of been doing this.

We want to understand what's the proper procedure.

Right.

So, one point I'm gonna change the subject on you.

At one point, we talked about which has been done in St.

Louis and others, neighborhood softening of closing off St.

James at Washington, closing off Alvard at Washington, closing off Lombard at Washington, and Bluegrass at Washington.

What are your thoughts on that?

Sidebar so that the traffic off traffic are you saying closing it off so you can't cross Washington?

Yep.

Love it, yeah.

Close it right now.

So we talked to your neighborhood long ago on that, all four all four neighborhoods working together on that issue.

That doesn't have anything to do with trees, Sarah.

So I've hijacked the agenda.

But I just thought I would test the water on that one.

And it makes it more conversation, more walker-friendly, then doesn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

So St.

Louis did that uh in and around the um uh St.

Louis U and Wash U, and was pretty successful.

So um, and then I would say whatever list of trees you have, preferred species is absolutely fine.

I mean that that's not going to change on a regular basis.

And um Burr Oak Nursery in New Harmony, they're exclusive.

I mean a lot of his trees, we had six of them last year, yeah.

We did six, and Tom's an excellent resource as well.

He's an excellent resource, and that's that's a question.

Some of those are thin, Sean, as you know, and they've done the question mark.

Are you comfortable with us staking to keep them straight, or is that something you've allowed us to do in the past?

Are we okay to continue?

I'm okay with that as long as you just don't want to use bare wire against the tree.

No, we use but you're okay if we go ahead and buy the the stakes, the stakes.

We've done it in the past.

Just email me and let me know where you're doing that.

That way I can keep track of it in case anybody has any questions or complaints.

You can come by and check our work, but we will definitely over the next month to go back and I adjust them and straighten down them.

Thank you.

So you're one of our best neighborhoods associations.

Thanks for you for all you do, and if you have a plan on maintenance and you want to privatize it, I'm sure we will consider it.

So that was one of your questions, and we're gonna deal with the tree you talked about as Sean proposed.

So yes, I'd like to thank you too, because as a resident of this neighborhood, I mean you I I wish all neighborhoods that we you've managed to get your neighbors involved too, and that is which again, people choose to move to Alvard because they love that space.

Um, you know, I I wish, you know, as uh I'm part of the Van Park Neighborhood Association, I was part of Midtown, we merged into that.

Um just trying desperately to get there's so many neighbors, so many streets there where we've got these silver maples that have come to the end of their life, and um just I I'm just I've seen I'm on a part of Rust and that it used to be you drove down it and there was canopy all over, and due to the last few storms and are aging out of the the pines and the the maples.

I I uh my house is like and our neighbors, it's like we're this little forested area and everything's just you know like there's no shade now.

So and I'm begging the neighbors to take advantage of getting a free tree.

Um the last year, what we want to do is take a tree down.

It truly is right.

Um, and um actually we just got back from Brussels, and if you want to see the most astounding look up Bruges and Ghent, and um the way they maintain the trees, there's there's no dead wood, there's no tree, it's just mind-blowing.

You just sort of looking around going, This is beautiful.

I wish we had the time and resources, you know, it's a different, it's a different uh um, I guess, political background.

Exactly.

Yeah, so their money goes to different things.

Yeah, but um I know Mike and I, whenever we travel, we tend to take pictures of trees and send them to each other.

Uh I was in Pueblo, Mexico.

They also top the trees.

So you were there in the summer, be there in the winter, it's not very pretty.

I was in Pueblo, Mexico and some of them they top, which we prohibit.

No, no dirt around this tree except a little circle, and it was huge.

Yeah, um, you know, it's just beautiful city trees, so yeah.

Um before we ask it, one thing.

Speaking of Washington Avenue, um somehow a fruit-bearing apple tree got planted down there at Alboard in Washington, and before it gets big enough to drop apples on Washington.

Well can we Paul said it was on the takedown list?

I believe it is on the list, but priorities.

I know.

Okay, but it is you know that would be one that okay.

Yeah, we kind of consider that one a nuisance.

For fifty dollars, we could get a private person or a private approved company to go.

So, send it to us, we may approve it.

Okay, so that would be a great one.

Yeah, I would just say you know, before you cut, maybe anything.

We're gonna make sure we say thumbs up.

Because before we were created in every city in the country, and the National Arbor Day Society pushes across the country.

You know, public trees, it was you know, whatever politician that moment decided to remove it, and so they are our trees as a community.

That's why we're, you know, it's a cross section of people here.

The utilities are represented normally here, and we have all uh the there's a democracy for our public trees.

So we try to keep our apple trees going whenever we had the adoption, yeah.

We adopted the tried.

Yeah, and we don't like apples in public places either.

We understand why.

Yeah, yeah.

I want to thank you also for your efforts to plant trees in the past, and you know, it is not we're not the ones that that solely have planted trees along Alvar Boulevard, it's just the neighborhood has done it themselves and they've done a wonderful job.

Yeah, we've had fun with it.

I mean, and I mean you can go out and pick out trees.

So we've been able to go out and pick out different species and learn.

Yeah, the last 25 years we've learned so much about trees, it's crazy.

Yeah, Tom is just as knowledgeable as I am about trees.

He's a wonderful person.

Okay, guys, welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I want to give the board a little bit more background on this tree, just so the board has information about it as we're deciding what what trees to remove and whatnot.

But um, so uh over the over the last winter, uh, they had contacted Paul and I uh about this tree and asked us to look at the tree then at that particular point in time uh without leaves on the tree, uh which are the last pictures on the plane.

Um it was hard to tell the true condition of the tree, but it was obvious that some of the limbs were dead.

So at that particular point in time, we had planned on having the deadwood cow cut out of the tree, which we haven't yet, unfortunately.

Uh but we will soon.

Um then the incident happened a couple nights ago where the the huge limb fell from the oak tree.

That was live.

It wasn't a dead limb that fell, it was a live limb.

And in a matter of speaking, it was kind of a fluke.

Because just because the dead limbs were there, is not the reason why the live limb fell.

Matter of fact, the reason why the live limb fell from the tree is because of a poor point of attachment where where the tree was connected to to the trunk, which causes those kinds of limb failures.

Um now with that happening, there's a large area of exposed wood which will deteriorate over time and cause future failures.

I don't believe that there's.

If you really look up a lot of trees are like that.

When people fear a tree, they see that stuff, but there are so many trees, and some of my coolest trees in my woods on Lombard, they're all one sided.

Yeah.

You know, generally they're gonna stand out better than now.

If that's a pine tree, different story, yeah, softwood.

So I guess not speaking as the president of the association, but personally, that tree is now leaning towards Frischley's house, Hurley's house, and or my house.

And I'm getting ready to double the size of my house.

So I'm a little bit concerned.

So I'm like, well, but if you say, hey, it's not gonna fall, you're gonna get up and go with you.

Well, I don't uh I don't see a necessity in getting that close to it.

I mean, I could I've done that before, so but um, it's I mean, we're gonna we're gonna I've got a really good crew, they're gonna cut the deadwood out and anything else that looks very precarious uh at this particular point in time, and then hopefully this winter we'll cut the rest of the tree down.

And when you do that, we'll plant at least.

Depending on how much space we have, we we would consider two.

But then we will do two if there's a well, we've also gotten lectured on the distances and things like that because they've gotten overcrowded at points where all the the canopy over each other and they kill off one and all that, and you know, Sean and Paul and those.

So um we try to put as many as we can.

And I wish Paul were here because he's always argued for oaks.

Now that oak is a pin oak, and pin oaks are the scrub oaks of the oaks.

That's why it's falling apart.

Because they just there when I bought my house 30 years ago, and it's beautiful.

It's a beautiful tree.

And I'll bet you it's not a hundred.

How much you want to bet?

I have no idea.

Yeah, just bet you'll know when he takes it down.

I agree.

We'll see.

I'll say it's about 75, 70 years old.

Yeah.

I've got a huge tree cookie in my office that's about this this from the ground to here that wide.

It was the tree that used to be in front of the pagoda, uh, the visitor center uh back in the early 2000s.

We cut that tree down.

Uh it was structurally weak.

And that slab is from 10 feet up in the air.

Yeah.

That tree was huge at the base, it was like this.

Yeah.

And I counted less than a hundred rings in that tree.

You'd be amazed.

Yeah, it my house is built in 1930.

The reason is we have aerial photos of our neighborhood.

And there were cornfields.

Uh, you know, in the in the 40s, so I mean, it's probably getting close to 80, but I I don't think it's a hundred-year-old.

Because the bar boulevard was now Alvard was early built.

Yeah, it was nineteen thirty-six that my house was built.

Yeah, so I'm saying the trees are by nineteen forty.

That hat berry is a big tree too, but I I bet it's the hackberry tree that we're speaking that we spoke of.

Yeah, and I bet that's probably less than 40 years old, yeah.

Those things grow really fast.

Yeah, they do.

But we will.

We'll plant as soon as that comes down.

As many as we can plant, we love plant trees.

So that's where we want to work with you all.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

And talking this afternoon.

Well, we can stay for a meeting today.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

So uh in what you've given us uh item two and item three.

Can we do them all together?

Yes.

Yeah.

I I would ask that item A, C, G, H, and N.

I'll read that again if you want.

A, C, G, H, and N, be put on hold.

Um in light of the what I've given you today and the issues we're dealing with on um Lincoln because I some of them have been submitted by the city, and I think we're kind of being set up all at once with a bunch of.

Let me just say that we're all at once getting a lot of these submitted and um that I'm I'm just not sure about.

I think we need to maybe focus on these sidewalk trees that have no death in the top of them.

Right.

That are have we passed this along to the I have not.

I'm gonna wait till Aaron gets back.

Okay, I'm gonna let Aaron started the process, so I'm gonna go through Aaron.

If you'll give those to Aaron when you get and then but I think those fall in the same category, and we've got a we gotta be careful about how we handle that.

Um so and then all the others.

I I would I would move that we take the action that Sean recommends.

For example, 221 South Alvardy's recommending it uh trim first and then removal in the winter.

Sean, this this one has no.

Oh, I'm sorry, that's the state hospital.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Um Woodmere Park, I believe it's called.

Yeah, the bottom of that was so bad I did not.

Did I put that one on the list?

I didn't.

That actually, since that picture was taken, that actually is already split.

I I did not, I did not pull that one out.

Oh no, it just isn't, it doesn't have any uh I know it was missing a canopy, but I looked at the bottom, it was so bad that I'm okay.

So I'd move for approval on AB under two and everything except the five I touched on.

Um, G was a box elder, it looked to me like it could be trimmed, but on 500 Lexington, G, excuse me, Q on 500 Lexington.

I questioned that one.

I didn't put it on that list of five because it's a box elder.

Uh it looked to me like it could be trimmed, but if it's a box elder, they're right there with Sarah, silver maples, so I'm not gonna.

Um Sean, and then gosh, we've had a lot popping up on South Villa lately.

Is it just these trees are just aging out?

Yeah.

Like every month, or are we getting some repeats on here?

Structural issues.

Um apparently the homeowner never probably doesn't really know about the multi-trunk problem, and there's no way to fix that now.

That one that's got double trunk.

Well, just like like this one.

I share your concern, but they look like they were pretty dead, and the beauty of Villa is that canopy is among maybe richer than same James Alvard.

It's not better than Lombard, but it's it's better than most.

So is it better than most, yes?

Yeah, I know better than I know yours.

Okay, just me.

So I put those my motion would be to include those to be removed.

All right.

Um, Mike has made the motion uh for tree removals as specified.

All those in favor say aye.

Oh, I'll second.

I know I'm sorry.

Yes, thank you, Jean.

Gene's seconded getting ahead of myself.

We haven't done it yet at all today.

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye, all those post.

All right.

Um, and let's go ahead and do our election of the vice chair.

Um we've nominated Mike to take over Paul's position, Paul Bowsman's position as vice chair.

Uh I'll make the motion to approve the election.

I'll second.

Gina seconded it.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye aye and all those post.

All right.

Um approval of minutes from oh, we didn't do this.

No minutes.

Sure, I don't have minutes, right?

No minutes.

All right.

No minutes to approve.

Oh, I skipped I skipped C one, I'm sorry.

I pushed you to two and three.

That's okay.

Um Evansville Forest Task Fort Grant and IU Environmental Resort Institute cohort program initiatives B are you still awake you still there oh sorry B yes yes I'm still here um I just wanted to give you guys an update on what I've been doing um so as I said last time I'm working on creating an urban forest master plan for the city of Evansville and most of the community work I've been doing or that I'm trying to do for it is being done this summer and I'm ending my stay here at the end of July July 31st um and then actually the writing process of it all is going on in this fall until the end of December so it's going to be uh a work in progress I'll probably be back here on these meetings in the fall um just to keep you guys updated but um yeah I've been meeting with the task force that I put together at the beginning of the summer to go over what I've learned about the biophysical the um aspects of the urban forest here the governance and management that goes into it and then our last meeting is next week and I'm gonna be talking about the social and community aspects of the urban forest and these meetings are held all just to present my understandings of the urban forest and then to get uh the task force uh feedback to maybe see where I'm lacking an understanding or where um I'm like not I don't have enough information and so they can feed me that and then just looking into it more and yeah meeting with community members to get uh more immersed in the understanding of the urban forest um so that's what I've been doing it's been a lot of emailing and just reaching out and cold calls but uh yeah I just want to update you guys thank you B and apologies for not being able to make those meetings it is a uh tough time of day for me to get away from my from my job yeah no in summer is just a busy time of the year for everybody so I totally get it and we had uh I was able to attend Sarah yeah yeah it was I had a lot of good feedback from you Mike but um sixteen people were the second uh highest amount of task force members uh to all the uh other fellows doing this type of project in another city there's four of us um I think the other competing city with the amount of task force members is 17 but I there's uh fellow working with me that has as low as four people that were interested to help with with this project so we're doing pretty well I would say in that realm.

B who are the other communities that are simultaneously going through this.

Yeah so we have the city of Lawrence the city of Richmond and then oh gosh there's a county so that one's a lot different because they're they're working on the with the county county boundaries um I can't remember right now but uh gosh I can try and find it and get back to you in a few minutes.

Um but before I'm done talking I just wanted to say is uh Paul Johnson there no he's not here today you can't see us can you no I can't it's weird the camera on for you to see us I don't see an option for that oh wait a minute I'm sorry I didn't see start video I didn't even see that I'm sorry can you see us now?

Oh yeah whoa sorry I didn't realize I can turn the camera on I didn't know um it's all right that's funny okay um turn your camera B.

Oh gosh I don't know I'm you don't have to I won't see the ponytail I recognize your voice I know you're you this isn't AI.

So um be a um can you um I'm sorry um I wasn't gonna ask.

Oh, never mind um but you know, something interesting that came out of the moving meeting last week uh so last week we had uh discussion about uh you know governance regarding uh the the tree uh master management plan.

Um and one of the issues that came up that I really didn't know uh didn't expect but certainly was deserving of discussion was um you know how do we quell or stop the destruction of forest land in the city uh forest continuous canopy cover, so I think that might be worth the discussion at the tree board level at some point in time, maybe not today, but um I thought that was really interesting.

There's a lot of support for that too.

A lot of um people seem to be in support of trying to see if there's a way that we could never slow or stop the amount of forest cover that's destroyed in the city or or uh removed by development or other means, yeah.

That was really talked about, especially uh Edie Hardcastle.

I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with her, but she's an instructor educator at uh is it IWSU or USI.

IUSI.

USI.

Okay, yeah.

So she uh was super passionate about that, and it was just something I hadn't thought about before.

Um just instead of like trying to add more trees on lands that uh like that don't have any trees on them, like why are we so focused on that?

And why aren't we trying to preserve the land that is hasn't been developed yet and there is a big canopy on it?

It's it's like our attention is uh looking at lands that don't have a lot of trees.

I don't know if that makes too much sense, and it it sounds pretty general, but um, yeah, the way Edie described it, it was really good.

And I wanted to say when we had a canopy cover assessment done two years ago, uh, that they had discovered that we had uh a small decrease in canopy cover since the last assessment in 2015, and uh that's probably attributed to that amount of forest land that we've lost in the city.

So that would be my assumption, so um, yeah, Bia, did you see anything else from uh last week's meeting that you thought was interesting that should be repeated?

Um I have some things written down, but um I just like I learned so much about different management uh processes that go on for the trees that I had no idea about, especially from Mike.

So thank you, Mike.

Um but uh gosh, I can't think of anything in particular.

There was a lot of talk about uh end dot and how to work with invasives that are planted along Lloyd, but that's a little bit harder because it's at the state level where those policies would be made, and really I'm just trying to work with like the city uh level level policies.

So it's it's something that I wouldn't maybe have control over, obviously, but I could write it in the plan to be like this needs to be looked into further.

Um but that was talked about a lot.

Bia has done a wonderful job getting people interested and involved in the meetings.

So at first we we were getting very little input back from anybody asked to attend.

We've had two meetings so far.

The first meeting we had over 15 people, and the second meeting, I think you said there were seventeen there, um, which is really really great compared to the other um towns and cities that are participating in this program.

So I only know it and I did the last meeting be we're missing the planning office, so we need someone from uh area plan commission there.

Okay, I'll write that down, make sure it happens.

Um something I've been doing recently for our next meeting, is trying to work with or talk to religious groups in the city, specifically ones that are in that um, oh I forget the word used for it, but it was uh a map created by the state for areas that uh should be prioritized for plantings.

So that's been really interesting to get in contact with.

So Jennifer Roll uh began that process last week.

She sent me a memo.

I don't know if I've shared it with the board.

Um, but she uh began that with Memorial Baptist, which is not only what religious group, but they're also development wing, and it's pretty detailed memo.

Make sure Jennifer's in the meeting, so you tweak her to share that with you.

But I think that's a very good start.

And the other one's the Evansville housing Authority.

Actually, we've been making progress thanks to Chair for Roll.

She's actually posting in communication with I believe she's trying to communicate with Reverend Brooks and also some of the one.

That's what I just said.

Community one, I haven't seen that contact yet, but that would be another second one that would fit into what B just said.

So the memorial contacts have been made, and they're very interested, which you know.

I have a contact for community one if you need that.

Yeah, why don't you share that with uh B and St.

Jennifer?

Yeah.

So I think if you did those two with the housing authority, you'd have more than you can possibly do in the next three to five years.

Those three, those three groups, two and community one's religious as well, right?

I don't know.

Okay, it's got a religious element to it.

I know that.

Now the three meetings, by the way, are all different.

The first meeting focused on yeah environmental resources, the second meeting was uh government um coordination and and management.

And the third meeting, correct me if I'm wrong, Bia, is uh regarding cooperation and coordination among the social.

What was the other word you use, B?

Yeah, social and community uh aspects of the urban forest.

So just kind of how people interact with them or and yeah, interact with the urban forests uh like socially, and also like the education that comes along with that and education that is had about the trees on private and public public.

So you've been witnessing today.

You see how we interact with neighborhood associations, and so that which Sarah's been heavily involved with that here, and so that's another group that's critical.

And I thought we had pretty good neighborhood association involvement at the task force meeting, so we're good there.

Yeah, yeah.

Also, you're got like the city of Evansville's neighborhood associations, like just as a whole, like being a thing is a huge thing and has made my job a lot easier because uh the other cities that are doing this job don't really have neighborhood associations, so it's awesome that you guys have that.

Yeah, um, I also know I had uh the last uh city that's doing the same master plan is Dearborn County.

So it's the city of Lawrence, the city of Richmond, and Dearborn County, and then the city of Evansville, those are the four that are trying to get their master plans done this summer into December.

So B's from the eastern part of the state as is my upbringing.

So Richmond is um it will be a good benchmark for us.

Richmond's been, they have an arboretum in their city.

They've always in Earl and College is there, they've always been pretty advanced.

Um, and I would put them in in a category with us.

Lawrence will be a little different.

Um, it's practically Cincinnati suburban now, but um Richmond will be a good uh test for us, a little smaller, but um similar culturally, and it's a manufacturing town, like we are, so not to get off subject, but uh be I don't know if you heard this, but uh I think the rest of the board should know this too.

The Amanda Bradshaw Burks uh who's uh Larry Kaplan's replacement at the extension office, unfortunately.

Unfortunately, we'll be leaving her position on I believe on the 10th, so I don't know if she'll be at the the last meeting, which is on the 8th.

Is it Bia?

Yeah, it's it's next Wednesday.

I don't know if she'll be there or not, but uh she's uh uh leaving that position, and there's um I don't know who will be filling that spot or when.

Okay, that's good to know.

Maybe I can have her swing at the meeting just before she leaves because she has good input.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for that update.

That's a lot too uh a lot of a lot of things, a lot of wheels turning.

Yeah, it's great.

You guys should be really proud of your city for all the urban forest work going on.

I know you are already, but just a reminder.

Thank you.

And thank you for helping us improve it.

Thank you, Bia.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I might log off now if that's all right.

That's okay.

Have a great day.

You too.

All right.

You guys do have a safe weekend.

Thanks.

Happy fourth.

So old business, um, or do or we don't do you think we need to wrap anything up together.

We put one and two together.

One and two together, yes.

Yeah, canopy goal initiative and end dot coordination.

So what you know, we're in this debate, and as I said, I'm a past president of the Ray Ep Center, so I'm very sympathetic to the concerns and even the safety concerns raised today.

So we got many of you got the email.

We're getting kind of one side of this issue of the sidewalk trees.

So here are two.

Um other objective, maybe not as objective as probably the Purdue engineering people want it to be, but sort of the other viewpoint on it.

So we air Aaron's already started the process at Zimmer's Seiman of trying to find.