Minutes
City of
SPECIAL MEETING
The Special Meeting of the
City of
Council Members in Attendance: Clara Lou Gould, Lee Kyriacou, Charles Kelly,
Phil Shea and Steve Gold.
Excused: Elizabeth
Foster and Eleanor Thompson.
Also in Attendance: City
Administrator, Joseph Braun
City
Attorney, Gerard Pisanelli
Media represented by: Goldee
Greene, Beacon Free Press
Leigh Gomez,
People in attendance at
beginning of meeting: 15
Date:
Time:
Place:
1
Municipal Center
City
Council, City of
The
purpose of the meeting is to determine whether any changes to the Main Street
Sidewalk contract are required and to vote on any changes, in order to avoid
delays in the contracted work and resulting possible financial penalties.
The project
includes removal and replacement of trees and in response to community request,
the Council at its last meeting authorized the Mayor to appoint an ad hoc
committee to do another review of the trees currently marked for replacement.
The committee will report back to the Council with their recommendations on the
next section of work slated to be done. The Council will then discuss their
views and make their decision at the special meeting on Monday.
Other sections of the project will be reviewed by the
committee in a timely fashion, with reports to the Council so that any action
required can be taken at regular meetings.
Public Comments:
Jerry Landisi 134 N. Walnut
Street: Have we started to incur any
penalties on the Tree Project.
Engineer Art Tully: Work is still continuing and will stop on
Friday.
Jerry Landisi 134 N. Walnut
Street: Is the number of trees to be
removed and planted - How much will each tree cost. What will the penalty be for the trees that
were not pulled?
Engineer Art Tully: I am not sure if there is a penalty for
that. The contract was written for a
certain number of trees.
Perry Pendleton: If you got a letter from the contractor that
he stopped working, isn't the contractor in violation?
Engineer Art Tully: It was not his idea. The contractor was told by the city that he
could stop cutting the trees but he can work on the sidewalk. He said that he couldn’t work on one without
working on the other.
Nicole Ashley: Thank you to the council for being
flexible. Regarding the contract. In the contract Mr. Tully is stated as the
engineer. He holds a lot of power. If we are to stop or change work, is it up to
the engineer and the contractor to negotiate the price?
Engineer Art Tully: If there is a change that is required a
change order must be submitted. The
council approves or disapproves change orders.
I represent the city on this project but the city makes the decisions.
No further comments
Ad Hoc Committee Report: Naomi Sachs,
55 South Brett emailed to me the following information to be added to comments:
Subject: Re: Notes from 9/20
walk-through
From Ad Hoc Committee Member Gary Wood
I would like to add some comments to the notes and
have this placed read at the meeting on Monday if possible. I feel the walk-through also was productive
but feel the meeting slipped away from the original reason the work was to be
performed. The intention was more to create a safe environment for pedestrian
traffic than to dispose of grown trees. Most if not all of the poor sidewalk
conditions were all sited around the existing trees, due to the root growth of
larger specimens. The Norway Maples and the London Planetrees were the most
immediate culprits. The sidewalk lifting
was caused by the tree roots on these trees.
In many areas it was clear the sidewalks have been repaired recently and
have lifted once again.
The removal of the Maples was a unanimous vote while
certain Planetrees were the most argued over.
My feeling is the Planetrees, which we agreed were
infected with Sycamore Anthracnose and powdery mildew (both common in the
species) should all be removed for the following reasons: The Diseases will
slowly degrade the tree and open it to other pathogens as a depleted immune
system will do in humans. (See the trees between Teller and
The
trees are very large and out of scale for the width of the sidewalks. The tree has a root system that wants to be
allowed to grow 2 to 4 times the width of the trees crown. (This is an agreed
upon fact) Most roots are in the top 2 feet of soil. (http://www.forestry.iastate.edu/topics/misc/roots.html) Because
the area around the trees is compacted from traffic and construction
tamping this will cause the roots to mound around its base over its entire
lifespan. Because of this the Planetrees
are top heavy with a root system only supporting two side of the tree. A heavy
windstorm will cause the tree to sway, which stresses the roots and shifts
the concrete over time. Two trees on the
corner of
Many of the Planetrees are growing at angles (leaning
into the road), which again stresses the roots on the one side of the tree with
the crown acting as a lever.
The tree has a large leaf, which causes a higher
wind resistance.
Many of the Buildings on
Several of the trees are close to facades the entire
height of the building, which will impede fire rescue.
In this environment this particular species will
continue to uplift the sidewalks as they have been doing for years.
The City Council is responsible to the taxpayer to
spend their tax dollars wisely and not to repeat throwing money at the same
problem every several years. Once again
the patchwork of concrete around these same trees was obvious on our walk. I'm
sure the highway department has records of past attempts at re-pouring concrete
around the same trees in an attempt to keep a safe pedestrian environment. Mounding the concrete as was suggested by one
resident will solve the problem temporarily but will return in the not to
distant future. I have a strong belief
in keeping the Urban environment flush with appropriate plant material and feel
the operative word in this discussion is appropriate and feel many of the
street trees planted in the past are not suited to their location in this
instance.
I have a Bachelors degree from
Thank you for the opportunity to serve on the
committee.
Gary Wood
The
following is from Naomi Sachs dated Thursday, September 20, 2007 addressed to
Beacon Mayor with CC to City Administrator, Joseph Braun and City Attorney,
Gerard Pisanelli:
Notes
on 9/20/07 Walk-through
These
are my notes from our meeting today. Sorry if I've omitted anything or anyone,
it's late and I just got home from meeting with Megan and Lou.
Present
were:
Engineer
Art Tully, Jaye Vaughn, Norm MacLeod, Zep Thomaselli, Naomi Sacchs, Lou
Sebesta, Megan, Sheremata, Terry Brown, Gary Wood, Pamela Bier, and Clara Lou
Gould.
Overall, what we are trying to do is make decisions
on a two block basis so that the work crews can move forward, carrying out the
contract, but with us having more control over what trees stay and go, how they
are planted, how the sidewalks are treated, etc. We have made a date to meet again next week
on 9/26, 5:00 p.m. to do the next two blocks, east of South Brett. Group met at South Elm and walked the two
blocks, on north and south sides of street, between corner of South Elm and
South Brett streets, looking at condition of existing trees and pavement and
discussing what trees should stay, what should be removed, what the pavement
treatment should be, what new trees should go in as replacements. For the
entire section walked, tree removal was decided as a group; after the meeting,
Megan, Lou, and I stayed on to discuss specifics about pavement treatment and
tree planting. Overall, of the nine
trees that were originally slated to be removed and replaced, only three now
are still slated to be removed and replaced. In two cases this was because the
trees themselves were diseased and/or dangerous, and in the last case because
the tree was causing major sidewalk heaving that could not be remedied without
major cost to the city, now and possibly still in the future. I gave my speech
about mature trees offering higher economic (not to mention environmental)
value to a city, and it was taken into consideration, but in some cases the
tree really was wreaking havoc on the sidewalk and creating a bad situation
(for pedestrians as well as drainage problems).
It was a tough call, and was decided by a vote (a vote was held any time
there was not a unanimous agreement - sometimes the "keep the tree"
people won and sometimes the "take out the tree" people won). Megan Sheramata is now working on getting
specifications, details, and other important information to Engineer Art Tully,
by tomorrow if possible, so that he can get going on the change order and on
telling the work crews how to move forward. These will include:
1. Planting specifications that define such
important factors as planting depth, soil medium, time of planting, stock
selection, stock handling, etc.
2. Paving specifications and details
3. Tree species recommendations for new trees
(several areas where there are no trees now) and replacement trees
The group decided that instead of spending money for
costly and problematic tree grates, the City should instead continue the brick
paving that it has been doing on the west end of town: the sidewalk area next
to the buildings will be concrete, and the strip between the street and the
"walking" sidewalk area, which is where the trees are planted, will
be a running bond brick pattern laid on sand which is permeable and is better
for the trees and for the environment and still safe for pedestrians. This will give a nice sense of visual and
physical continuity to our streetscape. The City will issue a change order for
this, based on Megan's submitted specifications.
We also discussed the need
for pruning all of the trees that will remain, and Lou, Megan, and I are going
to submit a list of arborists for the City to get bids from for pruning all
along
Furthermore, Lou recommended
that for "fine pruning," especially, like limbing up newly planted
trees if their branches are too low, instead of relying on the guys planting
the trees to do that pruning, it would be a very good idea to have Lou train a
citizen's group to do this pruning - he has done so in the past with other
towns and municipalities and it has worked very well. This way, also, you are
empowering community members and fostering a sense of stewardship for the
streetscape. Along those same lines, we talked about the need for a good
maintenance plan for the existing and new trees - Terry mentioned that someone
goes along with a truck and waters all of the hanging baskets along Main Street
- why couldn't they water the trees at the same time? Well-maintained trees =
healthy trees = less money spent by us taxpayers and everyone is happy!
Megan has the list of
specific trees (what's staying, what's going, what is replacing, etc.), so
maybe when she sends her recommendations on to Engineer Art Tully, she can cc
the group?
Thanks to everyone who was
out there today. We had differences of opinion and it wasn't always easy, but I
think we worked well together as a group, respected what each other had to say,
and worked together to find the best solutions for our beautiful city, keeping
it true to its Tree City USA designation!
Best regards, Naomi
The following was sent by Mayor Clara Lou Gould to all council members,
Engineer Art Tully,
As you know, the Council passed the resolution for
the Ad hoc committee with specific categories to be represented, and with
respect to the community representatives I have tried to fill those to include
different areas of
Because of the size of the group I've notified the
police that you will be out there. And the weather is supposed to be good.
Thank you again for your help. You are aware that the resolution
specifies that your report has to be in the office here on Friday in time to go
out to the Council and thanks for meeting that challenge. Clara Lou Gould
Engineer Art Tully: It was not a construction process. He would have to come back at a later date to
do the trees. He shut down the job and
is waiting to hear from us. I recommend
that we continue to pursue the changes and submit a change order. Second, talk with the contractor to see if he
could shut down the job for the winter until we have time to evaluate what has
been discussed and begin again in the spring.
Council Member Kelly: In terms of the original plan, the next step would be another two blocks.
Engineer Art Tully: yes.
Council Member Kelly: How many blocks do we have after that?
Engineer Art Tully: I think two more. We would like to have the whole thing decided. It will take time to do the specifications for a change order.
Mayor: The committee will have to continue to get their evaluation.
Engineer Art Tully: We will have to evaluate every tree as we go along.
Council Member Kelly: Originally we had 51 trees. Are you 50% done as far as the trees go? I would not want to see the city pay a penalty. I hope you can work something out.
Mayor Gould: We should know how early in the spring.
Council Member Kyriacou: Have we discussed the option of not telling
them what to do? Did they respond that
they did not want to do two-week sections?
Engineer Art Tully: I did not discuss this with them.
Council Member Kyriacou: If
we can get work done now in terms of a penalty it would be quite small.
Deborah Bigelow,
Mayor Gould: Will it be possible to take down the tree
without taking out the roots?
Deborah Bigelow: The roots are the problem.
Council Member Kyriacou: The problem is not removing the number of
trees that were originally targeted. I
would like if possible to do the work that this committee has done. I would like us to that to make things
happen.
Council Member Shea: I don't know why we cannot do the sidewalks
and cut the trees that we already agreed on.
Engineer Art Tully: We have to do something to leave that area
safe. I am trying to condense this down
and talk to the contractor and get a price.
Naomi: In terms of what art was saying. Two good reasons for waiting for the
spring: The trees do better when planted
in the spring. The second reason to wait
is just have more time to really look at the whole plan instead of looking at
two block sections. We want to do the
research and to do it right. There may
be costs and penalties but we have to do it right so we will not have to do the
trees in fives years again because we didn't do it right the first time.
Betty
Hankins,
Council
Member Gold: I appreciate that Engineer
Art Tully is being very flexible I also request that when Art has the meeting
to let us know and we will have a council representative there as an observer
Mayor
Gould: We hire Art Tully for this
reason.
Council
Member Gold: I don't mean to imply that
he does not do his job.
Council
Member Kyriacou: There is
oversight. To observe is a legitimate
request. I, myself, don’t have the time
to do it. I still feel that we should
get as much work as possible done now to avoid penalties. If Art tells us to wait until the spring, I
will say fine.
City
Attorney Pisanelli: I would suggest that
we find out on Monday. Maybe I can stop
again\
Mayor: This contractor has done excellent work here
in beacon. People call and say how kind
and considerate they were.
Council
Member Gold: Art said that he still has
to work through the specifications. We
want to incur as little as possible cost but we do not want to make mistakes.
Mayor
Gould: Art will present the case as best
he can. The committee will meet again
next Wednesday.
Engineer
Art Tully: If something comes up, you
might want to ask the contractor that directly.
Motion
to Adjourn Special Meeting at 7:55 p.m.:
Council Member Kyriacou.
Seconded: Council Member
Kelly. All voted in favor.
Submitted
by Lucy M. Cullinan – September 30, 2007