HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 13, 2025 Tree Board Minutes from the
Jeffersonville Tree Board
May 13, 2025
In attendance:
Jeff Cover, Carol Dunn, Bob Hill, Kelli Jones, Amber Powell, Paul Reid, Chad Reischl,
Derrick Wiest
Not in attendance: Eric Bitner, Jenny Felix, Heaven Williams
The meeting of the Jeffersonville Tree Board was called to order by Jeff Cover at 4pm
on May 13, 2025 in the Planning/Building/Parks conference room at the Jeffersonville
City Hall
The agenda was approved by assent, and the minutes of the meeting from April 8 were
approved by unanimously.
We then moved to unfinished business:
• Jeff informed us that he has been working to round out the tree board. He has
identified Chloe Motley as a potential new member. Chloe is African American
and would add a bit of needed diversity to the Board.
• Amber related information about the Mayor's Arbor Day proclamation. This is a
good first step towards Tree City USA status.
• Chad and Amber both shared info about the City's Earth Day Event at the NOCO
depot. Turnout was good. Chad's non-profit Trees for Southern Indiana gave out
107 saplings.
• Jeff stated that their Arbor Day tree planting at Riverside Elementary went well.
They had over 80 2nd graders observe/help with the planting.
• Also in association with Arbor Day, Chad planted 12 new trees at the future Silos
Park. Two were planted with a local Girl Scout troop, the others with City Staff
and Jeff Cover.
• Someone asked if any progress was made on a logo. It was decided that we
might need to wait until the fall to proceed with this —when school is back in
session.
We then proceeded to new business. Which primarily involved a discussion of various
committees for the board. Discussion lead to the following three committees being
recommended:
1 . Marketing/Communication: working with neighborhood associations, social
media, ads, public outreach, etc.. Interested persons included Paul Reid, Kelly
Jones, Amber Powell. Also the youth rep should be on this committee.
2. Finance/Funding: grant writing, liason to City Council, setting spending priorities,
investigating 501 c3 status or partnering with another organization for funding,
etc. Intersted persons included Chad Reischl and Jeff Cover.
3. Education/Programming/Activities: planning and carrying out local events,
educating the community about trees, etc. Those interested included Paul Reid,
Carol Dunn, and Bob Hill.
Some discussion was also given to a fourth committee: Strategic Planning. This might
be done by the board as a whole, or in part by a committee. Those interested in this
included Bob Hill, Carol Dunn, Kelli Jones, Derrick Wiest, and Jeff Cover.
We will need to determine where to plug in other members of the board not present or
coming on board in the future.
The final item on the agenda was an invite to a presentation by Eocene Environmental
regarding the City's Forestry Report and Work Plan on May 28 at 4pm in the planning
conference room.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:04 pm.
Respe ully Submitted,
had Rei hl
Secretary,
Jeffersonville Tree Board.