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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAugust 12, 2025 Tree Board Minutes from the Jeffersonville Tree Board August 12, 2025 In attendance: Eric Bitner, Jeff Cover, Carol Dunn, Bob Hill, Kelli Jones, Chloe Motley Paul Reid, Chad Reischl, Derrick Wiest Not in attendance: Amber Powell; Youth Advisor (vacant) The meeting of the Jeffersonville Tree Board was called to order by Jeff Cover at 4:02 pm on August 12, 2025 in the Planning/Building/Parks conference room at the Jeffersonville City Hall The agenda was approved by assent. Minutes from June 10th and July 8th were also approved as written by general assent. The first item on the agenda was a proposal to revise a portion of the bylaws regarding terms of service. After much discussion, a motion was made by Carol Dunn to amend the By-laws to only require two year terms for non-appointed members instead of three, to appoint said members in years opposite the official appointees, and to not include any type of term limits. The motion was seconded by Kelli Jones, and passed unanimously. It was also agreed that in order to stagger these appointments, we will allow the current members to serve out a three-year term — especially since this first year has mostly just been formational. The second item on the docket was a discussion on finalizing a mission statement for the organization. The final mission statement: The Jeffersonville Tree Board is a public board of the City, rooted in the local community. We: • Advocate with the city for trees in parks, schoolyards and community spaces • Educate the public about native species, tree selection, placement, planting and care on private property • Mobilize the community to assist with tree planting • Collaborate with civic organizations, schools, churches and local volunteers in our community • Inspire adding beauty, value and a healthy environment for the whole community Was motioned for approval by Carol Dunn with a second by Kelli Jones. The mission statement was passed unanimously. Following adoption, Jeff asked the Education/Programming/Tree Planting committee to given an update on their work. Carol gave an update on the planned outreach at Steamboat Nights on Oct 3&4. Bob indicated that he is working with the News and Tribune on his column, which will be initially focused on peoples "favorite trees" in Jeffersonville. Carol informed us that the committee has continued to talk about a memorial tree program. Eric said that he is working on one for Floyd County and that we could probably follow their lead. Derrick indicated that the City does plant memorial trees, but that there is no formalized process for doing so. Carol also spoke about how we might bring the DNR's tree steward program to Jeffersonville. She stated that the DNR is very interested in bringing the program to the area as New Albany and Clarksville have also expressed interest in hosting the program. There is probably a great opportunity for partnership here. Following this committee report, Jeff turned it over to the Marketing/communications team. The Marketing team had not officially met, so there was not a full report. Eric brought up the fact that August is the Arbor Day Foundation's "Tree Check Month" where they encourage people to check their trees for pests and disease. This might be something we want to promote in the future. Chad mentioned that the website www.cityofieff.net/treeboard/ has been created. We can start populating it with information. He also mentioned that he created an email for the group, Jeffersonvilletreeboard(a�gmail.com/ if we want to use that for communications. While on the subject, he also mentioned that his non-profit, Trees for Southern Indiana would be at the Jeffersonville Farmers Market on a yet to be determined date - likely September 27th - if the Tree Board wanted to provide information at that event there may be space for that. Folks felt that this could be an option, but more discussion was needed. The last bit of Marketing/communications discussion was regarding a logo. Kelli shared the updated logo that Amber's contact had created. There was discussion about the logo including removal of the word "official" from the logo. A motion was made by Carol to adopt the logo with the removal of the word "Official". This was seconded by Chad and the motion carried unanimously. The final committee to report was the Funding committee. Chad indicated that he, Carol, and Jeff had a conversation with Jacob Roos from the Indiana DNR. They indicated that tree boards around the state generally have a city funding stream and are not 501c3 organizations. They encouraged us to work with the City to set up a fund to support the board. The conversation also focused on the Tree City application. The big takeaway was that we're already meeting a number of the goals, and we probably just need to focus on the per-capita investment in trees —where we're short. Jacob indicated that we need to reapply each year and that its best to designate someone to spearhead the application. Moving to new business, Chad presented a small planting project at the Jeffersonville Township Public Library. He has been asked to remove and replace 5 dead or dying trees. He is going to take care of removal from his budget, and is willing to provide 5 new trees. He wanted to know if the Tree Board would like to assist with the planting. While a planting date is still TBD, the board agreed that we'd make this a project. Jeff asked if there was any other new business, but seeing none, called to adjourn the meeting. It was adjourned by common consent at 5:21 pm. Respectfully Submitted, Chad Reischl Secretary, Jeffersonville Tree Board.