HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 10, 2026 Tree Board Minutes from the
Jeffersonville Tree Board
March 10, 2026
In attendance: Eric Bitner, Jeff Cover, Bob Hill, Kelli Jones, Chloe Motley, Amber Powell, Paul
Reid, Chad Reischl,
Not in attendance: Carol Dunn, Mayoral Appt (vacant), Youth Advisor (vacant)
Also in attendance: Justin Osborne
The meeting of the Jeffersonville Tree Board was called to order by Jeff Cover at 4:02 pm
on March 10, 2026 in the Planning/Building/Parks conference room at the Jeffersonville
City Hall
There were no adjustments to the agenda and no changes to the minutes. These were
approved by consent.
Since we had a guest at the meeting, Jeff asked that Justin Osborne introduce himself.
Justin stated that he is new to town, very interested in trees, and possibly looking to get
involved.
Unfinished business:
Jeff handed out clean copies of the 2026 goals that were agreed upon at the February meeting.
He also noted that as one of our goals is to become a certified Tree City USA that we should all
be tracking all of our volunteer time with the Tree Board as we can count all volunteer hours
toward the minimum yearly tree expenditure required for compliance with TCU standards.
Committee reports:
Executive Committee:
Jeff indicated since two important folks could not be in attendance on April 24th, that we are
planning to move our Arbor Day planting at Northaven Elementary and Connie Selmers
Park to April 17th. The board seemed ok with the change. Amber indicated that she'd get the
necessary procurement from the Mayor; Chad said that he had ordered seven trees for the
event; 3 for the school and 4 for the park.
Education/Programming/Tree Planting Committee:
The Tree Steward class is set for March 30 & 31. At last count 33 people were attending.
Eric is presenting, but we are unaware of anyone else on the board attending. Chad said
that he was unaware of anyone from the City parks department attending although he tried
to encourage attendance on a couple of occaisions. Jeff indicated that he was planning to
make an appearance to let folks know about what the Jeffersonville Tree Board is working
on.
Marketing/communications:
Amber indicated that she has worked on getting the memorial tree program set up. It's her
intent that the donations page on the parks website would direct folks to our website for the
memorial program. Chad indicated that he could get that set up on our end.
Amber also mentioned that the bi-annual Progress Magazine is getting ready to go out
(goes out in May) and that maybe we wanted to put something in there. Chad stated that he
did write about us last fall, but that maybe there could be info about our grant funded
invasive removal project. Bob suggested that he could write something like one of his News
and Tribune posts, but Chad and Amber said that whatever needs to go in there needs to
be short and sweet— maybe one paragraph max., with a picture of course. One of the board
members asked if there were issues regarding photo consent — and if we could use pics of
our tree planting at the library for publication.
Also Amber is looking to create a Google Drive folder for the Tree Board. That way we can
put relevant info into the folder for the purpose of shared use. Amber said she'd look into it.
Funding committee:
Chad indicated that the non-reverting fund is open for donations — Chad can collect money
and add checks to the non-reverting fund. We don't have anything set up on our website yet
but can work on that.
Jeff asked about spring planting dates for the CUF grant the City received last fall. Chad
said that the paperwork has been finalized and that he has ordered trees for a spring
planting date at Allison Brook Park. After some discussion the board thought that we might
be able to do something on Saturday April 11. More details to come.
Chad and Carol continue to discuss a possible Duke Energy Grant. Some conversation has
been had about adding to the scope of the Chapel Lake planting in the fall, but no definite
plans as of yet.
New Business:
Chad wanted to let folks know that the Arbor Day Community Engagement Conference is
November 18-19 in St. Louis — definitely driveable, so it might be a good opportunity for
someone to attend. He's been to one of these conferences before and found it to be a great
learning experience.
Informal discussion/public comment
There was no additional discussion or public comment. Jeff thanked Justin for attending and
we hope to see him again.
With that Jeff called to adjourn the meeting. It was adjourned by common consent at
5:01pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Chad Reischl
Secretary,
Jeffersonville Tree Board.