all right
you can just get going whenever you want
okay can you
bring the agenda back up mayor please
i can't once it yeah okay
okay here ha ha
so um so we're meeting i guess at 8 30
a.m i think we've
we've already missed our meeting so but
we will work that out and uh what
okay let us let us move forward with the
uh calling the let's see
are we ready there okay let's call the
january 20th meeting of the bexley tree
and public gardens commission to order
and call the roll okay larry hellman
you have to unmute yourself larry
i did quickly it was quick uh here and
then a mute
okay all right sheila straub here
okay uh dave wakeman here
okay susan quintenz here celeste
williams
here linda's upnick
no and uh jim wilson is uh
taking some kind of disposition
deposition
maybe a disposition too molly o'donnell
here okay barb killer
barb you have to unmute yourself please
all right there you go okay we can hear
you now okay is
is ellen bowden on
no we don't have her okay so we have a
quorum
and also in attendance our um
grand archer and elena andrews and mayor
kessler
uh jordan will not be with us today so
the mayor
is helping us with the agenda elena are
you taking
are you the one taking minutes
sorry i can yes okay
well that that i didn't i didn't know
how the
jobs had been divvied up but um
you can always go back to the recording
right jordan can take minutes off of the
recording if elena you just want to jot
notes on who made motions and such if
that's okay
and then if there are any that'll be
helpful to her okay
all right elena how's your dog let's get
important things over first
he he is wonderful he's actually sitting
over there on the ground
because my daughter has to work and so
if i
all of a sudden dart out of the screen
that's because he's peeing
he's actually he's he's great i i love
him a lot it's it's been
it's been a lot of fun and an
interesting experience having a dog it's
my first one
good good good okay let's move on to
approval of minutes of december 16
2020. um because of my schedule in
jordan's schedule i we didn't get those
until yesterday i reviewed them and
elena
if you could just look um the
uh the let's see the people who
responded to
a request for proposal for livingston
um was nbbj i think the initials they
were wrong
that's the only mistake that i saw
and with that correction i'll take a
motion to approve the minutes as
corrected
okay motion made and seconded that we
approved the minutes of december 16
2020 is mailed as emailed with the
correction to
the name of nbj all those in favor say
aye
aye all those opposed same sign motion
carries
okay additions to the agenda i made an
error and forgot to
include the cassidy and fifth avenue
plan that the mayor has
scanned in and so we'll be reviewing
that
um the other thing is that the mayor
has a timeline
under by which he needs to participate
and then go on to his next meeting so he
will be leaving at 5 15
so we're going to rework the agenda to
talk about a couple of the most
important things
one is um the fifth and cassidy
uh plan and then the other is the
mayor's report
so um with that in mind mayor why don't
we go down to your report and we'll come
back for our announcement small
victories
at a later time okay yeah we can do that
thank you so much i appreciate it
so first off several things to to talk
about and susan you'll note that i added
some things since uh
we discussed as i was sitting here
rearranging the agenda things kept on
popping into my mind so
stream of consciousness occurred um but
the one that i think i wanted to really
uh talk to focus on with the commission
is
elena and grant and i have been
have been kind of noodling on a a on a
concept
or an idea that actually i don't think
it's i don't think it's a super new idea
it's an old idea that keeps on rearing
its head and was most recently sparked
when we noticed the dead
uh former sort of
sometimes christmas tree on capitol's
main lawn um
and and we've we've been thinking for
many years how do we
uh plan for the eventual demise of the
uh the tree at the northeast corner of
drexel
and broad where the current community
christmas tree is occupying
space which is in the future going to be
a uh
you know reserved for open area as part
of the
whatever the word is the classic uh
circle what do we call that susan or
larry or whoever the classic
you know drexel circle the it's like
french or something what's the
nothing nobody help me out here i'm
floundering okay i don't know
ask for another
there we go that sounds very french and
appropriate thank you larry
so uh the the tree here still has green
on it here at capitol
in this street view photo which appears
from
june of this is june of 0.9 sorry 19
october of 19. um but if you were to go
out there today you would note that the
green is no longer
present it has totally given up the
ghost
and this tree which was last not this
past season but the season prior was lit
up
by capital as a kind of a community tree
i
no longer was able to support any lights
i might be pointing to the wrong tree
i think this is the tree i need to point
to am i right
yeah you're right that's it okay so that
tree that tree i mean this one doesn't
look that great either but
it doesn't look very good this one's
gone it's gone
so we talked about like over the years
the idea of
a a plaza of some sort right off the
sidewalk that could have a tree
um that could be a focal point for just
informal casual gatherings all year
round but would also have some
purpose during the season um and so
we've just been kind of noodling on some
ideas and we're
we're we're at what at some concepts
which might seem
more refined than they are wait so my
seem more refined than what i'm saying
they are and the reason for that is
before going too far down this path and
ex
spending a lot of political capital on
the concept and spending your time on it
and others time on it
we wanted to see if capital had any
interest whatsoever in a partnership on
the
on the idea so we presented capital with
the concept
of a plaza of some sort there and got
the go-ahead
from them to explore it so
having caveated this to death
and elena i can scroll around as you
wish or if you want to take control of
the screen whatever you want but
um we have a couple different ideas that
we've looked at
and i think we want to talk about the
concept in general
and then i think we want to talk about
how we can work in the future on
um coming up with maybe some
a consensus plan around the idea
and whether or not you guys think that
there's any merit and further pursuing
the concept
so elena do you want to sure
take the narrative over and i'll just
scroll as you wish
happy too happy to so what we're what
we're going to look at
are basically kind of three different
options and
both in terms of configuration as well
as location
and um the the thought of having
something
obviously along the south side of main
street
that would be in some way visible
from kind of the main street corridor
where um all of the shops are in
giuseppe's and the market district and
all of that
but really we're have something that
talks about that interface between the
town and gown we've come up with 8 000
different names you can see we're
calling it the fire pit we're calling it
town and gown we're i mean
so bear with us as we're still trying to
kind of deal with how
um we want to discuss it but the
components
that we would like to have is one is a a
gathering space
that allows people to kind of sit at all
spaces throughout all times throughout
the year
that would also have an opportunity that
would have a focal point of
a tree that could be lit up as a holiday
tree
and then also this idea of um a fire pit
susan had come back at one point from um
aspen i think it was susan and
said that there are these beautiful fire
pits that are just kind of these
community fire pits that people just
walk by
and um and and can use and we thought
wow that would be actually something
that would be really exciting too seeing
that you know
ohio weather is so great for so many
months of the year
so in this particular one when we're
looking at it there's obviously there's
a row of
um the london planes that are along the
sidewalk
within there and so we were playing with
different types of um trees that would
work what is the spacing what is the
size that we would actually have
if we would have a fire pit or not how
would that be located
um safety concerns about having
something that is too close to the
sidewalk
that you know would necessarily be a
hazard but we want to actually
also have it feel welcoming from both
sides so both from the street side as
well as from
the south side in that green lawn area
now
um one of the things that we would have
to
also it as this is developed is to talk
up to capitol university what is the
master plan for that area
those of you who um you know are the
longer time bexley residents remember
that there used to be a big old building
there
um and so you know that's really kind of
a prime piece of real estate
for um capital university to do any kind
of uh
capital expansion at some point and so
we want to make sure that that doesn't
necessarily interrupt what their plans
are for that
um which we don't think it is but that's
again one of the components that we
would have to to think about
so on this particular one you will see
that it is located off of
the sidewalk and the there's a patio
that the sidewalk would actually be at
grade
and and then on the south side there
would need to be
probably two or three steps that go up
because there is a slight hill
that comes into there and so we would
want to make sure that this patio was
accessible for people along the sidewalk
and then those who are walking across
the lawn would actually need to
step down into it this also has
a potential added benefit of having a
seat wall so almost think of it as like
a sunken
plaza that people could kind of sit in
and use that as additional
seating around the edge on that
thank you ben so you can see um the
linear fire pit
uh we've gone back and forth of this is
really just this would be something that
um would be a wood-burning fire pit most
likely
and um there would be an area in the
center
a 20-foot diameter um opening in the
center
for the focal point of a tree that would
allow a nice kind of like a norway
spruce to grow over time
and get large enough and then an
eight-foot kind of
circumference around that where people
could kind of sit and gather and look at
that within some ornamental trees
um on the south side helping to frame
that in and that is then nestled
in between two of the sycamores that you
see there
so that's that's the first option that
we kind of looked at
the second option
was something that opened up a little
bit more didn't quite have such
a pinch point off of both
the sidewalk and the lawn side we felt
that it felt a little
tight in that one and we wanted to have
people flow into traffic a little bit
more
the fire pit has become a little bit
longer we actually have some plantings
along the sidewalk
that the fire pit that would help again
give a little bit of a of a buffer there
the tree is still in the center and then
we have larger kind of lawn steps
that then step back up into the campus
that could be both you know used for
people kind of informally sitting and
and working um you know taking notes or
doing
whatever but it's just a slight
reconfiguration
but it's in the same location as the
previous one that you can see it's
pretty much directly across from the
main entry
of the market district and then as well
as the the pocket park
and when we were on site a lot kind of
walking around
and looking at that this felt a little
um
like it was mid-block and so for the
crosswalks
both at college then and at um at drexel
we we were concerned that if there were
people who were
dining or shopping or doing something on
the north side it
either we would be encouraging
jaywalking and people would be running
across the street there
so did we want to push it towards one
end or the other and we thought we would
push it more towards
the drexel side because there's a little
bit more synergy there of
space that's happening the college side
even though that's the entrance to
um you know bexley square still feels a
little
not quite as vibrant as potentially the
intersection of
drexel and um and maine so then we
looked at an option of if we shifted it
down
in that direction and then that's the
third option then if you could bring
that up
so this third option um has
has shifted down so the previous one was
basically where
um ben's cursor was right where the you
see the market district
that should have a t um that's where it
was we moved it basically two bays down
and had it a little closer to where the
capital university entry is where
the flagpole is and this is now
almost more directly across the street
from drexel theater we thought that that
might be a little bit more of an
exciting
um kind of vibrant thing something
happening in the evening or people going
to the movies and coming across and
going to the restaurants that are across
the street there
and a couple of other changes that we've
done
is um we actually pulled the tree out
from the center and
pushed it more towards the lawn side
that is for a couple of reasons
one for the overall health of the tree
and second for ease of actually
decorating it
um in talking with grant and the crews
and getting the cherry pickers that have
to go up and string up all of those
lights
um if we had to have the machine that
actually went over onto those pavements
it might damage the pavement and so this
would actually
be a little bit more feasible to have
that we would it would still be a sunken
plaza we would still have steps that
would step up it to the lawn
there are now a little bit wider seat
walls on either side that you could have
wood storage
underneath there the fire pit that we're
showing here and this particular option
is what if we had a fire pit that had a
wall behind it that was you know maybe
um you know three feet tall and then the
fire pit was raised you know 18 inches
and so we've just been playing you can
see
in the section there with like different
things of how this would actually
look and kind of move forward um
so that's that's pretty much where we
are
um the third version that you see here
this is the one
that ben was shared with capital to sort
of get
um their input to say hey is this
something that um you would be
interested in
and obviously there are a lot of um
other considerations that we would need
to look at but we wanted to share
with you all um and kind of get some
preliminary feedback
on your thoughts we did share this with
um
the bexley community foundation as well
um just to kind of let them know that
this is something that
as we move forward we might be asking
for grant money to help with the
installation of this
so this um this is a discussion item
today we're not voting on this so
all discussion is
[Music]
is wanted and everyone can participate
it's not just commission members and not
enough the alternates the ultimates can
participate as well
so let's just make that clear so
um does anybody have any questions for
the mayor or for elena to start with
and if there aren't any then let's move
on to
discussion or observations well i i'm
excuse me celeste here i'm i'm
uh curious about who maintains that
and is it something that someone
requests
uh resident requests to have it on or is
it something that's
on on winter days or nights rather or
how does that oh are you talking about
the fire pit specifically fire pit
sorry not the water show
no fire pit yes so that's it uh no we
so the programming of the fire pit we've
gone as far as this celeste
um we could stock wood in it
and uh stock adirondack chairs on the
patio
and you know maybe during certain
community events have something there
but in general just
kind of see what happens
um you know nothing nothing too formal
so more of an informal concept and
frankly
if there were no fire you know we we
presented to capital with
did we even have a fire pit on it elena
we did yeah because i wanted them to
understand that that was talked about
and see what the reaction was but it's
certainly not a pivotal
necessarily i think um
the the inspiration in
from many conversations over the past is
a combination of having
uh informal gathering space you know we
know that capitals um
fountains for example capitals fountains
get used by our bexley children all the
time as a meeting spot
and a hangout spot um and so to the
extent that we create these attractive
comfortable meeting areas um
in the in the community uh and this
could you know obviously have a dual
purpose
as having a seasonal tree there
um you know we felt like this was
something that we should
talk about and also one more thing larry
hellman's been trying to get
red ad or rondac chairs on on main
street for about
eight years now and we just need a
better canvas for him
oh you're so kind the uh yeah maybe
uh in my mind
town and gown is probably the right
approach uh but then figuring out uh
how to grow something that creates an
experience there and then maybe to
attract students i don't know
i mean simply put when we look at
campuses you know you have layers you
have a buildings
layer you have a parking and streets
layer you have an open street
open space layer and a pedestrian layer
and
so you know the campus is full of major
past minor paths
cul-de-sacs all that kind of stuff and
so
if we're thinking of attracting students
we'll want to talk to them a bit
and find out because this might not be
on their path
uh it might not be on anybody's path so
that may be the importance behind
growing this thing
uh so there might be a little bit of
research done there and
it you know we've grown an experience
with the main street event
that's been terrific i don't know
whether we think about doing the
adirondacks
buy a 36 inch solo
fire pit stove which is fabulous if you
know what they are
and then try it try a spot and see uh
if we can wrap an event around it and uh
uh
and then if it gets successful and then
figure out what we have to do to make it
more
permanent or solid but there would be
some fear
about just simply building it and they
come so
uh that's kind of my thinking is there
is there a way to
uh first involve some more students or
or get some thinking about that
uh just to join in a process i know we
process ourselves to death
but but to do a little more research and
uh
see if the idea can get some uh get some
traction
others anybody else want to jump in
i agree i agree with larry
the um students tracking
is very important because they built uh
susan do you remember this
then when they built that dorm on
college avenue
we had some challenges with trees and
pathways
uh what they what they established and
looked certainly lovely
was kind of this u-shape angled and all
this sort of thing
except the students didn't walk that way
they walked out the front door cut
across the grass right across the street
and
um so i think actually studying
their their um you know
their tracking or tracking them would be
important
i generally do like the concept it just
brings more people
more energy to um to main street
okay who else i'd like to make a comment
um and um that's a space that i see
seven days a week from my office um
it's enough it's a space that there's
always people gathering there um
it's nice green space i think that this
would be a very nice and
welcoming enhancement for um
bringing a little bit more uh uniformity
to main street
and welcoming i think capital does a
great
job with their groundskeeping um
so i think whatever ends up being
um accomplished will be a nice
improvement
dave wakeman yes i think
can you hear me i can can everybody hear
dave
yeah i don't know so i think it's a good
idea i think larry
made a good point on the path system
maybe you have to have some kind of you
know direct path
for students to use but i i like it i
don't know if i like the placement
and i don't know if we can do another
crosswalk across
um main street or not the other thing
at um when i worked at denison
you know it used to these areas needed
to be a little bit larger and at wake
forest at the business school they have
one that is gas
driven and it's not uh burning wood by
you know and they have it with the
adirondack it's more uh
teak wood chairs around it but it's a
much larger area in a circle
and maybe that would be moved more into
their courtyard and separated from this
but
other than that i think it's a great
idea i just don't know how you do the
firewood thing
molly you maybe had have had more
experience with this type of
installation than anybody
else do you have any uh words of wisdom
yeah you know i don't know about the
wood either i guess i agree with dave if
it could be propane or
gas driven because then it's no mess
i mean you can have a year-round i i
just don't know how much the wood would
be burned
that's my thing and then the other thing
is the best thing about this is i
i miss the tree on main street i think
it looked great on the holidays
but and i know this would be very cost
driven is go to an led tree instead that
could be four seasons versus just
christmas you could do green
reds there's different things you can do
with led as a sculpture now
so but that again is a lot more cost
but i do miss a tree there
um plaza wise yeah i'm fine with that i
don't know how much of students would
come over to sit at maine or not
i think this is more focal point for
main street in the business district
so that that's my gut feeling
i think no holly did you have more you
want to add
no no i just think if we could make a
little more four seasons
that would be nice you can get maybe
more use out of there's not a lot of
foot traffic
for bexley residents i don't think on
that side of the street unless they're
parking there
but it still might bring people over
are there others yeah i i think that
the fire pit concept is a great idea i
agree with larry i
i think it would be first of all if you
used
a solo fire pit some of which are big
you could then remove it in the uh
you know in the spring it wouldn't be
there all winter or all summer
um i i don't know i just i think
monitoring something with
fire is you know you got to really
control that
what are you going to do to say anybody
can come light the fire if it's a 12
year old
child or you know um i just think we're
opening ourselves up to a lot of to
answer a lot of questions
from the community about the idea of
this
you know of the patio is that's fine and
the tree too
particularly particularly the tree i
like the tree at the end
instead of in the middle too i i think
um one of the things
you know i'm old school and to some
degree
program drives design and we don't
exactly have a program here we we're
having a design and then figuring out
what we can do to program it
um and so i think we could we ought to
put a little time
into thinking what kind of things could
gather people around the fire
at what times of year uh would it be a
poetry reading would it be
uh would it be storytelling uh you know
think of the campfires that you've been
around
uh to where they're at a resort setting
or something where
um there's a program wrapped around the
campfire and
it's great fun uh and since we don't
have those
we'd since we don't have main events
during the
um during the winter maybe there's a way
to create
many main events that would bring people
out and maybe bring students out too i
don't know so
i think there's some fun here and we
should probably explore this
one of the areas on main street that we
looked at a long time ago for a tiny
pocket park was that area between the
synagogue and the library
and there was one talk you know sometime
about a reading garden
and that the library could program that
i mean i could see
a library programming you know
readings here as you might say larry
scary stories during
halloween thanksgiving story something
like that it could be
yeah and the the other thing that's been
talked about over the
the eons uh was reorienting the library
entrance
which doesn't really make any sense for
capital but since the schumacher gallery
is on the top floor
of the library building is to create a
sculpture yard of some kind
uh that would then marry you know that
building is set back it has no
pedestrian pedestrian connection to
maine
and it's kind of out there by themselves
so there have been these attempts to at
least think about things that animate
the street
that bring the street and the and the
and the city closer together
so you know again we should have some
fun with this and and and
explore it and involve some students as
well
larry are you suggesting that this the
placement for this might be better in
front of the schumacher
in front of the library in the gallery
moving it more east
i i i you know i if i were to i wouldn't
be locating this right now i would
suggest that it
it there there's just a little more
reason there's not a little more there's
research that needs to be done here to
make sure um
we are we are if we're not on the path
then
uh how are we connected to the path and
what difference does that make
at capital i think in terms of their
last master plan they've had a bunch
showed a replacement building at college
in maine
which would then further frame the
center area
as as open space so i don't know where
that stands uh
there was some talk that'd be a science
building which would be tough because of
loading dock requirements but
that's neither here nor there but i just
think uh maybe at the broader level
it's looking at that section of main
street carefully
from college to uh you know to the to
pleasant ridge uh on the on their side
and thinking about the north side at the
same time
and how can we make sense out of that
what does it really look like in terms
of
creating some animation and some
activity programmatically as well as
physically
so last were you speaking
sorry i was wondering what our liability
our liability is in case somebody
and he can't start experimenting with
the fire
that's what concerns me
it would require somebody to manage it i
i don't think you could just have any
old person
putting a fire there i wouldn't do that
but if it's wrapped around a specific
event that occurs
you know on a weekly basis or two weeks
i don't know
uh you know then it might make some
sense so
i was um for reasons i i don't know i
have kind of a visceral negative
reaction to the
term town and gown because maybe you're
neither
or maybe you don't know what you are and
it
it feels just um i don't know maybe more
generic so
i was thinking maybe this could be
called the 1908 plaza because
that's the year that we're incorporated
and
or the founders plaza because at least
in the information i've read i think
bexley was founded on
on pleasant ridge so it feels like
you're
almost done you know the halo geographic
ground of
of the incorporation and then
i can't tell i think the blue stone
pavers may not be conducive to this but
i was wondering if
if you had bricks anywhere ele enough if
you put
um major historical moments in bexley's
life on the brick and they were embedded
so it becomes i don't know a history
course
you know my my tendency is too much is
never enough so
i i always err on the side of overload
but
a couple random thoughts who else has
some random thoughts
or may or have we given you enough
random thoughts
um a goodly amount of random thoughts
uh it's been it's been helpful i think
just a couple
quick quick uh some reactions based on
some of the conversations we've had to
date and
for what it's worth yeah we talked about
propane and gas
uh similar issues like if you if one of
the the great thing about propriating
gas is it could be year round it's a lot
easier to turn on and turn off
the bad thing about propane and gas is
it could easily be turned on and off and
left on
and uh you know that absolutely 100
would have to be supervised
um in terms of program again i think
it came this is purely the concept of
casual found space
in programming i do know having
experienced the main event and run it
for several years now that the noise
level right there on main street is not
conducive to the sort of programming
that we're talking about
if we wanted to program a fire pit we'd
probably want to put it at jeffrey
mansion
um or jeffrey you know somewhere
somewhere in a park where you don't have
the same road noise issue
uh i think that you know the inspiration
that susan brought to this with the
aspen fire streetscape
fireplace fire pits is that it's a it's
a
it's not like a long meandering
experience there probably maybe you
shouldn't you have a conversation around
it but it's
it's something you stand around for a
bit as you walk along or maybe you sit
by
and you're right there's so many
questions to be answered about who's
overseeing it
what's the liability uh but good news is
we're not the first community that's
thought about this before
and i also feel that we often
limit ourselves too much by thinking of
all the terrible things that might
happen as opposed to also thinking about
some of the positives
while uh while thinking through these
somebody mentioned the size of it you
know this is a 40 foot width
which that's a pretty sizable space
so it does have some potential to have
you know slightly larger gatherings in
the future when we can
accommodate it but again that's a this
is uh these are dimensions
when you go out and walk the site you
start to really get a feel for
what interacts well with both sides of
main street and this was a big piece of
it what interacts well with both sides
of main street
this is designed to face the drexel you
could easily see a college student
grabbing a starbucks and sitting down
setting or chatting in this small park
just as they use again
the the plaza over by yocum hall
you can imagine bexley kids using their
families
dave brought up a mid-block crossing
that's something that we were thinking
about as well
if if a mid block crossing would work
it's probably right around here
uh right before you get into that turn
lane right across from the drexel
and there might even be some further
alignment around that so these are
these are sketches and um you know it
sounds like there's some
curiosity around this idea so my my
my thought would be that we engage some
capital students and talking through it
and then maybe have a
a small working group of some tree
commission members and we come back in a
a couple months with some refinements so
just just to be clear
elena um do all of the diagrams that
you've
shown um keep all the trees
all the sycamores or do does one option
take one of the sycamores down i can't
quite remember
yes i i was going to jump in and say
that and be like hey there's there's one
more thing
but wait there's more um so
the the previous options we were looking
at trying to nestle
them in in between the existing trees um
in this particular one it is basically
dead on center with an existing tree
that would need to be removed
um when we were in and which i know is
you know kind of like oh you know oh my
goodness
the the tree canopies there are are
pretty large
um one of the reasons why we thought
if we removed one and you can see that
we were trying to keep it
digging down into this plaza we are
gonna damage tree roots
and um and so the two trees on either
side they're gonna have some stress
with the installation of um this
particular tree
but not as much as if we had tried to
like shoehorn it in
in between the trunks of the spaces and
so we're trying to play a balancing act
of what is the right
dimension for it to be more of a civic
space rather than just kind of like a
fire pit you would have in your backyard
and then also what makes sense to
actually have it be able to be
viewed and in this particular option
that that
sycamore tree would need to come down
and so i know that that's something that
might give a lot of people a little bit
of a wait a minute moment and a pause
but it is something that we would want
to consider um
is how sacred are all of these trees
um because if if the
keeping all the trees and maintaining
the health of every single tree
then basically where you see the the
curve of where that norway spruce would
be
that would need to be the start of the
plaza and then go more into the lawn
but then that starts to impede what the
potential future building imprint would
need to go and so there
are a lot of different layers that we
need to kind of overlook on this
um as we you know now it sounds like
people are interested in us
like really furthering to look at this
concept and flushing some of those ideas
out a little bit more but
um in this option we are looking at the
possibility of removing that tree
how about option a and b that you showed
first and second
uh option a and b no those were in
between existing trees
okay you want to go back and look at
those a minute
mayor can you are you able to do that
yep okay thank you
so this is b it's a it's a narrower and
there's really
no hangout space of course we could
always accommodate
those concepts in this there would be
lots of a tree here
and then uh one thing we found was when
you're here you're actually looking
across the giant eagle entrance
uh it felt a little bit like more of a
no man's land there didn't it didn't
relate to the other side of the street
the same way
and on capitol's master plan which we
alluded to
they call for a potential future
building here but they they do call for
this area of the park to remain open and
so
um putting it here puts a little bit of
risk for future development
and that's this is the same location
here again
this is a narrower design there's just
less there's less width to work
with any any other comments
um richard yes okay
welcome hi uh thank you i'm intrigued by
it
um i was wondering my wife and i as we
walk around we were talking about
the dead space in front of the
schumacher gallery
and the science building that that
an active something in that space would
draw people
from the drexel would be a little more
across from
um that there needs to be something to
draw
people down to walk towards the other
hub
of main street activity
yeah good job mayor bring it bring us
down there
so a couple things to know when larry
might remember
or somebody better when when capital was
opening up that front door
on on the library they couldn't have a
walkway in here
because there's an infrastructure in
this area and i can't remember what it
is exactly
but there was some concern about
development of hardscape in this
in this area and i can't remember what
it was so that's just saying that
but i didn't want to respond we thought
about this but again with the idea of it
being a
community christmas tree as one of the
focal points
the idea of being if we started to think
about where is the
you know drexel and maine be the center
which is this is near and being near the
theater just felt like
and near the one that had already died
felt like just a very natural and lining
up with mise hall
felt like a natural alignment when you
go out in the street
um but having said that the coldwell
banker king thompson office is pretty
darn exciting as well so sheila don't
take offense at me saying that
so um if if elena and the mayor have had
enough input i'd
suggest that um we move on
and um that that next at next month's
meeting that we leave five or ten
minutes for maybe um
uh second reactions uh 30-day reaction
to uh to this and then
um they can take those comments under
advisement does that
sound like a good closure for this
topic mayor yes thank you and i know we
have a tight agenda so
we are happy to move on okay um so
uh just kind of rapid fire here we have
our new website is now up and running
um you know we're still continuing to
patch some holes and
fix things as we find them but i think
you guys will find it to be
you know visually very pleasing
informative
and the major feature is that if you're
on a cell phone it scales
to a more cell phone friendly
layout pretty quickly um
also i think uh we have
on the agenda it says i'm supposed to
talk about the arboretum tab
and i should have probably
looked up uh we talk about the arboretum
but we point people to the arboretum
website
as opposed to having additional uh
you know detailed information on the
arboretum so
uh we could certainly build out the
arboretum tab
i do or create one in the first place i
think that the um
one of the keys here is that we want it
to again not be
not be in a situation we're trying to
maintain two separate websites but that
they
be complementary to each other well
mayor there's yeah there's more
on the arboretum there's the information
on the different trees
and um
some of the special gardens on the
actual arboretum website
there i mean there's there's yeah living
with yes there you go
so this is the same arboretum website
it's a separate website all together
oh it is so then yeah the new bexley.org
is pointing people to the bexley
arboretum website
uh but the bexley arboretum website
remains uh how it
how it was when we last touched it uh
you know whenever it was last updated
okay but we it might be
actually i think i'd like to add under
about something about the bexley
arboretum so that people specifically
have
a paragraph intro blurb maybe a
beautiful photo and then it points them
to the website
so we do we need to get some more
details okay
well when i looked at that i also
thought that we could put our tree walks
on there and you know tons of other
stuff so
um maybe we need to have a little small
group that could
meet virtually and talk about what we
already have in place that could just be
added
uh sure absolutely okay yep
um and then uh
so this is kind of an awkward way to do
this but
this is a 60 megabyte document so if you
would like to view it i
included a link to it right here you
would have to cut and paste that into a
browser window
on your system and again this agenda is
uh on our website
but um i wasn't suggesting in fact i'm
going to put that link in the chat that
makes so much more sense
why hadn't i thought of that so
uh
i'm going to do that while i talk talk
about the fact that we have awarded the
joint vaccine berwick livingston avenue
plan
update to nbbj um
had a joint meeting with columbus at the
end of last week
this their proposal ticked all the boxes
for everything that we were talking
about
in terms of their past performance who
is going to be their project team
what what is involved in the project and
so
feel free to take a look through that we
were working on details
of how to include as many different
groups
in the steering committee as possible
and as is wise
i wanted to get some feedback from
anybody who
who wanted to provide feedback into that
um plan on talking to council about it
next week
uh so far we have a list with columbus
of
um you know representatives from the
bexley side being
you know arb representatives uh bzap
tree commission um
capital university chamber commerce lexi
community improvement corporation the
south bexley neighborhood association
there's a group of livingston avenue
residents that has formed having them
involved and then
on the columbus end the berwick civic
association driving park east moore
jewish columbus jewish community center
the mideast area commission and the
temple beth jacob
um and
uh any any feedback on that would be
appreciated
so mayor are you asking uh people to
volunteer
if um to put their bring their name
forward if they would like to be
considered for this
study group or task force i would
normally ask that but i'm
waiting on columbus to make sure that
everybody's happy with the
composition of a steering committee and
who they'd like to have be involved
um so we'll probably have some
information back
and some consensus in the next couple
weeks we're hoping to march this
launch the steering committee in march
uh and uh
and get moving on that so it's a uh i
think it's pretty exciting
development on a project with columbus
that we've been working on for several
years
to see it happen is the timeline for
that a year
or is it kind of open-ended at this
point
no i think it's actually in the rfb i
think it's a
six or nine month timeline oh gosh this
is a very long rfp these nbbj people are
very wordy
uh and full of hot air as we'd like to
say
that one's for you larry um i
12 12 months there you go 12 months page
63
if you would like to take a look at it
okay
and i did post the link in the chat we
can revisit that in february
um if you've heard back from columbus
and see
if people would like to volunteer to at
least be considered
absolutely okay another couple quick
updates uh
council is considering uh an rfp for
renewable energy aggregation what that
means is
similar to what columbus is uh launching
june 1st we would be
launching ours june 1st as well
negotiating a competitive electrical
rate
for local ohio sourced
new renewable energy so that's that's
still
being talked about at council there's a
third reading coming up on tuesday
and the next step for that would be to
issue an rfp which means we go to the
market and try to get pricing
and see if it matches it is competitive
indeed and better than
the face value for aep and and what sort
of
value that could bring to residents so
that's being talked about when did you
beware that
uh the sewer remediation program passed
council last week
sorry richard if i'm taking your updates
i apologize that maybe i'm doing that
and it it will be launched in the coming
months
providing a grant and loan program for
residents
looking to improve their interfaith
their personal interface with our sewer
system
um as a way to help mitigate against
future flooding
um although uh heads up we did have two
25-year floods last year and and
and uh there's only so much you could do
when faced with that volume of water but
nonetheless
this is a step in the right direction
and certainly can be helpful
uh we have a right-of-way ordinance due
to be voted on next tuesday that's the
one with the small cells
we've incorporated i'm not sure if jim
is on the call but we've incorporated
many of the suggestions that jim gave
for restoration of the right-of-way
after doing that we went ahead and
circulated that back out to her
utilities
and councils due to vote on that and we
will have a right-of-way coordinator
uh it's in the budget and it will be
paid for by our
utilities and that coordinator will be
keeping track
of not only uh what's in our
right-of-way but projects that are going
on so that
we'll we'll have a lot more
accountability for the
use of the right of way and that
absolutely 100
impacts tree health and uh one of the
reasons i think we're as interested as
we are
in making sure that we have that
position in place and then this is
probably not going to change your lives
very much but
just so you know we are changing our
system so our agenda will look slightly
different in the future it will be a
little easier for staff to
manage agendas in minutes we will be
replacing our granicus which is the back
end uh software that we use for these
agendas
with a company called civic clerk and
that's gonna start in february
yeah i can't i i for one am very excited
to see that you're changing
hopefully it's an improvement right all
sounds good
questions for the any questions for the
mayor i would say
probably the right-of-way ordinance is
something that
um should should provide some
oversight for that overused part of our
community so i'm very excited about that
any questions for the mayor
about that ordinance or
how it will you know how i am
i have one for the mayor if you don't
mind susan
yeah just to save me time later and to
keep me informed for next week
um that plan
or that um ordinance was submitted to a
regulatory agency
for for review that's one of the reasons
we
it was been held up uh any comments on
the
tree canopy aspect of that as far as
our likelihood that it may or may not be
challenged
no so yeah poco needed heads up
and they received it uh the verizon and
att who are most active
in uh small cell space are both aware of
that
uh actually in place right now are
guidelines for small cell towers
um they have not challenged that they
have not said you can't do that
yet we also have not yet had a chance to
tell them no on anything
so uh having said that the one
small cell tower we currently are
experiencing have experience with
where we are expecting a permit it's
with att
and they've been really really
accommodating uh so they started mansion
yes
yeah so they started at the corner of
columbia and
maryland um in an area which actually
miraculously fell outside of our
tree canopy at maturity um
uh standard um but certainly was not a
great
space for them to be put in a ta a small
cell tower so
they agreed to relocate the plan to the
an existing pole
on parkview so it really wouldn't be
obtrusive um
and you know that seems to be in fact
it's gonna it's
the old pole is gonna be replaced with a
new pole that's similar height but looks
better
um and so you know i think so that's a
win-win but that's a one-off and so
we'll see whenever we get to the point
where we have potentially multiple
applications all at once where that
right-of-way coordinator will come in
very handy by the way
um you know that's when the proof's
gonna be in the pudding but so far to
answer your question richard no we have
not been told we're not allowed to do
what we're doing
thank you that's good news the questions
for the mayor
if if not let's go on to um
again for those of you who may not have
been here at
the sound of the first gavel the mayor
needs to leave at 5 15 and i wanted his
uh input on this uh cassidy and fifth
plan that
columbus is bringing forward and only he
knows how to put it on
the computer anyway i was actually going
to say
eleanor are you able to do just to
prepare for that eleanor or grant are
you able to do the screen share where
you bring it up
either one of you yeah i can
okay so i've enabled you to screen well
you're already a co-host so you can
screen share that um
so you just need to screen show the
agenda and click on that sorry guys
thank you for your patience
and grant if you make your browser a
little wider there that'll present a
little
more clearly to most people's devices
if that makes sense yeah perfect
so larry here it's the floor is yours we
i i attempted to stitch the drawing into
one digital document as you can see it's
not perfect
our scanner cut off some little sections
but in general i think it's
accomplishing it
okay um is there a way to come farther
out from it to see
more of the total area these were at one
time all linked together are they all
separate sheets are they linked there we
go
all right yeah let's start down at the
south and anyone who wants to follow
along can find that link
uh on the agenda i'll i'll post the
direct agenda link on the chat
as well just see okay let's leave this
everyone can kind of blow that display
up
uh uh three three categories of
discussion here
first let me go through what the visual
change will be
number two let's talk about some
operational changes
and then three let's end up with the
design issues and decisions that we have
to make
um so in in and and then we'll we'll
draw we'll actually kind of drive the
thing here if it makes some sense out of
it but
uh and the really big picture we're
gonna move from disorder
to order in this quarter right now as
you know it's a mess
world's largest driveway um there
there there's just junk everywhere
especially when you get to the corner
uh the apartment buildings on the the
north east corner of cassidy and fifth
are just a disaster
and so and and so if you can still hear
me then
uh so so that's the that's one big thing
we'll have new view sheds we'll have new
open spaces
and we'll have some order to this street
uh
however number two operational changes
this is a street that you know it's
almost an oxymoron
there's been no history of lawn
maintenance i mean none of these people
have lawn services because there's no
lawn
uh everything on the east side of
cassidy is is just one
world's biggest curb cut so no one's
used to picking up trash watering or
mowing
so that will change when
uh this plan is put into place and it
raises the issue
wonder who'll do any of the maintenance
and how that's going to occur
um and and so for a moment let's just
take this drive up from the
from the bottom of your screen which is
south and i don't know if how it may be
hard to see this
uh but i'm going to do a cross-section
from west to east of cast what cassidy
is
as near as i know it i i don't have any
more detail drawing than these
so there is from from the west edge
there's a five foot outer tree lawn of
some kind
there's a ten foot bikeway there is a
seven
foot uh tree lawn there are three lanes
of pavement
and then on the east side of the
pavement there another seven foot tree
lawn
five foot sidewalk five foot back of
uh sidewalk green space um
and then within the section from the
railroad tracks to fifth
there's about 43 street trees and as you
get closer to fifth
and now let's maybe scroll down to the
uh well if i can get
get the northern part of the
intersection into this image there we go
oh too much come on there we go
uh what what occurred you already have
at the the the on margaret avenue
which is south of fifth that first
street to the left
keep going down that's an alley the next
one down that's margaret
that green space is at t and that
remains
the green space above it is temporary
because they'll be removing
the the warehouse building that's there
the gray building goes down
the green space across fifth to the
north is of course the front yard to the
whoop the other side of the street west
side
uh is the uh cap is the church yard
and then the new green space will be on
the east side
and that will be a big retention basin
and everything in that corner gets
cleared out
so that'll be a big time change uh and
one i think we'll really really really
appreciate
when we see it i who knows what happens
on the reuben piece
um and so i i think from discussion
purposes
there's a couple things now let's go all
the way back down to the very southern
edge of these plans
uh at the railroad so we will have a
10-foot bikeway
uh that they are showing coming across
the railroad track
and wrapping around our stone wall
that's on the northwest corner of uh
of del mar and the uh the uh
of cassidy don't i'm not sure we want to
do that we've preserved that space
so that's a design detail we need to
make a decision about
and decide on um number two
uh we have to decide we we committed
kind of
that that we would help out in some
fashion with the
landscape or tree plan or something was
left pretty wide open
43 trees is a lot of trees so we've got
to make some decisions there
and further and i think that's a stretch
but
i don't know who in the heck's going to
maintain any of this open space
and the trees because again there's been
no history of that with it these are
questions
we we have a webex with the city this
friday at 10 o'clock
um you know we can raise these issues
but you know they're engineers and
everything well you know we put it up
and people are supposed to take care of
it and
we hope for the best so let me stop
there answer any questions
and if anyone's confused about anything
that i've gone over on this map
let me know
hey larry there's a the near east it's
there's a near east neighborhood that's
in that area i remember seeing the sign
i don't know if that's the name of it or
not
um is there organization that could
help with maintaining those trees and
[Music]
i i don't the northeast area association
i think begins
uh beyond six
uh 670 on cassidy i think i don't know
exactly
so i'm i'm not sure this area is uh is
represented i remember
it i remember a sign seems like
either coming up fifth or coming past
the um the warehouses heading north out
of bexley
it served it sure was exploring
yeah um what about columbus making it a
civ
air district or anything like that
have that it may be possible there
aren't very many viable
uses right now on that street you got
the dog place
uh you've got a couple of empty
buildings you've got i don't know what
goes on in the
in our old city hall building that's
behind the old pretty metals
i think it's some kind of survey
organization not sure the building
south of that is vacant um
and then you might be able to get
something out of the warehouse people at
least they on the
on the west east side because at least
they're approachable
and they have their fence and all of
that
so you you might have better luck on
that side
and and maybe they could even be coerced
into during some of the uh
pay for some of the treats so there's
work to be done here
right um
um would it be helpful that uh
is the mayor still there is the mayor
gone
i'm always here
um or and or even larry
um what what obligation or what
involvement has
has um bexley expressed up to this point
we've you know we've been working with
uh engineers at this point so
it's it's gone you know and the city of
columbus the
service department right larry the
service department
but uh that's correct in terms of a lot
you know
until we get specific and we say you
know we would like to support
the tree plantings and maybe upping the
game and this that or the other thing
and i don't think we can really get to
the point where we get an agreement from
them
either to allow us to help with the
streetscape or and or
allow us to help maintain long term or
you know
whatever molly do you have any um
insight i'm sure that bexley's not the
first community that's tried to work
with columbus
on doing something that would i just had
to unmute
all right so the public service
department of columbus
um you know larry's right they hire
engineers and the trees are
all you know this is our plan and the
trees are going to be great
but they would plant they will be
planted by whoever the main contractor
is
and then the contractor walks away and
public service is going to go back to
recreational parks and say
reckon parks these are your street trees
because we don't do trees so that's
what's going to happen
and i can tell you recreational parks
does not do
a great job of um
they won't maintain there they have too
many trees they say you know there's too
many trees on the streets
we can't go out and deal with trees they
certainly do not do the job bexley does
so
um the trees will have a year warranty
whatever doesn't live um
just we might have to like push we have
as as advocates we may have to push
columbus and say look you know replace
these trees if they've died
but the city will not this columbus will
not go out and water or prune or do
anything
these trees are going to be on their own
and that's just the way it is but i do
think columbus is open to partnership
so if if we they they have at least been
on livingston if we were to take a role
where we said
hey would you allow us for the first 10
years to maintain these trees
since for example we might be doing
fundraising to help with the trees
um i i don't feel like they would have
objection to that
uh we would just need to come out they
would never object to somebody you know
yes
that's that's amazing offer and that
would be great i just know where
their funds are and resources are more
going to be able to do that
and attention right like that's all
grant grant's the one who who brought
that idea up and is
has put that forward then that would be
fantastic because
that is the best solution for the trees
to survive
richard i like your idea i was
tongue-in-cheek with my grand comment
just
i guess molly i was asking if if you
when you worked at
parks and rec if there were other
communities that partnered with the city
in a way that was you know productive
for the suburb or
the other entity not
not many i mean you know when we had
park and parks or friends of the park so
you have a few people
you know they used to do if you had a
tree planted in front of your yard they
would give instructions how to water it
planet but
you know i'm it's just
it's it's a large large city many many
miles and they just can't
they can't stay on top of it um
partnership wise
many i mean worthington
i can't remember if they've stepped up
or not
bexley's unique okay that's a great city
okay go ahead larry
uh what's our agreement with pump house
park
and the city of columbus ah that again
that's the bexley
very german pump house park is owned by
the city of columbus
and it is we leased it okay
well a dollar a dollar a year for 15
years
with automatic renewal i think that's
correct right mayor
that is where the park yeah that's the
surface underneath are some large
tanks that um the um
public utilities i mean down to
massive tanks underneath so yeah i mean
that's that's really wasn't a recreation
of parks land to begin with when i
worked for there it was
public utilities the water department
who actually owned the land
so um the agreement with bexley has
been again it wouldn't have happened
without bexley
um recreation parks got involved because
of a little bit of
park and we helped like we put the
shelter in but then again
uh bexley's been doing a great job the
shelter has its issues so
which we all know um so i i'm firmly of
the opinion that like
you know we saw what happened with the
last streetscape project at fifth and
cassidy
and i know exactly what's gonna happen
with this next one so i
i'm firmly of the opinion that if we
care about uh tree land
landscaping along cassidy we are going
to have to
make a hard commitment because relying
on
volunteers relying on you know
hope hoping that people will continue to
pay attention is not going to get it
done in my opinion
so i think we have to be prepared to do
that um and i think that just needs to
be something we talk about and integrate
in our conversations and make sure that
everyone's comfortable with that
so we have the capacity and bandwidth at
least up to fifth which is not a huge
section and would not drastically add to
the
current load that we have
right i could support what the mayor
said
we started out with this like 20 years
ago trying to get
something going there and this has been
what we've thought as an extended area
of the gateway into bexley
and um you know we had tried a couple of
times right susan and
you know it was then they were talking
about this plan was coming up well
as far as i'm concerned here is the
moment this is time for us to
step out up and uh work out something
with columbus um and you know what if
they put in the
if they do all the right of way and they
plant all the trees
i know always long range it is
maintenance but if you want
a nice extended gateway to your north
entry this is it so
mayor i was trying to think in larger
terms i mean raising the money for the
trees
is i don't want to say easy but it's
easy compared to the long-term
maintenance
is there any kind of improvement
district that could be created
from um on cassidy let's say from the
yoga studio to fifth avenue that
could you know be formed and then
you know monies could be set aside or
they can raise moneys for maintenance in
that area
so a sid is is a it's tricky you need to
get
the buy-in from i believe it's 75
of businesses and somebody might be able
to correct me on there yeah
so that's that means you know if you
look at the columbus side
who are those businesses larry pointed
out not a ton of super successful
businesses there having said that
there are quite a few logistics
businesses
but i don't think they're going to be
very happy with these improvements and
so i don't think that they're really
going to be natural partners with
uh with the sid also you know if we have
bexley businesses pitching in and
primarily their dollars are going to
maintain properties in columbus
i could see how that could be
challenging i i think
that's a it's an important tool to think
about but i think that
a lot of it's going to depend on what
really is emerging from this and if what
we're talking about are street trees to
maintain
you know grant please do speak freely on
this but like
once they get through the first initial
survival mode and those trees survive
the first 10 years or 15 when they get
truly established
pruning obviously is a concern but i'm
not sure that there's a ton of
maintenance
grant maybe you're wrong maybe i'm wrong
i'd welcome your feedback on that but i
think
you know it's probably not quite as
burdensome as we might
think it would be it's certainly not so
much so that
organizing a sid would make sense i
wouldn't think a sid is a lot of work
uh to maintain to create and maintain
so i do want to make sure we talk about
the um
design issue it's it's not a biggie but
how to complete the 10-foot bikeway as
it crosses the railroad track
into bexley a whether we
10 foot would take all the grass out
probably the wall
a sidewalk would take most of the grass
out
but then the walkway we've got to tell
them something because the
10-foot bikeway just can't come to an
end at the railroad tracks and go
nowhere
so there's been a that's been addressed
in the in the bike plan which uh
i think needs to be is headed to council
pretty soon
um for a review but the proposal on the
bike plan
sees that 10 10-foot path transition to
a
share row on cassidy so basically
just signage that kind of indicates that
the bike the bike route now goes down
cassidy
um as opposed to trying to somehow
extend it
further into bexley as part of our
sidewalk infrastructure
and then grant grant was about to speak
i didn't want to cut him off from what
he had to say
oh yeah the trees are
won't be that big of a deal you know
it'll be more the
you know who's mowing the grass and
maintaining that area but
trees i wouldn't think would be an issue
i you know
who maintains the uh the bike path when
it goes
i think metro parks may cut the grass on
either side of the
the on wolf park and down by yeah
grant i'll jump in here on that well um
the recreational parks columbus and um
franklin county have an agreement when
it's running
on a separate greenway this isn't a
greenway
this would be public service and
this would be like the i670 path or any
pass along streets it becomes part of
right-of-way
and it's really public service
for homeowners does the north end
does the north end of that bike path
connect to the greenway that's being
extended behind kensington
and up by the um
uh cannabis store
no it stops at seven
it stumps at seven
and let me go back to our bikeway
because ben uh
i i am not sure they're going to
allow a bikeway a fixed bikeway
that moves over the railroad track and
then immediately jumps onto the cassidy
pavement
i don't know how that would work that's
a that's going to be a tough one to
engineer
so i i think we're gonna have we'd
already talked about it becoming a
sidewalk after the railroad tracks
a sidewalk yeah so we're gonna have a
sidewalk but it's not gonna go in the
street
it's gonna go in the street once it hits
del mar
yes yep okay that's true
they can't ultimately they can't change
you know they can't require us as a
jurisdiction to pick up a 10-foot path
and uh nor do we have this capacity to
do that
so yeah i would stay away from that yep
and so it doesn't affect the wall
it will not affect the wall i i don't
andy and i have met on site grant you
were there too
remind me it will not am i wrong am i
messing this up
i mean we're taking it down we're taking
down the wall but other than that it
won't affect it i'm just kidding
i wasn't there but i don't think it will
effect the wall
so we worked out a plan where it comes
you know it's near the wall there will
be a sidewalk near the wall
um and then it will uh
go to a ramp to cross over and connect
to the
existing sidewalks south of del mar okay
good because
that donated the wall are still alive so
that's good yes
we have been on site and considered
those things
so the other thing i was going to
mention to everybody is that the
community foundation
voted sixteen thousand five hundred
dollars i think some years ago
for a design plan to um
to focus on that interface and if that's
already been taken care of i think
that um certainly the city of actually
could ask them to
you know look at that grant and uh kind
of
reapply that money to that area but just
for a different end and my guess would
be that they would be open to that
sheila and we asked molly what size
trees do they usually plant
um are they really teeny little things
yeah two inch well two inch teeny things
i would say two inch but they probably
have a better chance of surviving than a
larger tree
grant likes two-inch i agree with grant
yeah okay so
go ahead richard i had one follow-up
question about the transition
from the bikeway i i'm hearing that it's
gonna
at the railroad track transition to a
sidewalk
um well just to the east of the del mar
crosswalk that's shown there
well that being ramped so if bikes do
come down that sidewalk that they can
then directly get on the shareway
instead of going over to the crosswalk
and walking across
uh hard to tell with these drawings
i i'm not sure that's going to be
something that's going to require
a little bit more detail drawing than
these look at i don't think so
but i don't know
also keep in mind right now we're
talking about a 10-foot path i don't
want to say to nowhere but
you know there's an extent to which it's
a little bit to nowhere because it's
it's only going up to 7th down the road
it might extend further
it's a columbus design requirement
um and yes it does get you eventually
kind of over to fifth in that interface
but many of our cyclists that are
engaging to that point are not right on
the sidewalk to begin with
when the when the on the on the west
side
or on the east side of the street above
the uh
uh the tracks when that was all paved
over
they paved over grass did they not
and it was illegal nobody stopped no it
was illegal so that's what i'm saying do
they have any leverage against those
companies or the guy who owns that
property
for example to put in a sidewalk there
he can pay for some of the trees i
remember when that happened
looks like heck or worse
it's terrible i it it's a it's a thought
uh the the it's been that way for so
long
and obviously their you know code
enforcement was nowhere to be found
uh on that whole thing i mean that was
an absolute complete travesty they tore
it all out just paid for the
and they believed that yeah well
hey larry last i saw this plan had that
curb cut
that large open curb cut closed has it
changed oh yeah no we're talking about
the
uh the past i mean there was at one
point uh more
organized curb cuts right and the owner
just decided took it all out just
when they when they paved their lots
they said just go to the street
and pay this plan restores doesn't this
plan restore that organization
yes no no that's exactly right but we're
talking about
any payment for past damages could be
applied to this plan
or just a little leverage they can buy
some trees
wow yeah
larry do you have what you need
yeah i think that's a great discussion
thank you everybody
okay on that website again that the
mayor gave us i
couldn't get to it quite soon enough um
if you look at the chat um celeste if
you open that up you'll see
links to uh ah okay i'm not both
yeah if you look around for the chat
look look around for a button that says
chat near the bottom of your screen
probably
thank you and uh you'll see some links
both to the
livingston plan and then to our agenda
that has this plan on it
yep okay
so if um we're we're done with that
and larry you've got what you need to go
to your meeting why don't we go back
up to our brick bytes mayor do you have
those up there
grant is now in charge of screening
actually at this point i'm gonna have to
check out for a bit i'll try to hop back
on if i'm able to
all right okay thanks guys
talk to you soon take care
okay so larry do you want to take us
through this
um this is the this is our
point of the agenda where we talk about
our brick
uh curbs and gutters um
um and and give you uh
further indications of of why we need to
maybe think more
clearly about what we're going to do uh
and i think students gone out taking
some pictures
uh you show the condition of some of the
curbs
there are various ways of the curbs that
are dealt with in the driveway aprons
uh you flipped all three of those if you
want to whoever's doing this
yeah grant just yeah you can keep moving
um we now at least have standards in
play
as to uh when somebody applies for
a uh a redoing of a driveway
what they what the expected detail is
for the brick aprons
but we also have a lot of brick work
that needs some serious help and so
at some point we're going to have to
figure how we address this
there's a lot of it talk about deferred
maintenance
uh and yet uh that brick infrastructure
is a pretty nice part of
our and and if we even took it all out
that's
that interestingly on this picture that
little piece whoops
uh the next one next one that right
there that little
that little piece of granite used to be
the markers for where the street started
and the driveways began and that was one
of the ways how they ended the details
but at any rate maybe it's a larger
discussion at some point
but even if we had to take these all out
and replace them
huge money and new curbs so
right now we're not doing anything so
it's another issue
and that we're going to have to think
about in a more long-term basis as to
uh what are we going to do with these
guys and
they they still seem to work generally
so i don't know if that's an issue
but we do have uh we're just not clear
on it and it's just something that
since it's in our bailiwick we probably
should
start to think about how we move forward
yeah grant can you go back to the first
couple
um larry and i when larry and ellen and
i walked
we found three driveway um
aprons that still this is the the first
one that still had the original brick
this is on
um i think this is on drexel it's on the
south
west corner of uh drexel and denver
and those are the original bricks and
it's it's the original apron can you go
go to the next one um i think that was
the last one
yes and th this is on columbia and you
see
again the original side
markers and then the original threshold
and a couple more grand thank you
and again this one on columbia is
fabulous because it's got the
the brick threshold going into the
concrete if you look on each side of it
it's got that brick detail and then it
has
bricks that are sitting in cement
upright as kind of the gutter
for sides of the driveway
and then um that also has the lime sir
the uh
that last picture also had the uh um
the limestone pieces in the separation
and then if you can go a couple more
then i found one more
kind of uh apron like this on south park
view
uh not that one maybe this one
no you know i don't want to say once
you've seen a brick you've seen
all the bricks but but there's another
one on south park view that also has the
original limestone curb and the brick
threshold
so um if you if you walk those couple
areas i think you might get
really excited to see how historic that
part of our community is
so yeah grant thank you so much for
looking at that helping us look at that
okay let's go back to the upper part of
the agenda
we have final numbers on our trees for
bexley donations
um ellen do you want to give us that
information
okay let me pull that up i um
have it for 2019 and
uh for 20 20
which is why am i uh
just one second
oh shoot let's see
oh you haven't hear it i have it okay
okay for 2019 we brought in 30 thousand
dollars
with 110 donors
and in um oh gosh here let me
grab this paper and in 2020
we brought in um thirty five thousand
nine hundred and fifty seven dollars
with a hundred and
twenty two donors and i divided it out
so
thirty thousand and hundred and ten and
twenty nineteen
thirty five thousand nine hundred and
seven with 122
which was averaged out in 2019
272.73
per donor essentially and in
2020 it averaged out to 294.73
so there you go so i think it's the
largest amount we've ever raised
so thanks to everybody who contributed
and who
works on making trees a priority in the
giving life of bexley families
hats off to particularly susan and
the mayor for signing all those letters
and thank you notes
and i think it was a and thank you to
the commission
for um making the decision to
make the 2021 project uh
jeffrey mansion so i think just the
combination of the people working on it
and the decision
um i i think people found it very
appealing
so um we'll look forward to those
improvements to
the south and west terraces
of jeffrey mansion right now barb do you
want to give us
your final report well we this year
in 2020
uh i'm already trying to erase it out of
my mind
uh is was fourteen thousand and one
hundred 120
uh it is 352 dollars more
than last year with five fewer donors
there were so this year we had
127 donors and uh but also got a little
more money
so you know that's what we got last year
it's great
it really is yeah so i i i think as
commission members you should feel again
proud of the endorsement of the work
um that you're doing because if if the
residents didn't like it believe me
they're not going to up their donations
so thank you well in my in my case i
have to give a
special shout out to uh to uh
christine hoyer and julie heilman
because they
are the ones that can come up with these
themes that are appropriate and they do
it in about five minutes
and uh obviously the the girls and the
uh
the women in the foundation office do a
great job we'll start getting on that
early in february and then the ladies uh
can fit it into their schedule even if
we don't send it out until april but at
least they don't have to get
you know they can schedule it out when
it's convenient for them
okay uh grant can you move on
on the agenda
okay um the mayor had said the tree
commission budget is 7 500
and he works against that on special
projects
for both maybe planning and design so
it's not really something that
that we control it's more gives us
flexibility in
getting projects done and a woman
contacted me she had
she had listened into the audio of our
tree commission meetings and realized
that we were talking about a volunteer
friends group that would help in the
gardens or the right-of-way in the
summer and wants to get together and
talk about a volunteer group so i will
do that in the coming week
and now and so just remember you know
people are watching the audio or
watching the video
and listening to the audio so beware um
grant again if you can move down i think
eleanor's report is next
okay elena okay
so um a couple of um just updates
uh no new projects this month um ohio
savings bank we
actually had a meeting susan and i met
with the landscape designer
or architect steve kowitz and the
architect
doug miller last week to just discuss
what kind of happened with the ohio
savings bank
and what are we going to do to actually
move forward with that
so the the building is built the
trees and the plants have been installed
um structural soil was installed but we
noticed when we were walking it that the
irrigation system was never
actually installed if you recall that
was part of
um the approval that we had gone through
and um and so we just wanted to kind of
see what
the next steps were going to be what had
happened is that
um the bank experienced significant
cost overruns they um made a decision
to not even price out an irrigation
system they felt
that a um putting the money towards the
structural soil for the trees
along parkview and main street was more
important and so they made that decision
and moved forward and didn't even
think about adding an irrigation system
i don't even think it was
um brought up to the owners as a
possibility because they were going
through so much um kind of slicing and
burning of the
of the the budget essentially we um
spoke with them and said you know as
susan said listen we are a phone call
away it's a lot easier for you to call
us
and just say hey this is what's
happening and we can discuss it rather
than
just um assume that they can make that
decision
on their own um steve did apologize
he was going off of his work that he had
done with the market district knowing
that some of the projects that he had
previously done on main street
that irrigation was not required and
um and so he just kind of went off of
his past experience thinking that it was
not something that was going to be an
issue
installing irrigation right now would be
really almost
cost prohibitive and there would have to
be they'd have to tear up a lot of
the existing concrete work the existing
asphalt work in order to get that
installed they are going to be doing a
punch list
walk um this coming spring susan i had
noted um
you know there's the ginkgo that was
dead on main street a couple of the um
taxis have not been planted great uh the
root balls are exposed and so
it's just kind of a messy installation
and so it's something that
we call to their attention they are
going to do a punch list walk and try to
remedy
all of that as well as prepare a
landscape basically maintenance plan
that we'll talk about
the maintenance of the site the watering
of the trees
steve um is going to prepare a
recommendation
of a watering schedule of um how often
um
at what times and probably for the next
you know at least two to three years in
order to get that established he would
like to then review that
with um grant and make sure that you
know grant
is okay with it um and then move forward
as
that is basically kind of their their
option for not having an irrigation
schedule most of their plant material
that they did select
is in fact um drought tolerant and
will do well in the conditions i don't
know some of you might have noticed that
the
perennials that they had there they had
some daisies and some echinacea that
actually looked great for a number of
months
and that bed was not irrigated and so
they were intentionally trying to choose
plants that once established will be
okay without an irrigation system
and um i think that the plants that they
have selected will be okay with that
so we wanted to just give you all an
update on
that and let you know that um within the
next hopefully the next
by next february or next february by
february
we will have that plan that we can
review and um it's basically going to
have to be something that the tree
commission votes on
to accept or not as an acceptable
alternative
for um providing an irrigation
or for not providing an irrigation
system
so susan did i i know that was a kind of
a mouthful i was trying
we talked about a lot of other things
but i was trying to summarize it um
are there any questions on that
no okay quick quick question
uh elena then who's does grant stay on
top of that that they follow through
with the
watering maintenance program or is that
the code info
for us or that would be code enforcement
so that would be code enforcement in
terms of
um if that we see something with uh you
know either a dead tree or that the site
is not looking good
that um code enforcement would go out
there to just kind of flag it and move
forward on that
okay i we need to stay on top of it
though
you know instead of waiting until the
trees die
yes yes okay you have some pictures of
um main street elena okay so this
is so this next project that i want to
talk about this was something that was
done
as um as a staff approval so this is um
24.69
and 2483 east main street and so you can
see
um these are on the corner of main
street and cassingham road
it's the parcel that's right on the
corner and then go
four parcels in to that one so those are
two buildings that are proposed to be
demolished
and um in the demolition of those they
are going to then basically have
an open green space that um the intent
is that the property owners of those two
spots are going to purchase 2475 and
2479
and develop those four parcels into
something to be determined um this the
demolition has been um
approved by the city and um with the
understanding that the temporary
landscape would be
um a staff approval by me and we wanted
to just
share this project with you guys so you
can see here thanks grant with the with
the photographs it is
um basically you know they're both
businesses there's kind of looks like a
little
basically it's kind of single family
homes and so they'll be tearing
um the one down on the corner as well
as the other one um moving in a little
bit closer to
bexley premiere while they are in
negotiations for
purchasing and developing or purchasing
the two middle properties and developing
it
so these are just um what the
what the what they they look like from
an aerial view
the landscape plan that they submitted
to me
grant if we can flip to that one
is um here you go so with this
essentially what they're doing
is they will be creating um some for
public park
okay so we'll start on main street so
they will
along the sidewalk there they have a
hedge row of
um green velvet boxwoods and immediately
um in front of that next to the sidewalk
is a row
of variety and that is just to kind of
help
maintain you know and kind of delineate
the um the lawn space that will then be
happen behind it the existing trees are
going to stay
both along main street and on cassingham
and if we scroll down you can see that
they are adding
four publix parking spots now basically
if you recall from the previous aerials
this is kind of a sea of asphalt of
different shapes and sizes
back in there right now um and so what
they're proposing
is adding four parking spaces having a
row
of um taxes media hicks eye those are
the ones that kind of are a little more
columnar and upright
um to screen the parking and then some
japanese tree
lilacs behind that to help kind of
screen that space
and then um i had a number of questions
for them and i don't know if grant if
there's
my if there's another let's see what
else okay so this is
my chicken scrap scratches so i talked
with
um the uh the landscape architect who
was working with this
um and had a bunch of questions for them
and we had an email as well
of an exchange of what are the different
questions and um
long story short they are there is an
existing
ornamental tree on the 2469 spot which
is towards the bottom of the page there
that they are going to maintain
the um some of the other trees uh
on the corner property that are closer
to the house i asked if they were able
if there were any intent to keep them
they don't think that realistically they
can be kept because of the demolition of
the property so they
will all be removed the lawn
is actually going to be seated and and
watered they will have a
maintenance and a watering company that
will take care of that to make sure that
it stays proper and then i asked them
on the along south cassingham i asked
them to extend
um those hicks iu to all the way down
the sidewalk to help screen those um
parking spaces because that's basically
what you know we do with all of our
parking lots we have um them screened
all the way around the perimeter
there is an existing curb cut they've
got a couple of curb cuts there's one
for the alleyway
and then there's another one that is
basically where those four parking
spaces are
and i asked if at this time they were
going to remove that curb cut
they said they won't they will intend to
with the next version but this is
basically just
a temporary phase for them to kind of
get it through and make the lots look
kind of
clean and presentable without doing a
lot of work until they actually have the
full design
and figure out where they're going to be
doing things um
so this is where um things are with that
some of the hedges
i forwarded them the tree protection
plan
so they can make sure that during um so
the demo contractor has that
to make sure that hedges and trees are
protected in place
and we just wanted to share with you
that that is going on
do you want any comments on that elena i
know it's just a staff review but i
didn't know if you're looking for any
input i i mean if someone wants to give
me input i i'm happy to to take it i can
share it with them i mean i think that
um one of the things that uh
that we've been discussing kind of
internally is and there's not
anything that is set right now but is
how long can these lots actually be
vacant and so there's nothing from my
understanding that is actually in the
code right now that says it can only be
vacant for so long but i think that um
in talking with kathy these people are
motivated to actually have this project
move forward um you know basically as a
business plan and so we we
don't want this to you know all of a
sudden look like we've got missing teeth
coming along main street so i think it's
something that we just have to keep on
our radar of
periodically checking in with them and
asking what the status is on that
this any questions for elena
does the demolition uh include removal
of the basements
oh that i don't know larry i can ask
question
yeah great question okay any other
questions richard
yeah um so what's the
i thought we had a requirement that
buildings could not be demolished unless
there was an approved
replacement plan
and does the green space require a
conditional
conditional use in the main street
corridor
and if it does i think there are some
limitations on
the amount of time i don't know
i don't know those are kind of a little
bit outside of our of our bailiwick
unless elena just happens to know that
or larry does
i don't but i can certainly um email
kathy
and ask that yeah i'm not
i i do not know okay
all right any other questions for elena
one other one other question um is the
green space going
to be open to the public is that part of
it the hedges block
access the hedges would block access but
if you're coming along cassingham
you know people could actually come in
and walk into that
i mean is it going to be allowed
encouraged
um would there should there be benches
or something to make that
that was not something that i think that
since it is
you know going to be right across from
chipotle i i don't know
to have that i can certainly ask that
those those kind of issues are a little
bit outside of the work that we do
so um i think we can get answers on
those but i think
i was only asking that because if it was
going to be open to the public
there might be some consideration as far
as the landscaping
is concerned right that's why i raised
it
right it's not a bad question richard
it's uh yeah it's just so we
need a little more time to uh work
through those answers
yeah and from what i understand is what
what you see here very well might change
based on when the full design comes in
and so what they wanted to do is just
have a landscape plan that looked
nice and somewhat presentable and clean
and tidy with you know hedges to kind of
define the space a little bit
and maintain that edge along main street
um
and then everything you know is going to
be you know again demolished and
redeveloped and so we might be looking
at this and all of those shrubs are
going to be
popped out or relocated or something
like that so we'll have to wait and see
yeah i think it's fair to look at the
alternative the alternative would be to
leave
uh two unoccupied buildings slowly aging
uh in in and not being used so
you know that's not a great answer
either
yeah elena did you have one more thing i
think you have an update on your
master plan your master table i do so if
we could go to the master table
so um and i can email this all out
to you all as well um just so you can
have it so this
is basically our our project list a
couple of things that i want to
um just kind of call out on this some
things that are um
changed i'll just kind of read them out
and then i as i said i can email this
out to everyone
the camp bushnell storyboard that
actually was installed i don't know if
people have actually seen that
um it was actually installed on veterans
day um
and uh and so you know that that's
exciting something we can kind of take
off of our list
the capital seminary garden um they are
resubmitting a not garden
um for that area that is um
that was originally going to be a plaza
and then they changed it and it was
going to be
trees and this that and the other thing
and all everything kind of moved around
so they are actually resubmitting that
as a plan
it will be kind of a follow-on to the
19-24 project plan
um and so i have been talking with
capital about that and we're hoping to
have something to review at our february
meeting with that one and so that will
basically kind of close the loop
on that the ohio state bank um
we i just gave you an update on that on
the next um
page one thing that i'm also starting to
do um
which you know you know we you we talked
about at our last meeting as well as
i've been talking about it with susan is
make sure that um we follow up and do a
better job at following up with people
when they send an email and sort of say
you have 30 days basically to respond
and two of those are um you know well
blue spot
yoga you know and i did reach out to
them i heard back from the architect
they're missing some variety around
their sign and some of the concrete
hadn't been removed
so they are looking into that 280
south columbia that is
the project that the rear planting was
not um
installed and because they are hoping to
have a pool
and they need to then come back and talk
to us and resubmit it
as a small side note with this this
client this is actually the tishkops
they actually reached out to me
for help to design that but in
conversation
with um the mayor and mark fishel um
it's been determined
that any project that actually has to
have
an approval by the tree commission um
that is something that at this point i
can't work on and design and kind of
recuse myself
from that because there's still too much
of a conflict of interest even you know
if i say
hey i'm not going to review it and you
know but since you guys all know who i
am and i basically do have you know a
little bit more power than
someone else would come in so i have
stepped down from that in another
project that will come up
um so i'll focus on designs for um
the city that are either through this
city like for the plazas and so
the north community gardens that's not
an issue if i'm designing because i'm
basically working as a staff member
but if there's a project that is either
in the right of way or it
is a landscape plan for tear down new
build
um those are projects that um i am not
going to be doing
so until at such point in my business
that those are flying in and people are
asking me every day to do that um i will
kind of respectfully turn those down
because i really enjoy working with um
the city right now in this capacity and
we'll you know kind of keep an eye on
that but i wanted to make that clear
for everyone that that was a discussion
that has been going on and
now has been resolved um
scrolling down the consent and hold
harmless we had talked about that that's
been
approved at 346 north drexel that was
for the trees that were planted in the
right-of-way
um 2730 east broad street that is the
new build
i have reached out to the owner um to
ask for a follow-up
as to where the landscape plan is and
we're hoping to get that for either the
february or the march meeting
and what i have started to do um is this
was previously
all projects that were when we had met
and when we met them i'm starting to now
keep um a track of these
of things that are upcoming so for
instance there's a project 407
northview road um that might have some
landscape screening
that was relegated to a staff approval
they're in the process
of kind of looking at that just to keep
you all aware of this
and it might be that it is something
that hasn't come up before the tree
commission but just so we can kind of
keep all of these in one place i didn't
want to have a list of projects that
we were looking at and then had actually
already been approved
so you can see that 2469 east main
street is on there
and then 476 north parkview
that is also a new build that is going
to be a teardown with a new landscape
plan
this client also reached out to me to
ask for help for that and
i respectfully declined and they are
going to be looking for
other landscape designers to help them
with that but so those are ones that
are on the radar so you can kind of
expect to see them so
that's that that's a huge any questions
yes uh it's celeste here what about 17
north uh stanbury where some of the
trees have died
uh in the northwest corner
i will go back and look in that that had
been approved and so i did not know that
trees had died and that that's something
that we can certainly
i can circle back and look at that okay
okay
any other questions for elena it's a
great day
uh grant sorry celeste you mean the one
that's on broad
rod oh yeah that looks horrible yeah
i'll send them an email
i had the number wrong don't i right
thank you seventeen's right it's
standard
i just had forgotten the project yes the
address broad and stanbury
okay grant do you have any updates for
us
uh the i have contacted uh
planet geo signed their contract i have
not heard back from them but they should
be
getting ready i think february first
they were going to start on that project
and um spring planting of the chicopen
oaks will happen on broad street along
with you know the finishing
of the uh the island there in front of
st
charles what else is going on in your
life now that you have the crew back and
you're not picking up leaves and you're
not furloughed
uh you stump we're out stump grinding
currently
and uh we're we're doing tree removals
we are currently down two employees
so
we're chugging along the best we can
you're replacing those employees
i will be replacing one of the employees
the other employee will not be replaced
okay i mean those those are good things
to know as we look at
expanding your workload
yeah um one of the things we've been
talking about with the mayor
so the arborist position in the parks
will be replaced
the ground maintenance employee that
transferred into the street department
will not be replaced
we're thinking about contracting out
it hurts me to say this but contracting
out some of the mowing
so by contracting out mowing in the
areas with little to no bed maintenance
like the boulevards
roosevelt denver um
wolf park in columbus uh
pump house park and
uh clowson field in columbus we
we should be able to free up with some
seasonals to do
some more bed maintenance like broad
street
the new entryway beds islands
cassidy entryway livingston
in college and then we would be
maintaining jeffrey
mansion the commonwealth uh
in the new snyder park um edition with
the soccer fields and
and work that we're going to continue
doing there so our goal is hopefully our
bed maintenance
practices will will be be better
maintained
any questions for grant on these kind of
uh
i understand that the island in front of
saint charles there was another wreck
there
i don't know all right there might have
been there's nothing there to hit so i
don't know what they hit
i don't know what they did either but no
somebody just said they've taken out
some stuff
so lights or something you know i think
i think they did not run into the median
bar
they ran into the sidewalk and hit a
light pole
ah got it and then the car went us on
fire so it was a big deal
i guess well the news doesn't travel in
a straight line from
from ohio
anything else you want to share a grant
no that's it oh grant i have a question
well i'm glad barbara asked about the
prostate median being from afar
um should i talk to mike about
proceeding with the
jeffrey project or
or it that's coming under mike price
versus you
or should we all of us talk about it
together
yeah that would be under mike price okay
all right thank you for clarifying okay
richard do you have anything to add or
do we have to tell the mayor he said
everything
no i do have uh one communication from
one of the other liaison groups that i
am involved with the environmental
sustainability
committee and i know elizabeth i
believe has contacted you susan
but to see if there might be some joint
activities at the tree and public garden
commission
and the uh esac can do together
i was looking at their list from their
agenda last night i wasn't able to
attend their meeting
last night but they they're planning
litter and
trail cleanups they're planning to
sponsor the love your alley that the
mayor used to do
and they're looking at general
educational
programming they have a kids boot camp
for environmental issues and they also
have a monthly online
educational program that they use
um so if they're maybe the arboretum
could be featured in one of those
or something like that but um
right elizabeth and i are going to going
to get together we haven't met
so we're looking at doing that before
our next
meeting in february so that's just a
head up
heads up to the other members if they
have any ideas for
collaboration to get right to susan
that's okay any questions for richard
all right we're getting close close to
the end
um under old business we can talk really
quickly about
april as arbor month and we have a
fun committee working on plans to
show off our our arboretum and
doing it in fun and unusual ways
um some rough you know some rough plans
without taking too long as the library
is going to have
a trivia night that focuses on trees
they're also going to have a scavenger
hunt that focuses on trees
and the book that they're going to
review in april is called the overstory
and it was a pulitzer prize winning book
and
and it's a long dance book and the mayor
and troy markham are going to leave the
discussion on that
don't laugh it's going to be good real
quickly would you guys mind if you're
not speaking mute because there's a lot
of feedback echoing coming from
from uh if you could just real quickly
mute if you're not speaking
sorry
and then there's going to be um uh
maybe a fairy garden tour that celeste
and uh
and ellen are working on and we're also
working ellen's working on
live updates from people who've gotten
trees
and getting personal testimonials from
them on the trees
so a lot of unusual but fun things ellen
and celeste i don't know if you want to
add anything
well um linda was planning to be
on board today and by the way susan you
have two images of yourself
well that's because my computer died and
then my phone came on and then i went
back online and i'm not at home
oh okay so it's a mess
reverb okay um
linda intended to be here i believe and
ellen and i were going to meet with her
via
um a conference call to gather some more
topics for uh the
discussions or the another discussions
about the topics to be
within the um right
yeah well yeah i think we can make that
happen
yeah right right and i
i i just want to say i have been
contacting previous
um recipients and actually from 2019 who
had received
the trees and i just want to share this
with you uh as susan
caught my enthusiasm i've contacted
people and
everybody loves getting the tree and
actually i was
very moved with them well i was sent out
that email to a lot of them
the enthusiasm and appreciation
uh shown by the residents was really
very touching so that
is um people were new to the community
they got a tree they had
lived lived in the community just a year
and they took it as a very positive
welcoming to the community
so um i was really very touched with
their
positive comments and appreciation so i
would say i'll go
for the tree giveaway in april
so ellen is working with sam metcalf the
director of communications
uh for the city on how to publicize
those what am i call personal
testimonials
so again a lot of fun things that we're
working on that will share a draft of a
plan maybe in
february or march unless we hope to have
a tree costume
oh i forgot that yes i tree yes
yeah talking terese so i'm going to
leave this question the big question
what is the one thing you'd like to see
the tree commission
uh personally focus on this year um
so that we're able to finish at six
o'clock and we'll just come back to that
in february
and uh and see if we can if we get any
consensus around any one particular
activity or one particular focus area
or um you know some sort of work that
you want to see done
so is there anything else to come before
the january
tree commission oops susan
yes i have one other thing i thought
about um
there are two multi multi-family
housing developments that are being
proposed in bexley
one on cassidy where um art with anna
was
and one on livingston where
uh the your funeral home is
if you get residents talking about the
landscape
plans that are currently online and for
discussion
um those are just initial concept drafts
they're so that they can apply for
financing
with the one time a year state of ohio
financing project so you can reassure
residents that define if the project is
approved that completely different plans
um will come to the triumph public
garden
commission um don't people don't need to
be
scared about maybe how institutional the
buildings look and
the landscaping might be
so there'll be something more
robust that will come to the commission
for
approval from the other uh planning
organizations during the summer so will
things look different will the buildings
look different than they look online now
uh yes most likely based on the input
that
that residents are giving of the
developers
at the public meeting last week and this
coming week
they're talking also notes just to
supplement what richard said
we did really emphasize that they needed
to engage a landscape architecture the
architect at the very beginning and they
have so pod
is working on that and i i there has
been thought put in those landscape
plans so i wouldn't necessarily say that
the landscape will be completely
different necessarily but certainly
architectural changes will
guide changes to landscape which will
then will absolutely come to tree and
public gardens commission and
arb already made a motion incorporating
that uh
last week uh tree and public gardens
commission
were the art were the architecture plans
approved
no no okay okay so just
just you know again a reminder that
the landscape plans have to be submitted
the same time
that the building plans are submitted or
the architecture plans are submitted
and just to let you know a small victory
they were
uh and we made a big point about that to
them in advance
good good buy a landscape architect
susan quinten
i i like everything about that i um
i will be hopeful that the it improves
the
area so anything else
from anybody about anything it helped it
was about trees but
one one quick thing that this is kind of
the
the annual u-haul survey came out as to
where people are moving to
believe it or not ohio was number four
as a state that people are moving to
and columbus was the 11th most popular
one-way trip to of all the cities in the
country so there you go
so how's business sheila
you have to unmute yourself we don't
have enough to sell
so i'm going to solicit all of you to
put your houses on the market and get
the best dollar
possible right now we don't we've got
too many
we got too many trees growing we we
can't leave that okay
all right thanks all for being here
today and your good work
and we'll see you in february thanks to
our alternates as well
all right happy january you guys are
awesome
thank you bye bye