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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-08-02 (draft) Arborist Advisory Committee minutes ARBORIST ADVISORY COMMITTEE c/o Office of the Mayor, 25 Aupuni Street, Suite 2603 Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720 ARBORIST ADVISORY COMMITTEE (DRAFT) AUGUST 2, 2019 MEETING MINUTES HAWAI‘I COUNTY BUILDING, PUNA CONFERENCE ROOM – HILO 25 AUPUNI STREET, SUITE 1501, HILO, HAWAI‘I ATTENDANCE Committee Members Present: Leonard Bisel, Chairperson Jonathan Sudler, Vice-Chairperson Bobby Camara Roy Takemoto Carol Wyban Absent: James Boyd Friday ___ CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 10:04 a.m. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC There were no statements from the public. APPROVAL OF JULY 5, 2019 MINUTES The July 5, 2019 minutes were not available for review at this meeting. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) MAPS TO EXISTING EXCEPTIONAL TREES Outdoor Circle has an exceptional trees website based on latitude/longitude coordinate locations. Vice-Chairperson Sudler will request export of database or shapefile to share with the County. Committee Member Takemoto will export Geographic Information System (GIS) tables after receiving the coordinates from Outdoor Circle to share with committee members. FORMATION OF SUBCOMMITTEES ON INVESTIGATION OF EXCEPTIONAL TREES INVENTORY AND STATUS Committee Member Takemoto suggested use of ArcGIS Collector. The County can setup tablets to loan to committee members. Committee will determine database fields. Chairperson Bisel requested the files for each tree from Planning. Planning needs to retrieve the files from storage. Suggested fields for the fieldwork: 1. Presence/absence 2. Ranking of observed health: dead or nearly dead, average, thriving 3. Diameter at breast height (DBH) 4. Estimated height Arborist Advisory Committee August 2, 2019 meeting minutes 5. Canopy diameter 6. Location description 7. Latitude/longitude 8. Photographs-- whole tree with person standing next to it for scale, close up of appropriate features (e.g., flowers, damage) IDENTIFYING ARBORIST TO ASSIST COMMITTEE OR A RECOOMMENDATION Chairperson Bisel contacted Mike Kraus and is not interested to assist. Committee Member Takemoto will ask Steve Jacunski as an interim measure. A permanent solution would be a County position. Department of Public Works pushed back on a previous attempt. Department of Human Resources will provide job description or class specification for Committee review. The Committee suggests placing the position in the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). Committee Member Takemoto will provide timeline to hire. DISCUSSION ON COUNTY OF HAWAI’I FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ARBORISTS’ GUIDELINES AND PRACTICES Vice-chairperson Sudler will check legal status of guidelines in other counties. Alternatively, the County could have the arborist job description include development of guidelines. UPDATE ON PROPOSED PARK IMPROVEMENT PLANS FOR KŪHIŌ KALANIANA’OLE PARK DPR went out to bid. The contractor has not yet been selected. Replanting with local indigenous (e.g., true kamani) is considered. The Committee requests a review of contractor's work plan. UPDATE ON COMPLETE STREETS PROJECT Planning Department staff member Natasha Soriano updated the committee. An early September workshop is planned with DPW. Landscape architect (Key Concepts) has not been activated yet to do a tree list. Early priority for the project is accommodation of bikes and pedestrians. Committee Member Camara suggested to have the landscape architect meet with the Arborist Committee after development of preliminary list of trees. A target meeting is in October. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC INQUIRY ON POSSIBLE NOMINATION OF A GROVE OF MILOS IN KAIMŪ Chairperson Bisel drafted a response letter to Mr. John Carse for committee review, which was distributed. Staff will check hyperlinks in the letter and provide a web address. The Committee approved sending the letter to Mr. Carse, 4-0 ANNOUNCEMENTS There were no announcements ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 11:27 a.m. 2