Conservation Advisory Council, Regular Meeting transcript: FUTURE HUDSON

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0:02Not sure. I could switch. Okay.
0:06Yeah, I always do. Is this it? Do we have anyone online?
0:37Okay. All right. Are we Are we going? Are we recording?
0:39Yeah. Here we go.
0:41Yes. All right.
0:42We are live.
0:43We're live. Here we go, folks. Call to order. All in favor?
0:47I.
0:47Great. Um, minutes from last month. Any questions? I did not read them. I'll be honest.
0:55I sent Linda one correction and
0:57Yeah, everything's good.
0:58Yeah, everything else good.
1:00All right, good to go. Thank you, Linda. Thank you. Meeting minutes are good. Uh, membership, we still have one position open just as an FYI.
1:09So, if we see no,
1:12did Jacine ever indicate any
1:14or was it Josephine?
1:15Josephine, sorry. I I did tell her we had a window to use her for a grant potentially, but we didn't have time to do it. I'll put I'll send another email.
1:27Let's see if she's interested. I suggest we
1:31promote
1:32Yeah.
1:33this Instagram. Put it on the I'll put it on the
1:37right because I I think
1:39there are people out there who are not aware
1:42of us in general and and a physician available in specific And I think we we would benefit from some more public exposure. There you go.
1:52I agree.
1:53A few folks I could inquire.
1:55Could we put it on the city website as well?
1:58Would that be an option?
2:01Put it on this put on the Instagram because read the city unless they know.
2:04Who reads our Instagram?
2:07But we try.
2:08We try. I try. Well, we we each have to repost it about and spread it around to all of our friends
2:20for the world.
2:22Excellent idea.
2:23Perfect.
2:24Um, climate smart communities. So, I gave everyone Have you been able to all log in? Yes.
2:31Have you tried logging in? No.
2:33Or you you can't get it or you
2:34I haven't tried.
2:35You haven't tried yet?
2:36I will. I have.
2:38I have. Does it make sense or no?
2:42It doesn't make sense yet. I emailed everybody and said I don't understand.
2:48Where's the project?
2:49I think I poked around enough. I got a little worried that if I went somewhere I would make
2:54I might have to have to link you.
2:57Okay. I think you need to link us. Yeah,
2:59I'm linked.
3:00But it's asking me to start a project basically. might knowledge.
3:05No, you should just be able to see.
3:07Did you use your city of Hudson email as well?
3:09I used it.
3:10Okay.
3:11All right. Let me see. I might
3:12I might need to I thought I had done that automatically, but I guess not. Let me let me and I'll ask Taylor what the issue is now. Lengthy users. Okay. So, we'll go back. Well, at some point though, so this is like a this is a lot at the end of the agenda as well. We might have the lawyer, the legal group joining us to do a short presentation. So there might be other people waiting in the room at some point. So when we see that, let us know. We'll we'll figure it out. Anyway, all right. So, um
3:43I think that what we I think what we should do for the climate smart is have like a subcommittee meeting.
3:49Yeah.
3:50Because it's like a lot.
3:51Oh yeah.
3:52Yeah.
3:53Um and we need to get reertified for
3:56B. So Who would like to do that? Who would like to be happy to help?
4:00I mean, I'll I'll do it.
4:04Okay. Hey, anyone else? Any other
4:08you? Yes, you. Anyone else?
4:11I'll be on the committee.
4:13Oh, you're happy. Oh, great.
4:18Do you have Is there like a be interested?
4:22Is there Should we set a subcommittee meeting date?
4:26Let's do it. Why not
4:29would that a place that has Wi-Fi
4:40return
4:44Yeah.
4:44Yeah. We can talk about
4:45or spark either or um we can move it around so you can get voting.
4:49I have that flexibility on November 14th.
4:53That's the Friday.
4:54Is that okay or no? No, we'll answer it for you.
4:58What about November 17th? It's a Monday.
5:02Monday that might be better.
5:04Yep,
5:05I can do that. Yeah, hopefully
5:08fine for me.
5:09At least start it. Or we could look at the weekend, too.
5:13Maybe it's Sunday.
5:16Those are not good for me. No.
5:17No. Let's hope the 17th then.
5:20So, we think in evenings then everyone works. Is that it?
5:24Yeah. I I suggested just in case people had flexibility during the day, if they have time off, but we wanted to look sooner, I could do something sooner after work.
5:36Okay. Um, how about the 19th Wednesday? Does that work for people or No.
5:40Yeah,
5:41sure.
5:41Can we do that? Sorry.
5:44All right.
5:455 to 8. Is that too long? Sorry. Yeah, let's do one hour
5:52three hours. Let's just buckle in.
5:55Could we do 6:30?
5:56Yeah.
5:57Yeah. Since I'm at return anyway at that time for run club finish.
6:03Oh, do you starting to do that?
6:06Oh, I'd be back at return probably around 6:30.
6:10Right. Return
6:16return.
6:26Right.
6:28Okay. So, Climate Smart is going to be Wednesday the 19th at 6:30.
6:35Great. Sorry. We'll get that in my calendar. Okay. All right. Thank you, folks.
6:43Okay.
6:43Unless that might be quick, too. You never know.
6:51They're very efficient.
6:52Are we going to return?
6:53All right. Yes. Return on the 19th. Sorry, I voted out four. I'm sorry.
6:58That's okay. And 6:30 to 7:30.
7:006:30. Okay. I'll make sure make the a little bit less painful.
7:04We'll probably stay till
7:05Yeah. Um, and by then, what I'll do is I'll make sure that all of you are LinkedIn. and you should be able to see the project. So, I sent an email to Haley today and um she sent us I guess samples of different uh popular I guess assignments, but then she also has a Google spreadsheet of all. So, there's the two list that she sent us. So, yeah, I mean, we'll go through the Google spreadsheet.
7:33Um and then we can always back to her with questions. She's really good and she like responds within a day. So, it's great. And wait, Josh, the um I called you Josh now. Um now it's all messing with you.
7:43Um do they have Wi-Fi or is it just They do.
7:47They do. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because I didn't want to
7:50overpromise. Okay.
7:52Um Okay. So that's it. Um
7:55we'll do that then. 6:30 the 19th.
7:58Cool.
8:01Um budget for next year. So the BEA has made us I think 15,000 I want to say total. We did not get the 30,000 requested.
8:11We didn't. What did we get last year?
8:14It's about 15 grand. I think I would get like um I want to say it's 135 for the trees and then 750 or something like that for
8:23Okay.
8:23And then the same.
8:25Yes. It didn'tcrease at all. No. Although we did get we'll go down to it, but we did get the $5,000 from DPW.
8:34Which is
8:36Yeah. So that's a good thing. Anyway, all right. So, let's go on. Uh light bulb exchange. Is that like a done deal?
8:42Uh I put in the request for the final order. So, the check should be cut after the next meeting and sent out.
8:48Great. Um, and then bulbs are currently at city clerk, Hudson Library, Spark of Hudson, and then the rolling grocerers partnering with us now, which I have high hopes for things moving a lot there because people are there to get groceries already. So,
9:05good. Great. And so, the the um
9:08the grant is exhausted.
9:10The grant is exhausted. There's probably going to be like $30 up there.
9:14Fine. Fine. Great. Perfect. Thank you. um EV car charger grants. Okay, so I met with four different vendors over the past couple weeks uh for site visits. We went through them. It seems actually the two locations seemed very good in terms of like, you know, Rob Perry told me to go down by the dark park and the reason why is because that's where the the level three charger. That's where the electricity is down by the sewer plant there. So, um we could use even the dark parking lot for the level three, which
9:45will be nice. saying, "I told we'd be the first level three in the county, but yet just put one in a couple weeks ago. Spoiled again."
9:59It's going to be my new swear word.
10:06Um,
10:07we just met. But the other thing about the good thing about the other spot, the Amtrak spot, is that the Amra parking lot, we're going to have three similar to the ones behind city hall. We're going to have three stations with six ports. But we're going to start where the uh handicap spot is and then put three ports there because also by the next next year we have to have some electric EV charges which are handicap accessible. So it makes sense for us to put it there and so that's a good thing.
10:37But um but yeah, so I should be getting a few RFPs uh submissions by next week and then we can go over them and then see how it goes. So it's momentum,
10:50right?
10:51National grid has the money for the level three. Um there's grant money so that we can pull the electricity down and put like a little substation box. The hopefully by next year there should be some grant money to do the same thing for level twos. Um I told them that no trees can be cut down in this process.
11:07Um and they all looked at the uh you know where the poles were and it seems fairly doable.
11:13Good.
11:14So yeah. Anyway, so that's that is it is moving along.
11:18Um armor day. So talk to us.
11:21So the last tree planting will probably happen this week. We're putting in uh one, two, three, four, six trees at five sites. Um, initially it turned out we did not have the budget for it. And when I told Rob that, he gave us $5,000 that he had left in his budget. So, um, thank you.
11:44Thank you, Rob.
11:46Thank you, Nathan.
11:50Um, so yeah, so that's that's proceeding well. Uh, and I think there's probably still a small amount of because we got 5,000 and I think we were only short a couple of thousand. No, 3500. There's another $1,500 that we could potentially utilize before the end of the year.
12:07Um,
12:07yeah, we got to spend that money.
12:08Yeah. Waiting list on the trees.
12:12Uh, we do, however, because of the way it works, we can't um uh we can't I can't add on to it now because there it's already all the tickets are called in and everything and they don't want to plant just a couple trees.
12:25How about like some under planting somewhere?
12:28We could do some kind of pruning
12:30ground recovery.
12:31I mean, could we do could we
12:33could we we've been talking about we were just talking about maintenance, tree maintenance. Um
12:38I don't know how much it costs, but
12:39but we could look into that.
12:41Not this time of year though.
12:43I didn't know if was
12:45it not is it too?
12:46It might be too.
12:48Yeah, it might be too stressful.
12:49Well, the other thing is that I think as long as there we have a contract out for the money
12:55that we could encumber it for next year. I could ask Rise and Run to do a contract for our leftover funds for a couple of trees that are on our list and then we can encumber that and with the guarantee that we would be adding additional plantings to them,
13:09right?
13:10Yeah.
13:10Yes.
13:10Yeah. Oh, all right. I'll do that.
13:12See what Heather ask Heather first.
13:14That's very true.
13:16Yeah. What specifically has to happen?
13:18What documentation she needs, right? I think it's just a contract, but
13:21cool.
13:23So,
13:26sorry.
13:27No, I was just confirming that would be for more streets treats, right? For plantings.
13:31Yep. Okay.
13:32Cool.
13:33Great. I'll do my best, but if other people have other ideas,
13:39it's great. Sounds fine.
13:41No, no. Whether or not Rise Run agrees and Yeah. All of that. Yeah.
13:46Yeah. See if we can carry that money over somehow. Oh, there's like stairs or um tree ordinance. I don't think there's been any movement on it, right?
13:55I have.
13:56No, there's nothing.
13:58I've also been Yeah,
14:03no big now that the um
14:05Smith legal probably, right?
14:06But what what was the last thing that they were trying to figure out? Was it
14:10we you had some questions for that? They had some stage.
14:13Yeah, you went there, right? Mhm.
14:15And there was I think mutual confusion after that meeting and I've been basically out of
14:25um yeah I mean also I think legal canceled for this month so um because of the election now the election is going to be over tonight
14:35there'll be focus on actually yeah going back
14:39this is the almost December next time committee meeting.
14:46Yeah. Yeah. And then I'm just like I would just even pull up the old email from Margaret to say like look this is these are the outstating questions just as a reminder.
14:55Yeah.
14:55Yeah. Why
14:57community solar what's the status?
15:00I haven't heard more from I haven't heard any updates. It was with the I mean the council I think it was with the council as far as I knew but I thought oh it's someone had presented to power markets had presented to council has met with the mayor. It just it's hoping it would just continue to move forward through the mayor's office but I haven't heard anything.
15:23I think it gets passed. I mean it's a city clerk question next month. Well,
15:34I have to I I admit I forget. I mean, I won't be talking about it on the council, but I forget if we actually voted on it or not,
15:40but you're ramper looking.
15:43Somebody who's on the council to ask.
15:45Yeah, if you only have someone.
15:48I also didn't understand why it needed to go through the council because it was just
15:53the mayor can just say,
15:55well, maybe it's
15:55this is a service that's available to all Hudson residents. has nothing to do with the city in terms of cost.
16:02Maybe just present it and that was it then. Maybe that's
16:05so the mayor's office just can issue the letter that was already drafted by the power markets. It's a template letter that just is then sent out to residents saying you can opt in to this program if you're interested. It will save you 10%.
16:21Period.
16:22Yeah.
16:23Maybe it's just maybe it's just a question. Maybe just
16:26me.
16:27Yeah. See if Do you want to see if you can find out anything?
16:29Let me see. I'll just I'll email the city clerk and Justin. I'll CC you.
16:35Okay.
16:36We'll see what they
16:38Let's just see what the status is on.
16:40Okay.
16:42Support. Yeah.
16:43Yeah. It's just the letter. Maybe didn't go. That's why it didn't go. I don't remember both going that makes sense. And the same thing with tree one is with the anti law. I think Well, I think the anti pass.
16:54It passed.
16:55It did go through. I mean I think it's now before the concert I assume it passed even mid right
17:02I think it passed past passed I saw something I think we're in some of something
17:09you presumably that rich right
17:10I know how did you vote
17:13it's I think that's passed I think that there was like a non-issue I mean some people made a little bit of noise about it on gossips but I think that was it so
17:23so do we have a new idling law is that what you're I think we have an I don't
17:28so that's a we have to go back to climates more and see if we can get points for there.
17:32Yeah. When was it supposed to take
17:38you know
17:39I don't know.
17:40Okay fine.
17:41Um yeah there's one thing about passing laws. There's nothing about having it having them enforced as well.
17:47But yeah,
17:49I'm on record, so I'll I'll just stop it.
17:53Not say anything else.
17:56Um, the tree replacement. So, the last conversation I had with them last month was that they're going to wait until the first frost, which is soon.
18:03I think we had it.
18:05Well, we had it, didn't we?
18:07Yeah, we did have barely.
18:08Yeah,
18:09we had
18:10last week. It was last week. Maybe an hour when it was below freezing.
18:14Yeah.
18:14Not doesn't qualify as a first crop.
18:18No, they don't want the ground.
18:19No, it has to be I mean when it when it starts to actually have an effect on the plants, it has to be below freezing for a long time rather than just a it killed some of my
18:33on transitive plant people for the saplings.
18:36Depends on how sensitive it is. M
18:38there are some hardier plants that can withstand it, but like usually like more delicate flowers.
18:44These are trees to put in.
18:45Oh, trees are
18:47Yeah. So, we should be able to put them in. You're saying wait.
18:51I I am not an expert.
18:59When's too cold for tree plantings?
19:02You should be able to get the best.
19:04Yeah. I feel like you know probably more than me.
19:06I think most of them should. Yes, I'll answer. I'll just reply. That's who I would ask.
19:10It's Travis Travis. So, I'll just reply on that email.
19:14Well, given that it's going to take them time to coordinate it.
19:17They're also in Long Island. So, for them, probably the first frost hasn't happened yet. So, they won't happen.
19:23But I'm saying even if you start the process now, it's going to be two or three weeks. They can't plant it in December. It has to happen.
19:29I talk to them almost every month. I get I get them every
19:32And this is for the
19:34replacement
19:35replacements. the the Harry Howard trees Harry Howard trees that we've done are just
19:39I know the ones they're putting in for Rise and R are put in are going in next week
19:44and I don't think they wanted to wait a lot longer. So
19:47yeah.
19:48All right. I'll follow up with them tomorrow. Thank you.
19:51Um Columbia County Climate Smart I just have this on the agenda as like a placeholder.
19:57Yes. Uh there's a meeting on Thursday.
20:00There's a meeting Thursday.
20:01A monthly meeting. So I have I don't have any I don't I don't have any
20:06any action items per
20:08I don't have it but I missed the last meeting.
20:10Oh
20:12have you heard anything?
20:13No no I mean I'm on the environmental management council. Um and we used to have one of our members who was also on the climate smart committee but he's not anymore. So we don't get regular reports.
20:31Yeah. What's the difference between the county level and the community level for the smart?
20:36Well, it's two different
20:38entities. Is the county itself taking on these tasks that we're looking at
20:44uh to become and it is already, you know, it's it's a bronze
20:48climate smart community at the county level.
20:50They So they do have them the county level.
20:52Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's a it's a separate
20:55system. So each of the towns and
20:59in Columbia County that is uh doing a CSSE program is individually doing their their numbers like G.
21:07Like Gench. Yes.
21:13All right. Um so Oh, the Waffle Stone on uh State Street Park.
21:19Yeah, we have to agree would be able to uh accept the delivery because we have a delivery. who are promised to live dependent delivery, but um you know they don't do stuff on the weekends. So if there's I'm thinking if there's a Friday afternoon or something where everybody can
21:37you know show up
21:39what needs to be done
21:41and help room between the stones on ankle break park and I think they're going to pull up
21:49um the discussion I had with them in the um alley
21:53so which is sort of midway between the
21:56well the ends of the park but we just have to give them a date and then they'll either under a level because there's two there's two sets of the uh where do you call that apric there's like a lower level and the metal stairs
22:14yeah we're talking the top the top level not the lower level and I guess if there's any left over we could maybe slap it down I'm really thinking the upper level is the one problematic
22:26yeah so they're just kind of dumping it a big pile and we'll We will spread it around.
22:32Yeah. So, we need to I mean, it's your next your next door, right?
22:36Yes.
22:37Are you available on Fridays for
22:39Yes.
22:40Pick a day. Pick a day.
22:42I mean,
22:43it's good for everybody.
22:44Um I mean, do we want to I mean, is it too cold for the people? No.
22:49Let's do it.
22:50Fine. Do it. Pick a day.
22:52Should it like next Friday,
22:53the 14th
22:55or not? That's
22:56not not you.
22:57Not the 14th. What other tight days?
22:59Maybe the 21st.
23:04I think I'm out on this one
23:10cuz you really should do it before December in case there's a
23:13Yeah.
23:14And I don't want them to forget about it, you know. And
23:1821st is fine with me or the 14th.
23:20Yeah. 14th. I have time during the day, but not the 21st. So, I won't have time during the day.
23:28Yeah.
23:28Well, how about the
23:31I'm hoping I'll be back. I'm having surgery a few days before. Let's do the 21st. We'll figure it out.
23:38Hopefully, you know, I'll be back and
23:40let's do the 21st then.
23:41We do 21st. Is that okay with each one?
23:44Yeah, that's better. That's fine.
23:45Um, all right. Cool. So, what what time are we? Maybe sunset or something.
23:50Let me let me send out four o'clock. see what they
23:53what they would be more
23:59be in touch with them see when they can deliver and um then I'll send out
24:04and do we need to get brooms or something? Yeah, as the does everybody everybody I mean maybe DPW has um we can borrow janitor type rooms
24:19that's a like a
24:21like a push but one I have one too
24:25if we have I think three or four we'll probably get
24:28also tool shed place you could oh you could borrow yes of course be a seven
24:35and I have rapes Okay. So, everybody bring what you have.
24:39Um I think we'll probably need I mean I
24:42get into my car. I probably can.
24:45Um you know, if you have a a wheelbarrow and or any kind of RA um but the brooms are the most important thing for that. And um the water shut off now, right? Because it's end of season for the fountain.
25:00Yes, the water from the fountain shut off. Well, let me ask Rob because maybe they can hook it up temporarily with a hose because you should really kind of wet it in after you put it in.
25:09Um, so I'll see if that can happen.
25:11Keep the dust under control. Okay, clean.
25:15What What What's the size of this stone that you're putting down?
25:19It's like It's Yeah, it's not big gravel. It's
25:27I forget what the name of the gravel. It's not
25:29people. Yeah, exactly.
25:33It is called
25:36Do we have the um green keepers online? Who's online?
25:41I'm the greener people.
25:43Oh, you're the green keeper person. I'm sorry. Sorry. The Earth Law Center. Earth law center.
25:48The only person there's someone named CW.
25:52Oh, that's probably Earth Law Center.
25:55Can you hear me? Well, save that. Come on. Sorry. All right, let's go on. Climate action plan for Hudson. We still have that on the agenda. Do I can I take that off?
26:16Probably. I don't think it happened.
26:18Right.
26:18Heard nothing more.
26:19Okay, fine.
26:21That was the committee you were on. We had the person come and speak to us, right? the comprehensive plan.
26:28Oh, thank you.
26:32That was a different one.
26:34There was talk about having like a climate action plan and sort of process alongside the comprehension.
26:41I mean, some element of sustainability got built into
26:46the climate action plan, as far as I know, did not go anywhere. We were kind of Yeah, we were just talking about having like a bit of a uh I don't want to just call it a blanket like restoration plan, but kind of like something more of like the natural spaces like kind of inventory, but
27:07not an inventory, but like kind of like priorities of like what we want to see over like the next few years of prioritizing pollinator habitat or other restoration opportunities. Um or yeah it could be all it could be a bit more broader than that. So I wonder if that's
27:24still if we still want to keep climate action plan on the table just do something a bit more broader.
27:31But we can think about it.
27:34Okay. But so am I taking this off the agenda or no?
27:39The climate action
27:40plan for now. But like we're going to noodle on it
27:43to see if something else can come in.
27:45Great. and the county is doing a reduction. So hopefully that's what
27:52um Candid Foundation directory membership. I think we need you still need to be reimbured for that. Is that right?
27:57I'm sorry. What?
27:58The Candid Foundation directory membership?
28:00Yeah.
28:01Yeah. You sent me the Did you send me the
28:06like an invoice or anything?
28:07Yes. Subject.
28:09No.
28:11Sorry. Do you want the money? You run out of time.
28:18I had so much other stuff to do. Sorry.
28:22Well, there might be a little bit of money left over in the account. So,
28:25okay. Thank you. I will I will get that.
28:29So, send and then I send it. Okay. And it goes through. Um, fine.
28:36Okay. So, now I'm the greener.
28:38That's all right. Uh, so I sent the this little thing about the green keepers out, this proposal or the tree steward program. I think I sent it a couple months ago.
28:49Um, I don't know if anybody had a chance to look at it.
28:52Briefly, scroll it. Scroll through it.
28:55It's basically just a proposal for um volunteer partnership uh working with community to do um street tree care and maintenance. It's very much based on the New York City program um and also working on other like potentially the pocket parks and things like that doing doing maintenance on those spaces. So the little proposal I sent just sort of um talks about um doing um training sessions with people on how to do street care and maintenance. We were talking about a business uh coalition partnership maybe. I was talking with somebody who's part of the what is the Hudson Business
29:36Coalition.
29:37Coalition called Yeah. Um who is in charge of that, Billy. So he so I talked to him about possibly coming and speaking to them about it. Um the big questions I have uh around it are um would we need to do some sort of legislation with the common council if we wanted to do something like this? Um because we'd be creating a tree steward program where we're saying someone may come to the street tree in front of your house and work on it.
30:08Um is that uh an issue?
30:12Does that get tied in
30:13tree?
30:14Yeah, I was going to say does that tie in with tree ordinance?
30:16It is technically true that the tree in front of someone's house is their private property.
30:22Yes. Um, and so there's like a the way it's structured as I understand it, not not a lawyer, not a
30:31Yeah. expert, is that there like the sidewalk is like an easement essentially.
30:35Yeah. Yeah.
30:36And the tree is, you know, theirs in the same way it would be if it was somewhere else. And so you can regulate it. You can do all kinds of things like that.
30:45Um, yeah. So it is is a it it probably is a question then like in New York City trees are public property so you're able to go and you're able to work on those trees.
30:58Um I don't know if the easement gives us any
31:00I don't really understand but I think you
31:02come on Nathan you're the expert now. I feel like I didn't even use those words. This is like my like vague understanding works. Well, like the sidewalk, you're technically that's yours and you have to maintain the sidewalk. So, I imagine the same respect that you have to maintain if the tree is causing problems, you are responsible for solving those problems. Um, but I think um, in our effort to maintain the trees, I'm sure a whole lot of the property owners are going to be happy to have somebody come by and volunteer to do some maintenance because otherwise it's it's their expense to
31:44hire somebody knocking on door.
31:47That's and I have that I basically said like if there's somebody there, you try to engage with them. Maybe if we have a little card you can leave for them to say do some maintenance on your tree.
31:58The other thing is that national bird comes down comes along every now and then too and just chops these trees.
32:02That was something we were thinking. Could this be part of that program? Uh
32:07yeah. Yeah. cuz I don't know if you got if you were on the the the the um message uh stream but stream but Joshua Del Rio is a new DEC forester.
32:22Okay. and he reached out to me
32:24and I forwarded to Andrew because um he's very interested in basically helping you know he's like are there any you know would there be any educational you know possibilities blah blah blah blah and I'm replying to him well yeah for example teach how to trim trees properly etc etc so he's really want wants to work with us and he has a couple of programs that he wants to get people involved um and so on and so forth. So, it's a it's a nice new
32:55sounds connection. It's a nice a nice way to do this. And then we were even saying,
32:59could he do a training session with the DPW? You know, um because they do some of that as well.
33:05They have hired Brit to do that also. Brit was walking alongside DPW telling them how to prune.
33:12Yeah. But she's not.
33:14I'm sorry. I'd like
33:16But at least this would be an opportunity for them to learn about, you know, how to do it properly. Yes, we will bring an arbor to it right here.
33:24And and especially if National Grid has any money to put into this.
33:29Yeah, I know. Well, he was really wanting us to partner with him and he was talking about, oh, would you be interested in um going because Filmont got the grant to reforest part of their um White High Falls
33:42and there was going to be a dedication or what? I mean, and I think they just finished the platform there or whatever, but he said, "Do you want to?" And I'm like, "Yeah. Yes, please talk to us,
33:52you know, to love us.
33:54Yeah, the more conversations we have with DEC, I mean, it can't hurt. Yeah. I mean, because who knows? They might let us in on grants or who knows what, right?
34:01So, I thought that's great. So,
34:04yeah, great.
34:05We have to uh Yeah.
34:06So, in terms of moving this forward then, I it sounds like people have a positive reaction to it. So, all right. So, I'll do some outreach now and just see if I can gather some more information about it. Maybe I'll reach out to some people on the council as well and just sort of say this maybe our new council president who is assumed given the primary is
34:24yeah there's only one person running
34:31there'll be a new council there'll be new members on the council too so we'll see
34:35be discussions
34:36could turn it into a proposal too
34:38that's yeah it started as a proposal
34:40yeah like more maybe um timelines yeah like
34:44we can even just pass like a simple resolution that says essentially like LA, you know, it doesn't have to actually, but it could just be a resolution that says,
34:53uh, we're announcing city announces this program.
34:56Um, so that people makes people more aware of it. Yeah,
34:59it doesn't necessarily have to be on the law. It could just be, you know,
35:04it's like it's pride month, you know, yay doing this.
35:08Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. the pocket park, the extension of the ankle breaker bar that is right next to Mel's there across from the county.
35:19That feels like a prime place that there's a local business that has a strong incentive to make that nice.
35:27They actually did that work in front of their space with Aaron's help. And that's kind of the exact sort of thing I'm talking about where people you have a tree in front of your business and you don't like
35:38you can help us
35:41by planting or doing something along those lines in or whatever.
35:45Yeah.
35:46If if people have other ideas, please feel free to email me because then I'll put something together more
35:52fleshed out
35:53um about where we could start. I certainly don't want to bite off more than we can chew at the beginning. So maybe it's within those. But the idea of timelines, let's try to do this first, then let's try to do that and then let's try to do that.
36:08That was my concern that I love I love the idea. The idea of forming a whole new program is is a lot
36:15as a body that advises the common council yet getting res a resolution or getting their buy in in some way. Exactly. in terms of
36:23and then proposing a pilot first where we try to do x
36:27something simple
36:29with x number of people
36:30right
36:31yeah I mean people also also understand that we're only going to be able to do this for like city of Hudson
36:37related trees right not the the county trees
36:41like yeah
36:43yeah that's just
36:44and it would only be street trees
36:46and we certainly broadly open it but we could even take a look at trying to like get a volunteer day going where we're going work on the Warren Street trees or something very visible.
36:55Yeah.
36:56Um
36:57Yeah. Like that.
36:57Or if the arrest wants to come and maybe someone from DC come give a talk.
37:01Yeah. Do a training on Yeah.
37:03And his program is called the relief program.
37:06Relief. I'm I'll copy everybody. Yeah.
37:09Yeah. Like the library could sponsor it. You could have in the library or something.
37:13It feels like we have a little lead time because doing something like that in the spring could be a really nice time to do it.
37:18Yeah. Wonderful.
37:19More community engagement. Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah, it'll be a slow start.
37:23Yeah, that's very fact.
37:27We could also get any um if you have any funds left over too, we could get uh native wildflower seeds too and do some uh tree pit plantings in the spring.
37:41Talking about the budget we have now, right?
37:43Yeah. We wanted to do any like uh see how those do in some sunny tree pits and plant those. I used to do that when I was
37:51Yeah. And one of the tree recipients did that this year. Just threw up some things and they came up.
37:55Yeah. Yeah. You know, you But then it's like talking with some folks like um to make sure they can water, maintain it, all that kind of stuff. But
38:04yeah, it could be another little idea.
38:06Treat it to
38:07Yeah.
38:10Um Okay. I'm just checking.
38:11Thank you.
38:12The person online. Is there anyone here from Earth Law Center? Earth Law Center.
38:19No,
38:20no, guess not. Okay, fine. Um, all right. So, City Sidewalks, uh, Gary Perhagen, who is in charge of the sidewalk committee, emailed me back. I think I forwarded that email to all of you, um, about their plans for the sidewalk, which is really just cement.
38:42Oh, sidewalks and street trees. How does That way if the sidewalks are privately what they're doing all of this
38:53that's a really good question
38:54then that could maybe help inform the trees as well.
38:57You could do cut out maybe well that's the whole thing is that this uh sidewalk committee was established because people weren't maintaining their sidewalks right because technically you have to maintain your own sidewalks people not fine. So they put together a commission which is now going to put together a fund and a fee is going to a fund that will ultimately redo all these sidewalks. But how they redo the sidewalks, the idea is that if you redo a whole stretch, it's cheaper than doing things individually. Makes sense,
39:26right? Fine. But um how they redo those sidewalks or how code enforcement says they can like that's all still debatable.
39:36Yeah. It's certainly something we raised maybe even a year ago saying could we It seems unlikely that we're going to have a budget to do like water permeable sidewalks, but could we at least put in more tree pits or enlarge the ones that exist?
39:52Or what we could also do is even just change the code that would allow people to put in permable sidewalks. Yeah.
40:00Because I mean as of right now all we do is say is tell people to put in concrete,
40:05right? But
40:07so just best practices,
40:08right? What are best practices? So we can even just I mean advisory council is counsel and give them some advice. Yeah.
40:15And say look here's some ideas for sidewalks. Now I this is totally outside my realm but anyone knows I don't know. I
40:23I think you heard at HBC that the primary sidewalks only last like three years and they get clogged. But right, they they they certainly require maintenance if you're going to do a a parking lot in a business. Uh the business really has to plan ahead for uh vacuuming uh every so often because, you know, just normal grit plugs up the holes that the water's supposed to go through. So, um I I've studied this issue for a while and I'm not familiar with the successful uh sidewalk permeability.
41:06I think the architect, the landscape architect on HDC, I don't know her name is a bridge or
41:11bridge.
41:12Yeah, she she knows.
41:13She knows.
41:14And then she was like, uh not in this climate.
41:18Oh,
41:19yeah. It's always things we need to look into, you know,
41:23right? I mean, I don't know. Well, right. Okay. So, I'm going to leave that on the I'm going to leave it on the agenda. So, if anyone knows like
41:28Well, we could als I don't know if the sidewalks are wide enough, but even or three pits to expand them to be more like more take on more water.
41:37Depends on the space. Yeah. Yeah.
41:39On street. Yes. On some of the other streets, it's narrow already.
41:44But um but yeah, if we wanted to think about bioils or
41:48I think that I think It's more practical just to expand even if we can we can't make the concrete itself the pathway for the
42:00but just extend those tree pits and then have more
42:03yeah the movement they sorry
42:05no you I was going to say that's that's been the movement down the city as well also on Union Street they put in some that were water collecting wells I seen those trees that are planted below
42:15right that's a whole separate funed project that we got with the DC starting five or six years. Gotcha. So that was the funding on that
42:25those I think wasn't very critical of that particular business.
42:29I don't know if they really were.
42:30Yeah, there were some errors in the design about of the pits themselves that led the
42:36the trees to not flourish.
42:39But we went around that again and the trees that are in there now seem to be doing better.
42:43They do. I've noticed that too because I heard the criticism as well. I'm like seemed like they're fine. Um, but to your point, given that we barely can even maintain our sidewalks, maybe the next step up is just getting them to enlarge the tree beds where there's
42:56possible. That suggest that suggests a kind of a design template.
43:07Yeah. for implementing uh the sidewalk replacement
43:11that you know if possible
43:14we should do it kind of this way depending on the space. So
43:18great tool a sidewalk template like a complete sidewalk that is the sidewalk the tree uh holes
43:28right
43:29or whatever their tree put out it's and then because like what currently happens is we pour the concrete sometime later we decide which somebody decides to put trees in. We have like
43:38it's just like it would be
43:40double work
43:40double work if someone's like redoing a whole stretch of sidewalk. Right. It's like we put the trees in or at least make this available and
43:48as part of the degraded
43:52if it's like bare soil, we put a cover crop down like have some plants in the meantime.
43:56Yeah. Right. Yeah. Just leave it right until
44:00And certainly there's that bigger issue on Warren Street specifically where we're not allowed to put in new trees, but that would be a substitute solution. We could do a shrub. We could do small plantings, you know, things like that instead of just saying, "Well, we can't have anything green on Warren Street anymore."
44:16Can't have anything nice.
44:18Yeah.
44:21They can both be fine.
44:22Mhm.
44:22Yeah.
44:23Yeah. Relatively low,
44:26you know, waist tie uh farm should be Yeah.
44:30Who you talk to on the sidewalk committee?
44:32It's Gary. Gary Pagen Thursday. Do they have like a
44:37Thursday? So,
44:40do they have more informal meetings that we can also join outside of the
44:43They have a meeting like this.
44:45Okay.
44:45Yeah.
44:46So, nothing like
44:48outside of city hall.
44:49No, it's in city hall. They are city hall meeting. Yeah.
44:53But
44:54yeah, we could go like Yeah. We get to show up and say, "By the way,
44:58yeah,
44:58I'd be willing to at least just email him so it's on his radar that we're we're having this discussion." I have emails in that, so he does know.
45:07Okay.
45:07So, I think the next step is for someone to show up at one of their meetings.
45:10Yeah. Thursday 5:30.
45:12Oh, look at you. There you go.
45:15There you go. Thursday 5:30. If anyone wants to go,
45:18we should probably have exams.
45:21Well, maybe you can bring this issue up really.
45:23How frequently do they meet? Because I don't think we're going to be ready by this Thursday at 5:30.
45:26Once a month.
45:27But even if we just tell them to do a placeholder for the truth in the future.
45:32Yeah. You I think we could even like share maybe share examples of what these things could look like um
45:40to maybe just inform their conversation if they have
45:43they talk about it on Thursday and then
45:46we could show up at the next one.
45:49Photographic.
45:50Yeah, it it's it's it's government. It was a glacial pieces so there's no there's no rush. They've been working on this silo for years this year.
45:59All right. So probably not it can totally still feed into your street program
46:08and we can put it on the staffing agenda. Yeah. And discussing it because it's street
46:13and you could engage him at the um on the uh the front street the chamber of commerce. Oh he hangs out there. Oh okay good. So
46:23he's chamber of commerce. Yes.
46:24Yeah. So you can always kind of walk in the people anyway. Okay, that's all I got. Anything else about
46:35the the Earth law person had just reached out. I was just trying to understand I saw the email about the green.
46:42They wanted to like portal work for us. So I was like, okay, fine. You want and they get into a threem minute presentation. So I'm like, okay, fine. Um I don't know what so I just I followed that link. So it seems like they have a toolkit. Yes.
47:00For the green amendment which passed maybe in 2019 in New York state which was an amendment to the state constitution to guarantee a right to clean air, clean water and a healthful environment. New Yorkers passed back then. So now we have that right in New York state which is one of three states in the nation that have this guaranteed right. Wow.
47:19And so it's a tool now for litigation for municipalities
47:24um to advocate for ourselves
47:26in terms of industry coming in or decision making. Um it's a tool that has not been used that much because it has it's not hasn't it was just passed a few years ago but maybe that they seems like I didn't I haven't looked at the toolkit and I don't know the law center but um it seems like there's a toolkit for maybe us just to be aware of the waterfront people might want to Yeah. They might be they might be better off doing a presentation for the work. Yeah,
47:55that's something for us to be aware of. But yes,
47:58thanks.
47:59All right. Um, that's all I got folks.
48:02All right. Good meeting. Thank you, Sher. All right. Motion to adjourn. Yay. Thank you. Thank you.

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