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Public Spaces and Greening GroupRyan’s Daughter, 5:30 p.m.Tuesday, August 8, 2017Present: Peter Bieneman, Kathy Brohawn, Curt Schwartz, Denise Blackwell, Helene Perry, Marie AndersonThis special meeting was convened at this time and location in order to give everyone an ample opportunity for an open-ended discussion.I. Updates: A. KMB GrantPS&G has received $2,250 in funding from the Keep Maryland Beautiful Grant from DNR. The funds are held by Strong City Baltimore, we must scan expense receipts and send them to the YRP treasure, Francesco Legaluppi, who will in turn approve and forward them to Kim Lillig at Strong City for reimbursement, or pre-pay approvement to use the Strong City charge card. Make sure receipts are legible and use the Strong City tax exempt card for purchase.B. VolunteersLoyola’s Finance Department volunteered at various projects on York Rd. On August 3rd; about 20 people came to GUF and dug a trench from the sidewalk to the back end of GUF by the boundary fence at Crowson. Curt had constructed a stake station near the fence where a hose from the city water supply (accessed at a water well in the sidewalk) could be connected to a distribution hose running the length of GUF. ‘Y’ connections were placed every 50 or 100 ft. to enable water to be tapped off throughout the forest. This now allows us to provide water to plant new trees throughout the interior; our major fall project. Curt suggested placing enclosed benches over the access connections to prevent vandalism and offered to design and construct one.C. Cricket competitionGUF was one of three projects entered a national voting Cricket, Inc. competition to receive either the project completed (for the winner) or a $2,500 runner-up prize. The CARES food pantry and the Dewees Memorial Garden are the other two projects.D. Tree InventoryA representative from TreeBaltimore has agreed to come to a future meeting to tell us about the City Tree Inventory so we can see if we tie our inventory into the City InventoryII. Mission or Goals of PS&GSeveral Mission Statements have been developed over the years. Helene collected some for the committee to review and chose or rewrite one appropriate for its current work. Unfortunately Helene forgot to bring copies, so these will be distributed by email tomorrow so they can be discussed at the next meeting.III. A Review of past PS&G projects and discussion of appropriate future activitiesOver the last 10 – 15 years PS&G (or the previous YRP ‘Greening Committee’) has focused on two main efforts; developing and working with DoT to implement the streetscape projects from Northern Parkway to 43rd St and sponsoring projects to make the York Road Corridor more attractive, safer and greener.A. StreetscapeEven though the City streetscape projects on the Corridor have been completed, the committee identified improvements that we would like to see being made, such asplanting more street trees, particularly on private properties,installing curbside swales to catch runoff, installing new storm drain covers that prevent larger objects from entering a sewer and ending up in the harbor or bay, enlarging the tree pits in the section between Northern Parkway (or Orkney Rd.) and Glenwood Ave. to conform with the current standard. Most are only 4x5 ft.investigating bike lanes. The York Corridor Collective Report suggests a major street re-design for the Corridor. Given its experience and the expertise the group feels strongly that, representatives from PS&G should be involved in any and all discussions on such redesign discussions and initiatives.B. Greening the Corridor1. Street Tree InventoryPS&G does a yearly ‘Tree Walk’ to update its tree inventory which consists of the approximately 200 trees between the City line and 43rd St. Besides compiling the list of trees that need to be replaced, which is then submitted to the City Forestry Department and 311, note is made of the condition the pits, whether mulching, weedwacking is needed and whether tree pruning or other work is needed.Besides developing a list of tree requests for trees on public right-of-way, PS&G identified locations on private properties where a tree could be placed, contacted the owner for their buy-in and submitted requests to the City.2. Partnering with YRIHistorically committee members have worked with Loyola’s York Road Initiative volunteers to maintain tree pits; primarily from the Woodbourne area to Glenwood, and recently from Glenwood to 43rd St. The latter area was planted in 2013 but was not maintained, so our efforts are directed to weeding, and mulching and trying to rescue whatever of the original liriope remains.The 5400 and adjacent blocks, and the 4600 block were ‘landscaped’ with gravel in the pits to mitigate the effects of the large amount of foot traffic in these commercial areas. The former was last refreshed in fall of 2013; the latter installed in spring 2016.A well-maintained tree pit contributes not only to the health of the tree but to the overall appearence of the Corridor for the benefit of stores, businesses and non-profits and the adjacent neighborhoods as desirable places to reside.While volunteer effort can supplement professional maintenance, from our experience tree pits need to be worked on by professionals at least twice a year and new plantings must be watered frequently.3. Mini-green spacesIn addition to trees and tree pits, there are a few sites which PS&G has identified as mini-greenspaces that serve to enhance the appearance of the Corridor:The Bellona Triangle and Curran Memorial Clock were originally maintained by volunteers. This proved to be unsustainable and these areas are now cared for by a professional landscaper and funded by the Govanstowne Business Association. Similarly, as more green sites have been identified, we find it is impossible to keep them up to a respectable standard with only volunteer effort. Other public mini-green spaces are:The bus stop garden at Coldspring The Family Dollar perimeter outside their brick wallThe Community Health Center at 5225 As well as some very visible sites on private propertyThe Woodbourne Ave. BP stationA planter bed in front of Enterprise RentalsPopeyesRichnor Springs Garden next to the Sunoco station at ColdspringThe group expressed strong support for the need to care, plant and maintain these mini-plots listed but agreed they should be transitioned when feasible to a professional landscape service. These are locations that are beneficial for enhancing the attractiveness of the Corridor and can provide a unifying theme for the Corridor. While PS&G partners with the YRI for the upkeep of these sites, as well as for all the tree pits, we do not have enough members, even collectively, to adequately maintain them. Volunteers come too infrequently and often have insufficient skill or interest for this type of work. One exception is that the Richnor Springs neighborhood has indicated it would like to maintain the Richnor Springs Garden as a neighborhood project.C: Our Vision If the York Corridor Collective evolves as an organization with appropriate resources, this organization should take on the responsibility to oversee and;Maintain the Bellona Triangle, Curran Memorial, and Coldspring GardenMaintain the trees and tree pits. Tree pits in commercial area, the 5900 block, 54-5300, and 4600 blocks have grates or gravel in the pits. PS&G will continue to update yearly the Street Tree Inventory and provide a list of replacements and maintenance needed for specific trees and tree pits. Plant and maintain the three median strips in the 4900, 4300 and 4400 blocks.Do seasonal planting and maintenance of at least the public mini-green spaces listed above.Initiate a project to replant tree pits with a hardly and dense spreading ground cover such as liriope.Enlarge the tree pits in areas that were installed over 10 years ago to conform to the current standards In the section north of Glenwood, tree pit are mostly 4x5ft, which is too small to sustain a healthy street tree.IV. Govans Urban ForestWater access is now assured so we can go ahead and plant new trees and shrubs. Peter volunteered to do a walk-though and make suggestions for locations and types of trees. There was some discussion about the concrete pipe and whether it would be possible to remove it. Denise will investigate whether there is someone in the neighborhood who may be able to do this. She is also going to see if she can find someone interested in taking our branches and debris to the dump; otherwise we may have to rent a dumpster to remove everything that has been collected since last spring. Our next project is to plant new trees and shrubs this fall.As it was getting late, further discussion about the future of GUF and its development was deferred tor a future meeting.The meeting was adjourned at 7 pm. ................
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