Update

Where We're At and Where We Seem to be Going

1. Progress of the AdHoc Tree Committee: We have done four blocks now, with two long blocks to go (see my notes from each of these walks, Walk One and Walk Two). We will be doing these last two blocks at the end of month.

2. Sunup: Art Tully, Zep Thomaselli, and Naomi Sachs met with two reps from Sunup last Wednesday and the good news is that they are not charging us additional penalties now for work stopped. However, they are billing us for the work stoppage, and Art is sifting through the bill that they sent yesterday to see what was part of the original bill and what is additional charge due to the change in program. Needless to say, that is all in the past and should not have a bearing on how the City proceeds from here (except maybe to have learned the hard way to do it right the first time around). The other not-great news is that they had already ordered and had cast and painted the 5' x 5' tree grates, which the tree savvy among us were advocating against (they often do more harm than good, and it's harder to insert tree grates into a permeable paver system, which is what Megan, Lou, and I were recommending for the new sidewalk treatment). So, it's likely that those grates will have to be incorporated into the streetscape design. See #4 for more on this.

3. Timing: The City agreed at last night's meeting to hold off on the bulk of the tree and sidewalk work until the Spring, with the end of January as the goal for finishing up design work so that change orders can be submitted for the spring, etc. We have not yet discussed the possibility of using a different contractor altogether, but I think the possibility is pretty remote at this point. However, we may be able to get Sunup to use a different contractor for the actual tree planting, if the People are adamant enough that there is someone better for the job. Postponing further work until spring is good news for two main reasons: First, it gives us time to really plan this right instead of running around trying to fix stuff under the gun; second, all plant material, and especially trees, fare best when planted in the spring. It's the absolute best planting window. The downside of waiting is that at least one Beacon property owner is saying that she cannot deal with another winter of damage from the tree and its roots on her building and sidewalk. The City is still discussing what to do in these cases. There will be a slight increase in cost if we wait until spring, due to inevitable rises in labor and material costs (about 5%).

4. Outside Expert: The City has been talking about possibly hiring an outside company, someone who is not from Beacon and who has urban streetscape experience, to work on the overall streetscape design for Main Street - plantings, sidewalk treatment, etc. This company would probably have to adhere to some constraints since the more change orders we put in, the more expensive the job gets, but there would at least be a level of impartiality that our AdHoc Tree Committee does not have. I have asked that the AdHoc Tree committee and the general public be kept in the loop regarding the choice of firm (the City would put out an RFQ, or Request for Qualifications); design process; and especially the final design, keeping a level of transparency and citizen participation that was not present in the initial project (which is why we're here now). One more good reason for postponing work until the spring is that this outside expert would be one final opinion on what trees should come down - perhaps they have innovative techniques that would allow us to keep more of the mature trees that are heaving the sidewalks, etc.

5. Maintenance: One audience member brought up the excellent point of maintenance - was this in the contract, has the City budgeted for this at all, etc. - which should definitely be addressed during the design phase. There is no sense in planting trees that aren't going to be cared for once they're in the ground.

6. The trees that have already been planted: They are guaranteed for a year, so if they die, SunUp has to replace them. At this point, opinion seems to be that we might as well let them go and hope that they will be replaced with a better species, and in a better way, along with all of the other new trees in the spring.

Thanks very much to all members of the AdHoc Tree Committee for their hard work and time, to Mayor Gould and the City Council for seeing the writing on the wall and making the decision to heed the cries of some very angry and upset citizens, and to the citizens who made their voices heard and made change happen!

Best regards,

Naomi Sachs, ASLA
Member, City of Beacon Ad Hoc Tree Committee
Member, City of Beacon Conservation Advisory Commission