KENT, Conn.—The Conservation Commission reached agreement at its Wednesday, Aug. 13, meeting about how to handle its street tree planting program.
The members agreed to offer grants of up to $500 to cover 50 percent of the cost of planting three trees this year.
Member Connie Manes will craft a revised version of the property owner agreement. Jos Spelbos, who wrote the first draft, objected that revising the document would delay planting beyond this year’s season. “It needs to be revised,” said Manes. “I don’t think it moves forward in its current state because of the disagreement on the commission.”
The commission will hold a special meeting soon to discuss the revisions to facilitate planting this fall. Application would close in mid-September with planting in mid-October.
Over the last two decades, the commission has sponsored tree plantings along streets in the village center, on the Kent Center School grounds, and in the Flanders Historic District.
Many were planted on Arbor Day in collaboration with school staff and students. Others were planted with the help of Kent Greenhouse and the Kent Public Works Department, while still others were planted by residents or businesses.
For the past two years, the commission has debated details of the program, trying to decide where the best target areas for the plantings are now, how to choose property owners whose lands might host the trees, and how much property owners would be required to do to qualify for a tree.
Also at issue was who would plant the trees and how much the town would be involved in their maintenance.
The commission did a last-minute turnaround in its thinking about the program during the meeting, moving rapidly away from town involvement in planting and maintaining the trees. Spelbos, a landscape gardener and designer who advises the commission, had outlined a program that called for the town crew to help plant the trees and Spelbos and town Tree Warden Bruce Bennett to assist in pruning them.
But that idea was jettisoned when member Melissa Cherniske declared, “I don’t want us to be landscapers and be involved in maintenance. When we got into that at the last meeting, I realized we were in over our heads, and this is not the program for us.”
Former first selectman Jean Speck, now chairman of the commission, concurred. She said commission members are not town employees and have no authority to commit town workers to do any work.
“We are not [Bruce Bennett’s] supervisor,” she said. “We have no authority. That creates a relationship with the property owner and there are a lot of liability issues with saying we will do something with town employees.”
Spelbos protested. “We have been doing that with the Arbor Day plantings. Plus, in the past, when Sean McAvoy was chairman, we got permission from people and we and the town planted the trees. It worked pretty well and I don’t see the problem.”
He further stressed the importance of pruning the trees properly for the first couple of years after planting. “Bruce and I could do that,” he said.
Speck said she liked idea of a simple grant to be used toward the purchase and/or cost of planting by a professional contractor. She suggested a maximum of be $250. Cherniske proffered the alternate idea of a reimbursable grant, letting the landowner take responsibility for the purchase and placement. The grant would be paid when the commission was shown the receipt, the species of tree chosen and where it was placed.
Manes countered with the idea that the commission should approve the properties where trees would be planted and provide a straight-forward grant of up to $500. “Let’s see if it works if we enable people to buy the trees and hire a contractor who knows what he is doing,” she said. “Part of service we envisioned was to create an incentive to do this work.”
Cherniske asked what would happen if an applicant got the $500 grant and then bought a $100 tree and planted it himself.
“We can make it a grant for 50 percent of the cost up to $500,” said Manes. “I highly doubt people will turn themselves into pretzels for 500 bucks. This is an incentive program, a way to get us in front of the public to say, ‘Street trees are important. We hope you will consider how important they are and join us.’ I think we have to trust them.”
Trees of the size desired cost $500 to $600 and planting the specimen would double that expense.
Funding for the planting program will be drawn from the Kuga Fund, which currently has about $12,000 to dedicate to the project. The independent fund was given to the town years ago by a Japanese visitor who wanted to honor the memory of Birdsey Northrup, a turn-of-the-last-century Kent native and tree enthusiast.
Some members believe that fund should be drawn down, while others favor finding ways to rebuild it as money is expended so the planting program can go on in perpetuity.
Cherniske asked if the town could receive donations to the fund. “I hope we are making a program we can sustain into coming years and inspire other towns to do the same. I’ve never been in favor of spending down the Kuga fund,” she said.
With that in mind, they opted to reduce the number of trees to be planted this year from five to three. “If we find there is high demand, I would consider putting it in our budget in the following year,” said Manes.
Members briefly discussed whether they should interview applicants for the grants but decided that a well-worded application form should give them the information they need.
