Words by Sophie Vaughan
The City of Akron Tree Commission had a busy year. At the December 2023 Tree Commission meeting, the members looked back at their goals for 2023 and began to make plans for 2024. They also met the winner of their logo contest, Jesse Wamsley. Finally, they heard from City of Akron Parks Maintenance Foreman John Hilkert about some homeowner reactions to tree plantings that occurred and were neither requested nor desired.
The meeting began with roll call and a motion to accept the November meeting minutes. The motion passed 5-0. Tree Commission Chair Sarah Vradenburg then introduced Firestone High School alumnus Jesse Wamsley, winner of the Akron Tree Commission Logo Contest.
Vradenburg asked if Wamsley had anything to say to the Commission about the logo inspiration or creation process. Wamsley mentioned the new T-shirts featuring the winning logo.
“I just heard you guys made shirts, and I want one of them,” Wamsley said, laughing.
The Commission laughed, and Vradenburg said Wamsley could have a shirt and asked for a size preference. Fusco then made a motion to give Wamsley two shirts. (Note: at this point, Fusco misgendered Wamsley several times, using she/her pronouns, while Wamsley uses he/him pronouns. Vradenburg continued to use she/her pronouns for Wamsley). Vradenburg then offered to give Wamsley’s whole family T-shirts and asked for a quantity, while Commissioner Patricia Wyatt asked for their size preferences. Wamsley said he would have to find out. Vradenburg asked Wamsley to send the information via email and said that the Commission members would bring the T-shirts to Wamsley when they meet.
Fusco then expressed appreciation for Wamsley’s art and asked him to tell the Commission a little about himself.
“I’m an Akron native,” Wamsley said, “So, it’s really great to make a logo that represents the community that I’m from.”
Wamsley lives in Kenmore, graduated from Firestone High School in 2023, and is currently a freshman studying graphic design at Kent State University.
Commissioner Wyatt, who works in Akron Public Schools, said she is proud to know that Wamsley is an Akron native and an APS alumnus. Wyatt showed appreciation for Wamsley’s hard work, and the Commission thanked Wamsley.
The Commission then discussed 2023 goals and accomplishments. Vradenburg asked if everyone had received a copy of the goals that she had sent and asked if anyone had any comments. Vradenburg said that she felt they had done a reasonably good job of meeting most of their goals.
“We got our logo contest winner,” Vradenburg said. “We had a Tree Commission Event. We do not have the tree facts included on the water bills yet, and we don’t yet have a speaker’s bureau. So, those could be two for next year.”
Vradenburg asked others for their thoughts on the 2023 goals.
Fusco asked about the status of their presence on the City of Akron’s new website. Vradenburg expressed difficulty finding the Tree Commission’s page on the website. Commissioner Sara Biviano then explained how to navigate to the Commission’s page: from the City of Akron’s home page, click on City Hall, then click on Boards and Commissions, then scroll down to find the Tree Commission.
The meeting then pivoted to focus on the subject of complaints received by the City of Akron regarding trees that were planted in locations where they were not wanted by the homeowners.
Vradenburg asked if anything had been done regarding the complaints, and Hilkert said not yet, as far as he knew.
Hilkert then detailed the issues that had occurred with these residential fall tree plantings.
An Akron resident had called the City’s Public Service department to request a tree to be planted in front of their house, on Cherrywood Lane, near the Akron Fulton Airport on the east side of Akron. While Hilkert was on site to assess the location, the homeowner expressed a desire to put trees along the entire street.
“I thought, ‘well, okay, we’ve got room here so I’ll go ahead and put ‘em in,’” said Hilkert. “Well, not everyone, apparently, wanted a tree. So that’s the issue that we ran into.”
While the homeowner thought the street looked bare and needed more trees, he requested these trees without permission from all the residents.
Since the Public Service Department thought all the residential tree plantings were requested by residents, notification letters did not go out to residents, informing them of upcoming plantings and appeals processes.
A homeowner at the end of Cherrywood had previously had maple trees removed from the tree lawn because of sidewalk damage. New sidewalks were installed, and no replacement trees were planted at that time. So, when Hilkert was assessing planting locations on Cherrywood, he marked three spots for trees to be planted on this homeowner’s tree lawn.
Maples, which have a tendency to raise sidewalks, are no longer planted by the City of Akron in locations where this could pose a problem. Hilkert said the City planted cherry trees at this location, which do not cause sidewalk damage.
Hilkert explained, “Again, like I said, I had done all this previous to realizing, ‘oh, that’s one address, here’s another, and someone didn’t want one.’ So, hopefully that makes sense. If not, if someone has a question, I’ll answer it.”
It was unclear who on Clifford Avenue had requested a tree to be planted and where.
Commissioner Jim Aitken asked how many trees were planted on Cherrywood Lane.
Hilkert estimated 10 trees and searched records for an accurate number. While Hilkert looked for this information, Fusco asked whether Hilkert had spoken to Brad McKitrick, councilperson for Ward 6 where these incidents occurred, to inform him of what happened. Hilkert said he did not talk to McKitrick before or since planting trees at either location.
Fusco explained that it’s usually a good policy to have.
Hilkert found the tree count for Cherrywood Lane and informed the Commission that nine trees were planted, three of which were planted on the property of the resident who later complained.
Fusco then reiterated that it’s good for the ward councilperson to know what’s going on in their district, because a lot of times they get phone calls about problems that they did not know about in advance, due to a lack of communication between the Public Service department and City Council.
“Normally, it wouldn’t have been an issue, if it was only at that one particular location,” Hilkert explained, “But the fact that I had other ones that people had wanted, that’s where I got into trouble. So, like I said, Jon and I talked about it.”
Hilkert went on to explain that only a few locations were supposed to have more than one tree planted on the street. Most of the sites were for individual tree plantings, which the residents requested by calling 311.
“Once they call in, I take those calls, and I go out and look at [the site] and verify that we can get a tree in there,” Hilkert said, “And as long as it’s good to plant a tree, then I close out the work order in City work, and then create one in our TreeKeeper system that we use for the contractor.”
Fusco asked whether the Public Service department makes ward council people aware of the lists for spring and fall tree plantings each year.
Hilkert was unsure if council people had been notified in the past. He said that, over the last couple years, he would visit tree planting sites to mark the trees, and Malish took the responsibility of mailing out letters and making contact with anyone who may need to be contacted.
In response, Fusco respectfully requested that all ward council members be made aware of the locations for upcoming tree plantings, since 311 and council members are usually the first to receive calls. Hilkert said that he would make a note of that.
Vradenburg asked whether this is a topic for which they should meet with council, on an informal basis. Vradenburg suggested establishing contact to make the council members aware of the Tree Commission’s presence and work, and to invite them to reach out if needed.
Fusco agreed that this would be a good idea, and that they should reach out in March, since the first quarter would be very busy. He suggested reaching out to the Chair of the committee that will be assigned to tree issues, once committees have been assigned.
Vradenburg suggested that establishing contact with elected officials should be on the list of Tree Commission goals for 2024.
Aitken mentioned that he would be staying on until March or so, and that he would continue after December 31, although it was unclear whether he was referring to an upcoming retirement or change in position.
Vradenburg thanked everyone for their work this year. Wyatt suggested getting together for a luncheon at the beginning of 2024, and Vradenburg agreed and said that they could plan to do that to kick off the next year.
While this concluded the December meeting, the Tree Commission had several other noteworthy accomplishments this year:
1. New Web Page. The Tree Commission now has its own web page on the City of Akron’s new website. This page will include information about upcoming meetings each month.
2. Public Education. The Tree Commission created flyers and T-shirts to distribute at local community events and ward meetings to help educate the public about the Tree Canopy and the Akron Tree Commission’s work. The Tree Commission also began to send representatives to attend local ward meetings.
3. Grant Support. The Tree Commission wrote several letters of support that helped the City of Akron secure grant funding to increase the City’s tree canopy and sustainability efforts.
4. Tree City Recognition. The Tree Commission helped the City of Akron receive Tree City USA status through the Arbor Day Foundation.
We look forward to learning what the Akron Tree Commission has in store for 2024!