Arboriculturalist asks Senath to save its trees through proper pruning

SENATH, Mo. -- Evergreen Tree Service representative and certified arboriculturalist Alex Potroski informed the Senath City Council at a meeting on Monday, that he will tag trees in Williamson Park and the baseball park in Senath, in order to place bids on repair of each individual tree to meet FEMA's requirements.

Potroski informed the council that he sees an opportunity to help the city by pruning the trees correctly. The trees do not have to be cut all the way back and all the wood does not have to be taken to get the tree to re-grow, according to Potroski.

"Trees reduce the temperature of the ground and single Oak trees remove 30 percent of carbon dioxide in the air," Potroski said.

Some of the trees in Williamson Park have started splitting and can be a hazard, these trees will be marked with yellow tape, Potroski added.

"I will give the city ten hours of pro bono work to correctly prune and save trees, Potroski said. "In Kennett, they have cut down a 172-year-old tree that could have been saved."

Potroski continued to add that 80 percent of trees, that have fallen in major storms, have fallen because of bad pruning or damaged and cut roots.

The city will be taking at least three bids on the pruning of the trees to meet FEMA requirements for reimbursement eligibility.

Also during the meeting, the city council set April 8th as the city wide clean-up day. This will coincide with a regular trash day so the workers do not have to make an extra run through the city.

A workman's compensation premium was accepted by the council at $14,297. The city will pay $3,410 down on the premium and $2,107 per month for five months, according to Mayor Bill Anderson.

This premium is through the current company and is approximately $2,000 more that the previous year, according to City Clerk Jeana Lewis.

Mitzi Dell, the city's grant writer, is working on a grant to hire a fourth police officer in the city. The grant would allow the city to hire another officer for a three-year contract, with the employees salary completely covered by the grant, according to Anderson.

Another grant being organized for the city will allow the city to purchase a $50,000 tanker truck with the city's portion being five percent of the grant at $2,500. David Harris, of Senath, recently gave the city a tanker truck better than the previous truck, but the grant would allow the city to purchase a brand new tanker truck, according to Anderson.

The city's copier was presented to the council for repair or replacement with a new copier costing the city $3,700 and a reconditioned copier costing $2,100. The council decided to get a second opinion on the repair of the current copier.

The next Senath City Council meeting is set for April 13, 2009.