06-26-01 PTRC - Laserfiche WebLink

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neighborhood paper is delivered to every property in the neighborhood. Attached is a sample participation form and copy of the ad. We actually scheduled two days for this first roundup. The first Saturday was a day for chopping em down. A volunteer crew with chain saw operators that were equipped with safety glasses and schleppers went to ten sites (mostly elderly homeowners) and our community gardens to cut, treat and stack the buckthorn. This occurred one week before the actual pickup. One problem we had that is universal- people's failure to read, follow directions and meet a schedule. We required participants to fill out the participation form and mail it in by a specified date. That date was chosen so as to give us enough time to process and order the necessary "No Parking"signs for the streets in front of these properties. These signs were necessary so that vehicles would not be blocking the tree service'access to yards with buckthorn on the day of the buckthorn chipping. By the required date we had 47 homeowners who had signed up. Then the phone calls started with people saying "I just heard about this, can I still be a part of it?, I forgot to mail in the form., I've already cut my buckthorn down and now I've heard that I have to sign up." By the morning of the pickup, 75 homeowners had buckthorn waiting for us. Instead of 8 hours of chipping, it took 12 hours to chip most of the sites. Plus we had to arrange for a future pickup of a large quantity of buckthorn at our community garden site as we simply ran out of time and light for chipping. The end result was that the project cost slightly more than twice the$800.00 budgeted. We did not think that was a problem in our neighborhood. We needed $900.00 and we had 75 property owners. A letter was quickly drafted and hand-delivered to these homes. It requested a donation of$10 or$20 depending on the ?mount of buckthorn that the resident had put out for pickup. (We had kept records on chipping d7 Jf thno • pickup amount at each site.) The money came in quickly to cover these higher costs. The homeowners considered the event quite a bargain to have the buckthorn picked up at their homes. We picked up/chipped buckthorn from 75 properties at a total cost of$1700.00. What if you can't get grant money?Talk to homeowners in your neighborhood about how many want to participate. Find out how much buckthorn would be chipped at each residence. Then contact the tree service, get an estimate and split the cost between the neighbors based on the amount of buckthorn they have removed. This was such a popular community event that our neighborhood garden club has committed funds for the next 10 years for a fall buckthorn roundup. We estimate that 4%of the private properties in our neighborhood participated this year and we guesstimate that 40%of the private lands in our neighborhood have buckthorn. It will take 10 years to get the buckthorn out of our neighborhood. Remember that this is done on a strictly voluntary basis by property owners. Nevertheless, when one property is cleared of buckthorn, it often stimulates adjacent property owners to consider clearing their buckthorn. What did we learn from this event? We will make changes for the next roundup this fall. �We will budget and request three people from the tree service. The three can take turns driving the truck and chipping. The chipping process is physically exhausting and you need a rest from it. ➢There will be a small charge for each property. Probably in the$15-30.00 range. It is still a bargain as • most neighborhood cleanups require the homeowner to haul the brush to a specified site. The charge at a neighborhood cleanup is at least the amount we propose, usually more. The way our roundup is scheduled, the property owner only has to haul it to their front yard.