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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, October 7,2019 Page 3 zens and secure a vision with the one vendor, Economy of Scale, for a long-term contract that can manage this disaster over time. Commissioner Stoner emphasized that trees killed from EAB become hazardous very quickly, requiring prompt removal, relatively quickly after the tree dies. Minnesota's colder climate will slow EAB which is bit of a blessing and a curse because if there are a series of cold winters that cause a lot of over winter mortali- ty, it may not require as many trees be removed the following year. With climate change, that might not always be the case. If cold winters no longer materialize, the current budget may not be sufficient. This could cause difficulty in budgeting year to year for removal. He explained sufficient funding is not sufficient for re- moval. Parks and Recreation and Public Works have maxed out their removal funding for the last two years and the city is at capacity for that. The Commission would recommend to the Council, that the city commit to having a planned ap- proach that has dedicated funding. The Parks and Recreation Commission sug- gested removing all of the publicly owned Ash trees in Roseville before the trees become hazardous and that way, the city is getting out in front of the problem and are not in a reactionary mode. Commissioner Stoner indicated the Parks and Recreation Commission would also recommend the city include some level of replanting which will set them up for success. If the trees are planted right at the start rather than waiting ten years down the road for something that is going to take ten years to reach maturity and provide a sufficient level of canopy, it will be too late and there will be significant gaps across the city's canopy. Commissioner Stoner explained the city will get to a point where contractors can ask any price they want for removal and still have more than enough work to keep them busy and the same thing will happen with planting. The city will also see more planned removal and plantings. If there is some kind of contract approach, the city can reduce that variability from year to year. Some risks with a planned approach are that the city does not know yet whether contractors will be willing to engage with them on a project of this scale and is not something that has been done before. Mass removals have been done before in other cities but not with a replanting, and never over a prolonged period of time. Commissioner Stoner indicated the city can mitigate this risk as the example plan the Parks and Recreation Commission has given to the Council approaches with an RFP and is an option. The Parks and Recreation Commission may want to use these city funds in some other way later on, but these trees will die, and their re- moval will be necessitated at some point, which is the bulk of what was presented in the proposal. The proposal from Parks and Recs staff is an example, the Com- mission is not suggesting that this is the one true solution, but it is an example of a plan and covers most of the important points. The Parks and Recreation Commis-