Dan Hoffman: 0:11

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Rouse Review. I'm city manager Dan Hoffman and with me is Sarah Fry, the PIO.

Sarah Frey: 0:17

Hi everybody.

Dan Hoffman: 0:18

Uh, it is, is it technically fall? Have we already hit like whatever weird day they declare it? The

Sarah Frey: 0:24

equinox has passed.

Dan Hoffman: 0:25

The equinox, that's, that's the thing.

Sarah Frey: 0:27

Not the solstice. Wait, it is the, um, equinox.

Dan Hoffman: 0:31

The equinox. The

Sarah Frey: 0:32

equinox. Cause the solstices are in the winter and the summer.

Dan Hoffman: 0:36

Oh, the summer and winter solstice. The equinoxes. Then are, is there a spring equinox? There

Sarah Frey: 0:42

is, I believe.

Dan Hoffman: 0:43

What's the difference between a solstice and equinox?

Sarah Frey: 0:45

Uh. I think eggs stand up on their end on the Equinox. That's all I got.

Dan Hoffman: 0:52

Tomorrow at council, uh, we're going to be talking about a few things. Uh, we are going to be, uh, it's, it's not a super lengthy agenda and, uh, but we do have some important things to, to, to knock out. Uh, one of them, the biggest one is that, uh, we are going to be approving the bond resolution. This is, uh, a borrowing, which we, uh, are going to be well positioned for because of our AAA bond rating. Uh, also, we do have some, uh, important business to take care of, though. Uh, one of them is a bond issuance, so every year, normally about this time, we borrow some money. Uh, we can borrow at a very low interest rate because we have a AAA bond rating, because our finances are in good shape. Uh, Also, interest rates just went down. So that's also time timed out quite nicely for us. So, uh, in the borrowing, you can see online in the packet for council, uh, all the different projects. These are projects that have already been discussed multiple times with council. They actually approved them during the budget. This is really just borrowing the money to continue the project. Some of these projects have already started. They've already been blessed and approved. So, uh, So we got to get that done, but I would encourage folks go take a look at the projects. It's important to know that, you know, these are, it's 26 million. It's not an insignificant amount of money. Um, the biggest thing on there is the new fire station, but there's a lot of other stuff on there. So go take a look. Uh, and if you've got questions, feel free to reach out to us. The other thing that we've got coming up, um, is some changes to the enterprise zone. So if you're, if you're in the enterprise zone, go check it out. Uh, and a conditional use permit for, uh, an old church on North Braddock street, that's going to be converted into some apartments. Uh, other than that, it's a, um, a fairly light agenda. So we'll see. Oh,

Sarah Frey: 2:51

everybody's going to be there till 9 p. m. because you just said that. I

Dan Hoffman: 2:53

know, I just jinxed it. But, um, so that's what's coming up in council tomorrow. Uh, however, it is an incredibly busy time of year for us. Uh, and we've got a lot of stuff coming up. So, Sarah, you want to talk about that now?

Sarah Frey: 3:07

Sure. So, first things first. Early in person voting has started in Virginia. So, if you are a city resident, you can cast your ballot at the Elections Office at 107 Northeast Lane from 830 a. m. until 430 p. m. Monday through Friday, and on Saturday, October 26th from 830 until 430, and then your last chance to vote early in person is on Saturday, November 2nd from 830 until 5. If you have any questions about it, please contact the Office of Elections at vote at winchesterva. gov. Bye bye.

Dan Hoffman: 3:42

Vote people.

Sarah Frey: 3:44

All right. Next up, Saturday, this Saturday, the 28th, the Hanley Library is hosting their second annual How To Fest from 11 to 3, so you can learn new skills. How to.

Dan Hoffman (2): 3:56

How to fest. Yes. Not how to fest. I thought it was like how to party.

Sarah Frey: 4:01

I mean, I, that might be one of, uh, It's a fest. They're having how to's on everything. Maybe not. Partying might be one. How to fest. Maybe, maybe you can host that one next year.

Dan Hoffman: 4:10

Maybe I will have to do that one.

Sarah Frey: 4:12

So learn how to sew, geocache, tai chi, astronomy, use a microscope, all kinds of cool stuff.

Dan Hoffman: 4:18

Nice.

Sarah Frey: 4:20

Then, alright, don't you love being outside? Especially this time of year. In the city parks, the season's changing, and also, don't you love saving money?

Dan Hoffman: 4:33

Mm, yeah.

Sarah Frey: 4:34

Yeah. So, our next pickup party is going to be Thursday, October 3rd, 5. 30 at Shawnee Springs Preserve right off of

Dan Hoffman: 4:43

Where is that?

Sarah Frey: 4:44

It is Come on. Hollingsworth. I tried to call it Hawthorne, but it's Hollingsworth. Um, we will all be there at the Shawnee Springs Preserve. It's behind, if you're coming down Millwood Avenue, you turn onto Hollingsworth and it's kind of behind the nursing home.

Dan Hoffman: 4:58

Come make your city pretty.

Sarah Frey: 5:00

And save money. Then, um, are you new to the area? Do you not know much about the area? Do you want to know more about the area? Once again, Thursday, October 3rd from 430 to 630, the Visitor Center is hosting a newcomers event. Stop by, learn about the city, even about the county, um, learn what's going on, different places will be there, light refreshments, even the Winchester Area Newcomers Club. So,

Dan Hoffman: 5:26

the Winchester Area Newcomers Club.

Sarah Frey: 5:29

Learn about something new every day.

Dan Hoffman: 5:30

Awesome.

Sarah Frey: 5:31

And then finally, don't forget, Monday, October 7th is your last day to pay your vehicular personal property taxes in the city. If you have any questions, you can contact the Commissioner of the Revenues Office and they will help get you all sorted out.

Dan Hoffman: 5:46

Awesome. That's what's going on. October, I think you're going to see a lot of stuff. So we're wrapping up September. We're getting into fall, all the different fall events. We had a successful fiddles and fifths, uh, weekend before last. I mean, it's, there's going to be just. More and more stuff around the walking mall, uh, as well as all the stuff we just talked about. So, uh, make sure that if you're curious about what's going on in the city, go to winchesterva. gov. Now, uh, we're going to take a quick break. Jordan Herring, uh, our arborist, you're going to find out what an arborist is. Uh, if you don't already know, uh, he's coming in. He's going to talk about the new grant we got, uh, to plant roughly 800 trees in the city. Welcome Jordan Herring, our arborist. Now. I think everyone knows what an arborist is, but Maybe. I mean I don't know. I just assume everyone knows what an arborist is. But if you don't know, I mean, if you know what arbor day is, you can kind of put two and two together there. But there's a lot

Jordan Herring: 6:55

of different arborist types of arborists too. So I think people get kind of confused with that. So there's an arborist like what I am is what's called a municipal arborist. So I work for city government, but there's also private arborists that work on, you know, private trees, property trees, prune trees, remove trees. So those are kind of the two main. How often do

Dan Hoffman: 7:16

people ask you, Oh, what does an arborist do?

Jordan Herring: 7:19

Oh, all the time.

Dan Hoffman: 7:20

Okay. So then it's not commonly. Okay. So then start off by explaining

Sarah Frey: 7:25

to

Dan Hoffman: 7:25

everyone what

Sarah Frey: 7:27

does more than just trees. Well,

Dan Hoffman: 7:29

yeah, but for the purposes of this conversation today, um, Jordan, why don't you tell everybody what an arborist is for those who don't know?

Jordan Herring: 7:38

Yeah, so an arborist is basically an expert in what's called arboriculture, which is the study of trees. There you go. You finally got to the T word there. So yeah, we're basically experts on trees, uh, tree management, tree species, diseases that are, you know, potentially coming down the pike or that are already here. So what I like to tell people is that I'm basically just an expert on anything related to trees.

Dan Hoffman: 8:02

Gotcha. And for those of you who didn't pick up on what Jordan was saying earlier, the municipal arborist does not take care of the trees on your property.

Sarah Frey: 8:15

No. We

Dan Hoffman: 8:16

get that question very frequently or, or your neighbor's property. When the branches start to go over the property line, you need to take that up with your neighbor. Don't call us and ask the city to Go prune your neighbor's tree. Uh, cause we won't do that. Now there are some limited situations of a houses, uh, abandoned derelict or blight. There are some situations where we do, um, we will go on to someone's property, but that, those are very, very rare situations. Um, and, and not one that you probably want to encounter because it means either you're living next to an abandoned home or you own an abandoned home. And, um, um, Yeah. So you take care of the city trees.

Jordan Herring: 9:02

How many city trees do we have? So we own about five to 6, 000 street trees and that doesn't include, yeah, it doesn't include a park trees or trees that we have all in the alleyways in between properties. So you could probably honestly double that number. Wow. But yeah, we have a ton of street trees and yeah, here in the future, we'll be a plant a lot more.

Dan Hoffman: 9:24

Yeah. So let's talk about that. Cause that's one of the biggest reason, Psst. You're coming in today. Uh, for those in Winchester, you might've noticed, I think we, it was in the star a little while back, uh, that we got a 550, 000 federal grant from the USDA to plant roughly 800 more trees.

Dan Hoffman (2): 9:41

Yeah.

Dan Hoffman: 9:41

So, uh, how are we going to do that? Cause that's a lot of trees and we, you know, we are a tree city, right? And a bee city. Tree city and a bee

Jordan Herring: 9:50

city. Where were we gonna put 800 trees? That's a great question. Uh, so, yeah, where this grant is actually outlined is we it's in the historically underserved area of the city. So it's kind of northeast section of the city. It's not a huge area, but I did survey it, you know, before I applied for this grant and determined there is a ton of space for four trees. Um, so, yeah, we have a ton of areas for street trees in front of people's homes in the city right away. But, um, you know, That doesn't mean that we're not planning trees outside of that area either. You know, I am applying for another grant to get for out trees outside of that area. Uh, but also it's saving me a lot of money to be able to plant trees. you know, elsewhere. How are we identifying where to put the trees? So it really just depends on, you know, is there space for it? You know, we do have a lot of street trees already in that area, but there's a lot of open spots from trees that we've removed. You know, over the past couple years, we are dealing with maple decline. So really going back to those areas and saying, Hey, there's room for a tree right here. Uh, and we really need to get, you know, more shade in these areas because we really are getting blasted by heat since we have had a lot of maple decline here.

Dan Hoffman: 11:05

Now, some of this money can be used to actually Do a little structural pruning, uh, as they say, I'm gonna have you explain what that is, uh, of existing trees like some, cause we, you know, we are an old city, we've got a lot of big, beautiful trees. Uh, what is

Jordan Herring: 11:21

structural pruning? Yeah. So structural pruning is basically it's called maintenance. Pruning is keeping up. Uh, with, you know, making sure that trees growing correctly or has, you know, good, uh, stabilization. So you want to, especially when they're young, you really want to keep up with the pruning. So they don't start, you know, just growing haphazardly. Um, I like to explain to people is that when you give a tree a bunch of resources, so when it's not growing in the forest, it's not fighting other trees for resources. It's really going to grow. It's going to grow a lot of different branches. And so you kind of need to. control that tree and how it grows to prevent, you know, any breaking branches, especially during extreme weather. And that's where kind of with this grant, that's what I applied for is it's called storm hazard mitigation, uh, pruning. So that basically means that if we do get, you know, with climate change, it is showing that we probably, you know, storms are going to get worse and worse. Yeah. So if we do get a really severe thunderstorm, um, basically we're putting trees in a way that, you know, if we do get hit with high winds, these trees are able to withstand those high winds more than they could have before. So

Sarah Frey: 12:28

I'm not gonna end up with a tree on my roof or on my car.

Jordan Herring: 12:32

That's, yeah, that's the hope, is pruning it away. Hopefully not. But you live in the county, so you will.

Sarah Frey: 12:37

I will, but Dan won't. I will,

Jordan Herring: 12:40

I'll be

Dan Hoffman: 12:40

just fine. Because I park right under a big old street tree that has probably more vines growing up it than I'm comfortable with, so. I hope we need to prune that off. Yes, we do. Uh, so let's talk about native plants for a second, because a lot of times, you know, we make a big deal about planting native plants, you know, getting rid of invasives. In fact, we do occasional, you know, invasive weed roundups out at Jim Barnett Park. What, but that's not the same for trees.

Jordan Herring: 13:10

Talk about that. So a native species is a species that has been in the local ecosystem for thousands of years normally. And it's basically created a symbiosis between our local wildlife and pollinators, um, so that they can work together to survive basically. So having it, you know, Promoting natives is really important because we do need to support our pollinators, our local wildlife that we have here. But that doesn't mean that if we plant a non native species that it's invasive. Okay. So an invasive species, you know, it's a species from a different part of the world and it, uh, somehow gets here usually through transportation and it just takes off because there's no natural predators to control it. Yeah. Kudzu is a, it's definitely a, a big one, English ivy, but there's a lot of, you know, um, bug species as well, like emerald ash borer that has decimated all of our ash trees. So when you get these invasive species, they just take off and there's nothing to control them. But just because the species is not native doesn't mean it's invasive. So there's a lot of. Non natives that really you can plant and it's not gonna take over and we've spent a lot of money getting rid of it And you know with the way that climate change is that is, you know coming in the next yeah you know 50 years and hotter temperatures getting species that can survive in urban environments is Extremely important for those shading benefits. So what kind of trees are we looking at for

Dan Hoffman: 14:35

for this? We've got some will be natives some will be Non native, but not invasive. So what, what, what falls within that, that window?

Jordan Herring: 14:48

Yeah. So there's a bunch of different trees that we're going to be planting, you know, native ones like, uh, white oak service, Barry, um, green Hawthorne, you know, those are all really good native species, but there's also non natives that, and I don't mean that just, you know, all these non natives are coming from like Asia or somewhere like that. We do have non natives that are from the. Southern portion of the United States or even our coastal areas, but might not be native to, you know, Winchester, Virginia. So, uh, those are species like bald cypress. Um, you've got nuttle oak, which is an oak species that can handle really hot temperatures in the south. Same with over cup oak. Um, so, yeah, there's a lot of different, great, good canopy species that we can get. Planted here that are still going to be great for shade and going to be able to handle harsh urban conditions now We have

Dan Hoffman: 15:38

an arboretum Over at Jim Burnett Park. Could someone go through there and see some of these trees because I know we've got them labeled out there So some of these new trees that we're planning they can go out and see what it looks like and it's mature

Jordan Herring: 15:51

or close to mature state Yeah, there's a decent amount of mature. There's a ball Cyprus in there that it's pretty large. We've got a couple of different oaks that are getting pretty large in there. But yeah, we've got signage for, you know, ginkgo trees, overcup oaks, uh, nettle oaks. So yeah, you can definitely go to the arboretum and you'll see signs that will help you idea it. And we're actually, we're in talks. We're going to be, uh, buying more additional signage down there with the new trail for people to, to see. Cause if

Sarah Frey: 16:15

you haven't used that new trail.

Jordan Herring: 16:16

Yeah, it's

Dan Hoffman: 16:17

very nice. It

Sarah Frey: 16:17

is beautiful and educational.

Dan Hoffman: 16:19

Absolutely. And it's that time of year to go out for a walk too. So, so if you're curious about the trees we're planting, go out to the Arboretum, walk around, they're labeled. You're going to see what, if you see what one being planted, uh, in the right of way in front of your house, feel free to ask what's being planted. And you go take a look at what it's going to look like when it's all grown up. How big are the trees that we're going

Jordan Herring: 16:39

to be planting? So the trees are typically what this two to three inch caliper. So About four to somewhere between four and six feet tall typically. Okay. Uh, but yeah, not, they're not huge. You know, the smaller the trees you plant, the actually what research is showing, the quicker they, they grow and get to a good size because they can establish the soil quicker. So when you throw in a pretty large tree, like a four inch copper tree, it actually takes a couple of years longer to actually get to that point where they can really bounce off. And I

Dan Hoffman: 17:09

have no idea. So where are we with the project itself? We've got the, um, We got the money.

Jordan Herring: 17:16

What happens next? So we just released the bids for the project. So we did in two different bids. Like what we just talked about, there's a tree planting bid and then there's a pruning and a dead dying tree removal part of the bid. And those two are combined. But so those bids are released. Uh, they're going to be out for a month. So on October 18th, we should have the contractors that we want. And then we're just going to go from there. So hopefully, you know, by mid to late October, we'll be planting some trees. Fantastic.

Sarah Frey: 17:46

Is that a good time of year to plant trees?

Jordan Herring: 17:48

It is. It's the, it's honestly the perfect time to plant trees because typically in the fall, temperatures are great. Um, and you're getting the trees planted before the heat of the summer comes. So we do plant trees in spring, but you really do have to water them a lot more. If you plan in the fall, typically you have to, water You know, you don't have to water as much because they're already established the soil. They've been there for months before these, uh, really hot summer temperatures get to them. Gotcha. And we,

Dan Hoffman: 18:13

and with the hot summer temperatures, hopefully behind us, uh, we are hosting a tree

Jordan Herring: 18:18

festival on October 19th, right? Yep. We are. So yeah, October 19th in the Audubon Arboretum in Jim Barnett Park. That's the one we were just talking about. It's

Dan Hoffman: 18:27

over. If you're pulling into the park from the Cork street side, it's. pretty much just to your right after you get closer to the War Memorial building. It's just to the right.

Jordan Herring: 18:37

Uh, what, what will people be able to do there? Yeah. So we've got a lot of cool stuff happening this year. We've got two native plant nurseries that are coming out. So they're bringing out a bunch of plants for you to, to buy. Uh, we've got, uh, somebody coming out to do a sapling giveaway, tree sapling giveaway. So, you know, first come first serve basis, I'm not sure how much they're bringing, but you do have a chance to, you know, get a sapling for yourself. Yeah. There's going to be. a food truck out there. We've got a face painting for the kids. And then one cool thing I just confirmed yesterday is we've got a, somebody bringing out a portable saw mill. So we're going to solve some, some logs into boards. Oh, that's, that's very cool.

Sarah Frey: 19:15

I can just tell you, I went with my kids last year and it was so cool to a learn about all the native pollinators with the, um, cause we've got a pollinator meadow out there as well. That's Seeing the saws like cut out the boards.

Dan Hoffman: 19:32

Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 19:32

Oh, my kids stood there and watched it for 15 minutes. Just like enraptured.

Dan Hoffman: 19:36

Can we buy some of the boards? Just for demonstration.

Jordan Herring: 19:40

It's that depends on, uh, I guess the person, the portable sawmiller. So if he, yeah, I mean, people can ask if they can buy some of them, but we are going to be probably milling up some of our own city trees as well. Fascinating. All right. Well,

Dan Hoffman: 19:55

now I'm excited. I'm going to go check out the, uh, the tree festival on October 19th. Jim Barnett park. Uh, what time is it? Do we have a time yet? 11 to 3. 11 to 3 said with a mild degree of certainty. Check out the website, check out winchesterva. gov for more information. October 19th, the Tree Festival at Jim Barnett Park. Uh, thank you very much for coming in, Jordan. Always great, uh, always great seeing you. And if you have any questions about trees that are, is it in the right of way? Is it my responsibility? Is it the city's responsibility? Any questions along those lines? Uh, go to the website, you'll find Jordan's contact information. Uh, Jordan, thanks for coming in. Yeah. Thank you. That's it for this edition of the Rouse Review. Uh, we will see you next time when we talk about

Sarah Frey: 20:57

We will be talking to a member of the Winchester Police Department's, um, Criminal Investigation Division.

Dan Hoffman: 21:02

Awesome, we're going to talk about how criminal investigations work, I'm sure, uh, Everyone watches a lot of true crime on TV it seems like so feel free to uh, Actually, you know, we're gonna do something a little different if you're listening to this And you have a question for one of our detectives Send it to what's your email address? Sarah

Sarah Frey: 21:23

sarah with an h Dot fry, FRE y@winchesterva.gov.

Dan Hoffman: 21:28

If there are questions you would like us to ask the detectives, send it to Sarah with an h, do fry, FE y@winchesterva.gov. And um, yeah, as long as it's not crazy, we will ask, we will ask the detectives. So, uh, stay tuned for next time. Uh, send an email if you have a question and until then, we'll see you around City Hall.