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10 June, Friday

The sidewalks are complete.
It's been fun, but I guess this is the end.

19 May, Thursday

Where are we now?
According to the workers, THEY are finished, except sprinkler repairs... see above.
Next, repair of at least five sections of sidewalk... this week, per Ken.

Beyond that, I guess we're done. The trees are planted, all is right with the world.

17 May, Tuesday

The trees are being tied to the stakes. Piles of dirt picked up on Nicole Drive. Last I saw there were still 2 tree to be planted on Nicole Drive.
Note: The ties are adjustable. See: Selecting, Planting, Caring for a New Tree (OSU EC1438) (Staking: p. 18). There should be some play in the ties; they should not be tight. So far, most are tight. I emailed Mike Perkins about this and he said he would look into it.
You should check your sprinklers (see Ken's email below).

(Email from Ken Worcester, Parks and Rec)

Hi Barry,

The sidewalks will hopefully be done this week.

After that, there is some irrigation repair as needed when folks let us know they have a break.

Ken

16 May, Monday

I think the trees are all in... except 2 on Nicole Drive. Nicole Drive still has piles of dirt in the street. They began staking all the trees today. Didn't check Brandon, but all other stakes appear to be in. Trees not tied to stakes yet. No reply from Ken.

14 May, Saturday

The workers were busy yesterday. Four trees on Nicole Drive and 1 on Johnyne remain to be planted. Apart from those, there are some odds and ends to be done. Most of the dirt has been picked up, but some still remains. The next step should be fixing the sidewalks that were too raised to grind. There are at least four places, 2 on River Heights, 2 on Johnyne. If anyone know of others, let me know. I will send a note to Ken at Parks and Rec to see if I can find out what the sidewalk schedule is.

12 May, Thursday

One more tree on Alicia, 3 on Nicole Court, 4 on Nicole Drive, 2 on Johnyne, 6 on River Heights and a few on Brandon. Quickly counting on my fingers, if they have all the trees, if they have the trailer for the dirt pickup... they should finish by the end of Saturday. A few sections of sidewalk repaced... and the project should be over. ....if

11 May, Wednesday

There were only three people working today (although I only saw two). On Brandon Place, the trees have been placed and less than half the holes dug. There are about three more trees to be planted on Nicole Drive, 1 on Johnyne Court. Still a few on River Heights. None of the piles of dirt have been picked up yet. Probably not good... adding to the swirling silt in the Tualatin.
Note: I saw several broken sprinkler lines. To the best of my knowledge, they were being repaired before the trees were planted. But it might be a good idea to turn on your sprinkler system after your tree is planted. It will be a lot easier to get them repaired now than a couple of weeks from now.

10 May, Tuesday

Re-grinding stumps, planting Cimmaron ash on Nicole Drive, Maple on River Heights and Red Tupelo on Nicole Court today.
Note: If you have damaged sprinklers, be sure to tell the planting crew. They will replace all that they notice, but could miss some. The trees should be well soaked after planting. Sprinklers are not enough. I talked to one resident who will be out-of-town and is purchasing a WaterGator for her tree. For now, one deep and thorough watering a week may be enough, but if it gets warmer (if), you may have to soak more often.

9 May, Monday

Planting Cimmaron ash on Nicole Drive today. When are they going to finish River Heights? Someone is supposed to come tomorrow to re-dig the holes... or maybe re-grind, not sure which. Anyway, after that is taken care of, they will plant the rest of the trees.
Yellow flags? Plumbing needs to be repaired.

7 May, Saturday

Some of the holes drilled on River Heights were not sufficient, need to be re-drilled. Tree planting and extra dirt clean up resumes on Monday. Trees to finish River Heights are on-hand. First batch of Cimmeron Ash for Nicole Drive also on-hand.

6 May, Friday

Okay, so they didn't start on Thursday. Today the DBEC sub-contractor, Creekside Nursery, started digging holes and planting on River Heights Circle and Alicia Court.

4 May, Wednesday

I talked to Mike Perkins today as he was putting "water bags" around the trees on Dollar. These bags fit around the trunk, are filled with water, and slowly seep water into the soil around the tree. I took pictures, but I cannot get them out of the camera. Most of you will see them anyway. Mike also said that the remainder of the trees will be planted by DBEC (the guys who cut the tree down). They should start tomorrow, Thursday.

3 May, Tuesday

The trees have been planted on Dollar and Wendy Court. They should be "watered-in", soaked with water. The root balls on most of the trees were rather dry. In order for the trees to thrive, they must develop the small root-hairs that absorb the water. Note: The city feels that it is the resposibility of the residences backing up to Dollar to water the trees. Not sure if the residents know that.

1 May, Sunday

(Email from Laura Stallard)

Hi friends and neighbors! While I’m a bit disappointed in the small size of the trees being planted along Dollar, at least we are finally nearing completion and I think we’ll all be relieved when this is done!

I am wondering if any of you have noticed whether or not your irrigation system was damaged during the stump grinding. Ours was, which I did not even notice until I got out and started poking around to check and found broken pieces amongst the wood chips. Damage could also occur during the planting process scheduled for next week. At our first neighborhood meeting, Ken Worchester said this concern would be addressed, yet, I have not heard one thing as to who will be paying for the needed repairs to any systems damaged in the removal/planting process. We need to collectively stay on top of this of course, or we may be left holding the bag. Any thoughts as to how we can address this as a group?

Also, Ken had mentioned that they would provide all residents with some basic new tree care instructions. Many people are not aware that the irrigation systems most of us have are not adequate to keep new trees well watered this summer (if we actually have some real summer weather this year!). We should be sure we get this information to everyone as promised, so we don’t end up losing trees. Not sure, but I think they might require the homeowner to replace them at their expense, so we should probably look into what our obligations are from this point.

Anyhow, just a little followup and request for some thoughts as to how to best wrap up this project. It’s been fun to work with everyone on this and if I didn’t love living here already, I do even more now. We have a great neighborhood here, that’s for sure! Reply at your convenience with any thoughts you have or feel free to call me at the below #. We should address any concerns with the city next week, as my understanding is that the city hopes to finish the installation within the next 7 days or so.

Talk to you soon and/or see you around the ‘hood!

Laura Stallard
River Heights Circle

(Email from Teresa Swift)

Hi Barry-

You wouldn't happen to know when the stump guys will be coming back to take care of that nasty root that is sticking up nearest our driveway? the kids are beginning to trip over it and it thought they would be coming back to take care of it by now.

Thanks,
Teresa
Wendy Court

28 April, Thursday

(Email from Ken Worcester 28 April)

Hi Barry,

We just finalized everything late yesterday. Yes, every street is getting its first choice in trees. It was not exactly easy because of limited availability and/or nursery/contractor alliances etc. but by the time it all settled, we hired two contractors who will be working on different streets.

The planting should start Monday, and hopefully will be wrapped up by Friday.

Ken Worcester

21 April, Thursday

(Email from David Turnoy
20 Apr, 7:32 pm)

Hi Barry,

I spoke with Mike Perkins today, and he said that he anticipated the trees being planted sometime next week, but possibly not until the following week. I will call him next Monday to see if he has any more knowledge by then.

David

20 April, Wednesday

Chris of Northwest Concrete Grinding has been contracted to grind sidewalks where they have been raised. When I talked to him as he came up River Heights Circle, he said that there were three places so far where the sidewalk was raised enough that more than grinding may be required. He will turn in a list to the city for a decision.

He hopes to have the grinding finished by the end of the week.

(Email from Ken Worcester 19 April)

The sidewalk grinding should start this week. Panel replacement will follow after we see what we can’t grind.

Mike will begin staking the tree locations this week as well.

Ken

19 April, Tuesday

If you've noticed the stakes in the ground in front of your house, they are marking where the new trees will be planted.

I talked to Mike Perkins as he was putting in stakes on Dollar. Not all of the stakes are where the old tree was planted. They were located where they wouldn't be too close to the water meter or street lamps. In some cases, the trees were shifted so as not to crowd existing trees in the yard. DBEC will be coming back to re-grind some of the stumps.

A contractor has been selected for the sidewalks. This is a new contractor (not DBEC), who was chosen on the basis of price.

Tree planting: So far, who is going to plant them is not finalized.

(Email: 19 April)

Here is the list of trees that were chosen for the replanting:

• Ann Ct – Pyramidal European Hornbeam
• Alicia Ct – Stewartia Psudocamillia
• River Heights Circle – Scarlet Sentinel Red Maple
• Wendy Ct – Red Sunset Maple
• Nicole Ct – Red Rage Tupelo
• Nicole Dr – Cimmeron Ash
• Brandon Place – Tupelo
• Dollar St – Greenspire Linden

If we have problems tracking down these first choices then we’ll move on to second choices.

Michael Perkins, City Arborist/Park Development Coordinator

14 April, Thursday

As of 12:00 PM today the following streets have turned in their tree choice: River Heights Circle, Brandon Place and Wendy Court.

13 April, Wednesday

Email from a Master Gardener lecturer, former owner of a tree service and instructor at Clackamas Community College.

Hi Barry
Hope this information is useful for you and I know it is on the late side.

Trees I would avoid and the reasons why. Some can be easily overcome like turf near the trunk.

• Nyssa sylvatica - Black Gum - grows too fast and often looses the central leader, difficult for keep pruned
• Ginkgo biloba - Gingko - does not grow well in turf, keep turf at least 8 feet from trunk, otherwise the young growth is stunted
• Tillia cordata - Little Leaf Linden - has too many branches with included bark, so it has branch breakage problems
• Acer saccharum - Sugar Maple - same turf requirement as Gingko
• Cercis canadensis - Redbud - frequent included bark on branches
• Fraxinus sp. - Ash trees - male clones only, often heavy seed producers
• Betula pendula - White Birch - aphids and bronze birch borer is now in the Portland area, it kills this tree

Other trees to consider:

• Acer griseum - Paperbark Maple - slowing growing tree, beautiful bark, mid-sized tree, unfortunately it is rather pricey
• Parrotia persica - Persian Parrotia - nice bark, flowering, smaller tree
• Malus 'Prairifire' - Prairifire Flowering Crabapple, great dark red flowers, small crabapples eaten by birds not messy, slow growing smaller tree also is resistant to apple rust and scab diseases
• Acer buergeranum - Trident Maple, another smaller maple, cultivar
• Acer tataricum 'GarAnn' - Hot Wings Tataricum Maple - OK, so this one is out of left field, very interesting red persistent seeds, smaller tree, needs help to keep central leader and often branches too low so it will take pruning to help with form

Out of the city list I would go with Red Sunset Red Maple, it is a good choice for a large shade tree.  I would not expect sidewalk problems for 25 to 30 years after planting.  If people are willing to remove turf then ginkgo moves up the list.

Hope this helps.
Bob

12 April, Tuesday

Today was the second day of stump removal. So far, Brandon Place, Dollar and Nicole Circle.
Brandon Place and River Heights Circle have turned in their tree choice lists.

9 April, Saturday

DBEC should finish cutting and clean-up tomorrow. Monday, they begin stump grinding; will take about a week.

7 April

Something new...

what does it mean...?

Workers will be in and out of the neighborhood, marking cable/phone lines, water and gas routes. This is so that when they grind out the tree stumps, they can avoid hitting anything important.

Water and gas...

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