The city council held a worksession August 2 at the Community Center to discuss the progress of the Sustainable Land Care Policy as councilmembers, members of the Greenbelt Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability (GreenACES) and citizens shared their concerns that the policy lacks improvement since submission of the original draft in 2007.
Director of Public Works Jim Sterling and other members of public works in attendance began the meeting with background and an overview about the Sustainable Land Care Policy. After the PowerPoint presentation, citizens and council members mainly shared concerns about plant care and mulching.
Councilmember Edward Putens began the discussion with his thoughts on the amount of mulch placed on trees in Greenbelt East. Putens, both a longtime member of council and resident of Greenbelt East, shared his disappointment with the plant care since the trees in his community were first planted.
“Those trees were never planted properly in the first place,” said Putens. “There were plastic nails, waste, covered with mulch [and] the whole thing begins with development and how they do it; what they do and don’t do.”
The mulch issue applied to other sections of Greenbelt as well. Aside from Putens, Councilmember Rodney Roberts expressed the idea of an additional chapter in the policy to monitor the amount of mulch placed around city trees.
Read more of this story in the August 10 News Review