City of Charlotte, NC Neighborhood Tools, 15 Sep 2020

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From YouTube: Tree Care Grant Pre-Application Workshop

Description

Looking for tree care resources for your community? This workshop will present:

• An overview of the Tree Care Grant Program: what it is, why it’s important, and what funds can be used for .
• How to complete the online application and grant reporting through the Tree Care Grant Program.

A

So, once again, uh welcome to uh this year's iteration of the city of charlotte's tree care, grant um you'll notice that, if you're a returning group that we're starting things a bit later this year, um we'll go back a little bit more into that on the landscape management side of this presentation, but essentially, we've changed a little bit of the things that we're offering and excited to share some new opportunities for you this year regarding this treetier grant.

A

So I'll start with a little bit of background. This is created as a partnership between housing and neighborhood services and landscape management to offer matching grants for citywide tree care initiatives.

A

That partnership is partially because we're both city departments that care for trees, but particularly because this isn't just a grant. That's focused on the environment. It's also focused on bringing you all communities together that regard it's a bit similar to the neighborhood matching grants program just on a bit of a smaller scale.

A

The maximum grant request through this program is three thousand dollars uh and eligible exp expenses. This year include vine removal supplies and services tree canopy assessments, uh tree related education and community events, uh emerald ash, borer treatment, which is back this year after uh having a brief hiatus the previous year and uh small tree pruning, uh which is new this year.

A

um The grant may cover a one or two of these, these opportunities or a combination of several one, very ambitious neighborhood last year, who actually applied uh for all of the components of the program and was able to complete it all on the the time given.

A

So I believe with that, um just some things briefly to talk about while we're getting started, the application is live. Now we encourage you to apply by october 14th it's an online application process which you can reach via the city's website.

A

um The exact address will be shown later in this presentation, but that's charlottenc.gov select care grant um it's the same platform for those of you who have used the neighborhood matching grant before others grants it's called fondant.

A

The project is about a year's cycle. All the funded projects and volunteer hours must be concluded and reports submitted by august 6 2021. uh This can be open. At the same time as other grants such as neighborhood matching grants, little free library grants other other city grants and there is a pre-application, but by viewing this presentation or either live right now or via online in the future that counts as your pre-application requirement.

A

So I think at this point I'm going to turn it over to lori dukes and aaron olivario with the landscape management department, to talk more about some of the biological background of this grant.

B

Okay, thanks jonathan, I appreciate it. I'm gonna hopefully get my presentation up going.

B

All right are we are we there we're good.

A

B

All right well, thank you guys, all for being here tonight. I'm lori reed, um I'm the assistant city arborist with the city and I'm also an entomologist, so there'll be some bug stuff going on tonight. You'll you'll get to hear me talk about, and I'm excited that we're we're bringing back the emerald ash borer part of the program as well um aaron and I are gonna tag team, um so aaron. If you want to introduce yourself.

C

Sure I'm erin oliverio, I'm the tree, canopy programs manager. um I work in the city arborist's office with lori. We have a good time, we all love trees and I'm so glad to see all of you here also loving trees. So we appreciate you being here.

C

I always start this off with yay trees, so we're all here to celebrate trees and support trees, and we know that trees have been in the news a lot lately. There's a lot going on in the city planning department around trees or you can use switch to.

A

C

Slide, thank you. So we are all working towards a tree, canopy action plan that will inform tree policy and future regulations, um and we are asking for citizen input at this time, so I'm doing a little plug for this program as well. This is just the timeline that lori just showed go ahead, laura you can switch it and we are right in the middle of our public engagement period for this program, so we really want neighborhoods and citizens that live in them like yourself to go to the survey.

C

Sorry, can you hear me better now, john okay. Thank you. Sorry. I was sitting too far away from the microphone, um so the tree canopy action plan. We are in the middle of our public engagement process right now, where we really want citizens like yourselves to let us know what you think about trees and how trees are impacting your community, so some people may have aging tree problems. Some people want more trees. Some people are frustrated by the trees in their neighborhoods and we want to hear all of that.

C

So we would really be grateful if you all went to public input.com trees and filled out that survey and then encourage residents other people, your friends, family, that live in charlotte to complete that survey as well. So that's my little plug for the tree canopy action plan project that is going on right now and there will be lots of other engagement opportunities.

C

Some bike rides possibly a drive-in event and some neighborhood round tables that are online just like this is where you can give input as well, so keep an eye out for all of those things in the news as well all right so this year. This is our our message that we have conquered the canker worm for now in charlotte, and we are very happy about that. So, as jonathan stated, we are not banding this year. That's not part of our grant. The city will not be banning the street trees that they normally banned as well.

C

um We will be moving to banned certain trees. I believe it's about 500 throughout the city to monitor for the cankerworm, so that we know where it's coming back and we can proactively abandon areas that need it. But this year there will be no large scale banding and we are telling residents that they can save their money and not banned as well either.

C

The one thing that would be really helpful to us, if you have the opportunity, is to participate in our great cankerworm count. So the more treat the more information we get about where the cankerworm is coming back being a native insect. We know that it will so we had really high numbers for 20 plus years here in charlotte and the populations have crashed, but because it is native, we know that the the numbers will slowly increase and to be able to do that banding in the areas that need it. We need people to.

C

Let us know where they are. So if you go to our cankerworm page, you can participate in this count to span one tree in your neighborhood or in your yard, and then send us the information in february, letting us know if you saw any of the moths on your band. It's super simple and we'd appreciate that help as well, and now I'm going to turn it over to laurie the entomologist to talk about the emerald ash, borer.

B

All right, so I'm I'm really excited that we're bringing back this part of the grant um if, if you're not familiar the bright green insect on the screen is called an emerald ash borer. Now this insect's pretty small, it's smaller than a penny.

B

So it's not a huge insect you're, probably not going to see it flying around, but what she does is she lays her eggs on kind of in these little cracks on the barks of the tree, the baby beetles hatch out they go underneath the bark of the tree and as they feed they make these little tunnels. So what they're feeding on is the tissue of the tree? That's moving the water and the nutrients up and down the tree, their feeding cuts off the water nutrient movement, and so eventually the tree dies.

B

This insect is not native to united states. It was first found outside of detroit michigan and early 2000s.

B

They think it had probably been there since the late 90s, but in may of 2017 we had a positive find not too far from the airport, not at the airport, but kind of in that south part of charlotte, and this map is the whole entire state of north carolina.

B

All of these red square areas are where positive detections have been found where we found emerald ash borer, they do attack only ash trees and possibly white fringe trees. Another name for a white fringe tree is a granty grey beard or grandpa grey beard. I used to work in charleston and that's what everyone there used to call. It was grandpa graybeard, um it's a small understory tree, but it will attack all four species of ash trees.

B

So if you have an ashtray in your yard or you have one in your neighborhood in a natural area, some of these ash trees like to grow where it's a little bit wetter. Actually in. I have one in my backyard at the neighborhood I live in in south charlotte. We have a park area and it's right along mcmullen, creek and so there's ash trees. All throughout my neighborhood, so you don't necessarily have to live on a stream or buy a creek.

B

They could very well be in your yard, but if you go to charlotte, oh gosh, if you go to charlottenc.gov trees, I'm gonna, I'm gonna exit this real, quick and hopefully go to the internet. So if you go to our website with our tree website, there's a link for emerald ash borer and if you click on it, it'll take you to a page where you'll get a lot more information.

B

Hopefully yep about emerald ash borer. So there's a series of frequently asked questions and there's also a map that you can look at. So you can move this map around. You can look to see where you live now. This map is just street tree ash trees. So it's not going to be trees on private property, but you know there may be some in the right of um not too far from where you live and I'll just kind of give you an idea about where some of these ash trees are.

B

So you you can look at that and see where the trees are. If you're interested, you can click on the little dots it'll tell you exactly where the tree is and get a little bit more information about that. So, um if you're curious, that's a fun little website to be able to go to so, like I said these emerald ash borers, the babies are under the bark of the tree, they're feeding on the the water and the nutrient part of the tree, and it kills the tree.

B

A small tree can die within a year or two a larger tree. It might take three to five years for that tree to completely die. The good news is: is there are treatments for emerald ash borer? You can have an arborist, and this is part of the grant. You can have an arborist come out, they'll go out. If you think you have an ash tree, they'll go to your area and they'll say: yes, you definitely have that. It definitely is an ash tree.

B

So we do need the letter saying that you do have an ash tree where you want it to be treated and they can treat this tree. You can treat it before they're attacked by the beetle, which is really the best time is to treat it before they become attacked.

B

But if the tree already has some beetles in it as long as not too much of the tree has died, you can still apply a treatment and that certified arborist will be able to tell you if it's too far gone for that treatment to work, and so what we say is as long as no more than 30 percent of the canopy has died back from this beetle, you can do an insecticide treatment and basically, what that does is it it's either a trunk injection, and so they put the chemical in the trunk of the tree.

B

The tree moves it up through the tree. So when the baby beetle is eating on that little tissue, it picks up the chemical and it kills it that way and so it'll it'll stop. The beetles from attacking the downside is treatment does need to occur. I should probably put that back on my powerpoint sorry about that treatment does need to occur depending on which chemical you use.

B

If you're doing a trunk treatment, you could apply every two to three years, so this grant is for a one-time application, but just keep in mind if you do want to retain that tree, you are going to have to do treatments in the future. The great news is, is there's been so much research about these chemicals there's a great deal. They they work really well. They help to preserve the trees and preserving a tree is a lot less expensive, so even doing treatments over several years.

B

It's a lot less expensive than actually having to remove that tree. So I always tell people the the one big shade tree in my backyard is an ash tree and I've treated it twice um since we found that emerald dashboard I'll be treating it again next year. um For for this, because that that's my main shade tree- that's the one close to my house and over my deck and I'd be very sad to lose that really big tree, so that that is just one of the programs that we have for this.

B

So if you do have ashtray in your neighborhood- um and this is something you want to do- I think this is a really a really great program to do.

B

You usually cost about 10 to 12 per inch of tree to inject the chemical, so just just kind of keep that in the back of your mind when you're, when you're thinking about applying for this grant.

B

You know if you have a natural error, you have certain number of people in your neighborhood that have ash trees, and you want to make this part of your grant proposal. That's just a good number to keep in the back of your mind,.

B

Erin, do you want me to do this? Do you want to do this? One.

C

Go ahead, you can do that. One laurie.

B

Okay, all right so another uh another project that we have with this grant is for vine removal. I saw could be on the chat. They said they were excited to maybe look into this one. This makes us very happy, um so these are two pictures that we have so the picture on the left side is wisteria, that's growing around the trunk of the tree and then over here. Probably a lot of people recognize this as english ivy. um So these these vines- and there are other vines that you can do treatments for as well.

B

These are just two some of the most uh common offenders. I guess in charlotte that we see around trees. These vines they they can be really aggressive. So you know they have the roots in the grounds they're taking up nutrients they're, taking up the water which is taking it away from the trees as they grow up the tree. Those vines will grow over the branches and what that does is it blocks the sunlight, so the tree isn't able to make as much food as it needs to be able to live.

B

Another issue with these vines is the added weight on those branches.

B

It can make these trees more susceptible to storm damage, so we have an ice storm or a lot of rain on a branch if it rains for lots and lots of times. You have all these vines that are holding onto that water that might make that branch break um so and, as you can see with this, wisteria it'll actually grow into the trunk of the tree. So as that tree is increasing diameter.

B

The vine is increased in diameter and just kind of like that emerald ash, borer it'll girdle that tree and slow down the movement of water and nutrients. So getting these vines off of trees is always a really good thing to do so. Part of this grant is for vine removal.

B

So it's something that I think part of it was to get to obtain tools if your community wants to do it or to have an arborist to actually come out and do that work, whichever your community is comfortable with, um but uh this this is a kind of a photo shoot that aaron- and I did a couple years ago, a very heavily infested tree over in one of our cemeteries and so just using a handsaw severing the vine. Whatever a comfortable height is for you sever. The vine at on the trunk of the tree.

B

Try to pull it off as much as you can. You do want to be careful not to cut through into the bark of the tree, so be real, careful with that and then you're going to want to sever at the ground level as well, because you don't want that just to grow back together in that vine to start growing again.

B

So one of the things about english ivy is they will just re-sprout from anything you drop on the ground. So if you drop a hunk of it on the ground, they'll put roots out and then start growing back again, so you definitely want to clean up your site. Try to get that off of there, but essentially what you're trying to get is just a band of clear area so that vine will die. It'll slowly die in the canopy. You don't want to pull it down off the branches, because that may injure the tree.

B

You just want to leave it up there. Let that stuff naturally die and it will eventually start falling down.

B

Erin you want this one.

C

Yeah, I can do this one lori um sitting closer to the microphone. Hopefully everyone can hear um so the next one that this grant covers is tree assessment. So we know that a lot of people out there have really large trees on their property. That's what charlotte's known for and why we love being here. However, sometimes they're scary. We all see these storms that come through and when the big trees fall down, people don't know if their tree in their yard is healthy. So this will help you.

C

You can have an arborist come out and we have a list to provide. I believe, after this slide, that they will come out and look at the trees in people's yards and determine if it's a healthy tree or a non-healthy tree and make some recommendations about things that could be done to take some weight off of it or if it needs to come out or if it's perfectly healthy and just give you some peace of mind about the trees on the properties in your neighborhoods.

C

This would not cover the work. That's involved. If you need to have the work done, but it would cover the assessment for individual trees in your neighborhood.

C

I know that some people have folks in their neighborhood that maybe um can't afford the tree work um and that's something that we are actively seeking funding to be able to help with. So, if you have these assessments done and the funding does come through, then we might be able to work with your community to help those folks in need and and do some of the work on their trees or remove them.

C

If that's the required action for the tree, but this preventative care can save you, thousands of dollars just taking some weight off the tree, taking out the dead branches that may fall on your house and those types of things can really help prolong the life of a tree, especially during storms that we get in charlotte.

C

C

Lori and then these are some local tree service companies that lori has reached out to to make sure um that they are able to help, and they all said that they are so. These are the names of the companies in the the black, bold and then the sub bullet underneath is the contact person along with their email or website, um so that you can go and contact some of these books, and I believe that jonathan just posted that this presentation will go out to everyone.

C

So you don't have to like make sure you're trying to write it down really fast. Now, you'll get all of this information after the workshop is over.

C

Okay, lori go ahead.

B

There we go did not want to advance.

C

Okay, um so the next one um is a celebration of trees, and I know with uh covid and the situation that we're in now, obviously all in a zoo meeting instead of sitting in a room in person, um this may or may not be possible, but hopefully by arbor day or maybe earth day in the spring, you could have a small community event to celebrate trees, and this grant would help pay for that.

C

So, if you wanted to show a screening of a movie about trees, if you wanted to have an arborist come in and give a talk about trees or do a neighborhood tree identification walk, so you could learn a little bit more about the trees that are in your community and just sort of bring your community together have some fun. I think the grant covers some food and non-alcoholic beverages that you could apply for that as well, and get your community out and and see the trees in your neighborhood, and there are some listed there too.

C

We do a cemetery tree tour that we call tombstones and treetops that's very popular. The duke mansion has some wonderful trees that you could organize. Some people in your neighborhood and go visit some of the trees at duke mansion and then there's treasure trees that are out there very large old trees in charlotte and there's walking tours of those that an arbors could do for you as well.

C

Some of the same companies that we listed on the previous slide may be able to help with that lori and I would always be happy to come out and do a talk like that as well, and um there's some really great speakers from park and recreation from bartlett tree service and then two people personally. That lori and I know, are patrick anderson and mark livingston and they have been willing to come out and do presentations for people or to pours whatever you're interested in ah there's lori and I posing next to the iv coming off.

C

But that's our contact information and please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We are happy to answer any questions that you have um follow up to this or any general tree questions. We're always happy to be able to give you some advice on on the trees in your yard.

A

Awesome, thank you guys so much.

B

A

Quickly switch over to my powerpoint, um all right, um so uh going more in depth into uh what each of these projects what uh can and can't be covered in some pre-application uh are some uh requirements for uh each of these opportunities.

A

uh First and foremost, as uh lori mentioned a bit with emerald ash borer treatment, the project covers emerald ash borer treatment by a professional arborist. What we do require that's unique for that opportunity. As a signed artist, essentially describing the project to be carried out, we want to make sure that that's the way you've got an arborist. They know what they're doing and they've correctly or they've identified the trees as ash trees, so get all that squared away beforehand.

A

um Next is vine removal. This can cover professional vine removal, including a multitude of different types of iv. um It can also include, uh if you like yourself, tools and supplies related to vine removal. Those are going to be your loppers gloves stuff, like that. An excellent resource for these tools is the charlotte pool bank. We partner with them a lot they're very used to um neighborhoods reach out to request pools and they rent them for very low prices.

A

I like to quote: I think it was last time I went there. A set of loppers was about 12 cents for a week or something like that so very affordable.

A

It can also cover volunteer training to review proper vine removal techniques. If you'd like a more in-depth uh presentation or demonstration about vine removal, if you do decide to conduct the vine removal yourself, certain types of vines you may need to spray those bottom halves closer to the trunk of the tree with herbicide, in which case you may require a license. We encourage you to do some more research into that. Before proceeding uh with the tree canopy assessment, it can recover a professional tree, canopy assessment by a certified arborist.

A

uh This also requires a letter from the surf certified arborist, similar to the emerald ash borer treatment. One thing uh precaution here, as we learned from many of the groups last year, is that this three thousand dollars is not a lot of money.

A

When it comes to a professional tree, canopy assessment, uh it's likely going to either cover a general assessment of your neighborhood, where afterwards or perhaps in the following year, you can go back and take a look if the arborist identifies any trees that he's uh worried about or if you have one or two trees in your neighborhood, that you are interested in just really digging deep into and determining their health and overall vitality.

A

uh The tree grant would uh cover funds for that as well, so something to take into consideration uh something, that's not that we did not mention and that previous uh presentation is small tree pruning.

A

That's because that's going to require a upcoming work visit our view in an upcoming workshop, that's going to be available on the city's website, we're in the midst of preparing that for a recording. Now, uh so look uh for that on the city's website. I'll, send you all a link and it'll be available on the tree care grant page after um after it's recorded and put up online.

A

This is something that's going to be limited to those smaller trees. This is stuff that you should be able to prune, with your smaller hand, saws your garden clippers, your the loppers, such as the ones you see in the photo below not your larger stuff.

A

That would require a chainsaw and a professional crew, that's with where we're uh kind of uh drawing the line when it comes to this sort of thing, uh particularly when it comes to pruning, um but this might be an opportunity that you're interested in, especially if you've got a newer, neighborhood or a neighborhood with a lot of smaller trees.

A

They oftentimes need some pruning. So look for more information on that, and particularly a workshop in the coming weeks. And last but not least, we've got uh community education events. This can requ. This can include a many different things that includes equipment, rental, projectors, audio equipment tables, chairs, licensing fees for screening films. I had a great question from a neighborhood who's had some had discovered that for some of those larger screenings, especially if she screens films for her neighborhood outdoors, she needs to pay a licensing fee.

A

It's not that much, but we're happy to reimburse that food in the non-alcoholic beverages, equipment related to canopy events and speaker fees.

A

Basically, the only thing that's required. Our limiting factor in this grant are this opportunity is that food and beverages purchases cannot exceed 500.

A

That is an improvement from previous years uh folks who have applied to the neighborhood matching grant. I believe that that their limit is 150, so this is to encourage you all um once conditions improve uh to have those more food-oriented community events, so most neighborhood organizations who are attending this meeting today, I believe, are eligible. Essentially you have to be a neighborhood organization representing your neighborhood.

A

That's been active and established for at least six months created and managed by residents of the neighborhood open to everyone in the neighborhood at least 75 percent of the association members must live there. um It has to have an established by laws, uh an elected board and government documents, hold regular meetings and expand and promote existing neighborhood goals and objectives.

A

Charlotte is a city of neighborhoods and many neighborhoods. This is already well established if you're not sure, if your neighborhood has an existing organization. I'd encourage you to visit.

A

Do a google search for the city of charlotte's neighborhood organization contact list, it's a pretty comprehensive list that the city maintains of all the neighborhood organizations that we know about, and the contact information for each of their neighborhood leaders. So you can get in touch with them if you're not already, the in the leadership of your neighborhood also eligible are neighborhood-based groups, including book clubs, gardening clubs, sports leagues and civic clubs.

A

If they've been active and established for at least six months, they must have 80 percent of their group. Members living in the neighborhood hold regular meetings, um be mainly neighborhood focused and have a signed letter of agreement or other documentation showing a partnership between them and the neighborhood organization.

A

It's fairly rare that we get organizations like this that apply for this grant, but we, um you know, we we're happy to make the opportunity available to uh everyone as and make it as easy as possible to apply so with that I'll get a bit more into the nitty-gritty and the application process.

A

One thing to note is that this is a matching grant neighborhoods meet that match via at least 50 percent uh volunteer time. um That number has increased this year. I believe last year, uh volunteer hour was worth uh 25.43 now, it's up to 27.20 cents, um and a minimum of 25 of the required match must be contributed by the applying organization.

A

uh So that means that at least 25 it can overlap with those volunteer hours, but at least 25 percent of that match must be contributed through um neighborhood organ, our neighborhood association, organized events.

A

There are three ways to match your uh your grant: that's cash contributions, that's essentially uh the neighborhood or folks in the neighborhood um providing funds for the grant uh in-kind contribution.

A

Examples we've seen in the past is when folks go to pick up their supplies. They lend their vehicle to the neighborhood to go pick everything up for, say a vine removal day and also, of course, volunteer time.

A

Volunteer time can be used, are documented via a volunteer pledge sheet or an alternative form of documentation which we'll get more into shortly. That's new this year due to the pandemic, um and one thing to note right now is that 20 up to 20 hours of volunteer time can be counted towards your match before the application itself. That, unfortunately, does not include this presentation.

A

I had some folks ask about that. Last year, it's mainly focused on events that you do as a neighborhood, so neighborhood meetings and stuff like that I'll get a bit more into that later. Also, one thing to note on this page is the tree care grant website that you see there in the middle of the screen.

A

You can go there for uh forms uh for a link to the application and uh for a link to this presentation following um the recording.

A

So regarding those volunteer hours, um you can include a multitude of things, and one thing to highlight is that they don't necessarily have to be involved with your project.

A

This grant is about building community together and we're happy to include other community events in that, so that includes neighborhood meetings, workshops that volunteers attend as a group meetings with vendors. If it's not just one person, if it's a neighborhood effort and afterwards it can, after the contract signing deadline or sorry the contract application deadline, um you can include litter, pickups, neighborhood, upkeep virtual community events, etc.

A

One thing to note is that we have created a list of suggested activities uh due to the pandemic that folks can use to match their hours.

A

We're going to be a bit more, have a bit more leeway this year, encourage you all to get creative, but look to that document as well. Again, that's at charlottenc.gov tree care grant. I believe it's listed as neighborhood matching grants. uh Our nmg suggested volunteer opportunities.

A

It's about a page worth of bullet points of uh suggested activities that you can use to help uh reach that volunteer match um and, as I noted uh one thing that we're really focused on here with volunteer hours is building community. These are all photos um from previous years. Pre-Pandemic community matching events.

A

We've got chili cook-off, the annual plaza midwood fall crawl. One neighborhood does a halloween event for their kids every year. So these are examples of community events that you can use for your volunteer match. Of course, you can also use uh hours related to your project itself, but we wanted to give you these opportunities as well.

A

So when it comes to the actual application, as I mentioned before it's available online now I encourage you to re-review or review for the first time the guidelines, you all have already attended a pre-application workshop by viewing this presentation, either via zoom or online uh later in the week or month, um and so the next step really is to begin an application I'll be going into more steps about that shortly, but review the application. Questions on the website, um create a budget and or start organizing.

A

Your volunteer pledge sheets, if your neighborhood does not already have an account, create an account on our grant portal, if you're not sure whether your neighborhood has an account, you can email me after this presentation and I'll search for it in that database and then create submit an application.

A

uh So this is essentially what that grant application portal looks like uh you'll come first to this page on the top. um If you already know your organization's login information, you can put that in here.

A

If you have, um if your neighborhood has not created an account, yet you can click, create new account and fill it in that information.

A

Once you've logged in you'll see the screen at the bottom of the page, once you click the tab, apply um our tree care grant should be the first one that you see so you'll see it here. You can move over to the right hand, side of your screen, click apply and it will bring you to the actual application.

A

There are three sections to fill out. The first one mainly goes into just your the name of your project. There's only one really required section here, and that is the name of your project. A lot of the other stuff is internal for us. You'll also get into your organizational information and more opportunity to describe your project.

A

It's a very similar application to what we've seen in previous years, but with a unique point for those returning groups when it comes to those volunteer pledge sheets so for groups who are used to this grant. um You'll know that we require all of our appliance organizations to fill out volunteer pledge sheets beforehand.

A

These sheets should total out so that the total number of hours pledged by members of your community meet or exceed the dollar value of your requested, grant amount I'll go more into that budget and how you can easily tell how many hours you'll need in a later section, it's a little bit time consuming, but it's uh it's. uh It does serve a purpose.

A

um This is a great opportunity for folks to get more uh knowledge about the grant, um while you're there in the application process, so that your neighbors know that this is com going on, so that they can get more involved, and you can start to generate interest.

A

However, we do recognize that you probably shouldn't be going door to door right now, collecting signatures for the health and safety of yourself and your neighbors, so we are offering uh alternatives this year that you can submit with your application. um This can include all the stuff that you see on the screen and more. If you have a suggestion uh or a inquiry regarding whether you are if you're unsure whether a volunteer pledge sheet style is acceptable. Just email me afterwards.

A

Opportunities are sorry pledge sheet. Styles can include something from as simple as what you see here. I'm sorry on the left hand, side where someone just posted in their neighborhoods facebook group about the this describing the event saying they need the hours.

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What we're looking for in each of these forms is that you still have those neighbors names. You have the number of hours, they're volunteering and, in this instance the particular project that they're volunteering for so you'll, see in some of these other instances, such as the wufoo form. It's for a particular volunteer event.

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That's affiliated with the project same with the survey monkey form up here and those instances you can send us the pledge sheets via either a screen capture or an excel sheet. We're trying to be as flexible as possible this year to allow folks the opportunity to get those pledge out pledges documented, while still maintaining their health and safety.

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One other thing to note this is what the budget sheet will. Look like. You'll need to fill this out when you submit your application, it's an excel sheet. There are two pages. The first here is on the left: you'll have the section up top where you'll submit your budget.

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Please make sure that your budget corresponds to the amount you're requesting for this grant. um If your budget is uh say, 2 700 and you request 3 000 we're going to ask you to change your request to 2 700 unless um you come up with another budget item that um fill in for those extra 300, so make sure that that's as exact as possible will also require documentation for each of these things usually dirt.

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It's either receipts or invoices also quotes you'll also have the opportunity to put in any cash match or in-kind contributions that you have. You can find the specific documentation forms for that at the tree care grant website and then on. The next tab. You'll have an opportunity to fill in your volunteer hours.

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This is just a rough estimate of all of the projects that you'll be, including in your volunteer match and how many hours that you think that each of them will take you'll notice that it'll tally a all the numbers down here and it'll also move that number over to this.

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First page, once your volunteer match, when combined with your total cash match and your in-kind match, meet or exceed your total budget, then the number will appear here and you'll get this nice little green message saying that your match looks terrific so before you submit, please again make sure that your budget is complete and includes the cost and the sales tax of all items needed to complete your project.

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Please obtain at least one written cost quote for vendor purchases or services that can include, as it can be as simple as just a general email. At this point, especially with some of those more informal, I expect like if, for example, if you're working with an arborist, they can provide you the quote that way.

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Please include also a complete documentation of matching funds, contributions and labor pledges. Letters of commitment from partners, if applicable generally with this grant, that's only going to include those arborists for the tree, canopy assessments and the emerald ash, borer treatment and double check. Your volunteer event dates on your budget worksheet, just to make sure that everything corresponds and and checks out. um Basically, um once you submit everything, um as you see on this page, we've got about two or three weeks to review.

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We put that in there because often times there are some just some small discrepancies.

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Many times there are not the more information, the more prep you do beforehand, the less likely there are to be those sort of things where we have to go back and say: hey, there's some small thing. We need to fix in this one document before we can approve it. um So please review those tree care grant guidelines.

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Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions about the grant application, I'm happy to help um and make sure that the first time you submit it, that's as perfect as you can possibly make it it's okay. If there are some uh discrepancies, we're used to it and we'll help you work through it, but um the less there are the uh more the faster we can get you to uh the grant approval stage, uh we're looking to approve most of these grants by october 29th.

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um After that it'll take a couple of weeks for finance to process the contracts uh we should or I'm I'm hoping that we have the contract signing before thanksgiving holiday.

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So you can get started on the projects in december and then have the rest of the spring to complete everything. Again. The grant deadline is a bit extended this year um during the trip abandoned era of this grant. uh It was usually due in late may this year, it's going to be due on august 6th 2021, so you should have all your your volunteer mesh completed. All your funds reimbursed and your projects completed by that date.

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That I've neighborhoods have requested that. I make sure that I I put in this presentation uh just to remind folks is that funds are not granted in advance. This is a reimbursement grant.

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So, essentially, once your contracted contract is signed, you can send us invoices or receipts from purchases you make and we'll send checks back to your neighborhood organization within 30 days. Note that all checks are made out to the appliance organization and that the organization itself, not the city, makes payments to the vendors.

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I will be checking with the vendor registration folks with the city of charlotte to make sure that anyone who is applies for this grant um is registered as a vendor. If you aren't that's okay, it's a pretty easy process. I'll just send you a form and should hopefully have you uh receive a vendor number with the city uh by the end of that day and for reference as a a fun aside.

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This photo you see in the right hand, corner as a photo of folks treating an ash tree for the emerald ash borer. So this is sort of what that insecticide process looks like.

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One other thing to note is that, after your contract, sign-in you'll be required to submit documentation of expenditures, volunteer, sign-in sheets verification of income donations through bi-monthly reports this year. Those are going to be on the fourth monday of january march may and july.

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And finally, um as I mentioned before, the closeout is uh going to be on august 6 2021. At that point, uh everything should be finished. You should have your volunteer match completed as well as all of your grants. Funds reimbursed and your project include completed.

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And finally, last but not least, if you have any questions or concerns uh feel free to reach out to me again, my name is jonathan.

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My contact information is there on the screen I'll also be sending out um email with these powerpoint slides after the meeting to anyone who attended um and just yeah feel free with any questions you have. If I don't have an answer, I'll find someone, hopefully, who does um I'm here to help you with this grant and ensure that um all neighborhoods are able to um apply successfully.