Spoke with the folks from Kuss Brothers on Friday. Today they will begin the greening of 5th Avenue from Prospect Avenue to Union Blvd. That should take the better part of the week. There are also about 5 trees left to go on West Fairview Street. All of this should be wrapped up by the end of the week for a total of 250 trees!! What a difference that is gonna make when these trees leaf out in the spring.
Yes, it sounds gross, but you will all learn to love this graffiti removal product. It’s green, sticky, gooey and you need gloves and eye protection when using this but it does what it says it will do!!!
We ran a little test Friday afternoon over at Fairview Park on the NW corner of the park. There is a concrete wall that got hit pretty hard last week so it was a good chance to test it out. The wall is now clean (mold is gone as well!) There is more to do up the wall on the west side but I’d like to do that with some volunteers as a training to show how the product works.
Basically, it’s a brush-on product. You let it sit for 15-30 minutes. Less time if you have a pressure washer vs regular hose. I would always recommend the pressure washer. Even less time if it’s either warm out or you have a hot water pressure washer available. I’d say it took a half hour but that’s cause I had to search out a source of water. Thank you to the nice woman who lives close by who let me hook up to her hose outlet for water!
If you are interested in being a Graffiti Buster, call or email me at 610-997-5732 or apitsilos@bethlehem-pa.gov or reply here!
Luminaria Night is quickly approaching. Block Captains are receiving their packets this week. Look for letters stuffed in your mailbox starting on November 12th. Luminaria Night is a night where people put luminaria out on the sidewalk in front of their houses. Luminaria Night has been going on for 10 years. Last year there were 55,000 luminaries out on Bethlehem streets.
This year we are looking to make a splash with luminaria night in the North by Northwest Neighborhoods. If you don’t get a letter and want to participate or you are interested in being a block captain, contact Debbie Delgrosso at 610-865-3757 or ddelgrosso1@juno.com.
The kits are $10 bucks and have 10 luminaries. They are spaced every 3 feet on the sidewalk so one kit will cover 30 feet. If you need additional kits, they are $5 each. The kits have the candles and the sand to hold the bags as well.
So, talk to your neighbors, plan a social event, get those cameras ready and don’t forget to clean up the bags on the morning of the 14th! In case of rain/snow, the inclement weather date is the 14th. For more info visit www.newbethanyministries.org.
Ok, we probably have about 200 of the 300 trees in for this fall so far. Late yesterday, I started the tree inventory using GIS tools which map the tree locations and take note of other factors like the sidewalk treatment and the presence of overhead wires and what kind of wires.
Trees need things to live just like us. Most important to them would be regular and adequate water. We can help the trees get established. They will be especially thirsty this spring as more than half of their roots are taken when they are balled and baled and moved to their forever homes. So please, water these trees as often as you can. I heard from Allentown and they are using water gators on some new trees. These are bag collars around the tree that hold and slowly release gallons of water. School kids are encouraged to carry a water bottle and empty the water bottle into the water gator. Every little bit helps.
A big way to help is the size of the tree well. Trees get water from rain, the more ground space they have that isn’t concrete, the more water they can get. The size of the tree wells we cut is limited in part by ordinance concerning width of sidewalks and partly by cost. Homeowners could go further and make a longer tree well parallel with the curb. If you were able to take out more concrete and possibly fill that with bricks, more water would be able to reach the roots. Taking all the concrete out parallel to the curb and putting a grass strip back in would also help.
Another way to help is tree trimming. We have a seminar called TreeTenders coming again in the spring. Trees are trees and not bushes. The growth should be directed up, not out at the ground to 5ft level. I carry tree trimming tools with me and have taken the TreeTenders course to know what/how to trim. Please DON’T use a ladder. If you are trimming a tree on a ladder, you need a permit from the city and maybe it’s time to call a pro at that point. But, just as we guys shave every day, we can do some basic tree grooming that trains these trees to grow up and have a nice shape. Sometimes it’s too late. There are a few trees at Goepp and Main that missed their grooming appointments and look like weak trees because of it. Ultimately, those trees will probably come down and as they stand, are not really an asset to property.
Another thing the trees need is some respect. As Rodney Dangerfield says…….I don’t get no respect. Watch the car doors, if you drive a truck, watch when you pull in/out and don’t break branches. Eventually, the tree will grow up and over where people park but in the first couple years, take some care with the vehicles. A ripped off main branch will leave a lasting scar on the tree. Imagine if you were getting a haircut and you elbowed the sytlist and he/she slipped and cut off a huge chunk of your hair. It wouldn’t be pretty would it? Same goes for trees, except they may never recover.
Let’s talk about overhead wires. While it’s unlikely anyone will be moving their electric service wires or that the main electric/cable/phone trunk lines will move, we can take a look at our phone/cable wires. Could your cable wires be rerouted to avoid being directly over the trees? Do you have cable wires attached that you aren’t using? Ask that they be removed. Do you have cable/phone wires crossing your airspace that feed the neighbors house? Demand the cable/phone company rerun those wires perpendicular to the feed over the person’s airspace that is actually using that service. What about switching to a dish and loosing the wire altogether! BUT, please mount the dish on the roof, not on the porch. Don’t get me started on that! Phones - We don’t have a home phone, just cells. There is also phone service from your cable company or cable service from your phone company. Another opportunity to loose a wire. So, next time your outside, look up at that mess of wires and see if there is something you can do to improve the streetscape. Wan’t a good example, take a look at 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue. Fifth is criss crossed with cable feeds. It’s hard to find the sky looking up through all that mess. Sixth Ave has no wires. The feeds come from the alley.
I’ll be out again today doing more tree inventory work. If you see me with the yellow Trimble GIS/GPS unit in hand, wave hi or come over and chat!
Kuss Brothers will be busy today on the lower stretch of 3rd Avenue between Union Blvd and the Route 378 entrance. Depending on how people exit Route 378, this could be one of their first views of Bethlehem. You know what they say about first impressions!
Going left off the ramp toward Broad Street will be worked on in the Spring as part of the PennDot Hometown Streets Project.
In talking with the tree crew, they can do about 13-15 trees a day so they should be able to cover the lower part of 3rd Avenue and hopefully start on 5th Avenue tomorrow.
Did you know that more trees correlates with…
Just a quick note about siting trees. Without getting into exact figures here there are some restraints for where street trees can go. They have to be a certain distance from a corner and a driveway, they have to be spaced a certain distance apart and there needs to be adequate sidewalk space for pedestrian traffic.
In travels around the target area with the above in mind, there are some streets that are very very difficult on which to place trees. Ettwein Street, Garrison Street are probable the most difficult streets. Both of those streets are also very narrow streets as well.
A street that has the problem of not enough sidewalk space is E. North Street. In order to fill E. North Street with trees, we would actually have to narrow the roadway a couple feet. While not out of the question, it is very very expensive to do so. The road itself is wide enough to probably be able to loose a few feet, it’s probably more a question of money.
So…while we are putting trees in, you guys keep your eyes open for people taking trees out without a permit. If you see a tree being removed, call the city forester, Cindy Smith. She will check to see if they have a permit and make sure they replace the dead/diseased tree with an appropriate species.
The no parking signs are up on 3rd Avenue today. That means the crew from Kuss Brothers will be out jacking out concrete, digging holes and planting trees to make this street more green. That means, cooler temps, less noise, more oxygen (yeah!) and more privacy. Think what those trees will look like as they grow! Today they will probably tackle from Prospect to Broad Street and tomorrow, head down to Union Blvd to the Route 378 gateway.
2nd Avenue was completed and apparently the buzz at the voting spot was the new trees. It’s quite a difference on the lower part of 2nd that was without trees. Now 2nd Avenue from W. Broad to Prospect Avenue is again a tree lined street. That’s probably a 10% boost in property value right there!
5th Avenue - your turn is coming. Probably beginning of next week.
On my way in today, I saw no parking signs on 2nd Avenue. Since the contractor has been busy over on the Northampton County side of our target area, I’m assuming they are done with the plantings on Fairview, E. Goepp Street, Center Street, High Street, Union Blvd and New Street.
I only have the preliminary database in front of me right now but that says about 54 trees on E. Goepp Street, 13 on Union Blvd, 40 on Fairview Street, 8 on North New Street, 25 on High Street and 5 on Center Street. That’s 145 trees!
More to follow shortly on 2nd, 3rd and 5th Avenues and then the TreeVitalize Project will be next with trees on 4th, 6th and Prospect. The deadline for the next TreeVitalize Grant is coming up so hopefully, we will plant another 50-80 trees next year with TreeVitalize funding in the Northampton County half of our area.
More pics to follow!
Update! The test product kit came in with 4 different products for different surfaces and graffiti material. Today I tried MaxWipes out at Fairview Park. Those of you living around the park go take a look. This product works like a napkin wiping ketchup of a little kids’ face! Literally wipes marker graffiti right off the plastic and painted metal. I removed quite a bit of graffiti but left some for another time so we can have a training.
I have to look at the cost per wipe. There are 25 wipes in a “bottle”. This stuff is not very nasty, you don’t need gloves unless you use the product all the time.
Let me know who is interested in joining a graffiti squad. NbNW will supply the products and have a training. All we ask is digital pictures of before and after so we can forward the before pics to the police so they can be aware of gang tags etc. that they are looking for.
Start noticing where the graffiti is so we can be graffiti busters. We’d rather spend money on neighborhood improvments but Safe, Clean and Green comes first!
Graffiti is senseless. It’s destruction of public and private property. It’s even worse when it’s in a park where little kids play. Coming soon - Graffiti Busters.
Can’t wait to install the cameras in these parks!
