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APPROVED WITH AMENDMENT 2.7.24
<br /> 201 Craig Nishimoto: Yeah, and I would say through our concerns, two options. We can address it now or hey,
<br /> 202 there's a paper written on this.
<br /> 203
<br /> 204 Adam Beeman: So I guess that's the question is does anybody have any concerns about this being
<br /> 205 labeled as an agricultural district? If we don't have any discussions about that, then we can move forward with
<br /> 206 the presentation.
<br /> 207
<br /> 208 Statler Gilfillen: I will ask one question just to clarify, and it's minor here. The storage is strictly for the cut
<br /> 209 trees, lumber, and agricultural waste products that are stored on your site? It is not other possible retail uses
<br /> 210 or selling fruit or anything else from this site? We are strictly dealing with this as your company?
<br /> 211
<br /> 212 Craig Nishimoto: It is largely the byproducts of the tree work that we do in town, so that's wood chips, that's
<br /> 213 millable saw logs, and that's the little cut-in pieces where you can't do anything with. Maybe firewood is the
<br /> 214 best thing, these kind of things, but the big goal is all these mountains of wood chips and these logs that are
<br /> 215 otherwise going to waste.
<br /> 216
<br /> 217 Adam Beeman: I will say I have read the entire thing, and it is, it takes longer than a half an hour to go
<br /> 218 through it, so I guess if you can just give us a quick summary of what the biggest points you want to hit in that
<br /> 219 detailed summary, I understand it was detailed. Like I said, I read the whole thing. If you just, if you just want
<br /> 220 to give the Board some of your quick highlights of this is what we're doing. "We're a tree company. We're
<br /> 221 trying to eliminate having the equipment in the town area." Just those quick highlights, I think that'll help bring
<br /> 222 everybody on board, and then we can kind of get into a more detailed discussion 'cause, like I said, it took
<br /> 223 longer than half an hour to read through the whole packet.
<br /> 224
<br /> 225 Craig Nishimoto: Let me, let me just go through the bullets that I have at the top, and they kind of
<br /> 226 foreshadow everything that is there. The basic idea is that we're going to make advances on some important
<br /> 227 objectives for the County here in allowing us to do what we want. The town needs that we are addressing is
<br /> 228 the increasingly disruptive noise pollution caused by the industrial tree processing equipment in the town. We
<br /> 229 are trying to address that problem with this proposal. Countless tons of wasted natural resources from the tree
<br /> 230 maintenance and tree removal services, all these mountains of wood chips, and these logs that are getting cut
<br /> 231 up and not used, the rising cost of tree ownership compromising the goals of a flourishing and equitable
<br /> 232 canopy coverage. If you do nothing in Chapel Hill, or trees will grow. If you stop mowing, trees will grow, and
<br /> 233 then, so it's not just the really wealthy communities that have tree problems. It's everybody, or they get rid of
<br /> 234 them because they know that the cost of trees will be too expensive. We are trying to make tree work efficient
<br /> 235 and bring quality tree service to everybody. Then there's the challenge of attracting, training, and providing
<br /> 236 local jobs to highly-skilled arborists. We're good at this. We're good at making climbing exciting and a career
<br /> 237 option for people. Getting out of college, or even the most talented arborists from out of state, the west coast,
<br /> 238 are coming to work with us, and we think one of the best things we can do for the trees of this community is
<br /> 239 bring really talented arborists here. The need to increase tree and tree care literacy among local property
<br /> 240 owners. Every week, on average, we get 75 requests from people in this area to ask for a consultant to come
<br /> 241 talk to them about their trees. 80 or 85 percent of those things are free consultations,just free advice, and we
<br /> 242 have our arborists are, they're all arborists, they're all tree assessment qualified, and they're not on a
<br /> 243 commission. They're first and foremost giving good advice, and then if they need tree services, guess what?
<br /> 244 We can also help them with that. We have the emeritus professors of botany among our clients, so we can't
<br /> 245 tell them much, but we can tell them about some things about what would happen if that tree landed on your
<br /> 246 house and what we can do and how much it would cost. And we have people that just moved here and don't
<br /> 247 know anything about trees, but every time we go there,we move them from wherever they are to knowing a
<br /> 248 whole lot, a little bit more, and we think that's the best thing that we can do for the trees and the tree care in
<br /> 249 this community. And then there's the challenge of providing responsive emergency tree services to this area
<br /> 250 and the populations centers. We are first responders. If you go to the County and say, "what do you do if
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