The city’s Street Landscape Committee talked fall tree planting and waterway maintenance during Tuesday’s meeting.

City Arborist Joe Reinke said the city has 40 free trees coming this fall through a grant program.

“(We) have homes for about 30 of those trees right now,” he said.

Anyone interested in a city right-of-way tree is asked to call the Department of Public Works.

Reinke said there are 10 trees that will be taken down this fall but that the timing will not work to replace out of this 40.

He also told the committee that he has been in contact with people planning to build two homes on the Home St. School lot.

County assessment records show that the empty lot was purchased from the Warren County Development Association back in March for 425,000. The WCDA had taken possession of the property for $1 from developer Ruzhdi Bakalli in 2018.

The committee also discussed the bank of the Allegheny River as well as the Conewango Creek at the Third Ave. bridge.

Reinke siad some back trimming was completed and that DPW crews try to do that every three years.

“This is year three,” he said. “We try to do it as time permits.”

The committee asked about the island on the Conewango by the Third Ave. bridge.

“The city does a report on the bridges every other year,” DPW Director Mike Holtz said, explaining that the bridge report noted “scouring” or the water chipping away at the concrete.

He said the report recommended dredging the area.

“We wanted to do it to preserve the bridge and the fish and they wouldn’t give us the permit,” Holtz said of the relevant agencies. The city met with DEP, Fish and Boat as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on this issue.

“We’ll keep chipping away at the riverbank,” Reinke added, “(We’re) getting a lot of compliments (from a) lot of people that see it.”