Maxwell council adopts roadside vegetation plan to unlock DNR grant eligibility

The Maxwell City Council voted to adopt an Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management Plan after a brief public hearing, a move council members said will reduce long-term maintenance costs and make the city eligible for state grant programs.

Jo, who summarized the plan during the hearing, said the plan is "designed to help in the future minimize maintenance of our open spaces along transportation routes" and stressed that adoption is a first step toward implementation and grant eligibility. Council discussion focused on how the town will document existing roadside vegetation; a council member asked who would conduct the inventory and how much it would cost. Jo and staff said the inventory would likely be completed using local expertise—either City staff or the Parks & Tree Board—and would serve as the planning baseline for future work.

Council members indicated they were comfortable adopting the plan while reserving work-plan and funding details for later. The motion to adopt the plan and move toward implementation passed on a roll-call vote with recorded affirmative votes during the meeting.

The council instructed staff to pursue the inventory and to include clarifying definitions (for example, the transcript references a "living roadway trust fund"); councilmembers requested that acronyms be spelled out in plan documents before final implementation. The council also noted the plan could improve the town's competitiveness for DNR and other grant funding tied to vegetation and tree projects.