Expensive and loved trees have been removed in the wake of digging up streets to replace water pipes downtown, which has upset citizens, two of whom spoke at the Truth or Consequences City Commission meeting yesterday.
The Citizen has received calls, one person stating the trees’ removal “makes Broadway look like a bowling alley.”
Besides the tree removal, “done with no communication,” a fire hydrant has been placed “in the middle of the sidewalk,” a Broadway business owner said, both actions evidence of little planning or care, undermining the city’s oft-stated goal to increase its attractiveness to tourists.
City Manager Bruce Swingle, in an email to the Citizen, said, “Nine trees were removed along Main St. and Broadway downtown. The trees were removed because they were in and wrapped around the waterlines. Smithco [city’s hired contractor on the water project] could not do their job with the trees/roots in place. When the project is complete, the commission will decide what vegetation to plant in the same locations. We are recommended that whatever is decided that it not have deep roots. Planting deep-rooted trees over waterlines is not in the best interest of the community.”
Ken Merrick, who has owned Spectrum Pottery for 33 years, during public comment at the meeting, first asked if a tree expert had been consulted. No response was given by commissioners or the city manager later in the meeting. Meeting rules do not allow an immediate response during public comment, but is sometimes given during the “reports” section of the agenda.
MainStreet Truth or Consequences purchased the trees in 2000, Merrick said, after first getting permits from the New Mexico Department of Transportation, which owns the downtown business loop that includes Main Street and Broadway.
The trees removed were 25 years old and a variety from China, Merrick said, worth $12,000 per tree today, or $108,000 in total.
The NMDOT informed Merrick it was never contacted as required, Merrick said, making the tree removal illegal.
When he queried the city, Merrick was told City Manager Bruce Swingle and Mayor Amanda Forrister made the decision to remove the trees.
“If the mayor and city manager had removed the trees legally, insurance might have replaced them,” Merrick said.
“I want to know how you plan to reimburse the citizens,” Merrick said.
Gordon Edelheit, president of the Truth or Consequences Chamber of Commerce, indicated city commissioners’ “oversight” was lacking on this water project, hence the removal of the trees downtown with no warning. He also said Main and Broadway are too narrow for two lanes of traffic and should become one-way streets.
Two and a half years ago, then-City Manager Morris Madrid and Alfredo Holguin, engineer and spokesman for Wilson & Company, the city’s on-call engineering firm and designer of the downtown water project, held an “open house.”
Ron Fenn, a citizen activist, gave input that was rejected out of hand by Madrid and Holguin. His idea would have saved money, avoided tree removal and aesthetic damage to downtown. Abandon the old water pipes and put new pipes in dirt alleys, he said, where most of the sewer pipes are already laid.