County okayed tree removal in courthouse lawn

Four large shade trees were removed from the Trimble County Courthouse lawn last week on the orders of Trimble County Fiscal Court. During their July 16 meeting the county government body unanimously approved the tree removal on the recommendation of magistrate Kirby Melvin. Craig Daniels gave him a price

Dave Taylor

Four large shade trees were removed from the Trimble County Courthouse lawn last week after members of Fiscal Court determined they had become a liability hazard due to numerous dead branches.

Buy this photo

Dave Taylor

Four large shade trees were removed from the Trimble County Courthouse lawn last week after members of Fiscal Court determined they had become a liability hazard due to numerous dead branches.

Buy this photo

“If you look out there there’s a bunch of dead limbs—I mean a barrel of them—and Mother Nature can have some bad accidents sometimes,” Melvin said. He gave prices quoted by Craig Daniels as follows:

To saw the trees down and leave them for the county to dispose: $1,375.

To take all four trees down, haul them away and all the brush: $2,900.

To grind out the stumps and haul off the chips: $1,500.

Total removal of the trees and stump grinding: $4,400.

“Nobody likes cutting a tree that maybe has a lot of history to it,” Trimble County Judge-Executive Randy Stevens said. “These trees have been seen by a few generations. They’re not hundreds of years old. They are nuisance trees at this point. They’ve caused us insurance claims on vehicles. It darn near cost some lives when those hurricane Ike storms blew through in the Apple Festival. It’s high time to get them down.”

Stevens said some smaller hardwood trees that were planted by a previous administration are “wonderful, beautiful trees and you don’t even notice them yet because they are so covered up by these big silver maples that’s full of dead wood and dead limbs. These things have been a nightmare.”

The magistrates plan to seek the assistance of an arborist to replace the trees with something of significance to this area.