The oak tree on the corner of FM 518 and Louisiana Ave. (61 inches round and over 100 years old) is in the way of the widening of Louisiana Ave. (click here for facebook page) Council will decide what the fate of the Ghirardi oak will be at the council meeting on Tuesday. (Click here to see news article) So what are the options.
Option one: Moving the Compton oak to the Water Smart Park.
Cost: About $292,000 which would come from dedicated park fees.
Option two: Shift the Louisiana Avenue project west and create a pocket park around the Compton oak.
Cost: At least $267,000 and the money would come out of the city’s general fund reserves.
Option three: Cut the Compton oak down and replace it with new oaks according to the city’s tree preservation plan.
Cost: About $27,500 from the city’s general fund reserves.
So are you a liberal if you want to save the tree ? (spending tax payer money that could be used for other projects) or are you a conservative if you want to chop it down? (saving taxpayer money and selling off the wood to make up the amount spent to cut it? ) Is it possible to be both? (according to all the campaign material over the last few years it is not)
Our elected officials use the terms “Liberal” (tree hugger) and “conservative” (tree chopper) in city campaign materials so let us see what they consider the definition of the terms are.
Thoughts?
10 comments:
Whatever decision is made will cost money so I think the council should make the pragmatic decision: redesign the road to accommodate the tree. The tree is saved, the city gets an interesting little pocket park and the cost for the road re-design could come from the parks fund since the re-design is actually creating a park.
This decision has to be made with the acknowledgement that we are in a drought. All vegetation is stressed whether it looks like it or not. This tree's chance of surviving a transplant are compromised just because of it's size, but common sense tells us that attempting to transplant a giant, stressed tree is tantamount to cutting it down for firewood.
It sounds like council made the pragmatic decision according to Morgan. I hope that the revenues are there as it is going to be the costliest approach. I just have to wonder why no one considered the issue as the initial road plans were being developed.
Forward vision is indeed an important skill.
I reserve the right to eat my own word if the numbers presented by Dan Becker are accurate. 8-0
Every option pretty much sucked.
I am in favor of environmental preservation. I don't know how much it cost to acquire Yosemite National Park in today's dollars, but it was worth it. Also, if the issue arose, Treaty Oak in Austin is worth preserving from urban encroachment, even up to one million state taxpayer dollars.
Having written all that, I'm not sure that saving the Compton Oak in League City is a good idea. It doesn't have the historical significance as Treaty Oak. It's not a one-of-a-kind in the USA, let alone the world. It's not the biggest in the USA. We already have a grove of fabulous oak trees along FM 518, and the Compton Oak is not one of those. At 300 grand to save, I think it's an order of magnitude too much taxpayer money. I don't fit into either the liberal or conservative labels. I am using my experienced reason to judge the cost of saving the Compton Oak to be too high.
Agree with Morgan (Option #2). Least cost, most bang for buck.
On second thought...
Why does it cost a quarter of a million dollars to make the end (beginning?) of a new piece of road -- that hasn't even been started yet -- go around a tree instead of through it?
Forget the park. There's no room. A small landscape circle is all we can do.
I have a much better deal for the town dads, see? Let me pencil-in some small changes on the blueprint, you throw $2,670 my way, and then we do lunch, drinks and favors at Lipsticks or Heartbreakers. How about that?
Update...
The quarter-mill has jumped to one million now.
Get a rope.
forget the rope. get a chainsaw.
Heresy, I say. The man would chop down the cherry tree? Well, okay, the oak. Still, what would George Washington say?
But you do make a point. Everything (and everyone, especially politicians) has its price. How much is an old oak tree really worth anyhow? It's probably already half eaten by Japanese beatles as we speak, and surely about to die next year. Besides, we have more of them. Lots more, where that one came from. And I need some more firewood. Winter's comin' on.
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