Posted on 09/28/2011 4:51:35 PM PDT by Todd Kinsey
League City, TX - Just weeks after taking steps to reduce the city’s budget, city council shocked many observers when it decided to spend at least $500,000 and, more likely, well over a million dollars to save an oak tree.
The city had three options to deal with the Compton Oak Tree: the first option was to reroute the Louisiana Avenue road expansion around the tree. This option is likely to cost the city in excess of one-million dollars after the purchases additional land and engineering fees.
The second option was to relocate the tree less than half a mile to the location of the city’s planned Water Smart Park which was going to cost the city about $300,000 but came with no guarantees the mature oak would survive the move.
The final option was to cut down the tree which would have cost the city about $30,000. According to Mayor Paulissen, “there was never any serious consideration on cutting the tree down.”
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
They could have planted a replacement, in an ideal location, for far cheaper.
And that’s what they should have done.
Considering Houston is losing millions of $$$ worth of trees due to the drought. this seems a little excessive.
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League City was settled at the former site of a Karankawa Indian village. Three families, the Butlers, Cowarts, and Perkinses, are considered to be founding families of the city. The Cowart family settled on a creek now called Cowart’s Creek after them (now often called “Coward’s Creek”). The Perkins family built on a creek notably lined with magnolia trees, and named it Magnolia Bayou. The Butler family settled inland.
The first resident of the town proper, George W. Butler, arrived from Louisiana in 1873 and settled at the junction of Clear Creek and Chigger Bayou. The area was known as Butler’s Ranch or Clear Creek until J. C. League acquired the land from a man named Muldoon on his entering the priesthood. League laid out his town site on Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad, already established in the area. This began a small feud over the name, as Butler was the postmaster. The name was changed several times, alternating between Clear Creek and the new League City. In the end, League City was chosen.
In 1907, League had two railroad flatcars of live oak trees left by the railroad tracks. These were for the residents to plant on their property. Butler and his son Milby supervised the planting of these trees, now known as the Butler Oaks. Many of them line Main Street to this day.
WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY?
$30,000 to cut down a tree?
It is so easy to spend other people’s money.
What would any of them have done if this tree was at their house
and was in danger of falling on their house?
Spend $500,000 to move the house?
Spend $300,000 to move the tree?
Or just cut the damn thing down?
(I’ll do it for a mere $29, 000)
Video of “Big Al” oak tree in New Iberia, LA, being moved by La. Dotd. Costs $300,000. I’m waiting for a hurricane to take care of that investment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XMze3uKlpk
“Is it really worth a million dollars in taxpayer money to save one tree? I say no.”
I live in a city with “heritage oaks.” The city would MUCH rather you go out of business than you cut down a tree. Also, if the Greens thought you were cutting down a tree you’d be picket and the news would cover it and interview the picketers.
I watched a company build a building on a lot where there were two such trees. The builders did incredible things to keep the trees safe; until the building was finished. It was obvious from the tiny lot and the design that the trees would make using the building impossible. But, the building was finished and there was no access to the parking lot once the required curbs, drainage and sidewalks were in.
I drove by Friday afternoon and the trees were there. On Monday morning they were gone; not a trace! Somehow the builders had kept the tree-huggers happy and satisfied until the building was done and then over the weekend; they cut them down and took away every scrap. I have no idea what fines they paid, but the fines would surely be less than the multi-million dollar building sitting empty and unusable.
My suggested solution; spray the tree with tree-kill around 1am. A million is too much. Ten-thousand is too much. A thousand is too much. You can plant another tree.
These figures are higher than those reported in the Galveston Daily News. To move the tree or to re-route Louisiana were estimated at about $250,000 - $270,000 (IIRC). Still costly, to be sure. Nevertheless, after Galveston’s loss of so many gorgeous oaks as a result of Ike, I can’t bear to lose another majestic tree.
I’m all for their planting a bunch of new trees if they want. And I’ll be happy for the generations around at that time to enjoy them. But I won’t be one of them, so I’m not willing to give up this tree.
I think they could find a creative way to raise the funds to re-route Louisiana (my preference). SAVE THE TREE!
If people are of similar mind, then why don’t they hold a fund raiser for the cost instead of burdening tax payers for it? There is nothing wrong with your position, but the tax payers shouldn’t have to pay for things like this.
“If people are of similar mind, then why don’t they hold a fund raiser for the cost instead of burdening tax payers for it? There is nothing wrong with your position, but the tax payers shouldn’t have to pay for things like this.”
You’re pretty smart!
Are you a conservative? :)
A few years back, I and some friends were cutting down a huge oak in my front yard when some local ditz came by and started yelling at us for doing it, I hollered out to her to go to hell and mind her own business.
I also told her that the tree was deader than her brain and was a threat to my house.
I agree, which is why I said they should come up with creative ways to raise funds. Find ways for the surrounding communities to participate in it as well. I don’t live in Galveston or League City, but I visit those communities a lot and have a selfish interest in their aesthics. I would be willing to contribute or participate in a raffle or whatever kind of fund-raiser they decided upon.
I’m not a tree-hugger (greenie). I just like trees. They’re pretty. They provide shade. Mockingbirds perch in them and do their amazing singing. They’re brown and green which are my favorite colors. I like the sound when a breeze rustles the leaves. There are so many reasons to like them. You don’t have to be an environmental wacko to appreciate trees.
People are born and have a life and then they die.
Trees sprout and grow and then they die.
I really just don’t get all of this sentimentalism over a single tree.
The woods is slap full of ‘em.
Option 4: Don’t expand the road at all.
Of course in Texas, most everything is considered the biggest and best, regardless of the facts.
Anyway, anyplace between Houston and Galveston, where League City is found, is pretty much a fever-filled, mosquito infested swamp.
A million dollars to save one tree.
Millions of dollars to create a handful of green jobs.
Billions of dollars to kill unborn babies.
Trillions of dollars to maintain the status quo and keep the taxpayer-funded gravy train running.
Nothing wrong with this picture, eh?
Sorry folks. Nothing to see here. Everything is fine. Move along and go back to what you were doing. Or we’ll send cops from the Fullerton P.D. to your house and beat you into a bloody pulp.
Does anyone recall the young men who poisoned the tree at the Alamo? I always wondered how they turned out.
In my smallish town there is a road that runs along a small local college campus. Both sides of this 2 lane road were lined with large oaks that were starting to deteriorate. The city wanted to cut down the oaks and widen the road to accommodate increasing traffic.
A year of (mainly non-resident) student protests resulted in the oaks on the campus being saved. The city changed the expansion plans, cut down the trees on the other side of the road and replanted after expansion on the side away from the remaining trees was complete.
The new oaks are healthy, rapidly growing and attractive. The old oaks on the college campus continue to deteriorate and are about 1/3 dead. The student protestors are long gone, the scaled back expansion is still not able to handle the traffic, and the city residents are stuck with a half-completed half vigorous/half dying landscape.
Emotional attachment to a tree? Plant some and encourage the community to redirect their emotions to the new trees. Make a ceremony celebrating the start of new opportunities.
I hardly consider myself a scumbag, but trees are a renewable resource.
It’s a 64 year old tree with no historical significance. It is a genetic wonder as it is a hybrid of two oak varieties. Supposedly this is the only known natural mutation of this kind but we have 1000’s of oaks in our community and I just can’t see spending a million dollars on it.
Awesome Ernie. Is it any wonder we’re about to slide into the annals of history.
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