Three of the four species of trees set to be planted on Main Street and Madison Avenue in are in the contractor’s possession and ready to go into the ground.
However, one species is unavailable, as those tagged trees have died.
At the public works committee meeting Wednesday, utilities director Jake Ziegler updated the committee on the streetscape street trees situation.
He said the contractor was ready to plant the trees Thursday.
“As far as I know, the trees for the area on Main Street and Madison Avenue are physically located in the town right now,” he said. “There’s a big possibility that the contractor can start as early as (Thursday) on the installation of the trees.”
“So (The Reporter) got it right,” said councilman Jack Hansen.
“Well, we’ll see what the contractor does, but that’s the plan,” said Ziegler.
Borough communications director Tracy Flynn said the ground was too saturated to plant the trees Thursday, and the contractor could plant the trees Friday.
Ziegler said the contractor has requested a time extension for the project, due to the failure to immediately locate the one species of trees.
“I’m inclined to do that for a couple months because at least some of the trees they will not be able to get this year because they don’t have them yet,” Ziegler said. “It would be my recommendation to give the time extension to carry through the winter and then also have the springtime to deal with any questions.”
The update on the trees didn’t sit well with Hansen, who agreed with the time extension.
“We were told this whole year we had to wait until the leaves came off of them and the trees went into dormancy, what happens if they don’t get put in this fall and we put them in when they bloom in the spring?” asked Hansen.
Ziegler said the contractor can locate and has in possession three of four species of trees to be planted in Lansdale.
“They can find a smaller caliber of the one species, but we’re saying that what council wantd was a large caliber. That’s basically what you authorized us to do,” said Ziegler.
Hansen said , they were told the next day that the trees would be tagged.
“They did tag the trees,” said Ziegler, “but when they went to get the trees, they were dead. So they are in the process of trying to relocate them.”
Ziegler said the intent was to go with a larger-sized caliber, and not tell the contractor the borough wants smaller trees.
“The contractor is responsible for the project until the project is done,” Ziegler said.
