City to maintain downtown trees in Hartsville
by JIM FAILE
The City of Hartsville will maintain the trees in the city�s downtown streetscape, trimming them and pruning as necessary but will not remove them, at least for now.
The trees in question are live oaks planted in planters along sidewalks and in parking lots in the downtown area, Parks and Leisure Services Director Phil Gardner said.
Gardner told Hartsville City Council that workers will trim the trees to keep them off of building fronts and raise the crown of the trees. The trees have not been trimmed in about two years, officials said.
�Limbing up� by cutting away the lowest branches, thereby raising the crown of the trees, should help raise the visibility of storefronts and signage in the downtown area, Gardner said. �Over time, as they grow up, that should help that,� he said. �Those are problems we can handle.�
The city�s Parking, Beautification and Business Improvement Commission agreed in July to solicit bids to have the trees trimmed and pay for it.
But Gardner said that will not solve the problem of what to do about the root systems of the trees.
The live oaks were planted improperly in concrete underground planters that apparently are too shallow for the expanding root systems of the trees, he said. As the roots have grown downward as far as they can go, they have begun to turn back up and some are now above ground.
In some cases the roots are damaging brickwork around the planters. The damaged brickwork also poses tripping hazards for pedestrians, Gardner said.
And in some cases, Gardner said, the roots are girdling the trees - wrapping around the trunk of the tree - which can eventually kill a tree. Gardner said there is one tree that is seriously girdled and said it may have to be removed.
Right now, he said, he and his staff are looking into what can be done about the problem but have found no answers. �I don�t know,� he told council. �We�ve been kicking around ideas for weeks, and I just don�t know.�
Councilman Johnny Andrews suggested looking to other cities around the state to see how they have handled issues regarding trees in their downtown areas, specifically pointing to Greenville and Charleston.
Mayor Mel Pennington said issues about the visibility of signage and storefronts can be addressed with some creative thinking.
�I don�t want tripping hazards to be the rule on this,� he said. Other cities have addressed similar issues without destroying their downtown treescapes, he said.
�I think it (the treescape) is attractive and it�s functional,� Pennington said.
The mayor said he recently spent a number of hours driving through several small Pee Dee towns and said the experience made him appreciate more what Hartsville has in its downtown. �Those downtowns are ugly. They have no trees. Their storefronts are empty,� he said.
Gardner said he has asked Streets and Grounds Supervisor Stephen Wild, who is also the city�s arborist, to work on developing a plan to address the problem. Gardner said he has also talked with other arborists and experts about the issue and said there others he plans to talk to.
In July, landscape architect Bill Eubanks of Urban Edge Studio in Charleston recommended a site analysis of the downtown treescape to determine the best approach.
There are 86 trees in the downtown treescape. Most of them are live oaks, but that number also includes some crepe myrtles planted in raised planters. �Those are root bound in those planters. They�re no problem,� Gardner said.
Gardner said the trees are not creating the problems with underground infrastructure that officials first suspected. �The trees are not causing any problems to water lines, sewer lines, electrical lines, gas lines like we thought,� he said.
Gardner said he is seeking direction from council on how to proceed. �Before anything gets done, I want this group of seven to give us some direction,� he said. �I�m going to look to council and to management to say how we want to approach this.�
�What we�re saying is that we recognize that there is a problem, and we want your input,� Interim City Manager Vern Myers told council.
Gardner said he plans to spend a good deal of time studying what to do. �We want to make sure whatever we do, we do it right,� he said.
He also said his staff is looking at ways to improve the safety and appearance of the sidewalk planters.
Myers said city officials would like to apply for a S.C. Department of Transportation grant to help implement whatever plan city officials come up with.
The trees were planted in the mid 1990s. Removing them now would take away 15 years of shade from the downtown shopping area and raise temperatures in the area by as much as 10 to 15 degrees, officials said.