Newnan City Council approves removing and replanting some downtown trees
By JOHN A. WINTERSjohn@newnan.com
On Tuesday, Newnan City Council approved a report calling for professional pruning, some removal and some replanting of the nearly 70 trees located in the downtown corridor.
The city Tree Commission report, which included detailed history of the 69 trees in the corridor, was “a compromise,” according to city officials. Currently, there are 32 large Laurel Oaks, 27 large Chinese Pistache, and 10 small Chinese Pistache.
“We feel like it’s a good compromise,” said city landscape architect Mike Furbish. “I preferred leaving them all... but we have had complaints of the trees blocking the facades downtown.”
When asked by council members, Furbish said staff would look again at the trees if some of the larger ones remain a problem after the professional pruning.
The plan calls for:
• Professionally pruning 24 Laurel Oak trees to ensure building clearance, thinning and canopy elevation, and to regulate growth.
• Professionally pruning 17 Chinese Pistache trees to ensure building clearance, thinning and canopy elevation, and to regulate growth.
• Removing eight Laurel Oak trees to expose building facades on the immediate Court Square, and to use those areas for annual color.
• Removing 10 Chinese Pistache to ease utility conflicts and replace overgrown trees with smaller ones to be determined.
• Remove and transplant six smaller Chinese Pistache to avoid utility conflicts and replace with smaller trees to be determined.
• Agreeing no other large trees would be removed.
Also Tuesday, council approved a proposal from Stormwood Technologies to create a Shortel VoIP phone system. Staff documents showed the new system would save about $4,000 per month over the existing AT&T service.
