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Greg Hill, with the Town of Minden, talks about the cottonwood trees that line County Road on Oct. 3.
Minden’s ever-changing tree scape is getting another grooming.
Dead and dying cottonwood trees along the ditch-side of County Road are slated to come down this month in connection with a Town of Minden street enhancement project.
Earlier this month, cottonwood trees were removed that surrounded the Minden Inn for the county’s parking lot project.
The County Road project, more than five years in the making, will install sidewalks and pipe and cover the ditch along the east side of the road, used as an irrigation system.
Minden Public Works Director Greg Hill said the cottonwoods between First and Fourth would be removed.
The ditch also will be piped and covered between Seventh and Eighth streets along the Douglas County School District property, but the elm trees along the block are healthy and will only be pruned, Hill said.
The trees will be replaced with a variety including maples and oaks.
Hill said the landscape, designed by Sandra Wendel, is to replicate the County Road block between Forth and Fifth streets, completed when the town built a new pump house.
“There will be all new sidewalks, lighting and landscaping,” Hill said.
He said the trees that are coming down are hazardous.
“In the past few years, we’ve had two blow over,” he said. “They’re hollow and unsafe.”
Brenda Stein, of EXD Engineering, who designed the project, said the county applied in 2002 for a federal street enhancement program that is administered by the Nevada Department of Transportation.
The federal government pays 5 percent of the $600,000 project and the federal government pays the rest.
Stein said delays were caused while the town conformed to state regulations for easement requests and completed an archeological study to determine which houses were 50 years or older.
The town negotiated with a dozen property owners, securing easements and going over landscape plans.
“It was really a safety issue for the sidewalks,” she said. “That’s what enhancement funding is, an enhancement to a transportation corridor.”
Stein said since the project doesn’t involve paving the road, the contractor can work on the project over the winter, with a goal toward planting the new landscape in the spring.
“Ultimately, we’d like to have sidewalks all the way to the swim center,” she said.
Dead and dying cottonwood trees along the ditch-side of County Road are slated to come down this month in connection with a Town of Minden street enhancement project.
Earlier this month, cottonwood trees were removed that surrounded the Minden Inn for the county’s parking lot project.
The County Road project, more than five years in the making, will install sidewalks and pipe and cover the ditch along the east side of the road, used as an irrigation system.
Minden Public Works Director Greg Hill said the cottonwoods between First and Fourth would be removed.
The ditch also will be piped and covered between Seventh and Eighth streets along the Douglas County School District property, but the elm trees along the block are healthy and will only be pruned, Hill said.
The trees will be replaced with a variety including maples and oaks.
Hill said the landscape, designed by Sandra Wendel, is to replicate the County Road block between Forth and Fifth streets, completed when the town built a new pump house.
“There will be all new sidewalks, lighting and landscaping,” Hill said.
He said the trees that are coming down are hazardous.
“In the past few years, we’ve had two blow over,” he said. “They’re hollow and unsafe.”
Brenda Stein, of EXD Engineering, who designed the project, said the county applied in 2002 for a federal street enhancement program that is administered by the Nevada Department of Transportation.
The federal government pays 5 percent of the $600,000 project and the federal government pays the rest.
Stein said delays were caused while the town conformed to state regulations for easement requests and completed an archeological study to determine which houses were 50 years or older.
The town negotiated with a dozen property owners, securing easements and going over landscape plans.
“It was really a safety issue for the sidewalks,” she said. “That’s what enhancement funding is, an enhancement to a transportation corridor.”
Stein said since the project doesn’t involve paving the road, the contractor can work on the project over the winter, with a goal toward planting the new landscape in the spring.
“Ultimately, we’d like to have sidewalks all the way to the swim center,” she said.
