City of Hastings employee Andy Brittain knocks down a tree
with a backhoe along 12th Street Wednesday. Trees on the
north side of the street along Parkview Cemetery are being
removed in preparation for the expansion of 12th Street.
More than 200 4-foot tree stumps will embellish 12th Street between Elm and Sixth avenues this winter, but there is a method to the seeming madness of the spectacle.
The city of Hastings is cutting down the trees to prepare for the approved city project that will expand the section of 12th Street opposite Hastings College's Lynn Farrell Arena this year.
City Engineer Dave Wacker gave an update on the plan at the Hastings Planning Commission meeting Tuesday. The city first drafted and proposed the 12th Street plan in 2010 and received approval to begin construction on April 15 of this year. The tree cutting is one step in the overall process, Wacker said.
"If you drive down the street and see a bunch of stumps, know that it is a preparatory move on our part," he said. "If the city didn't move ahead at this point in time, the project would have been delayed."
To read more, see Thursday's Hastings Tribune or the Tribune e-edition.>>>
