Wapakoneta City Councilors and members of the Wapakoneta Tree Commission met Wednesday night for an informational meeting in reference to trees on West Auglaize Street.
The original plan was to plant 79 trees of a variety of five different species in the tree lawn on West Auglaize Street. When the project was bid out, the cost to do this was $37,759.63 or $477.97 each.
The trees were set to be planted in fall of 2015, but the tree commission chose to push the planting back to fall of 2016. Pushing back the date allowed the contractor to reassess the price and it increased. To stay within budget, the city now can only plant 46 trees for around $820 per tree.
Rachel Barber pointed out that $820 is a lot of money to pay per tree. Ruck and Mayor Tom Stinebaugh agreed, but said there is no other choice. The city is under a contract with ODOT.
Originally 38 were to be retained, but Barber said Thursday morning that only 9 trees were retained, which will leave 55 trees once the contractor finishes the project, rather than the planned 118.
The City of Wapakoneta will have the opportunity to put more trees in. Once ODOT closes the project, the road will belong to the city again. Additional tree planting can be done by fall of next year.
This year's tree planting is set to begin Monday.
See the Thursday, Nov. 10 edition of the Wapakoneta Daily News for the full story.