LULA — Following up on a discussion held at last week's work session, the Lula City Council voted Monday night to proceed with removal of large trees at the Lula Veterans Park downtown.
Those trees were planted several years ago and have become invasive, threatening the wall of the park and potentially its fountain infrastructure.
"We're going to continue to look at some of the landscaping options," City Manager Dennis Bergin said after the meeting. "The biggest problem we're having right now is the Veterans Park, and we're going to be making some improvements down there. Initially, we planted maples down there about eight years ago and guess what? Maples like to grow big and tall and they've done just that and they're becoming a little intrusive, so the council has approved a change in the type of trees that we'll have down there."
That means the maple trees will be removed quickly to make way for replacements during the spring planting session.
A couple of possible tree types were discussed, with a third as a backup.
In addition to the replacement trees discussed Monday night, Councilmen Vince Evans and Lamb Griffin were designated to decide what to plant in three beds created along the new StreetScape.
"We're going to continue to make some other improvements along Main Street, along the StreetScape area," Bergin said.
City leaders consulted the Hall County Extension Service agent for suggestions and paired those recommendations with ideas from Evans, a Master Gardener.
"It's yet to be determined on some of the specimens that we'll be putting up, but we heard loud and clear tonight that they want good color, which we're known for in this area, and we'll do that as well," Bergin said.
