Tonight, Council will accept the record of more than $627,000 for emergency storm cleanup. The work was necessary. We received more than 400 reports of downed trees or hazardous hanging branches, as well as blocked roads and sidewalks, and power outages.
Fortunately, due to excellent fiscal planning, the city has appropriate reserves available to absorb unexpected expenses like these. We need to clean up the town, and this is exactly the type of situation where having healthy reserves matters.
But I think the broader point of my original post has become even more important.
Naperville has fallen behind on routine parkway tree trimming. We have approximately 72,000 city-owned trees and target a seven-year trimming cycle. Last year we budgeted additional money specifically to begin catching up, but some of those funds were ultimately redirected, and we trimmed about 7,300 trees instead of our target of 10,000.
I would actually be interested to know how much of the recent storm-related tree damage occurred in areas of the city that have gone the longest without routine trimming. That may prove significant, and after what we just experienced, I think it’s a question worth asking.
More importantly, I think we need a larger discussion during this year’s budget process about how we accelerate our tree-trimming schedule and protect the money we dedicate to it.
We can’t prevent severe storms. We can control how well we maintain the city’s 72,000 trees before the next one arrives.
Occasionally the less visible, routine maintenance investments turn out to be some of the most important ones.
