It will cost Coral Gables nearly $14,000 to remove 14 Bismarckia Palms along Ponce de Leon Boulevard that have been deemed possibly dangerous due to restricted visibility.
Seems like a bargain considering each of the trees cost about $12,000 each — a $168,000 investment in further beautifying the City Beautiful.
Related story: Coral Gables must remove Ponce palms Salerno lied about
That is the lowest estimate received this week from SFM Landscaping Services out of Homestead. Gables spokeswoman Maria Higgins-Fallon said a purchase order was requested to proceed with the removal and replanting of the palms.
Even though the city has a landscape crew and some equipment, it does not have the heavy machinery needed to uproot the big, heavy palms, she explained.
“You need a crane or a front end loader to perform the operation,” she said. “We only have a backhoe, which is not strong enough to handle the removal, loading, unloading and replanting of the palms,” she told Ladra.
“It’s important to note that the city will be doing the restoration of the affected area after the palms are puled out as well as the planting of the new trees,” Higgins-Fallon said.
We will assume that these will be thin-trunked trees.
The Bismarck Palms were deemed a problem last month after an independent consultant met with the city’s Interim Public Works Director Ernesto Pino and Miami-Dade Public Works Traffic Engineering Division Chief Jeff Cohen. They found that the “thick-trunked” palms could possibly present a visibility issue to drivers, and recommended removal.
This was after former City Manager Pat Salerno told commissioners the palm trees were not a problem — or intimated that when he fudged police records about an increase in accidents on Ponce. Salerno quit abruptly last month rather than be questioned publicly about his lie. He said there had not been a significant increase in accidents although police had told him they saw a 300 percent increase in the stretch where the palms were planted.
Related story: Gables manager Pat Salerno felled by lie to commissioner
Salerno left the city with an increased pension benefit that got him $74,000 deposited in his account at the beginning of the year and a payout of about $210,000 in severance and unused leave.
Let’s see: $168,000 for the wrong trees and then $14,000 to remove them for a total of $192,000. Ladra says Coral Gables put a stop payment on that check and issue Salerno a new one for the balance.
Removing $168K worth of palms in Coral Gables: $14,000 added by Ladra on
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