Riverside encourages donations for tree planting
Last week’s suggestion by Donald Spatny to start a tree bank (“Start a tree bank to replant Riverside trees,” Letters, Jan. 18) is a wonderful idea, and the Village of Riverside encourages all residents consider supporting our existing tree planting efforts.
The existing Cooperative Tree Planting Program is designed to reduce the expense to a resident who may want to plant a tree in their street yard. Orders are placed in mid-July for fall tree planting. These donations help reforest parkways and public areas, keeping Riverside green for future generations and importantly, the donations mitigate tree loss from insect and disease infestations.
In 2005, the Village of Riverside lost 126 street trees and was only able to replace 90 trees with the dollars available. This subsidy program covers half of the cost of all trees planted on the parkway and public setback. It is an excellent way to leverage the village dollars, secure a tree that benefits the beauty of your home and support the tree planting effort.
The second approach is to simply donate a monetary amount to our gifting list. The gifting list is a standing account for accepting donations for trees. Donations for public park areas are not eligible for the cost share program but are accepted as a donation for the total cost of the tree.
All you have to do is drop by the village office and write a check to the tree donation fund as part of the gifting list. Both of these programs provide an excellent opportunity for residents to fund village tree plantings with a tax deductible donation.
Many people in the past have donated for a tree as a memorial for a deceased loved one. The planting of a tree “in memoriam” is a fitting way of honoring those passed with a living tribute. 2005 was a drought plagued year which discouraged many from contributing to tree planting.
We hope that 2006 is blessed with heavy rainfall and generous contributions. With more trees to hug we tree-huggers will happily get sore arms.
Michael Collins, village forester
Riverside
Let’s focus on people, not dogs
Let me get this right, the pets in Brookfield will have a playground for recreation. Residents with disabilities have to go out of town for recreation because our town does not provide these programs. Something is really backward here.
There are nice dog parks in Oak Brook and Forest Park and elsewhere. We also have alleys that are perfect for droppings. Didn’t we just fire two public works employees in fall? It seems that the current employees are barely keeping up. Who is going to pick up and maintain the park after the dogs?
I really think that priority should be given to people, not dogs.
Diane Wilkinson
Brookfield
Cul-de-sac not the answer for RBHS parking
I support Riverside-Brookfield High School’s wish to create more street parking (“RBHS floats Rockefeller Ave. parking expansion,” News, Jan. 18). However, I do not support the idea of creating a cul-de-sac at Rockefeller and Hollywood avenues. Has the traffic flow during the morning/afternoon drop off/pick up been considered? It is already somewhat chaotic, and I believe closing off Rockefeller would make it a nightmare. What benefit does a cul-de-sac provide?
As an alternative, I suggest creating street parking spaces along the west side of Golf Road and the north side of Rockefeller. Golf is already an extra wide street?”two lanes in each direction?”which should be optimal for creating parking spots on the west curb. Keeping the east side of Golf and south side of Rockefeller as no parking zones would still allow traffic to flow in both directions, which is vitally important to this neighborhood.
Jennifer Bartlett
Brookfield
