OTTUMWA — The trees marked to be cut down on Chester Avenue cannot be saved, frustrating several residents who came to the City Council meeting Tuesday.

Chester Avenue residents hoped to hear word that their trees marked to be cut down could possibly be saved, but the mayor and council said that’s not the case.

Mayor Frank Flanders and Councilman J.R. Richards visited Chester Avenue residents to see what they could do to help those concerned that they had no notification that their trees would be cut down and that the city was going to do nothing to replace them.

A resolution for an Urban Forestation Project was the result.

“It appears unlikely that the trees we’re looking at right now can be saved,” Flanders said.

Flanders said he wanted to find funding to replace both past and future properties that have and will lose trees due to the federally mandated sewer separation project.

Richards said he researched possible options, including the IDNR’s “Trees for Kids” program and Alliant Energy’s “Trees Forever” grant.

“Keeping that in mind, I hate to be the harborer of bad news, but it’s too late,” Richards said. “But I’m looking at it in the most positive fashion I can, and that’s that the trees are not going to go in vain, because you folks came to us, gave us some input, let us see what they meant to you.”

That’s not what Francesca Djordjevich was hoping to hear.

“You’re saying it’s a lost cause, which is very frustrating for all of us at the moment,” Djordjevich said. “We were led to believe there was an opportunity to save the trees if we showed up tonight.”

Djordjevich, a resident of the 1200 block of Chester, said the lack of communication between the city and its residents means she and her neighbors received no notification that their trees would be cut down prior to a white “X” marking them one morning.

“Hundreds of trees have come down because of the sewer separation,  and none have been replaced,” Djordjevich said. “There’s an irony of cleaning up one environmental issue while you’re creating another.”

She said cutting them down not only affects the environment but property values and the opportunity to attract newcomers to the community.

Pam Schell-Cloyd, Djordjevich’s neighbor, said she moved to the neighborhood just weeks before there was an “X” on her tree.

“If we had known, we could have done something different if you had just let us know what trees were being cut down,” Schell-Cloyd said. “We would have raised your money. I swear to God, I could have raised your $40,000.”

Richards said, though, that after city engineers looked back over the project, working around the trees would come closer to $190,000.

“In all honesty, I was disappointed at how the number came out of nowhere like that,” Flanders said.

Les Thostenson, broker for Coldwell Banker in Ottumwa, said he has sold real estate in the city for the past 30 years, and it’s not about selling homes, it’s about “selling Ottumwa.”

“They want to see the neighborhoods,” Thostenson said. “They see people walking under those shaded trees, enjoying the quality of life.”

In fact, Joanna McCoy and her husband chose to live in Bloomfield over Ottumwa because of that quality of life. The McCoys were mainly interested in neighborhoods like Chester Avenue because of their large, mature trees.

“I’m very glad we ended up in a place where, frankly, if they’re going to cut down our trees, we would get more notice than [Djordjevich] was able to get,” McCoy said.

Thostenson said the reason a subdivision near Cedar Creek Golf Course did not take off for five to seven years was because it did not have trees.

“I hope that we don’t just talk about it, that we get the stamina to follow through and make it happen,” Thostenson said.

Paula Morrissey spoke on behalf of her mother, who lives on Chester Avenue. While she was able to find someone to move the tree to their property while construction is taking place, Morrissey teared up when speaking of what it meant to her.

“It was my dad’s tree,” Morrissey said. “There was no warning. For the council to let people know in advance so they can do something in advance to save the trees or to make sure there’s money to replant, would be a good thing.”

Councilman Bob Meyers was opposed to the resolution, saying he saw it as “political appeasement.”

“I intend to vote ‘No’ on this resolution, partly because I think, mayor — and excuse the pun — but you put the council out on a limb,” Meyers said.

He said when the city was first faced with the unfunded, federally mandated sewer separation project when he came on the council six years ago, the council did not think of establishing a tree program.

“Our focus was, we’ve got to do this sewer separation project, and we promised people we would do it in the most cost-effective way,” Meyers said. “In hindsight, yes, we probably should have had a program to replace the trees.”

He said the council and staff must now develop a plan so that they still comply with the sewer separation project, but pick up on things that were originally left out, including developing a tree program.

Morgan agreed and said the resolution needed to be tabled for further investigation, which it was following a motion by Richards.

“The part that got me more than anything, was the fact that the X’s were put on trees without notification,” Morgan said. “Us as a council, with staff, need to look at a different way to go about this.”

Morgan said the resolution needed to include wording that citizens will be notified of tree removal.

“I’ve got no problem at all with the resolution snowballing into something bigger and better from where it started out,” Flanders said. “As far as putting the council out on a limb, Mr. Meyers, I hope with the new resolution’s augmentation you feel more secure and on solid ground. I remind you that while I want to work with the council, I don’t work for the council. I work for these people [the public].”

Meyers countered, saying the council sets the policy, not the mayor.



Approved at the council meeting:

• City Attorney Joni Keith will commence litigation against Corvask Transportation and Norman Tolle Pilot Car Service to recover damages for the repair of the Eisenhower Pedestrian Bridge.

• A special election will take place on Nov. 6 for citizens to vote on the extension of the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) to Dec. 31, 2025, 90 percent of which will be used for street and sewer improvements and the remaining 10 percent will go toward property tax relief.