HUMBOLDT — “Sidewalks are very difficult on trees,” Cole Herder told Humboldt Council members Monday evening. 
Trees planted along Bridge Street on the north side of the square are an especial challenge, said Herder, city administrator.
“They just keep dying. Even in times of drought they’re always wet,” he said. Between 10 and 12 trees need to be replaced. Herder noted that some of those needing replaced “have already been replaced several times before.”
“We can’t dry out the trapped soil underneath the sidewalk on the north side,” Herder explained as the problem. “The holes never dry out. You can reach down there and pull mud out year-round.”
An underground irrigation system waters the trees. “But on the north side, it’s never turned on,” Herder said.
Humboldt renovated its downtown sidewalks within the last 10 years. Local businessmen Walter Wulf of Monarch Cement and Joe Works of B&W Trailer Hitches contributed significantly to the re-do, including planting linden trees along the sidewalks.
“They each took a block a year for five years,” planting about six trees per block, Herder said Tuesday morning. Of the 10 blocks, some have more trees than others, depending on the businesses’ preferences, he said.
Herder said the trees may “cause some issues down the road because linden trees can get 60 feet tall and be 30-40 feet across. So, they’re going to be really large trees.” The city is considering replacing the failed trees with the Frans Fontaine tree, a slender and columnar tree that is better suited to wet soil, per the suggestion of Chris Wehlage of Chanute’s SEK Landscape, who has been hired for the job. A state forester has also recommended the tree. Herder said the forester is writing a publication on streetscapes and is using Humboldt’s situation in his materials.
Herder estimated it will cost $12,000 to replace the trees.
Herder recognized “the tremendous gift” by Wulf and Works for the streetscape.
“Now we have to maintain that gift,” he said.
After a lengthy discussion, Council members agreed.
A NEW car wash is scheduled to open the first of August, “If we get a stretch of dry weather,” said owner Kyle Owens of Yates Center.
The car wash, 312 N. Ninth, is at the intersection of Ninth and Central, just north of Pete’s Convenience Store.
Currently, the site is a big expanse of concrete, but the “block building should be going up at the end of the week,” said Owens. By July 4, the machinery installed.
