Ash Borer Puts Hole In Yorkville's Budget
YORKVILLE, Ill. (STMW) -- Yorkville officials still are not sure what to do. But they know whatever they decide, dealing with the emerald ash borer as it makes its way through the southwest suburb will be costly.
In a memo to the City Council, Public Works Director Eric Dhuse laid out just how big the infestation is in Yorkville, and ways the city can deal with it.
Dhuse said about 300 trees should be removed in the Windett Ridge, Raintree Village, Sunflower, Fox Highlands and Kylyn's Ridge subdivisions. These trees are either infested or will become infested, he advised.
The heaviest infestation is in Raintree Village and Sunflower.
Dhuse is asking the City Council if the city should "follow" the pest, taking down trees as they are infested. The other option is to take down all ash trees in the city.
These would be trees on public property or along places like public parkways.
The city has 58 ash trees larger than 30 inches in diameter, and 129 trees between 13 and 29 inches in diameter, according to Dhuse.
The city budgets $10,000 a year for tree and stump removal, but that would not be nearly enough to cover removing all those trees. While he said he did not know how much it would cost to remove the trees, Dhuse in his memo gave a rough estimate of $500 a tree.
He said even if the city could remove half the trees itself, it would need an outside contractor to deal with the bigger trees. He did recommend the city look at buying a stump grinder at $5,000 to $10,000 so city staff could at least take care of the smaller trees.
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