Empty spaces

On the northwest corner of Meridian and Main streets in Portland, a tree stands in front of First Merchants Bank. On the southwest corner, concrete fills the spot where a tree once grew.
Laci Smitley, owner of the adjacent Patriot Sportswear, said she had no problems with the trees in the area and isn’t sure why it was removed.
It’s not the only tree that’s gone.
About a dozen trees have been removed in the downtown area for reasons including berries getting into buildings, birds nesting and covering the nearby sidewalk and parked vehicles with their droppings, heaving concrete or the trees had grown too large and were in the way.
Some were believed to be dead, like the one that previously occupied the space in front of Jay Portland Abstract company, 129 W. Main St. The area it once occupied is now covered over with concrete.
There was another tree removed on the east side of Patriots Sportswear. It was taken down because it was damaged in a car accident.
The trees were removed by request, Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman said. Some spaces are filled with concrete while others are marked by orange cones.
Street and parks superintendent Ryan Myers said he took the first tree down around 2014. Having the trees downtown wasn’t the issue, Geesaman noted, “but the wrong trees were planted.”
Early last year, the issue concerning empty tree spaces came up in city council meetings. Council member Mark Hedges voiced his concern several times since then, but nothing has happened.
According to Carrie Tauscher, state, community and urban forestry coordinator for Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the Callery Pear and Linden tree were among the ones planted on Meridian and Main streets. Tauscher said the Callery Pear is considered by some to be an invasive species.
Myers said Callery trees are known to be pretty, but birds “like a lot of branches close together,” said Myers. “That gives them some shelter and security and they want to nest in that.”
Now the problem is making a decision about the empty spaces.
“We were on the fence if we don’t know what to do with those spots yet,” said Myers. “We hadn’t decided if we were going to put a tree back in there, if we’re going to just replace the concrete section, if we wanted to do like paper bricks in those little sections, or maybe even a flower pot … with some kind of planting in those spots maybe along the street. There’s been a lot of ideas thrown around.”
Geesaman contacted Tauscher and requested she come to Portland in October after he saw her give a presentation on urban forestry Aug. 19 at the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns Mayor’s Institute at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. She mentioned the positive effects trees have in a city, such as water mitigation and the ability to alleviate storm water, and noted citizens and visitors tend to spend more and shop longer in areas with trees.
During her visit, she, the mayor and other officials traveled through the downtown area and found that the pots the trees were planted in were too small and they were unhealthy. If the city were to decide to plant trees, or anything to fill the spaces, it would have to look into which plants make the most sense and how to care for them, Tauscher said.
Tauscher said she plans to stay involved in helping the city with its plans, and Geesaman said he would like a meeting to occur during the first half of March followed by a second citywide meeting with residents and business owners toward the end of the month.
“A lot of the challenges to putting trees back in to downtown Portland is the fact that there just isn’t the appropriate infrastructure to support trees,” said Tauscher. “I feel like working with them they could come up with multiple options or ideas for ways to make the soil volumes larger … and includes trees.”
Kevin Inman of Inman Insurance, 305 N. Meridian St., enjoyed the trees and said he had hoped the one in front of his business could have been trimmed instead of removed. He would like to have trees back to fill the spaces, “if (the city) is willing to have them.”
“I was glad they were gone,” said Bob May of Bob and Sons Insurance, 141 E. Main St. “I had problems with bird crap, berries — these trees had berries and people would track them in.”
May said he wouldn’t mind something like flower pots in the empty spaces, but doesn’t want the trees back.
“I love trees, but not in front of my business,” he said.
Geesaman explained many of the trees in the downtown area were planted as part of the Meridian Project in the ’90s, an plan designed by the former Bonar & Associates of Fort Wayne to change the parking on Meridian Street from angle to parallel and install turning lane signals on the road.