If you’ve spent any time in downtown Perry lately, you may have noticed there are a few of the trees in the business district are no longer there.

Some residents have expressed their frustration over the removal of several trees, but City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says they were removed after requests from local business owners.

“We had the public works (department) go door-to-door and talk to everyone that was affected by a tree outside their business to see if they wanted the tree, didn’t want the tree.  The other thing that came up with these trees besides complaints from property owners was we had about five of them that were pushing up on the sidewalk and creating a tripping hazard.  Coming into a winter, with clearing snow, it was always a problem” says Niebuhr.

There were a total of 12 trees removed in September including nine between Willis Avenue and Pattee Street on Second Street, one on Willis by Meinecke Used Cars and two near Fareway.

“It also opened up the new lighting.  I think the lighting is a good addition to the downtown.  We do communicate as much as we can with the downtown businesses and we don’t really go through the Chamber with that because the store owners are there, I mean they’re open and pretty accessible so it’s pretty easy to get their opinion and they’re usually pretty opinionated about what they want.”

Niebuhr also adds that a total of 34 trees have been planted in Perry through the Downtown Revitalization project.