by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The 2005 Super Bowl is still two and a half years away, but preparations have long been underway for one of the world’s largest annual sporting events. The Super Bowl Host Committee is still taking shape, local sponsors are coming on board and cruise ships are being booked to serve as floating hotels for the week of the game.
Most of what happens around Jacksonville during Super Bowl week will have an immediate economic impact felt by many. However, there are a few aspects that will benefit the entire community for many years.
One of those, led by the Public Works Department, is the citywide tree planting program. Although it may seem like $7 million is going to be spent on trees, shrubs and landscaping for the sake of sprucing up the town for the game and its dignitaries, those aesthetic enhancements will be around long after the cruise ships and CEOs have left.
The funding for the thousands of trees and bushes that will planted along dozens of Jacksonville’s streets and in the medians of many of Jacksonville’s main thoroughfares is coming from the Tree Protection and Related Expense Trust Fund, which was established several years ago for tree mitigation. Lynn Westbrook, director of Public Works, explained that the physical execution of the program is in its initial stages.
“We have to submit to City Council the uses for the money in the program,” said Westbrook. “One of the first things we have to do is hire a consultant to help us with the actual project.”
Westbrook said some of the money, which is sitting in an account, can be tapped immediately for the purpose of replacing dead or dying trees and shrubs all over town. Neither that work nor the funding for it has to be approved by Council.
The rest, according to Westbrook, will be done after a consultant has been brought on board, and that element of the project is what Westbrook would like to expedite. The consultant’s main job will be to assess the needs of various areas of town, establish a time table for the work — start to finish, allowing for both grow-in and replacement time — and help the City determine the availability of the desired foliage.
“They [the consultant] will look at our program, help with a design, make recommendations on where to do what and provide start dates,” said Westbrook. “Once we get started, in a very short period of time it will all be done. This is not going to linger for two years. The plants need time to grow and mature and some will die, so we need time to replace them.”
Public Works won’t be the only City entity involved in the project. Personnel from Greenscape, Parks & Recreation and area landscapers will all have a hand, or two, in the multi-million dollar project. Westbrook said the only major problem he foresees is obtaining enough of what the City wants.
“We will need an awful lot of trees, in the thousands,” he said. “Supply is going to be a key factor. One project calls for 800 trees alone.”