Trees to come down on Clovis' Main Street

CLOVIS — They’re not the first trees to come down and they won’t be the last. City officials are pointing to the oak trees’ roots at the roots of the issue necessitating their removal from South Main Street last week.

“The tree roots have caused the sidewalk to buckle and create a hazard,” City Manager Justin Howalt wrote in an email on Thursday.

Those sidewalks are being replaced, part of an effort to bring them up to compliance with standards from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Similar work was completed on South Main between Fifth and Fourth streets “a couple years ago,” Howalt added, and city officials will look at the “same issues with that sidewalk” between Third and Second street.

Howalt estimated nine or 10 trees being removed last week due to the sidewalk issues and believed it was a similar number that were taken down a couple years ago.

“We originally looked at trying to transplant them, but they were too large for us to be able to transplant,” he told The News. “They’re probably going to a landfill. ... We have the ability to mulch them.”

Howalt did not have an estimate Saturday of the cost of the work but said it was expected to be completed by the end of November.