BRADENTON BEACH – One of the recently-planted coconut palm trees on Bridge Street toppled over onto the sidewalk during heavy rains on Sunday evening and city workers attended to it on Monday morning, according to Mayor John Chappie.
“The Chief (Interim Public Works Director and Police Chief John Cosby) has his guys out there this morning putting it back up and re-staking it,” Chappie told The Sun on Monday. “It had been staked but some of the stakes had disappeared.”
The tree is one of about 60 palms planted the week of April 24 on and around Bridge Street at the suggestion of developer Shawn Kaleta, who is planning to build a restaurant, hotel and shopping complex at Bridge Street and Gulf Drive.
The $50,000 tree project is a public-private partnership between the city and Kaleta’s Beach to Bay Investments LLC. The maintenance and liability for the trees are legally Beach to Bay’s responsibility under a contract signed by Chappie and Kaleta last month.
The fallen palm tree was located near 120 Bridge St. It appeared to have been uprooted with the complete root ball out of the ground.
“It’s possible that that’s because there’s a lot of rock in that area,” Chappie said, adding that M&F Lawn Care will be checking the tree to make sure it’s staked properly.
A smaller tree fell across the sidewalk on May 15 near the same location and another was leaning into Bridge Street on June 14.
“The little one near Sports has been hit by trucks,” Chappie said. “We may be taking that one out.”
At a June 5 Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meeting, Chappie said that four or five of the smaller palms were leaning and didn’t appear to have a good connection with their root balls.
“Miguel (landscaper Miguel Mancera of M&F Lawn Care) assured us that he was guaranteeing everything that was planted,” Chappie said at that meeting.
