CAMARILLO : Grant Will Fund 100 New Trees on Street

A section of Ponderosa Drive in Camarillo will soon be lined with about 100 sycamores, junipers and other trees, paid for with a $58,600 federal grant awarded to the city, officials said.

The grant from the federal Small Business Administration Tree Planting Program carries two main conditions, Camarillo Community Services Director John Elwell said.

The city must use a nursery with fewer than 100 employees to furnish and plant the trees, and the project must be completed by Aug. 31, he said.

Elwell said the federal grant supplements the $150,000 that the city already spends each year on landscaping.

“We’re trying to landscape the parkways and medians with trees and shrubbery as fast as we can, both for the carbon monoxide they consume and for aesthetics,” he said.

City officials will use the federal money to plant trees to fill bare spots and replace dying vegetation on the Ponderosa median between Arneill and Las Posas roads, Elwell said.