Mayor Is Right About Palm Trees

* It may be bad or it may be a blessing that a bunch of palm trees are dying in Capistrano Beach (“Palm Tree Plan Axed to Dismay of Homeowners,” Feb. 19).

But one thing is for sure, and that is that their mayor is showing a lot of common sense in not wanting to spend about $100,000 of taxpayer money to replace 12 trees in just one neighborhood.

It’s too bad more government people can’t demonstrate such care with the taxpayers’ dollars. On the other hand, it was all too typical to read in the same article that a representative of a Capistrano community association who wanted the city to spend the money is quoted as saying, “Now we just don’t know what we are going to do.”

I wonder if those folks who want the trees so badly in that neighborhood would consider the following solution. Buy the trees you want yourselves, pay for planting them, pay for their ongoing yearly maintenance, and pay for controlling the rats which love to live in palm trees.

If only half the 6,000-person community wants the palms, it works out to an initial cost of only $33.33, plus maybe a $10 per year maintenance cost for each of the 3,000 people.

DAVE CONNELL

Laguna Beach

* I have two Canary Island palms dying in front of my house in the Lantern District. My trees will not be replaced under the scheme. However, I will have to pony up to replace the trees in the Palisades.

A fair alternative would be for the residents of the Palisades to vote to add the cost of replanting the Canary Island palms to their property taxes. The tree-planting scheme will benefit only the residents of the Palisades, so it would be only fair to ask them to pay for it.

I have friends in the Palisades, and not one thinks that sticking the whole community with the tab for their trees is right.

Hurrah for Mayor Bill Ossenmacher! Keep up the good work.

JACK ROBERTS

Dana Point