VPTA volunteer work crew cuts down invasive trees in Hidden Valley Park

The noxious/invasive trees that the City of Northfield cut down in Hidden Valley Pond back in the winter of 2012 (see blog post here) have been growing back:

  

So yesterday, a volunteer crew of VPTA members cut them down with a tree whacker and loppers, gathered them up, piled them on the edge of the park, and started hauling them to the City compost site:

  

  

The health of the pond is now improved a bit, thanks to Jim and Janet Dale, Theo Durbin, Anita and Chuck Hellie, Kris Herrreid, Kim Johnson, Jerry Krause, Gene Moninger, and neighbor Tim Pautzke. And the view of the pond for many of us is considerably better. (All  but one photo by Janet Dale.)

 

Hidden Valley Park trail now plowed in winter

Back in Feb 2008, I blogged about the lack of plowing the trail around Hidden Valley Pond in winter, and how other adjacent trails are sometimes plowed.

The issue of plowing paved trails throughout the city came before the City Council last winter and on Feb. 11, 2014, the council approved this motion:

The Northfield City Council hereby approves a motion to remove snow from all City trails, as described in Option Three.

Here’s an excerpt from a PDF memo to the Council by then City Engineer Joe Stapf that describes Option 3:

Option #3 – Simply plow the Outbounds using the personnel and equipment we already have, except everyone needs to understand it will take longer to finish the Outbounds, and the streets will remain the highest priority in snow removal. Currently we plow BOTH streets and the established Outbound routes simultaneously; once the drivers of the snowplows are done with their routes, under this third option they would use whatever equipment remains and some would start on the additional Outbounds. This third alternative is the simplest to implement. However, the level of service may not be up to everyone’s expectations in that some trail segments may not be cleared until the day after or even the second day after the snowfall.

Here are two photos of the plowed Hidden Valley Park trail from November 20, a couple days after a snowfall:

Hidden Valley Park plowed trail - 1 Hidden Valley Park plowed trail - 2