After that amusing pictorial review of items resembling the Ark of History (a croissant, shrimp skewer, clothesline, etc.), you vowed no more coverage of the sculpture. Would you please reconsider? The city planted four large trees in front of the art piece. So that begs the question: Has the city finally admitted that the sculpture is an eyesore? Were the trees planted to screen the blight? – Sign me, Trees Are The Answer
Installing a sculpture and later planting trees in front of it might seem like remedial action. But it was all part of the original plan.
That’s the word from our good friend Scott McClain, the city’s Parks, Open Space and Trails specialist. Scott is the arbiter of arboreal activity along Camino del Rio.
The Ark of History “island” was constructed with irrigation lines in anticipation of tree planting. The specimens on that site are a special kind of maple that will grow tall but not very wide.
But are the trees some sort of visual shield?
“It all depends on which direction you’re driving,” Scott said with a laugh. For folks coming from the south, the maple trees will serve as “an attractive green backdrop for the art piece,” he said.
On the other hand, the trees provide a visual buffer for folks driving from town to the Durango West-Rafter J-Hesperus metroplex. At least during the growing season.
But soon, the trees will be bare, leaving commuters to look at the sculptural silhouette of leafless maples.
Allow Action Line to go out on a limb and suggest that we call the trees the “Bark of History.”
Is the city part of a United Nations sustainability plot to have fall cleanup take place before the leaves have fallen? Also, north Durango is always scheduled for the first week. Wouldn’t it be fair to rotate this schedule, so our neighborhood can be last sometimes? Should I complain to the UN? – Lief Onatree
Durango’s early bird fall cleanup is a key element of the UN’s top-secret “Agenda 22” plan, which goes one step further than Agenda 21.
Agenda 22 proclaims that the UN will not only confiscate your guns, but also your leaves.
It mandates that every resident deposit fallen foliage into official light-blue UN compost bins that will be installed at owner’s expense on every lot in town.
Meanwhile, inspectors in unmarked black helicopters will monitor composting, and the spraying of chem-trails will ensure compliance.
Those who resist will be sent to rural re-education camps, cleverly disguised as “solar gardens.”(Thus explain the security fence around solar gardens.)
Of course, this balderdash was designed to rattle the rusty cages of the conspiracy crowd. So now let’s get some facts. Not that paranoid patriots want them.
As Mark Twain said, “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” In any case, the city’s fall cleanup program is managed by the city’s Streets Department, under the steady guidance of Superintendent Levi Lloyd, who openly admits, “I’ve never even been to the United Nations in New York.”
Rather than establishing a New World Order, Durango’s fall cleanup schedule is designed to protect local kids.
“We try to have all the trash piles removed before Halloween, so trick-or-treaters won’t trip over stuff, and so (drivers) can see the kids better,” he said. “We realize it doesn’t coincide with Mother Nature, but it’s really about safety.”
The northern part of the city gets the first pickups because it has been that way for years, he said.
“Everyone’s pretty much used to that schedule, creatures of habit,” he added.
But, pickup protocols may change in the coming years. Levi said the city is looking at swapping fall and spring schedules, with fall cleanup being only yard waste and spring open to all the other junk. Stay tuned for details.
If a fall-spring cleanup switcheroo does occur, it will be a sign that “Agenda 23” has begun.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you realized that Friday is “United Nations Day.”
