PULLMAN, Wash. — Football fans driving through downtown Pullman on Saturday to get to the game between Washington State and Oregon State saw a group of people waving signs to try to gather support to save the downtown's trees.
Pullman city officials gave an update about their Project Downtown Pullman last Monday. In it, they say the $9 million project aims to reshape the streets and public spaces of downtown Pullman. Part of the plan includes replacing old sewer and pipe lines, as well as replacing and widening the sidewalks to make them more walkable and ADA compliant. But to do so means taking out dozens of trees lining the sidewalks of downtown.
The city says keeping the trees would ruin the new sidewalks going in. However Timothy Paulitz, who created an online petition to try to drum up supporters for keeping the trees, says he doesn’t think “all of the trees have to be removed.”
“To have trees this nice downtown, a lot of cities don’t have that, and of course here in eastern Washington, we’re not like the westside where we’ve got trees all over the place. It does take a bit more effort to grow nice trees here,” said Paulitz.
The project's Main Street portion is expected to start construction next spring after WSU’s graduation.
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