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Businesses Rally To Save Crape Myrtles

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2007

RIVERVIEW - Three local businesses have stepped up to save the flowering crape myrtle trees that line the median on a 2.5-mile stretch of U.S. 301 between Bloomingdale Avenue and Gibsonton Drive.

Facing the county budget ax because maintenance fees were too costly, the trees were to have been cut down. But they have been spared, at least for now. Serenity Meadows Memorial Park, Four Paws Veterinary Hospital and Total Tree Care will pay the estimated $8,500 annual cost of maintaining the medians.

Members of the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce met last week to work out a solution.

A maintenance agreement with the Hillsborough County Public Works Department recently expired, and the county commission agreed the $14,000 annual upkeep cost along the state road median was too much, said Julie Johnaboeke, of the public works department.

Johnaboeke worked with the chamber to find a solution.

'We're just tickled,' said chamber President Jim Johnson. 'Our next move is to get the actual dollar amount' for the cost of the maintenance.

Total Tree Care will pay to maintain one of three segments of the median and do the maintenance work on the entire stretch.

'When I heard they were just going to cut them off, I thought it was insanity,' said company owner Trish Brandon. 'We just wanted to help save the trees. We're not making any money on this, just covering our costs.'

The estimated $8,500 cost will be divided among the three companies, she said.

'We felt compelled to step up, too,' said Mike Wick, Riverview's honorary mayor and president of Serenity Meadows.

The third company is a veterinary clinic set to open on Balm-Riverview Road.

'We really wanted to help beautify our community,' said veterinarian Kimberly Tyson, who is preparing to open her practice. 'It seemed like such a tragedy to go to all that effort to plant those trees, only to rip them back out.'

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (8123) 657-4532 or at yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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