Thanking Tim Widmer

October 24, 2015

Washington, Iowa

To the Editor:

The Washington Tree Committee recently received a grant from Alliant Energy through Trees Forever for a fall tree-planting project in Sunset Park, on the hillside north of Paws and More. The goal in the planting was to provide a windbreak for Paws and More and to provide a visual screen and sound barrier for Sunset Park users. The grant was for the planting of 25 eastern red cedars near the animal shelter and 15 blackhaw viburnums farther down the hillside.

The trees arrived, and they were much larger than we?d ordered. In fact, the viburnums were gigantic, balled and burlap trees! While it?s wonderful to make an instant ?impact? ? our committee was overwhelmed with concern about how we could transport and plant such huge trees. We always order trees that we can ?handle,? and here we had some trees having rootballs weighing over 100 pounds.

This is where our thank-you comes in. Tim Widmer, City of Washington parks director, was wonderful! He helped to coordinate holes being dug mechanically, trees being moved to the site mechanically and mulch placed on a city dump truck for two separate planting times. The red cedars were planted the evening of Oct. 21 and the viburnums the morning of Oct. 24. Not only did Tim coordinate this with city staff, Rotary and Noon Kiwanis volunteers helped us with each planting ? some volunteers even helped us both planting times!

Our tree committee is so grateful to Tim Widmer for his wonderful suggestions and his time with this project. We wish him the best in his retirement. Also, we?re always appreciative of the great assistance other city staff give us, regardless of the request. Lastly, we want to commend those members of the Noon Kiwanis group and the Rotarians who donated their time to help us make this project?s completion a reality. The Washington Tree Committee thanks you: Alliant Energy, Trees Forever, Tim Widmer, City Staff, Noon Kiwanians and Rotarians!

Washington Tree Committee

Andy Dahl, Meda and George Fulton, Dave Greiner, Vivian Griffith,

John Marshall, Marde McConnell, Carol Miller, Kelly Soukup,

Linda Varney, Rick Wagenknecht