We got another update last night, about the sidewalk that the city needs to put in going through our front yard.

In the original plans, the sidewalk was supposed to be installed directly adjacent to the curb, but they can’t do that.  It would cover buried utility lines (gas, water) which also run along the street.  So, they are going to have to move it about 5-7 feet farther into our yard.  We also found out why they had to cut the tree in the dead of winter – to avoid disturbing bat habitat – no, really.  This is significant because it may possibly cause the building of the sidewalk to be delayed another year – due to conflict with ANOTHER tree in our yard that didn’t need to come down for the original plans.  Fortunately, the tree they did cut down would have needed to come out either way, so that wasn’t a loss.

Anyhow, progress is happening.  The city worker who will supervise the install is going to look into the new tree issue – and as a bonus will also help me look into the history of our huge south lot and why I can’t get any trees to grow down the middle of it.  We suspect an old house was improperly demolished there.  Oh, and the city is going to plant at least one new tree in our front yard to replace what we’ve lost – no fighting over that.  They’re being very nice about it all.