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If you could be Santa and bring something that Bluffton or Wells County needs, what would you put in your bag?
The News-Banner’s Dave Schultz posed that question to 12 folks last week, and their responses ranged from a skate park to a $1,000 gift for every resident.
As Dave told me about his idea for such a story early last week, it got me thinking about what I would bring Wells County. I pondered the question for a little while, but as it turns out, the answer was right in front of me, and you, too, especially if a commute through downtown Bluffton is a frequent occurrence.
My wish — to uproot the Courthouse Plaza tree.
No, I’m not a tree killer or an environmental hater. In fact, I love nature and am a big proponent for going green, but it’s time to uproot that tree and replace it with a younger, livelier blue spruce — or perhaps a fountain.
My wish for Wells County is to restore some beauty to the Courthouse Plaza with a newer tree that isn’t deteriorating in front of our eyes and full of dead branches. It loses more and more branches each year and is becoming so sparse that it detracts from the downtown’s appearance.
In fact, each winter it becomes more difficult for city crews to decorate the tree with Christmas lights because the decorations won’t easily stay in place.
A blue spruce’s natural life span for ornamental use is some 40 to 60 years, so Wells County’s Christmas tree is at retirement age.
The tree has been resting in a small patch of earth on the Courthouse Plaza’s northeast corner since Oct. 16, 1967. Mr. and Mrs. Don Bricker, who lived in the 200 block of East Wiley Avenue at the time, were going to put a swimming pool in their back yard. They donated the then-22-foot blue spruce to Wells County.
“After a suitable hole was prepared in the earth-filled old pond, the tree was removed from the back yard of the Bricker residence and hauled downtown,” stated a newspaper account. “City police assisted in directing traffic as the spruce was moved into place.”
The Courthouse Plaza had been home to a number of landmarks before the tree. At one point there were three cannons there. One of them, however, was sent off to war as scrap metal during World War I.
A circular fishpond with a fountain came later. On one occasion the pond had an errant coupe auto drop entirely into it.
The pond gave way to a flower bed. Then it was filled with concrete and used as a pedestal for a World War II Sherman Army tank. Officials dedicated the tank on Memorial Day 1958, but it only lasted four years. Wells residents generally disliked its appearance and asked the commissioners to remove it. They agreed Sept. 7, 1962.
More than 100 folks watched Sept. 14, 1962, as the Bluffton unit of the National Guard moved the tank. They used a 5-ton military wrecker to relocate it to the National Guard Armory at Spring and Wayne streets. (The Abrams tank that sits there today is not the same one officials moved there in 1958.)
Five years later, on Sept. 18, 1967, the commissioners gave their OK for a group of 11 interested citizens to plant shrubs and a large tree on the plaza — either a blue spruce or a Norwegian spruce. Crews removed the concrete in early October 1967 and planted the blue spruce at noon Oct. 16 to brighten up the plaza with greenery.
Fast forward 42 years. Bricker believes the tree is now between 50 and 60 years old, as it was already 8 feet tall “and a nice sized tree” in the mid-’60s when he moved into his former Wiley Avenue home.
We agree it’s been a nice landmark on the plaza, but it’s time to go. Bricker said he would not be upset if officials decided to uproot it. In fact, he would welcome the timber for woodworking.
“They had asked me some time ago if I would be concerned if they took it down and I told them that I had no problem with that at all,” he said Monday. “I think it would be a lot nicer with a young tree there.”
About five years ago, Courthouse custodian Bobbie Studebaker obtained a quote to replace it with a 6- to 7-foot-blue spruce. The total cost including labor and landscaping was $815.
The commissioners, however, didn’t move forward.
Paul Bonham, president of the commissioners, said Monday he doesn’t see any reason to make a change and cut a tree down that is still growing. He has heard from people who like it and from people who ask why it is there. “The tree doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It may look a little straggly to some people.”
We have to respectfully disagree with Bonham and suggest two ideas for the commissioners to ponder. The cheapest option would be to remove the aging tree and replace it with a younger blue spruce that will over the years grow into a beautiful softwood — much like the Courthouse tree looked some years ago.
The second option is to consider putting into place a 2002 recommendation from a nationally recognized consulting firm who analyzed Bluffton’s downtown. The report stated county government officials should consider a water fountain to be placed where the tree now stands for four reasons:
• Tie the downtown to the Wabash River;
• Act as a welcome to downtown’s shopping street;
• Beautify Main Street;
• Remove a significant visual block to the downtown’s most important piece of architecture — the Wells County Courthouse.
The report suggested putting the community Christmas tree along the riverbank.
This option will be more expensive but perhaps add more aesthetic value to Bluffton’s downtown.
Either choice would beautify the downtown and remove what many people now believe to be an eyesore.
Santa may be too busy to turn this wish into a reality, but the people of Wells County have been known to bring about some pretty miraculous improvements to make living here a little better.
Is now the time once again?
by JUSTIN PEEPER
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
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