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Fire Substation Still Needs Landscape Buffering |
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Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
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Thursday, 11 June 2009 |
It’s not natural to hide something you’re proud of, but Fire Chief
Anthony Martinez knows he needs to create more visual buffering for his
new water towers.
He has already planted 24 trees on the two-acre site for the new
fire-rescue substation in Corrales’ Far Northwest Sector where the
Harvey Jones and Dulcelina Curtis flood control channels converge
But surveying the tall water tank behind the new station, Martinez
thinks he’ll need at least six more trees planted close to the tower to
help obscure it.
And he’ll need another dozen or so to plant around the parcel’s northern perimeter.
When he gained Planning and Zoning approval for the new substation, the
site development plan required considerable landscaping on what had
been two acres of bare land with scattered sagebrush.
The standard requirement was imposed that the landscaping be installed within one year.
He knows that if he plants small trees around the water tank it will be years before they adequately screen views of the tank.
He faces the same problem where the other new water tank is installed, between Loma Larga and the Main Canal.
He has 14 trees planted at that site, nearly all along the southeastern
edge of the Village-owned parcel, between the tank and the nearest
homes.
An irrigation system for the plantings at the fire substation was
donated by Sunbelt Nurseries, with an estimated value of $3,500.
Martinez said Sunbelt’s Brandon Steiner had told him, “You save your
money for fighting fires and we’ll take care of the landscaping.”
Some of the trees planted were purchased with donated funds and named
for esteemed members of the community. One was to honor Bob Casteel and
another, Jim Findley.
The fire chief said he would like to plant trees that are already at
least 20 feet tall, but those are expensive. He has admired the tall
trees that were planted as landscaping for the Darling Tribes day care
center at the corner of Corrales Road and East Meadowlark.
All trees planted at the substation have been installed by volunteers,
mostly members of the Corrales Volunteer Fire Department. Sunbelt
Nurseries planted those at the Loma Larga site.
The substation is manned in shifts by firefighters Biff Tallada, Mike Myrick and Nick Molinari.
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