Huntley Board To Look At Ash Borer Devastation Fixes

A largely pro-forma Huntley Village Board meeting Thursday spawned what could become a new village plan to deal with Emerald Ash Borer decimation.

Trustees rattled off a series of "ayes" to some ordinance cleanup on street lights and parking restrictions and were about to adjourn when Trustee Niko Kanakaris suddenly complained that Southwind Subdivision is "beginning to look really bad," with the loss of 100 ash trees.  "Is there something we can do?" he asked.

Mayor Chuck Sass was initially reluctant to go beyond the Village's 50-50 tree replacement plan.  "Is that fair to the other subdivisions?" he asked.

Village Manager Dave Johnson was worried about more tree removal to come.  "This is going to be a banner year," he said.  "We have 200 or 300 (more ash trees) ready to go."

Woodcreek Subdivision's been hard-hit, too, observed Kanakaris.  "It's getting pretty barren."

That prompted Johnson to observe that, "It's about budget time, anyway.  We can look at what we've done and see if there's any funding to do some more."

A dandy idea was Sass's reaction. "Put it all together and we'll address it another evening," he said.

In the pic:  An adult emerald ash borer.  If you see one, it's probably already too late.