(ABC 6 News) – Work on Osage’s new A.D.A. compliant sidewalk project began earlier this spring, and will see resurfacing on several sidewalks along Highway 218 and Highway 9, which also serve as Seventh and Main Street in Osage, respectively.

According to City Administrator Brock Waters, around fifteen fully-mature maple trees were among the around sixty trees felled so far to make way for construction.

“We’re very proud of our trees here,” said Waters. “A number of them were ash trees that needed to come down anyway, but we did lose some mature [maple] trees.”

Osage is known as “The City of Maples” and was named a “Tree City USA” by the National Arbor Day Foundation in 2019.

“We’ve been encouraged to replant,” said Waters. “Just it will likely be more on the private property side rather than in the city-owned boulevard, which we may have had previously.”

Waters is encouraging residents to contact City Hall if they have questions about replanting, and the Iowa DNR has a number of resources available for deciding what tree is right for your environment.