Your Tax Money At Work In Henderson

There are a few needs in the City of Henderson, NV. Like timing traffic lights in the city. Like getting a bathroom, even a porta-pottie at the Bark Park. How about putting a light on the 2nd dog park fenced area at the dog park at Acacia Park while they re do the first park. How about some road work done to fill in some pot holes in and around the downtown area. All of these would be useful projects to spend money on.
But nope, the City of Henderson is going to spend money on counting trees in city parks. Yep, count and map trees, using stimulus money and city money.
From the Henderson Press: The American Recovery and Investment Act, more commonly known as the Stimulus Package, is providing Henderson with $60,000 to conduct a survey and inventory of trees on city parks.
The money comes in the form of two grants, one of which requires a $25,000 match from the city, bringing the project to $85,000 total. The Henderson City Council approved the grant agreements with the Nevada Division of Forestry, which dispersed the federal funds, on July 19.
According to the grant agreement, "the tree inventory would include mapping, species identification, health evaluation and maintenance prioritization."
In their request for the grant, city officials wrote that Henderson has an incomplete inventory of its trees. Of the 15,000 documented trees on city parks, many have no recorded data other than a GPS location. The city has 1,348 acres of "undocumented tree assets," according to the justification letter, and needs to know the number, location and health of all of its trees in order to properly maintain them.
http://www.hendersonpress.com/local-news/item/571-stimulus-money-to-fund-henderson-tree-inventory
Umm, ok. We need to know the number, location and health of all of it's trees to maintain them? Other than watering the trees and trimming them when needed and then cutting them down when they die, what else does the city do to trim them? Take them to a tree doctor? Have the tree do physical exercises to keep them in shape? They are just trees.
Further, each park has employees, why can't they take an hour or two and do this work on city time? Why do taxpayers have to put out $85,000 to count and map trees? Further, why can't volunteers do this project? the parks have many people who either volunteer or would volunteer to help with a project like this.
In the olden days of maybe 5 years ago, you either planted a tree or you knew the tree was on the property. You didn't map them out or anything else- it's nature.
So, once again, the Stimulus money strikes again for another useless project to employ another government worker.
Next up: counting all the homeless wild animals in Henderson.