Brandon Williams, the operations manager for the Reggae Shack on University Avenue, once saw a beautiful lush live oak on the way in to work each day. Now, it's a large stump.

Williams said,  "I just came one day and saw that it was chopped up, and kinda wondered about it."

The tree was one of the first live oaks planted during the Oaks on the Avenue planting program in the nineties. Arnall Downs, a former City Beautifcation Chair member, told us that the city planted the tree for $3000 with city tax dollars.

Aubrey Morey from Trimark Properties told us that Trimark purchased the roadside property with the oak, prior to the tree's demise. She says now that the tree has been pronounced ill, it might take some time to get things back to normal.

She also says that the removal of the tree is a multi day process where the current unhealthy tree, is now being removed and a new large healthy live oak is being put in to replace it.

The tree was first approved in October 2011 by the city to be removed, City Spokesperson Bob Woods told us.
Taxpayers should not worry about more money coming from their pockets to replace the tree. Woods says Trimark will be responsible for the costs of the new oak.

Woods tells us that all-in-all, it should take about sixty days for the roadside renovations to be complete and the city arborist is looking for the largest Bluff Oak to take it's place. If he can't get his hands on that, the city will install a cathedral live oak instead.