What Happened to the Pavilion Trees?

On Wednesday morning, crews took down four locust trees that were installed amid the paving bricks at the in downtown Farmington.

In place for about six years, the trees have been slowly dying, said Farmington Downtown Development Authority Director Annette Knowles.

"It looks, preliminarily, like there was some sort of disease on the trees," she said. "The others in the Downtown Farmington Center are healthy and doing very well."

Knowles said Sue Grissim, a consultant with landscape architects Grissim Metz Andriese Associates, "was very concerned (about the trees), because it was their design." Grissim tracked down an arborist, David Roberts of Michigan State University Extension, who is examining the trees to determine what went wrong.

"They definitely want to stand behind their work," Knowles said of the company.

Roberts will be reimbursed for his mileage; otherwise, there is no cost to the DDA for his services.

Knowles said she's waiting to hear from Roberts before deciding what to do next.

"We are looking at a couple of alternatives. I was hesitant to authorize replacement until we know what went wrong," she said.