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Residents press Aiken council on dead trees and downtown pedestrian concerns ahead of visitor season
Summary
During public comment, a resident urged the council to remove a row of dead trees on Laurens Street visible from Route 20 exits; another speaker raised concerns about downtown crosswalk timers as visitor traffic increases for Masters Week.
During the non-agenda public comment segment of the March 23 meeting, Thomas Dar of Grand Oaks Way asked the council to address multiple dead trees on Laurens Street between Hampton and University, saying the dead growth forms an unflattering first impression for visitors entering Aiken from Route 20.
"I just think it's rather disgraceful that we allow those trees to just stand there and represent us as being dead wood," Dar told the council, urging staff to look into removing or replacing the trees.
Later in the comment period, Jacob Ellis of Aiken raised concerns about pedestrian flow and crosswalk signal timing as Masters Week and the summer visitor season approach and downtown foot traffic increases. The transcript ends mid-sentence as Ellis describes concern about signal timers; no council response is recorded in the provided excerpt.
No formal staff assignment or timeline for tree removal or signal adjustments is recorded in the transcript. Council staff (referred to by a speaker as "Lex") was noted as taking the public comments.
