Many wondered what would become of an exceptionally large oak tree that was knocked over at Lake Storey during strong July storms.
Galesburg Parks and Recreation Director Tony Oligney-Estill says a two-part plan is in place.
The first step is cut cross sections of the tree’s trunk, called cookies, and give them to local educators and non-profits for educational use.
The parks and rec head is gathering names of teachers and organizations interested in a piece of the tree.
Then pending Galesburg aldermen approval, pieces of the tree would be sold to offset the cost of a contractor cutting the tree up.
Due to the tree’s inordinate size estimates have put the tree at as old as four centuries, some assuming it was one of the oldest in the state.
Oligney-Estill invited a retired urban forestry professor from Western Illinois University yesterday.
They counted the tree’s rings and found the tree is actually approximately two hundred years old.
“I don’t know if 200 years makes it the oldest tree in Western Illinois now or not,” Oligney-Estill says. “I know at 300 years it would have been.”
In other city news, yesterday, Oligney-Estill shut down Lake Storey Beach to swimmers because of a backed up sanitary pump that allowed possibly contaminated water to flow into the lake.
The beach will remained closed for at least today while the city waits on results back from their regular bi-weekly test samples sent to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“That should come back today or tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll have an answer before the holiday weekend,” Oligney-Estill says.
The Galesburg Sanitary District has budgeted for a new pump sometime this year.
