haha. weston...figures.

Weston - Retarded

FTFA:
"If we are going to get reimbursed ... you have to identify what you lost," he said. "The landscaping in Weston is worth a lot of money."

So, instead of going out and counting how many downed trees there are, they are going to go out... re-count ALL of them, and then use subtraction to find out how many were lost?

Of course, you would have to pay for the second large recount as well... Which will cost more because it is a more dangerous environment... and there are leaves and branches on the ground everywhere

Its the groups! What about the groups?!

/say hi to your mutha for me

Since when have governments been accountable for how they spend their money? Never.

Take the U.S. government for example. It recently gave hundreds of BILLIONS, not thousands as in this article, to banks, and there is no accountability.

Don't they have boy scouts to do this stuff?

Who exactly would reimburse them for the lost trees?

Um, what they do is count the amount of trees in a small area and then just expand it to account for all of the trees in a forest once you know the area of the entire forest.

Can I get $141,000 for doing that? I think my 8th grade geometry skillz should be enough for this job.

/srsly, employ me please

At least they aren't counting blue cars.

No surprise it is Weston

I bet most people here didn't know parts of Fast and Furious 2 was filmed on 595 in Weston.

radio_silence: Don't they have boy scouts to do this stuff?

No. Well, maybe someone does, but it's not the accurate way. Typically a land surveying or civil engineering company does it.

I work for a civil engineering company myself. Counting them is one thing, often people want the trees actually "located" on the property map for building purposes. That requires doing a boundary of the property, setting up the transit, and then data collecting all the trees in.

Just counting them would be relatively easy. Also, it's typically required that the trees are measured in diameter, and the type of tree is written down, or recorded in the data collector attached to the transit.

So how many were there?

But I bet they don't know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

I've said it before, and I'm going to say it again, and I'm going to keep saying it.

Insanity is voting for the same political arseholes and expecting different results. If you voted for an incumbent, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution. If you want change, you need to vote the same assclowns out and vote in new assclowns.

This kind of crap makes me sick. People are losing jobs, businesses are going belly up, and the little people (tm) are trying to figure out where their next meal is going to come from, and government thinks it's absolutely critical to the town's survival that they inventory their trees. Un-forking-believable.

It's time for Boston Tea Party, part 2.

jmr61: Who exactly would reimburse them for the lost trees?

God

The country has gone completely nuts. Haven't they heard of aero or satellite photography? Infra-red would show areas of living or dead trees, and you could "calculate" the damage. Geezus.

If only there was some type of device to take a digitized visual record which could then be compared to pre-storm damages...hmmmm

oops...post storm damages

Now they know how many trees it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

This is stupid.

BUT ...

They'll make this money back in spades after just one storm, when they put in for federal reimbursement after the next hurricane blows through.

The taxpayers of that town get shafted first, then the entire nation's taxpayers will get shafted.

The system is broken.

Gosh, folks. This is what politicians call a job. You think they just throw that money in the door to the engineering firm and it gets sucked up by the walls? Somebody is going to earn a paycheck doing this. Of course, since it is involved with some level of government, more people than are required will be paid and they will be paid the prevailing union wage no matter the actual work performed or skill required but we're talking jobs here.

Don't know if this is an infrastructure job or an environmental job though. But you get the idea. This is jobs we're talking about.

Drubell: Um, what they do is count the amount of trees in a small area and then just expand it to account for all of the trees in a forest once you know the area of the entire forest.

Can I get $141,000 for doing that? I think my 8th grade geometry skillz should be enough for this job.

They're not doing a survey of a forest, they're doing a census of street trees.

Even if you planted it, if there's a tree at the curb in front of your house, it most likely belongs to the municipality you live in. The city has to know what they own and where the things are physically located. Therefore, someone has to go out and ID every tree and it's real location on a map.

If the city were doing a census of the vehicles it owned, you wouldn't think that that was stupid or pointless. Why should trees be any different?

Of course they have to count the trees. How else are they going to know how many more they need to get a perfect town?

/don't forget to pull the weeds!

Dwight_Yeast: Why should trees be any different?

Because they're trees, man. Farking trees.

I once read something that said that Weston has one of the highest personal debt to income ratio's in the country.

It's a place where everybody wants to put on the appearance of being a millionaire, while barely fighting off foreclosure.

bmihura: Since when have governments been accountable for how they spend their money? Never.

Take the U.S. government for example. It recently gave hundreds of BILLIONS, not thousands as in this article, to banks, and there is no accountability.

Stop asking questions. Citizen.

Just continue giving us 1/3rd of your income.
Or else.

Approves!

Um it's Weston. There are no "tough times." Everyone there has either a lexus or a bmw. It's a requirement.

smokin!
/hot as a forest fire

topcon: radio_silence: Don't they have boy scouts to do this stuff?

No. Well, maybe someone does, but it's not the accurate way. Typically a land surveying or civil engineering company does it.

I work for a civil engineering company myself. Counting them is one thing, often people want the trees actually "located" on the property map for building purposes. That requires doing a boundary of the property, setting up the transit, and then data collecting all the trees in.

Just counting them would be relatively easy. Also, it's typically required that the trees are measured in diameter, and the type of tree is written down, or recorded in the data collector attached to the transit.

With the exception of using a proper transit the rest could very well be done by boy scouts. Surely someone must be going for the Hornaday award or needs an Eagle project.

IkilledJudas: jmr61: Who exactly would reimburse them for the lost trees?

God

Can't fools like me reimburse them?

Just let a bunch of obsessive compulsive people do it for you.

That's OK. Here in Vero Beach, Florida, they're reworking a section of river side highway and for a distance of about a mile, have planted these palm trees -- nearly fully grown ones -- side by side instead of single file. I think there's over 100 of them, at roughly $250 each.

That doesn't include the other bushes and stuff they're planting.

Call me stupid, but I suspect I could have found a much better use for all of that money and at least would have saved them a bundle by planting only a single row.

Such whining!

First and foremost, liberty means that if you and a bunch of like minded others want to live together and use tax money for this kind of thing then you can make it happen. Does anyone really feel like they are compelled to live in Weston?

Second, most of these objections show no knowledge whatsoever of modern tree management. These trees have real value that can be measured in a range of ways. Insurance is an issue as is liability. Planting trees and keeping them maintained for urban safety is an expensive business. If this was done right then the data set may be updated later for a fraction of the cost depending on the terms of the deal.

Finally, this ideology of hating all spending is apalling. There is such a thing as the common good. It makes sense that there is disagreement about what exactly it is and how much it is worth, but that isn't where the conflict is. Radical anti government types are not satisfied with blocking their own local tree care initiatives, they have to go out and block them for everyone else as well. That is against liberty and it is against the forward looking spirit with which this great nation was built.

Trout Slayer: Dwight_Yeast: Why should trees be any different?

Because they're trees, man. Farking trees.

Yeah, just trees. No legal liability if they fall over and take out a power line or anything. It's not like south Florida ever gets any storms capable of pushing trees over.

RedArny: bmihura: Since when have governments been accountable for how they spend their money? Never.

Take the U.S. government for example. It recently gave hundreds of BILLIONS, not thousands as in this article, to banks, and there is no accountability.

Stop asking questions. Citizen.

Just continue giving us 1/3rd of your income.
Or else.

Right. A local government conducting an inventory of its property is the same as the federal bank bailout. They are exactly the same.

Fark and ignorance. A match made in heaven. This place is chockablock full of sarah palin voters, like, for sure, you know.

I've never been able to figure out why we never go the torches and pitchforks route when dealing with government.

Because teh chickenshiate has been conditioned into our collective heads. We are now afraid of everything. My kids have school cancelled because its too cold to go to the bus stop.

as someone who writes forest inventory software i'm getting a kick out of this...

also curious who they expect to reimburse them for future losses.

/twodog

...is intrigued.

m0llusk: Such whining!

First and foremost, liberty means that if you and a bunch of like minded others want to live together and use tax money for this kind of thing then you can make it happen. Does anyone really feel like they are compelled to live in Weston?

Second, most of these objections show no knowledge whatsoever of modern tree management. These trees have real value that can be measured in a range of ways. Insurance is an issue as is liability. Planting trees and keeping them maintained for urban safety is an expensive business. If this was done right then the data set may be updated later for a fraction of the cost depending on the terms of the deal.

Finally, this ideology of hating all spending is apalling. There is such a thing as the common good. It makes sense that there is disagreement about what exactly it is and how much it is worth, but that isn't where the conflict is. Radical anti government types are not satisfied with blocking their own local tree care initiatives, they have to go out and block them for everyone else as well. That is against liberty and it is against the forward looking spirit with which this great nation was built.

Do you actually put yourself to sleep when you talk? What a total handjob of nothingness. Save your discussion of "libery" for your grad class. Every year cities like this spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to plant freakin queen palms along roadways. Then, in times of bad economy, they continue to overspend to the point they're asking for bailouts themselves. Meanwhile, they're canceling programs in schools and the people are all mad that the state and federal governments dont care about education. Stop roadway beautification projects, and tree counting, and put it in schools and stop asking the taxpayer for more of his money.

#1: The Larch. THE LARCH. THE LARCH.

Lol someone in Florida is going to be real embarrassed when they learn that the check they got from an insurance company only covered the cost of removing the debris of a tree that was blocking access to their property.

By the time they get to tree reembursement, I sincerely hope all other ills have been seen to.

For the record though. You can't use pics when you're talking about an area that no longer exists, or "downed trees" that float, or get blown away. You need location data.

Down here in Florida, those trees should be considered consumables (like sandpaper, not like food, nitwit).. you use 'em up in a storm, and should need to replace them yourself if they're so damn important.