Twelve trees on order for Palouse RV Park

Twelve six-foot-high trees are in the works for the city of Palouse’s RV park. The city council at its March 23 meeting approved a motion to spend $500 from the RV park earnings to purchase the trees. The $500 will be combined with $800 which have been received in donations for the park.

The 12 trees include European Mountain Ash, Crusader Thornless Hawthorn, Golden Desert Ash, and Japanese Tree Lilac.

City Clerk Ann Thompson said the city has already ordered the trees, which are expected to arrive within the next three weeks. The Palouse Public Works Department will dig out the holes for the tree root base and plant the trees.

“It’ll be really pretty,” Thompson said.

Total cost for the trees was $1,205.

Long-time Palouse resident Mary Estes helped select the trees.

Each tree measures approximately two inches thick at the trunk, Thompson said.

The 10-site Palouse RV park opened early last summer. Overflow traffic from busy WSU and UI weekends spilled over to the city’s site during the school year, making up much of the traffic the park saw.

City Councilman Mike Milano has said in prior interviews with the Gazette the RV park in Pullman refers their would-be parkers out to Palouse when the Pullman park is full.

The idea behind the RV park began several years ago, when people passing through the city asked if there was an overnight RV park.

The city applied for grants and eventually received $15,000 in 2006 from Housing and Urban Development as part of a government program which awards housing grants to local governments. They received a county .09 grant for $37,500 in 2007.