Throwback Thursday: March 28

News from around Johnson County as reported on March 28 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 112 years.

On this day in 2016, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about the city of Franklin looking at removing about 150 dead trees from Province Park and Greenlawn Cemetery.

The trees were expected to be removed over the course of a few months. About 90% of the dead trees had been killed by emerald ash borers, a pest that digs into and lives inside ash trees. The trees were mostly mature, with some scaling 70 feet tall, said Chip Orner, Franklin Parks and Recreation director.

The previous fall, Greenwood Parks and Recreation had to cut down about 80 to 90% of Westside Parks’ forestry due to emerald ash borers.

The pests are not native to North American, so the bugs had no natural enemies in Indiana, said Sarah Hanson, Purdue extension agricultural and natural resource educator. Emerald ash borers were first recorded in North American around 2002 but have been a bigger problem for ash trees in Indiana in recent years, she said.

Earlier in 2016, Orner asked the Franklin City Council for $55,000 to remove dead trees in Province Park and the cemetery that were most at risk of falling near playground equipment, picnic tables, trails and the road.

Then Orner started doing an inventory. Orner counted the dozens of dead trees in Province Park and the cemetery and brought the alarming number to the city council’s attention.

He planned on counting the number of dead trees in all of the parks’ properties, but Province Park and the cemetery were the two biggest concerns, he said.

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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day

2014

Franklin officials were discussing where to allow mobile food carts.

2003

A Franklin drug suspect paged the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to try to set up a drug deal.

1994

A tax was being sought to pay for road work on County Line Road.