Shorewood goes natural with lawn care
By Tom Kertscher of the Journal Sentinel
April 20, 2010 |(35) Comments
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Shorewood — The Village Board has voted unanimously to use more expensive natural lawn care – with no pesticides or herbicides – on all 13 acres of lawns that the village maintains.
“I think the health benefits are the biggest thing,” Trustee Dawn Anderson said Tuesday. “I hope it inspires our other lakeshore communities to do the same.”
Whitefish Bay has completed a three-year pilot project using natural lawn care, and its Village Board could decide next month whether to drop, continue or expand the program.
Shorewood did a pilot project in 2009, hiring a turf management company to do natural lawn care at River Park, on Menlo Blvd. and at the Village Hall complex, according to a village memo.
One application of weed and feed was done on other village properties.
Natural lawn care costs $2,922 per acre, compared with the per-acre cost of $1,866 for traditional lawn care, the memo says.
Anderson said after a period of years of natural care, the cost per acre should decrease because the grass will be stronger and less care will be needed.
The village budgeted $31,500 for natural lawn care and $10,000 for traditional lawn care for 2010.
As a result of Monday’s vote, the full $41,500 will be used for natural care, Anderson said.
In Whitefish Bay, the village teamed with the Healthy Communities Project of Milwaukee to do a three-year pilot project, which ended in 2009, Assistant Village Manager Matt Schuenke said.
Village staff are evaluating the results and will make a recommendation to the Village Board, likely in May, on how or whether to continue the program, he said.
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