By Hannah Curran, Editor
TRUSSVILLE — The Trussville Tree Commission, alongside SAiia Construction Company, planted four trees on North Chalkville for Earth Day on Friday, April 22.
SAiia had all hands on deck to plant these trees on North Chalkville in the Historic Cahaba Project.
Melissa Edwards, a Trussville resident who does training and development with SAiia Construction, said one of their core values is giving back environmentally and planting trees.
“I like to give back to my community, and with the support of SAiia construction company and President Frank Montgomery, we’ve been able to accomplish that,” Edwards said.
SAiia has done business for many years in Trussville, so Edwards said it just made sense with all of the growth and redevelopment here to give back to the community.
“We do a lot of remediation of different sites, us along with our parent company IEA, it’s very important to us to give back and be a participant with all the communities we work with here in Trussville,” President of SAiia Construction Frank Montgomery said. “We’ve done the pinnacle, done Carrington lakes, and done a number of projects over the years here.”
SAiia has been around since 1946 and is pleased to be a participant and give back to the community.
“We‘d like to see a revitalization of where we’ve been and what we do, and we like being a part of the community, it’s our social responsibility, and we’re committed to it,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery explained that Trussville is blessed to have the Trussville Tree Commission, which works to help trees flourish.
“What they’re trying to do, as these trees aged out, people want their kids to be able to see the trees we planted today grow to the heights you have now because everybody remembers driving down this beautiful Parkway here, and it’d be an almost a canopy across the road,” Montgomery said.
Jeff McGahey, general superintendent in the mining division for SAiia construction, brought his men from the quarries.
“The men who are with me are actually superintendents working around 75 to 80 men and that many pieces of equipment, but they decided to come in and help us out on this today,” McGahey said.
McGahey said they just wanted to do their part, and when they heard there was “a need,” he got his men and came to help.
“We are so grateful for Saiia’s donation and hard work. Mellissa Edwards did an amazing job organizing this project,” Trussville’s Tree Commission Jean Cox said. “The crew that handled the planting included Mike Dunaway and Josh Blackerby. Mike is a foreman, and Josh is a Superintendent in their Mining division. These guys volunteered to be a part of the project, and they did a great job.”
Cox said over the past decade, Trussville has lost many magnificent oaks in this area and is happy for the opportunity to get some large and beautiful replacement trees planted.
“What a great way to celebrate Earth Day,” Cox said. “We planted two Shumard oaks, one Willow Oak, and a Patti Faye Deodar Cedar.”
Dennis Hennings, SAiia mobilization manager, said he appreciated that the Trussville Tree Commission came out and helped them plant the trees.
“To have them on-site shows that it’s important to them,” Hennings said.