Mayor defends his trees

[NewsWhore]

In the face of intense criticism over his plan to replace the city's trees with palm trees, Santo Domingo Mayor Roberto Salcedo defended his plans to reporters from Diario Libre yesterday. Salcedo said that the city council and his office had consulted senior experts when developing a viable plan for beautifying the city. During his visit to the Diario Libre offices, Salcedo said that his work crews are not just planting palm trees, but other native species such as mahogany, "mara" and "gri-gri". While he admitted to planting palm trees, he said that most of the palms were being placed in areas that already had palm trees. Besides that, the mayor admitted that palms had been planted in other areas "as a way of showing the people of Santo Domingo the variety of palms that exist." Salcedo denied, however, that there was any collusion between members of his staff and suppliers. In his usual calm manner, the mayor dismissed the rumor that the trees cost over RD$30,000 each, and said that "the most expensive tree cost just RD$11,000 because of the long distance and the equipment that had to be used." According to the secretary general of the municipal council, Domingo Contreras, two main suppliers are being used and contracts for RD$6.3 million in trees have been drawn up. The mayor faces his most difficult test today, in the shape of a one-on-one interview with the citizens' movement "Santo Domingo somos todos" (We are all Santo Domingo), the plan's most vociferous opponents. The group's principal spokesperson, Amparo Chantada, told Diario Libre reporters that the mayor will have to answer all her questions.

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