The City of Estevan has started preparations for the civic auditorium's demolition with the removal of two large spruce trees. 

"Those two spruce trees were taken down just last week," explained Manager of Parks and Facilities, Rod March, "in preparation of the demolition of the Civic itself. The reason we took them down ahead of time is they will be very unstable once we start the demolition process."

"With demolition, all the concrete has to be removed, everything from the site. We already identified those spruce trees, why they grew so well, was in part they sought out the heat from the building. So their rooting system is all under the foundation, under the concrete. Once we remove that concrete, those spruce trees would be exposed to the heavy winds."

"They are very shallow rooted, two to three feet is all that white spruce roots go down. They would be exposed to the winds we get and within no time, one could be crushing the curling rink which is obviously not what we want and there's a parking lot right there as well."

"So for the sake of safety, they had to come down right now."

He added that they had a tree contractor come and do the job.

"We had a tree contractor with a 70-foot bucket truck who knows what he's doing. I didn't want the demolition contractors taking it down with an excavator which is normal, and there's nothing wrong with that, but the point being is that I wanted it taken down ahead of that demolition by someone who is trained to do it properly and methodically. Take it down low and slow and now it's disappeared."

"It's for the safety of everyone around and those trees definitely would not stand up once that building is gone."