OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) - Leigh O’Connor loves the oak trees in downtown Ocean Springs.

She said Washington Avenue’s Lovelace oak tree stands out from the others.

O’Connor said she and her grandfather would spend lots of time under the tree when she was a child.

“The tree just has a lot of sentimental meaning to me,” O’Connor said.

The Ocean Springs Board of Aldermen voted to remove the tree during a meeting , on September 29. Arborists declared it an imminent danger during a recent downtown tree survey.

“I hate to see it go,” she said. “My grandfather, it was the last place that I saw him alive the day before he died.”

Arborists said they found the presence of structural damage, decay and a large cavity in the trunk. They said it could fall on nearby businesses and vehicles.

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