Burbank Home in Santa Rosa replaces rotting fence

There’s much about the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens, Santa Rosa’s premier historic attraction, that delights visitors and volunteers. But the rotted old picket fence around it makes them wince.

No more.

Workers in protective suits on Tuesday dismantled the approximately 60-year-old periphery fence. The crew treated cut-away panels of fencing as hazardous material because of the lead in the white paint.

Installation of a new fence begins Monday. It will duplicate the former fence, which was constructed in the 1950s and duplicated the original fence around the property at the corner of Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues, near City Hall.

Luther Burbank conducted experiments in plant breeding there from 1884 until his death in 1926. The internationally renowned horticulturist is buried alongside his former home and greenhouse.

Years ago, the volunteers who maintain and welcome tourists into the city-owned landmark set out to raise the money necessary to replace the seriously decayed and failing fence. It was not to be a simple or inexpensive project.

The historic nature of the Burbank Home & Gardens required that the old fence, its posts and pickets constructed of redwood, be replaced by one as close as possible to an identical reproduction. That meant the custom making of enough redwood pickets for 740 feet of new fence.

And the lead-based paint on the old fence required special handling and disposal.

Two local fence companies submitted bids for the remove-and-replace project, but the low bid came from Riverside-based firm, FenceCorp. It was for $110,280.

Volunteers with the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens Association contributed more than $50,000 that they brought in through years of fundraising. The city kicked in most of the rest.

On Tuesday morning, a hazardous-?materials abatement crew from JM Environmental Inc. of Roseville arrived at the landmark. Workers wearing protective suits and masks cut away sections of the old fence, placed them in large plastic bags, sealed them and stacked them in trucks.

As he supervised, project manager Mike Young of FenceCorp said the redwood pickets and posts for the new fence have been made and painted with non-lead white paint at the company’s Sacramento production yard. They’ll be delivered in stacks for the start of construction Monday.

“We’re going to stick-build it, build it on site,” Young said.

As the dismantling proceeded Tuesday, Burbank Home volunteers peered at the fence and, unlike their typical response for the past several years, smiled.

“We’re very pleased,” said association member Dee Blackman. “We’re practically not believing what we’re seeing.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and ?chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @CJSPD