City crews are continuing cleanup efforts following the powerful windstorm that swept into the area March 13 and toppled legacy trees, damaged homes and created hourslong power outages.

"We've got City Park fairly cleaned up. A lot of the big trees that were down have been removed. There are some things we still need to do there in the park, but we've moved over now to Mineral Palace Park," said Mike Sexton, the assistant director of the city's park and recreation department. "We've started working on getting trees from Mineral Palace removed, and then we're going to head over to Mountain View Cemetery and help them with some of their cleanup later this week."

Sexton said over 50 trees fell between City Park, Mineral Palace park and the cemetery, but that surprisingly little damage was reported at the city's smaller parks, such as Bessemer and Mitchell. About 20 employees from the parks and recreation department are responding to the damage.

"Some neighborhoods got hit, too, of course; but those smaller parks just had downed branches — and that was about it," Sexton said.

The most costly damage for the city came at the Pueblo Ice Arena, where the wind knocked down the marquee.

The sign has been in place since 1981 and would cost at least around $50,000 to replace, Sexton said.

"We're getting quotes on that. The cost depends on the bells and whistles and what we want," Sexton said. "We don't have the funding available right now; it will have to be budgeted."

The cleanup, he said, needs to be handled fairly quickly, as the department needs to prepare for the summer.

"The grass is already starting to turn green, so it won't be long before we're fertilizing, aerating and mowing again," Sexton said.

Sexton said the city crews have done an exemplary job with storm cleanup.

"They're awesome. They always step up and do what they need to do," he said. "They have pride in their community and their parks, and we don't expect anything less from them. They're an awesome staff and they get it done. We're really fortunate to have the team that we have."

The parks department is turning felled trees into mulch, which is available to the public at the parks building in City Park. The department also will be using some of that mulch themselves.

Residents who have dead trees and limbs could dispose of them for free at Rockworx Inc. at 195 Vision Lane, where they will be collected for mulching.

The Pueblo business asks the public not to mix trash with the trees.

rseverance@chieftain.com

Twitter: @RyanS_Chieftain