BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
Forty-nine trees situated throughout Red Bank are marked to be cut down as part of an agreement between JCP&L and the borough.
According to a list distributed at the borough Shade Tree Committee meeting, close to 50 mature trees are due to be cut down over an area stretching from Bank Street to Wallace Street, covering both the east and west sides of town.
Plans for the tree cuttings came to light when a group of residents who live in the area of Wallace Street reported that trees in front of their homes were removed without their being notified.
Robert Nisonger, Wallace Street, has sent out a letter to all of the residents who live in the areas affected by the tree removal.
“We were given zero notice,” he said. “We just woke up at 7:30 a.m. and they were out there whacking away.”
Nisonger said that two mature trees have already been removed from Wallace Street and that a third would have been removed if the owner of the home where the tree stands had not gone outside to stop workers.
Nisonger said that although letters of notification from the borough have since arrived, on the morning of March 7, when the trees were removed, no letter had yet been sent to residents.
A letter from the borough informing residents about the removal of the trees signed by Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels, is dated March 18.
Michael Olimpi, borough arborist, on Monday said the reason trees were taken down before residents were notified was a communication glitch between JCP&L and Nelson Tree Service, which was hired to do the removal and trimming work.
“It had nothing to do with the borough,” said Olimpi.
He said that five trees, removed from Wallace Street before residents were notified, would have been removed because of road work that is planned this year on Wallace and Linden Place.
According to Sickels’ letter, the trees that were to be removed were “identified as hazardous due to interference with utility lines or due to the fact the trees have approached the end of their useful life.”
At Monday’s Borough Council meeting, Councilwoman Jennifer Beck, council liaison to the Shade Tree Committee, explained the miscommunication.
“Every three years, JCP&L does tree-trimming, going from municipality to municipality,” said Beck. “JCP&L did a survey and found 49 trees that they believed were in bad condition.”
Beck said that the committee would not allow JCP&L to take down any trees unless a plan was made to replant new trees.
“Our mission is to plant more trees, not to see them coming down,” she said, adding that she has asked Olimpi to do his own survey of the trees to see if some of them could just be trimmed, instead of being removed entirely.
She added that the borough has to be careful with keeping trees up that have already been deemed hazardous by JCP&L.
“If we keep one of those trees up and it falls, the borough is liable,” said Beck.
Olimpi said discussions between borough officials and JCP&L began during the last week of February and that on March 2 an agreement was finalized, with the utility agreeing to pay the full cost of the removal of the trees, and the cost of replacing the trees at a one-for-one basis.
The borough will have to pay the cost of wood residuals, which is the removal of any wood that cannot simply be chipped, according to Olimpi, who said that cost would be around $3,600.
JCP&L will pay $34,400 in tree-removal costs, plus an additional $11,000 toward tree replacement, which the borough has already received, according to Olimpi.
“We will learn from our mistakes and not put the trees back on the easement,” said Olimpi. “The trees due to be replanted will be planted on the property of the resident whose home was adjacent to the removed tree.”
Olimpi said the replacement trees will have a circumference of 2 inches to 2.5 inches at six inches off the ground, and will range from around 12 feet to 16 feet high.
Many of the trees being removed are old, large specimens like the silver maple at the corner of Maple Avenue and Waverly Place, which measures 24 inches around.
Three London plane trees will be removed from Leighton Avenue, ranging between 24 and 26 inches in circumference. A Norway maple and a red maple will be removed from Bank Street. Drs. James Parker Blvd. will lose two London planes and a red maple.
Eight red maples will be removed from Linden Place, and a pin oak will be removed from Nicholas Place. Maple Avenue will lose one red maple, a sugar maple, three Norway maples and two silver maples.
A Norway maple will be removed from in front of the Locust Avenue Apartments, and a London plane will be removed from the corner of River Street and Tilton Avenue.
Bridge Avenue will lose two London planes, and Prospect Avenue will lose a Norway maple. Washington Street will have four Norway maples removed, as well as one pin oak.
Three honey locusts will be removed from Wallace Street, as well as one Norway maple. South Street will lose two red maples and four Norway maples. Two Norway maples will also be removed from in front of First Church of Christ Science on Hudson Avenue.
Irving Place will lose three Norway maples and Arthur Street will have a honey locust removed. Sunset Avenue will lose a London plane, and Chestnut Street will have a sugar maple and a Norway maple removed.
Spring Street will lose one pin oak.
“Depending on what’s available,” said Olimpi, “and depending on what kind of setbacks are allowed for the properties, the replacement trees will be oaks and red maples, maybe some pear trees.”
Olimpi said that the average age of a borough-owned tree is between 50 and 60 years old, although no inventory of trees has been done at this point. He said he is working with the Shade Tree Committee to develop a plan for such an inventory.