BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN – Jim Lawlor finds himself between a tree and a hard place and he has turned to the Township Committee for help.
Lawlor lives on Locust Grove Lane in Holiday North, the oldest residential development in Manalapan and a neighborhood that is known for its tree-lined streets. The development is off Franklin Lane, near Route 9 north and Gordons Corner Road.
In the height of summer, the trees can form a natural canopy over some of Holiday North’s streets, notably Tamarack Drive.
Lawlor told the members of the committee he was seeking their help regarding an almost 80-foot-tall tree in his yard that Mayor Andrew Lucas confirmed has been identified as one of several known “hazardous trees” that will be examined by Manalapan’s Shade Tree Commission.
Lucas said the commission is investigating the situation associated with that specific 80-foot-tall tree and other trees in Holiday North that have been identified as posing a potential problem.
Lawlor said that during recent storms, he saw the roots of the 80-foot-tall tree lifting from the ground. He said he believes that wind exceeding 30 mph will likely uproot the tree. He said the possibility of a tree that size becoming uprooted concerns him.
Lawlor said he contacted a utility company because he thought the company would address the situation in order to keep the tree from possibly falling on power lines. He said he was told that because the tree had grown in the direction of the house, it was not the utility’s concern. He said he was advised to contact the township.
He did so and said the Department of Public Works sent out employees who told him the tree was too close to the electrical wires and therefore beyond their capacity for removal.
Lucas said the situation would be addressed once the Shade Tree Commission submits its findings and recommendations for Lawlor’s trees as well as some others in Holiday North that would be deemed hazardous.