By David Kilby, Special Writer
SPRINGFIELD — A variety of concerns were raised in the township post-Hurricane Sandy.
At the Nov. 14 Township Council meeting, elected officials and residents agreed better ways were needed to deal with hazardous overhanging trees and other dangers that arise from big storms like Sandy.
”We have just come through a horrific storm, and we’re counting our blessings. We’re lucky that no lives were lost,” resident Roger Lipincot said.
He said the township needs to make sure long beforehand that it has access to the proper emergency contacts in vital situations.
”A storm like this may or may not happen again,” he said. “We have to do something about JCP&L not being ready for this emergency. It may happen again; it may not happen again. We are not prepared right now. We have to change that or we’re going to be counting bodies and not blessings.”
Mayor Denis McDaniel said the township did everything it could, but added everyone’s emergency personnel, including the state’s, county’s and utility’s, were overwhelmed by the hurricane.
”Every town and county has to say, ‘how are we going to deal with this in the future?’” he asked.
Pack 79 Cub Scout Master Ira Kupersmit, who was present at the meeting with his Scouts to help them earn their citizenship badges, said community members can get training from the state and county and help in emergencies, especially with cutting down and trimming trees since “everyone in town has at least one chainsaw.”
Councilman Anthony Marinello said if there’s someone who wanted to spearhead such an initiative, the council would sponsor it.
”Everybody in this town has to be a volunteer for something,” he said. “We don’t have too many people. We all need to do as much as we can. As we saw, there’s no one coming here to help us but us.”
Mayor McDaniel added that when a utility company comes to restore power, it goes to hospitals, nursing homes, fire departments, police departments and schools first. Then it looks at which wires would restore power to the most residents. Since Springfield is in the country, this means it is at a disadvantage.
Residents raised concern for, perhaps, the main cause for power outages: overhanging tree branches and limbs falling on wires.
Bill Seaman, of Juliustown Georgetown Road, said the trees hanging over roads and wires in the township may have been deemed as just a nuisance in the past, but they now should be seen as a hazard.
He said a PSE&G worker, while working on repairing wires near his house, told his daughter to tell the township about a tree that was going to come down if it wasn’t cut down soon. Such is the case for well over a thousand trees in the township, Mr. Marinello added.
But Earl Akins, of Springfield Meeting House Road, said he believes the township is doing a fine job, considering the limited resources it has, and commended especially the Police Department that often goes out in the middle of the night in emergencies.
Mr. Akins, who has lived in Springfield for decades, also added there aren’t as many trees along the roads in the township as there were a generation ago.
”I think they’re thinning out because you got more houses,” he said.
Councilman John Hlubik said the county’s Shade Tree Commission used to mark dead trees along county roads at least, then the county would come and cut them down.
Mayor McDaniel said overhanging trees create a statewide problem.
”It’s hard for a township to deal with it when the state says, ‘We’ll get back to you,’” he said.
Councilman David Frank said the township should make a “hot list” of the areas with the most overhanging trees and then let landowners know the trees will be cut down or trimmed.
”None of this happens unless we cut the budget somewhere else,” Mayor McDaniel said. “We may have money in the maintenance budget.”
The council estimated it would cost between $1,200 and $2,000 to cut or trim just a few large oak trees.
”We can’t get into the business of dealing with every tree in the township that overhangs a wire,” Mr. Frank said.
”We have literally thousands of trees hanging over the edge of the road,” Mr. Marinello added.
”We need our own vegetative management plan,” the mayor said. “We have a lot of work to do there.”

