ALLENTOWN – The Allentown Borough Council has gone on record with its opposition to proposed state legislation known as the Vegetation Management Response Act.
During a meeting on Jan. 22, council members voted unanimously to pass a resolution which lays out their objections to the act. The matter was brought to the council’s attention several weeks earlier by Terry Brown, who chairs the Allentown Shade Tree Commission.
The resolution states that Allentown “does not support the Vegetation Management Response Act because it does not recognize the authority of municipal shade tree commissions in making decisions relating to the removal of shade trees when concerning trees that ‘may fall into, touch, affect or interfere’ with lines from utility, phone or cable providers; because it does not allow for the trimming of trees that ‘may fall into, touch, affect or interfere’ with lines from utility, phone or cable providers and instead only calls for the ‘clearing, moving, cutting or destruction’ as possible responses; because it does not call for the replacement of any trees that ‘may fall into, touch, affect or interfere’ with lines from utility, phone or cable providers; and because it does not call for a licensed tree professional to make the call if a tree needs to come down, instead giving carte blanche to utility, phone or cable providers without any education, experience, or expertise in tree removal …”
Borough officials said they realize the proposed law is in response to devastating storms like Sandy as an attempt to have reliable utility, phone or cable service, but they said that giving utility, phone and cable providers the right to remove trees as they see fit without any involvement from municipal shade tree commissions as part of the decision-making process is not the answer.
Allentown’s council members urged the borough’s state representatives to vote down the Vegetation Management Response Act unless the following modifications are made:
• Municipal shade tree commissions are given a prominent role in the decision-
making process to remove a tree that “may fall into, touch, affect or interfere” with
a utility, phone or cable line;
• Efforts must first be made to prune trees before removal is an option;
• Any trees removed will be removed by a licensed tree professional;
• Any trees removed will be replaced by the utility, phone or cable provider.