Workers got busy with chainsaws and a chipper Thursday, after weeks of controversy surrounding the fate of dozens of trees marked for removal along Water Street. The work started Thursday morning and …
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Workers got busy with chainsaws and a chipper Thursday, after weeks of controversy surrounding the fate of dozens of trees marked for removal along Water Street.
The work started Thursday morning and continued Friday. In all, workers from the Warren DPW and a private firm hired by the town were expected to raze 24 trees. All are being removed as Warren prepares for a long-awaited streetscape improvement and infrastructure program.
Town residents have been talking trees for nearly a month now, after bright orange “X”s were spray-painted on 41 trees from Main to Wheaton Street. A packed public hearing followed, and after two-walk throughs town officials agreed to reduce the number of trees scheduled for removal first to 27, then later to 24. Those that still have to go, they said, are either diseased, in poor repair, have roots too close to the surface or would otherwise not survive the ambitious streetscape improvement program. Warren Town Planner Kate Michaud said during a walk-through two weeks ago that while many of the trees marked for removal are Norway Maples — now considered a poor choice because of their shallow root structure and weak wood — trees that will be planted as the project gets underway will be heartier varieties, including gingkoes.
The streetscape improvement program includes the running of new gas, electric and sewer lines along Water Street, as well as the replacement of sidewalks, curbs and the road surface. The plan is to replace all the trees that are removed with nearly twice as many saplings.
And though town officials say Water Street will look better in the long run, residents who live or work along the road say they’re sorry to see the old trees go.
“It won’t be the same,” Water Street resident Cynthia Duschenes said Friday morning, watching a tree crew remove a stump just south of the old Nathaniel Porter Inn.
“I know they’re going to put new ones in but that’s going to take what, 30 years?” We’ll never see them as big as they are now in our lifetime.”