‘LIKE A HERD OF LOCUSTS’
Removal of trees alarms, angers residents; Lloyd supervisor temporarily halts work
Residents of Sterling Place in this town of Lloyd hamlet were surprised and outraged Thursday by the discovery that the town Highway Department was cutting down trees that lined their street.
Eric Walter said he heard the sounds of chainsaws as he started his day.
“I thought they were trimming trees,” Walter said. “I looked out the door and there was four trees gone.”
“They came like a herd of locusts and just started cutting,” said Karen D’Aprix, a Sterling Place resident who said she rushed home from work and parked her car under a tree outside her townhouse to protect it from highway workers.
As word spread that the town was cutting down the Bradford pear trees that line Sterling Place, more residents of the Bridgeview townhouse complex, which is just west of the Mid-
“I thought they were trimming trees. I looked out the door and there was four trees gone.”
Hudson Bridge, began taking to the streets, parking their cars under the trees and confronting workers.
The confrontation prompted police to respond to the quiet development, and standoff ended only when Lloyd Supervisor Paul Hansut arrived and directed the town employees to cease their work, at least for the day.
Hansut said later Thursday that the tree cutting has been in the works for some time and that residents were aware that some of the trees, all of which are in the town’s right-ofway, were going to be removed so sidewalks damaged by tree roots could be repaired.
Roots from the trees are growing under the sidewalks, causing the sidewalk slabs to heave and buckle. Because the sidewalk is uneven, it is a tripping hazard that must be fixed, Hansut said.
The supervisor said he and the town highway superintendent met with a group of residents last year to discuss the problem and outline the planned solution.
“We hired a company to repair the sidewalks,” Hansut said. “They’re coming in to start working on April 9, but some of the trees have got to go.”
Hansut said he was surprised the work had started and that residents weren’t informed the work was going to begin.
“My office knew nothing about this,” he said. “If we had known, we would have sent out notifications, we would have done a robocall.”
D’Aprix said notification could have helped ease some of residents’ alarm, but she also said they want the town to look more closely at the trees they are cutting and take down only those that are posing a safety hazard.
“My office knew nothing about this.” — Lloyd Supervisor Paul Hansut