June 21, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Some of the concerns seemed to stem from some cutting and clearing the electric department did on the west side of South Wingate Street recently.

            Public Works Director Mike Barton said Wednesday the crew cut two scrub trees that were 6 to 8 inches in diameter and covered in vines that had reached the power lines. Everything cut was in the town-owned right-of-way, Town Manager Mark Williams said Tuesday night, and the crew measured to make sure. Deputy Town Manager said the entire area was cleared in 1992 to install a sewer line and what was cut has grown up in the 14 years since.

            Apparently Kathleen Donovan, who with her husband, Arlis, owns the log cabin next door but lives elsewhere in Wake Forest has complained to town staff and officials, including Stinnett.

            Stinnett said she had talked with both Barton and Lisa Potts, the town planner who is the liaison with the Urban Forestry Board (the new name for the tree board).

            “I don’t know that everybody is together about tree cutting,” Stinnett said. “I have trouble understanding the power the tree board has.” Later she said about the tree board, “I think they have too much power. They can come in and say this tree has to go.”

            Also, she said the town is not very specific about which trees can be cut down or how they can be pruned. She said she did understand the need for the electric department to cut limbs, prune trees and cut down trees to protect the power lines.

            During many previous years, the electric department did “top” trees, cutting off the top below the lines, and also cutting “V” sections through trees for the lines. Both practices damage the health of the trees and have been abandoned in Wake Forest, it appears. The alternative appears to be to cut down the affected tree and plant an under-story tree.

            Stinnett was very upset about the topped trees. “There are trees that have been topped for forty years. You can’t just cut them down.

            “We’ve butchered Durham Road. We’ve butchered Wingate Street.”

            Stinnett said she had searched everywhere for an alternative to topping trees.

            After she made her comment about the tree board having too much power, Commissioner Frank Drake asked her where that authority should be, and Commissioner Velma Boyd-Lawson said most of the issues are brought to the town board. “Urban Forestry is under Lisa Potts, who is very particular about what happens with trees.”

            The current town ordinance about trees and vegetation is old –dating back to 1978 – and the Urban Forestry Board is revising it in light of today’s practices, Boyd-Lawson said.

            Mayor Vivian Jones said that a lot of people had told her, since the replanting was done on Durham Road, that it looks very nice. The town removed a number of trees that had been topped for years.

            There are two issues, Williams said, power lines and trees in general. “The electric department needs to have the ability to remove trees” that threaten power lines without going through a bureaucratic process.

            He went on to talk about the exhaustive survey the town underwrote, in which a firm identified each tree in the town’s right-of-way or on town property, classified it as to its health and located it by GPS. Using that as a guide, the town has begun systematically removing diseased trees, pruning others and removing trees in danger.

            “Mike [Barton] and his crews need to have a policy,” Stinnett said.

            “They have a policy they’re following,” Williams said.

            “I’d like to have it,” Stinnett said.

            The policy, Barton said, is to trim it if it is in the right-of-way. “If it’s been topped, cut it down.” The electric department does not cut down a tree that has been topped unless there is an urgent reason. “We don’t go through and cut every tree.”

            “But I disagree with that policy you’ve been given,” Stinnett said.

            Drake suggested going back to the tree board and rewriting the policy.

            Jones said, “Maybe they need to come to us and tell us what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”

            Apparently Mrs. Donovan plans to be at the board’s July 11 work session, and other like Urban Forestry Board members, Potts, Barton and the head of the electric department John Thrift, may also be there.

            One of the principals in this said a meeting with all involved was the goal of Stinnett’s comments.