Submitted by Quest-News-Serv... on Fri, 04/12/2013 - 16:52.
Thanks Henry for getting this out.I again spoke to Martin Reese this afternoon and learned that a meeting will take place on Monday. According to Reese, this conference meeting is taking place to bring Coucilman Cimperman in the loop and not a public meeting. That being said beware of compromises.
Reese did indicate that the goal is to reach a resolution that will enable everyone to walk away with something (hopefully all the trees left standing). Reese went on to say that he would be out in the field on Monday with a representative of the Urban Forestry Dept. to access the situation.
Will keep everyone updated.
Jerleen Justus
Thank you for getting back to me.
This morning I have spoken to Cleveland's Urban Forestry Dept, Martin Reese and Roger Newberry regarding the determinations made for removing 20 mature blooming trees.
According to Mr. Reese, these decisions were not written in stone and there will be no contractors out on Monday to take out any trees. Mr. Reese further informed me that the trees were selected and marked by the contractor/designer due to the original plan. The original bumpout plan never mentioned the removal of any trees.
Mr. Reese went on to say that there would be a meeting later to not only discuss alternative plans but to bring the Councilman up to date.
According to Mr. Newberry, he was invited to two meeting for discussions, 1 being last night and the other in July. No one else seems to have heard of or attnded any other community meetings.
Comments were also made that TWDC applied for the grant and received the grant. The Dept of Urban Forestry seems to have no knowledge of anyone taking out these trees and according to their office only diseased or dead trees can be removed. The only issue with these trees now seems to have come down to "deformed" and/or poorly pruned.
Mr. Newberry stated that it was his landscape architect who, via visual inspection, made the determination that these trees were compromised. Mr. Newberry indiated that he had no reports or documentation from Urban Forestry.
I can appreciate the value of streetscaping but trees provide many social, economic and health services and since this is the place where residents and business owners work and play, they should clearly have a say.
Again, thank you for your assistance.
Jerleen Justus
Plain Press Rep.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Jerleen Justus <jerleenjustus [at] yahoo [dot] com>
To: "HSENYAK [at] aol [dot] com" <HSENYAK [at] aol [dot] com>
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Jerleen Justus <jerleenjustus [at] yahoo [dot] com>
To: Cory Riordan <coryriordan [at] tremontwest [dot] org>
Cc: "HSENYAK [at] aol [dot] com" <HSENYAK [at] aol [dot] com>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 9:44 AM
Subject: Fw: Professor Streetscape Project
§ 509.18 Additional Tests to Determine Presence of Disease
If upon the inspection of any tree within the City reported or supposed to be infected as aforesaid, it is impossible to determine with certainty the existence of either of the diseases in such tree, it is hereby determined that in such event specimens from the tree shall be forwarded for complete examination, diagnosis and report to either the Ohio State Experimental Station at Wooster, Ohio, or to the United States Department of Agriculture Station at Deltsville, Maryland. The action of the Commissioner of Shade Trees under this section shall await and be determined by the report received from such examination and diagnosis.
I was unable to attend the meeting last evening regarding the Professor Streetscape Project, however, I have received quite a number of calls.
I was wondering if there are any reports/sign offs from the Department of Urban Forrestry?
Would it be possible for me to review such records?
It is my understanding that there have been a number of meetings held for the purpose of discussion and community input on the public opinion of chopping down these trees. Could you provide me with dates, times and place of such discussions?
Were resident and business owners notified of such meetings, via e-mail, phone calls or written notification?
Who made the diagnosis that these trees were either diseased or dead?
If I am not mistaken, these trees are city property and can only be cut down by the Department of Urban Forrestry?
I would appreciate hearing from you asap.
Thank you in advance for your prompt reply.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
In a message dated 4/12/2013 1:07:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, HSENYAK [at] aol [dot] com writes:
Good Morning:
I am sending out a email stemming from the public meeting about construction related matters for the Professor Ave. Streetscape. The meeting was very well attended. About 50 resident and business owners that in my mind counted. About 80% of people not including staff of TWDC, City of Cleveland, and presenters voiced astonishment that they were being just recently informed about the removal of now 20 mature trees.
A handful of NOL residents voiced support to remove trees, I will not mention their names.
Some of the attendees that spoke and raised concerns over the Trees and turning radius's for RTA busses were Tom Leneghan, Robert Hartshorn, Mike Snyder, Rocco Whalen, Chris Lieb, Jeff Chiplis, Eric Hooper, Mike Koski, myself and a few others.
I was in attendance from day one while sitting on the TWDC board at all the planning meetings for the TLCI original plan designed by McKnight and Associates. Most were in conjunction with the South of Jefferson Block Club meetings and Traffic meetings with Rob Mavec from Traffic Engineering.
While I still do as I did in the past support the original design concept, I would testify that I was never told Trees were to be removed. The sad part of this is this is really not a Professor Ave. Streetscape, its only work being done at four intersections and only within 100ft of the intersection on Professor Ave.
The design consultant interviewed by our friends at Channel 19 stated in the meeting that the majority all these trees on Professor have reached their maturity. Maturity means to him and his landscape architect near death and to be cut to bits. Several are sick etc. I asked since you are only cutting 20 trees "Mature" that are within 100ft. of the four intersections what about the rest of the "Mature Trees" on Professor. They had no valid answer, nor could anyone in the room provide a total inventory of all the mature trees along Professor from West 10th / Fairfield to Starkweather. They plan on replacing the trees with two inch in diameter trees probably six or eight foot.
Reps from the City said if there is any delays to this project it could put the whole funding of the project in jeopardy. One of my questions was what did the City of Cleveland Department of Urban Forestry say about the condition of the trees? The answer was they did not return our calls.
Wouldn't one think if this was a true complete streetscape that a inventory was done for all the Trees, and if in these so called experts making a killing on our tax dollars they would state that every tree needs replaced on Professor instead of the 20 in the way of construction. The canned answers put up red flags to me ant to many others, and I am not a tree hugger.
This puts TWDC Executive Director Cory Riordan into a trick bag, He has been here for only over one year. It is clear to me the City of Cleveland came into the equation and since they control the money and funding, including handing out the contracts for this project that they can do or say what they want.
I stated at the end that a moratorium on the tree issue should be put into place for 30 days. In the next week or two they will be out their in full force butchering the trees.
Some business owners stated they had a interest in filing a injunction in the court system to save the trees. One thing I know with the level of opposition here that will continue to significantly grow how can this be done without pressure hitting the Jackson Administration.
Many people in attendance was asking where their Councilman was tonight, but others knew he was having his fundraiser. Several people asked where the Board members of TWDC were who they elected to support them.
Not many happy campers in Tremont this evening. Someone has to ask why especially with two past Presidents of TWDC Tom Cook and I, and several block club chairpersons and civic groups like Tremont Gardner's and vocal popular chefs stating this was never part of the original debate that someone does not intervene and say we need to review a small part of this real important project in our Community.
See Channel 19 link
Please email Councilman Cimperman and ED Cory Riordan and ask them for a complete inventory of the Trees on Professor, and ask that experts employed with the City of Cleveland Department of Urban Forestry inspect each tree on Professor.
Take care,
Henry P. Senyak
Tremont Resident
Subj: Followup to last night's meeting
Thank you Henry for being at the meeting and speaking out. I counted the trees... 19 out of 52 are marked: 36.5%!
Attached are photos that will begin to put a face on this issue. The first two photos are of the 3
TreeHouse trees that will be destroyed within days by the City of Cleveland. The third photo is a tree planted by the city last year along Professor Ave and is similar in size and species to the ones invisioned to replace the TreeHouse trees....sort of changes your perspective when you see actual pictures instead of little circles on a construction schematic. Unfortunately, I never even saw the schematic until Tuesday morning after a yellow dot was painted on the tree outside my gallery.
But back to Tom and Paul's trees at the TreeHouse. I have watched for 6 years from across the street while twice a year they bring out a lift truck at their own expense to prune and maintain their trees. Those guys really have a sense of ownership. You can tell the way they maintain their whole corner...The trees really are beautiful and healthy year round...and we all love them during the holidays, on ArtWalks and Taste of Tremont with the lights on all the trees. Its sort of beacon for the whole street. Did you know that Tom was the first on the street to put up those lights?..after he saw the same thing at Tavern on the Green in New York...and now (well, for a few more days anyway) other businesses have them all up and down the street.
Well that's history because the new trees will take a long time...maybe ten years ( well actually longer - you want to Google that one - check out Cleveland Dwarf Pear trees) before we see light displays like that again on the TreeHouse corner...oh, actually gone from all the corners on Professor....forgot about that.....
You may want to take one last look tonight for ArtWalk...too bad we won't have a chance to even see them bloom again.
And make sure that you say a little something to Tom and Paul. They're a little upset..... It was sort of sudden.
Rob Hartshorn Studio & Gallery
2342 Professor Avenue
Tremont Arts District
Cleveland, OH 44113
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