Arborist: Trees removed due to safety concerns
Boro to receive Tree City status on Arbor Day
BY SARAH KLEPNER
Staff Writer

RED BANK - There was an unusual exhibit at the Borough Council meeting April 23. Three large tree segments, the remains of nine trees that were removed on White Street earlier in the day, were on display.

Borough arborist Michael Olimpi told their story, explaining to the council that he had "been keeping an eye on these trees for the past three years."

All nine trees were Bradford pears, which are "hugely popular for their fast growth," Olimpi said. "What people have learned is that they have an inherent weakness."

Olimpi had determined that the trees posed a threat to motor vehicles as well as pedestrians, which "wasn't a liability situation the borough could afford to have happen," he advised.

While the Red Bank Shade Tree Committee had approved the removal of the trees at its March 8 meeting, calls from the public prompted the presentation at the council meeting, Shade Tree Committee Secretary Boris Kofman said.

"Anytime you lose a tree, it's unfortunate. But you always have to balance safety against other considerations," he said. "Usually, safety is the most dominant consideration. You have to do what's necessary to protect people."

Kofman explained that Bill Brooks, a member of the Shade Tree Committee and a tree expert, inspected the trees in question and also recommended that they be removed.

The combination of utility workers taking out "cavernous chunks" from the center of the tree to meet clearance standards for overhead wires coupled with the flaws inherent in the type of tree led to Monday's removals, Olimpi explained, calling it "the wrong tree in the wrong spot."

The trimming practice "relocates weight to the outer branches," which can't handle their own weight, he said, even in an average rainfall.

At the same time, the Red Bank Fire Department has been experiencing problems with its telegraph alarm system, which confirms radioed information with a coded printout, Fire Marshal Stanley Sickels said.

"This year, it got ... terrible," said Sickels, who also serves as borough administrator.

Stations on White, Mechanic and Spring streets were affected, he said, including the fire horn on Mechanic Street. An electrician for the borough determined there was interference due to the trees and contacted Olimpi to arrange trimming.

"It was a coincidence," Olimpi said, "[The fire department's] rationale was communication with their members, and ours was to remove potential hazards."

Olimpi had met with the Shade Tree Committee last fall to discuss removing the trees, which line the municipal parking lot on White Street. The technical term, he explained, is "included bark," which means "the branching is so close to the main stem that they're poorly attached, and can't handle weight or wind in the mature stage."

The trees removed on White Street were 20-plus years old, Olimpi said.

The committee preferred not to remove the trees until the money was available to replace them. Councilman Robert Bifani, a member of the Public Works committee, arranged the funding to replace the trees, according to Olimpi and Kofman.

In one of the few comments from the public, a resident of Buena Place asked that areas where Bradford pears are heavily planted be handled with consideration for aesthetics, and that the trees be replaced in groups over a period of time. Brooks agreed.

The replacement trees are expected to be in the ground within two weeks, Olimpi said. They will be harvest gold crabapple trees, which flower a few weeks later than other trees, and produce a small gold apple in the fall.

"The bare branches with the golden fruit have a different effect," he said.

Olimpi also reported that 130 trees have been planted in the borough in the last year.

The Shade Tree Committee will be receiving Red Bank's first Tree City USA certification on Friday, April 27, which is Arbor Day, in a ceremony at Sunset Lake Park in Asbury Park.