Posted on 02/04/2007 6:54:18 AM PST by AmericanMade1776
A Worcester property owner is facing a stiff fine after confusion over a city order to clean up a vacant lot brought about the sad end of a 200-year-old silver maple tree.
NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that an elegant shade tree once stood at the corner of Carver and Belmont streets in Worcester, at the edge of a vacant lot belonging to businessman Anthony Mallozzi.
In September 2005, Worcester officials denied Mallozzi's request to remove tree, insisting city workers would instead prune it. The city did no work on the tree. Last month, Mallozzi paid to have the tree pruned.
That tree was healthy, vigorous and did not need the level of pruning that Mr. Mallozzi undertook," Worcester City Manager Michael O'Brien said.
Mallozzi argued the tree was dying from termite infestation. He took pictures of rotted limbs, and he said the city's Department of Health and Human Services sent him a letter, which he interpreted to mean that he should trim the tree.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
My last house had an (unexercised) easement twenty feet from the property line in a area that required forty+plus foot setbacks for new development. The town could have widened the street by forty feet by exercising the easement on both sides of the street. Some of the main routes in that town were two lane roads, with older houses only a few from the road. It would be impossible to widen the road without knocking down some older houses.
They actually burned down an eighteenth century house as practice for the fire department when they couldn't get anyone to move it. They needed to replace a bridge over a railroad line. The old bridge had been condemned and the railroad (Boston & Maine), which owned and maintained it, wanted to build a taller bridge which would accomodate freight trains, the town didn't want freight trains coming through town. While they wrangled a major N/S commuter thoroughfare (Route 27) was detoured through side streets acrossing a grade crossing.
I agree with all you say regarding protections of trees, but...that is still not the point.
The point is...this guy destroyed this tree for whatever reason, and...it was simply not his to destroy.
And it is not being represented that way on this thread.
Oh, I know about beating back a jungle, lol. Specific to the crepe myrtle thing, though, the growth habit and appearance of the bush or tree (depending upon the variety) is completely different, depending upon how you prune it. Radical pruning produces something that appears almost like a palm tree, with fronds, and tremendous blooms bunched like grapes. If you have a scented variety, like Natchez, it's awesome at night, with the scent on the breeze. There's nothing wrong with doing this, it's been done a long, long time, especially in more formal settings. It just looks less appealing in winter, like stalks. And, the city doesn't like stalks, apparently. History has nothing to do with it.
Worst. Tree. Ever.
I agree. He probably violated the law.
He could still sell the rest of it for cordwood.
In the Santa Clarita Valley one cannot prune an oak anywhere on one's property without an inspection and permit...and under no circumstances can one remove an oak without "permission".
Been living on Mars the past 30 years, have we?
Here in California, we have "Heritage Trees." They don't belong to the property owner. They are somehow communal or state property and woe to you if you so much as stare cross-eyed at such a hallowed object! The old Eucalyptus trees in our company parking lot are being pruned right now and a number of them bear a special yellow banner "HERITAGE TREE". It's laughable.
Looks like a subliminal message to me.
NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that an elegant shade tree once stood at the corner of Carver and Belmont streets in Worcester, at the edge of a vacant lot belonging to businessman Anthony Mallozzi.
If you look close enough at the tree picture Anthony set up another private property message for Worcester officials at the corner of Carver and Belmont streets.
The good news! It did the job.
The bad news!! The vibrations took out his picture window!!
It just looks to me like he had all of the parts that overhung the sidewalks and street removed, in compliance with the Health Dep'ts order. He saw his opportunaity and he took it, being understandably frustrated with the city's failure to maintain the tree properly.
As bad as it looks, I am looking out my front door at an only slightly smaller tree across the street that the County had pruned, pretty much to the same extent, to prevent encroachment on power lines and danger to my neighbor's house. I didn't think it would live, but it has sprouted a few new limbs and seems to be doing okay, though it's ugly as sin.
I'm not sure which is worse - the way they mutilated that tree, or the fact that many of my neighbors have had the very large old trees in front of their houses totally removed by the County, claiming that they posed a danger to their homes. The result is that Main Street, which used to be tree-lined, has very few trees left. I can't say I like the way it looks.
I know that having to rely on the County to deal with streetside trees has been a major annoyance to many of my neighbors, who have had to wait for a LONG time before the County got around to doing anything about the trees. In fact, I'm sure that's why most of them chose to simply have their trees removed - because the County couldn't be counted on to maintain them properly.
In any event though we all know that the trees (the few remaining) are on the public easement and thus we cannot removed them ourselves.
LOL. That tree was not "pruned". It was delimbed to kill it in a way that is done before a tree is to be cut down.
One of her cedar trees died several years ago, and it was just over seven inches diameter. I made sure it wasn't too large, because we aren't allowed to cut dead trees, unless all the bark is gone. A protected bird, the golden cheeked warbler, uses the bark for it's nests.
Smaller trees can be cut without a permit. If I had any such cedar trees, they would already be gone. My neighbor still has two live cedar trees left between our homes. Each year, I have to trim the limbs off my roof.
Best not to plant the Crepe Myrtle if you can not control what happens to them on your property.
A little close to the driveway? Yup, and it's my driveway. I trim the branches right up to the property line, LOL! I don't even ask.
Subliminal or in plain sight, great!
No wonder Massachusetts residents are moving to the south and western states.
Couldn't the city just order a new one from Burpees' for $29.99?
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