I was shocked, disgusted and dismayed early Monday evening when I looked over at the Gerard St. Parking lot on a trip to the Huntington Post Office and noticed the once beautiful trees there, were no longer standing! They had become firewood with the biggest one near Clinton St. now just a tall, sad stump with a white “X” on its trunk. Its boughs were all cut down and laying beneath. The other trees save for one or two near the West end of the lot were down, now just logs piled around the parking lot.
Only last Friday, I had stood outside the Post Office looking across at the Gerard St. parking lot, discussing what was going on there with a Postal employee about to go home and another patron. I remembered how we were all worried about the trees which could easily be close to 60-80 yrs. old, in jeopardy, but then dismissed the idea ,and thought repaving repairs, and maybe meters be installed? – figuring the Town couldn’t be that stupid to take down the wonderful trees that had stood through Hurricane Sandy and other tests of time. We were dead wrong! While we may be lucky it doesn’t appear meters will be installed, the trees in the lot were not so lucky!
While we know there was a problem with poor drainage at the Gerard St parking lot at times, now to boot, we have suffer environmental destruction by the Town in cutting down and killing perfectly healthy trees which offered natural beauty and prime shaded areas on hot summer days in the parking lot.
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This is nothing less than Environmental Destruction at its finest at a cost of $1.9 Million Dollars!!!!
Aside any worry about creating a more attractive gateway approach to those entering the Village from the North via West Neck Rd approach is ridiculous, when you think that this was done at the cost of losing trees that were close to a century old. Enough trees were uprooted or destroyed from Hurricane Sandy and now the fact that more were needlessly chopped down is totally pathetic. I suppose some cheap piddley little twigs will be stuck in the ground to replace the stately old trees which once stood to patronize the protestors. Petrone makes claim that Earth Day means alot to Huntington. Well, if it does, why has he allowed for this to happen?? Laws and measures need to be in place to protect healthy trees from being axed needlessly, as has been done in other LI towns and villages. Otherwise, what will be chopped down next – the trees on 25A???
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In the HUNTINGTON VILLAGE PARKING STUDY which was compiled by Nelson/Nygaard Consulting in June 2013, it is interesting to note not one word was mentioned about existing “trees,” or their removal, http://www.huntingtonny.gov/filestorage/13751/16461/HUNTINGTON_VILLAGE_PARKING_STUDY.pdf
or in the recent July 17, 2014 article, “Town: Parking lot fix in village to take 4 months,” by Rohma Abbas in The Times of Huntington Edition.
The only mention I could find online of this whole debacle of the trees being cut down was a Comment in response to: Facebook Town of Huntington New York July 16 “News Feed Huntington ny.gov Huntington Supervisor Frank P. Petrone advises persons planning on visiting Huntington Village over the next four months that portions of the Gerard Street municipal parking lot will be closed for the lot’s long-awaited, much-needed reconstruction. The project includes resurfacing the lot for increa…”
A July 17 Comment to the above by Katie Kennedy, reads “Ripping up big trees, trees that managed to survive Hurricane Sandy, so we can park in the broiling hot sun. Well, the doctors say we all need more vitamin D. Where is the outrage??? Why aren't we storming Town Hall demanding better planning? I understand the need for improving that parking lot, but do not understand why it is necessary to remove trees--because it's easier? Reminds me of when Bill Naughton mowed down all the trees on Wall Street. Disgraceful.”
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Town-of-Huntington-Huntington-New-York/186842310304
It sure is! Why was not more mentioned of this anywhere??? It also seems very underhanded by all accounts that it was not made clear big, old trees would be sacrificed to improve that parking lot. This is just wrong! By the time people are finding this out it now, attempts should be made and undertaken to save the remaining trees before it’s too late!
The real irony is if you look back at past Huntington Planning Board Meetings in previous years, for example, there was a concern by the Board (i.e. Planning Board Chairman Paul Mandelik and board member Jane Devine) of having owners enhance their properties and make them more aesthetically pleasing by adding trees and vegetation at their expense when they were filing for building applications as per Huntington Patch Feb 10, 2011 article, “Board Oks Gerard Street Plan,” http://huntington.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/board-oks-gerard-street-plan-change