Activist slows village’s tree removal plan

Richard Tedesco

Village of Mineola officials said Tuesday they intended to remove eight large Sycamore trees along Roslyn Road in Mineola despite a one-man protest being led by self-described East Hills environmental activist Richard Brummel.

A LIPA crew delayed clearing limbs from trees that were in proximity to power lines last week – in preparation for the village’s work to remove them – after Brummel raised questions about the work. 

He later joined LIPA crews at the site, telling the crew he had a petition bearing the names of 25 residents opposing the removal of the Sycamores.

Then, on Monday, he rushed to the site of the eight trees when a LIPA crew arrived to move ahead with their limb-clearing work, carrying a sign reading “Save these 8 solid trees.”

“I simply wanted them to stop their work because people oppose them. These are healthy trees,” Brummel said as he watched the crew remove tree limbs near power lines on Tuesday.

Brummel said he was there to tell Village of Mineola DPW Superintendent Thomas Rini and the LIPA crew to not take down the trees. 

Nassau County Police were summoned to the scene to keep him away from the work area.

Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss said removal of the trees had been planned for months after two of the trees struck a house on Roslyn Road near Jefferson Avenue during a “microburst” storm last August. Strauss said residents had requested their removal and LIPA officials who subsequently evaluated them at the village’s request said they represented a hazard.  

“LIPA identified them as a problem,” Strauss said. “Now this guy’s preventing them from removing the trees.”

Strauss said the village required LIPA assistance since village DPW workers could not remove branches around the power lines. 

Completion of the tree removal was to be done by the village DPW in the next few days, said a village official who asked not to be identified.  

“The people living with these trees in front of them are petrified. What can you do to give people peace of mind?” Strauss said.

Strauss said the village planned to plant trees in place of the Sycamores to be removed.

LIPA spokesman Mark Gross said he was not aware of Brummel’s presence at the LIPA work site last Friday. He said the work was held up because Brummel called LIPA “sometime last week” to question what was being done.

“He was a customer asking a question, and we provided an answer for him,” Gross said.

He said LIPA subsequently reconfirmed the request it had received from the Village of Mineola to trim the trees. 

Gross said the LIPA crew wasn’t there to remove the trees, but to trim them to clear tree limbs with proximity to power lines.

“We don’t remove the trees. What the village has asked us to do is to top the trees. It’s the village’s decision to remove the tree,” Gross said.

The incident was latest in a series of clashes between Brummel and Mineola and East Hills village officials over the removal of trees.

Brummel had attended four consecutive meeting of the Village of Mineola Board of Trustees in a bid to save a tall red oak tree located on a foreclosed property at 208 Roslyn Road from being cut down by a developer if the property is purchased. Village officials had expressed sympathy with his concerns about protecting trees in Mineola, but declined to take action on his request.

Strauss and Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira said they had no right to intervene since the tree is on private property. 

“Mineola officials claimed in February that they loved trees, that I had it all wrong, but they love private property more,” Brummel said in a press release he issued last week.

Brummel said he’s also filed petitions and even lawsuits against the Village of East Hills, the most recent over the village’s approval of plans to build new houses and destroy trees in the area.     

In his release, Brummel said Richard Oberlander, who he identified as a “certified arborist” inspected the trees last week on Monday and described as “perfectly healthy.” Oberlander said the trees are “not coming down” in a storm.

In an e-mail message subsequent to his release last week, Brummel called for Mineola residents to attend the village board meeting on May 1 to protest the removal of the trees.

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