Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss and East Hills environmental activist Richard Brummel engaged in a heated exchange at last Wednesday night’s village board meeting when Brummel accused Mineola officials of engineering “a sneak attack” in removing eight sycamore trees from Roslyn Road last week.
Brummel said the village permitted Long Island Power Authority crews to assist in removing the trees by cutting upper limbs of the large trees that had grown around and above power lines without informing village residents about what was going on.
Village officials had said village Department of Public Works staff would compete the removal of the eight sycamores last week.
“I’m very concerned about what’s happened in Mineola even though I’m not from Mineola. I am a human being living on this planet,” Brummel said.
He said Mineola residents have told him the village removes healthy trees and submitted a petition he said bore the signatures of 38 residents opposed to the removal of the sycamores.
He also said he was beginning to doubt what village board members stated at previous meetings about their interest in maintaining trees in the village. Brummel had previously unsuccessfully lobbied village trustees on protecting what he said was a 125-year old red oak that he said was endangered because it was in the backyard of a foreclosed house likely to be renovated.
“I’m beginning to doubt some things myself,” Strauss told Brummel, dismissing his “sneak attack” allegation.
Strauss said village officials contacted LIPA about the Sycamore trees last fall, after two of them had come down in a “microburst” storm last August, striking one house on the block between Jerome and Raff avenues.
When Brummel said he didn’t think Strauss was acting in the best interests of village residents, Strauss replied, “Please do not come from East Hills and tell me I’m not serving my citizens.”
Brummel said the Village of Mineola could be sued by one of its residents for violating state environmental conservation law.
Brummel had delayed LIPA’s work on the Sycamore trees by calling LIPA two weeks ago, according to LIPA spokesman. The spokesman said Brummel questioned what was happening after seeing they had been tagged for removal. A LIPA crew that encountered Brummel on the site on April 26 left the scene without working on the trees
Last week on Tuesday, as LIPA crews started removed large limbs from the trees, Brummel could be seen in an animated conversation with village DPW Superintendent Thomas Rini in the work area.
He told a reporter he was trying to get the work stopped. Nassau County Police were subsequently summoned to the scene to keep Brummel away from the work area, village officials said.
Raff Avenue resident Laura Reill preceded Brummel, telling board members she was “shocked and deeply saddened” at the loss of the 50-year-old Sycamores and questioned the village’s procedure in removing the trees.
“The decision to remove the trees was a matter of public safety,” Strauss told her.
He said the trees had been examined by a LIPA arborist at the village’s request. Strauss said the trees were “rotted” and said the LIPA arborist said they needed to be removed. The village consulted LIPA after Roslyn Road residents in houses in close proximity to the trees asked the village to remove the trees, Strauss said.
Reill said she knew some people in the neighborhood wanted the trees taken down, but said the village had not communicated with other village residents about the trees.
“There’s plenty of communication with the people who are concerned about the trees,” Strauss said.
He said there was no point to have people who live blocks away from the trees “weighing in” on the subject and said the village board would not hold a hearing on each village tree that needed to be removed.
“That’s not going to happen,” he said.
He said village DPW Superintendent Thomas Rini is in charge of a village tree department which reviews resident requests for tree removal. He also said the village will be spending $50,000 in its 2013-14 budget to plant trees in the village.
“We do have a plan in place, a tree planting program,” said Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira. “We have a systematic way of maintaining our trees every single day.”
Pereira said the village often doesn’t accede to residents’ requests to remove trees in proximity to their property.
Richard Oberlander, an arborist who Brummel said had declared the eight sycamores healthy, said he found it “most disturbing” the trees were coming down.
“From what I’m hearing, any large tree in Mineola is coming down,” he said.
Strauss told him he was “incorrect,” adding, “We’re going to plant trees there. We’re not slashing and burning trees here.”
Oberlander said in the wake of the recent hurricane, people have a “phobia about trees now.”
“I can’t keep a tree up if it means endangering a resident’s life,” Strauss said.
Roslyn Road resident Bill Samuel expressed concern about other trees on Roslyn Road that he thought represented a danger to his house.
“These two trees can fall on our house at any time and we are very scared,” Samuel said.
Several village residents said they supported the village’s tree policy.
“I’m in total agreement with the village’s tree policy,” said resident Joe Grilo.
In other developments:
• Rini reported the state Department of Transportation project to repave Jericho Road in Mineola between Herricks Road and Glen Cove Road was nearing completion. He said the repaving was to be completed last week, with striping of the roadway to follow. He said electrical lines for traffic loop boxes that trigger changes in the lights when cars enter intersections also were to be laid, with completion of the project approximately two weeks away.
• Rini also reported progress on the Bruce Terrace flood mitigation project with installation of pipelines at Bruce Terrace and Sheridan Road completed and construction of a new drainage basin in process. He also said he had consulted with Pratt Brothers, which has the contract for the county’s portion of the flood relief project and said the company was awaiting a starting date from the county.
The $2.4 million project involves the village, the county and town to relieve recurrent flooding problems on the border between Mineola and Carle Place.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
