'Overzealous' tree cutters stopped

Alert residents manage to get work halted as trees were being felled one by one on the median of Northdale Boulevard.

By LOGAN D. MABE

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 13, 2000

NORTHDALE -- Dennis Cooper had just finished working out at the Bob Sierra YMCA branch Tuesday afternoon when, on his way home, he saw a county crew making fast work of the oak trees in a median along Northdale Boulevard.

Cooper watched as workers chain-sawed the trees, one by one, to trunk level and fed the branches into a huge chipper.

Cooper was aghast. For years, he and other Northdale officials had worked with county staff on a plan to put in left turn lanes at the entrance to the new Northdale Community Center. They fought for a project plan that would save as many trees as possible.

"By sheer luck I just happened to stop by and a guy mentioned that they were taking the trees down that are not in the construction zone," Cooper said. "At no time was there ever a hint that they were going to take these trees out, and I walked the site with them."

Cooper called Northdale property manager Diane Montgomery on his cell phone, and she called County Commissioner Jim Norman's office seeking an explanation. Whether it was the alarmed calls or a heavy afternoon thunderstorm, the crew stopped cutting at the point Northdale officials had previously agreed upon.

"We spent two years with the county negotiating this," Montgomery said. "Because our trees are really important to us. They create the neighborhood. We agreed to let them take some trees out, but they wanted to take out four more."

Steve Valdez, the county's community relations director, said the contractor doing the work may have been "a little bit overzealous," or that the work order may not have been clear about which trees were to be removed.

"On the surface, it looks like everything's going to be okay," Valdez said.

On Wednesday, county officials overseeing the project walked the site again to determine whether the trees will interfere with a driver's line of sight. They were trying to determine whether a driver turning left into the road leading to the community center can see far enough ahead to notice oncoming cars.

"We're going to disturb as few trees as we possibly can," Valdez said. "We understand the importance fo the medians and how they've been taken care of by the Northdale association. But the situation as it is right now does not allow adequate left and right turn movement into and out of the park. It's going to be a highly used community center."

What Montgomery termed a "deception," Valdez called a "communication gap" between county parks officials, road planners and Northdale residents.

In the end, though, no additional trees fell to the saws. "We were able to stop it in time and to re-evaluate it," Valdez said.

- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 226-3464 or mabe@sptimes.com.

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