Goodbye, Tree

It looks like the borough will not be able to save an overgrown tree on Main Street after all.

After borough officials said last month they wanted to do what they could to ensure an elm tree near the corner of North Passaic Avenue and Main Street would be saved, the Borough Council Monday decided the tree, which hangs over the road at a slight angle, is too much of a liability concern to be able to preserve.

The council voted to allow the state Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over the area where the tree is located (since Main Street is a state highway), to take the 130-year old tree down.

"I don't ever want to see anybody hurt by this tree coming down," Councilman Joseph Marts said.

A report completed by a certified state tree expert had said the tree, which partially obscures the traffic light at North Passaic and Main, is not in the healthiest shape.

Council members said they would have been more willing to take steps to try and preserve the tree if the report had given the tree a cleaner bill of health. The report said the tree had been stressed by drought and was somewhat at risk.

Mayor Nelson Vaughan had said last month that the DOT had been prepared to take the tree down immediately, but borough officials requested what Vaughan termed a "stay of execution" so they could look into whether the borough could assume liability for the tree so it would no longer be the state's responsibility.

But the borough's insurance carrier, the Morris County Municipal Joint Insurance Fund, has a board that does not meet until September. It is unclear whether it will say it is able to take the responsibility for the tree away from the DOT.

For all those reasons, the council said it would be most prudent to allow the DOT to remove the tree from the area.

"If it's in questionable shape, I think we have a liability risk," Councilman James Lonergan said.

Council President James Collander stated his opposition to taking the tree down immediately by voting against the measure.

Vaughan said, however, that the Elm Tree Institute—a non-profit based in Keene, N.H. that gives away free, healthy American elm trees—may be able to give the borough a tree to replace the current one.

That replacement, if it takes place, would likely happen in the spring.