Tighe & Bond Principal Engineer Jean Christy speaks with the Longmeadow Select Board on April 6.
Photo credit: LongmeadowTV
LONGMEADOW — Road widening construction outside of the new Longmeadow Middle School is calling for the removal of six mature trees alongside Williams Street and a resident is taking action in an attempt to prevent it.
The Select Board voted to remove four trees at 410 Williams St. at a hearing on April 6 and the other two at 458 Williams St. at a hearing on April 16 after presentations from Tighe & Bond Principal Engineer Jean Christy and Tree Warden Leah Wallner.
The process began with Wallner denying the removal due to resident objections at a public shade hearing on March 26. She told Reminder Publishing that she is required under state law to deny the removal if the public makes an objection, regardless of her own review or opinion.
Tighe & Bond, the engineering consultants for the $151 million middle school build, called for a hearing with the Select Board to appeal Wallner’s decision. Christy said the removals are necessary to accommodate planned roadway improvements at the middle school, specifically road widening to make room for a left-turn lane into the middle school while driving east.
Wallner then submitted a letter to the Select Board stating that it was her professional opinion that removal should be approved for the six trees on April 2.
Davey Resource Group, an organization hired by the town to conduct a conditions assessment of over 9,000 trees in 2022, found that these six trees were all in fair or good condition, but Wallner has found since then that the construction would eventually lead to the mortality of the trees due to root loss over time. She added that the trees may also become a high threat to windthrow toward the sidewalk and household sides of the street if not removed.
She also said that the two trees at 458 Williams St. were found to have trunk decay and previous construction damage.
“It is my job to protect the trees to the fullest of my abilities, but I also need to advocate for the removal of trees when the risk of failure exceeds an acceptable level,” Wallner said in her letter. “While under non-construction circumstances, I would advocate for these trees to be retained or for plans to be altered. As the plans are not to be altered, and area abutting a middle school is highly trafficked by pedestrians, the level of risk for retaining these trees well exceeds the acceptable level due to the volume of targets and the consequence of failure.”
Select Board member Dan Zwirko said that this is a standard practice, done to ensure that roads are safe.
“We have a combined middle school that’s going to be built in this location,” Zwirko said. “There’s going to be more students walking, riding, getting dropped off at this location, and what [Wallner] said, who’s also an arborist by the way, that when the trunk or the base of the tree is affected, it could cause potential safety harm or danger to the children. To me, that’s really the most important piece of all of this. I don’t think any of us want to remove trees in town, I think we all love Longmeadow for the various trees across all of the town, but at the same point, we’re also going to be planting several additional trees as well to mitigate the impact.”
Select Board member Andrew Lam asked Wallner if planting more trees would be possible, and Wallner said that she already has submitted a grant application to plant 65 trees along Bliss, Williams and Laurel streets.
“We’ve been averaging almost 200 tree plantings a year,” Wallner said. “We’ve exceeded removals with plantings. It would be no sweat off my back to add new trees. I understand we’re not putting in an automatically mature tree and it will take time to get large.”
Resident Michael Kallock told Reminder Publishing there was nothing wrong with the trees and that he made it clear to the Select Board to leave them alone. Western Housing Court public documents show Kallock filed a civil complaint against the town, each member of the Select Board and Wallner on April 23, claiming violations of Chapter 87, Sections 1-4 of state law.
“The whole thing is not necessary,” Kallock said. “They have nothing to do with the Williams Middle School project, nothing in both time and distance, so that’s essentially what this case is about.”
He said he’s looking for a preliminary injunction to prevent the trees from coming down and that he wants a judge to decide before anything happens. Public documents also show a hearing for the preliminary injunction request was scheduled for April 29 at 9 a.m.
Town Manager Lyn Simmons told Reminder Publishing that the town’s standard practice is not to comment on pending litigation, but that she hadn’t received any filing at the time of publication.
Construction for the project is set to begin in July with a fall 2028 move-in.
