WALLINGFORD-- Legal wrangling will not halt the removal of dozens of pear trees in downtown Wallingford, as a judge recently struck down a lawsuit challenging the town's plan to remove 29 Callery pear trees along North Main Street.
The trees will not be cut down before Celebrate Wallingford, which will be held Oct. 3-4 along North Main Street and other downtown streets, according to Public Works Director Henry McCully.
The lawsuit was filed by Gina Morgenstein, who is now a Democratic candidate for Town Council. Morgenstein asked for a public hearing after McCully posted notices of removal on the trees in early April. A public hearing was held April 24, and three days later McCully, who is the town’s tree warden, decided to remove the trees.
"The person that loses is everybody. The town lost," said Morgenstein.
The removal of the 29 North Main Street pear trees is the third phase of a five-phase tree removal program that began in 2014.
Early in 2014, town officials cut down 28 Callery pear trees along Quinnipiac Street and replaced them with the same species as phase one of the plan. In the fall of 2014, 38 oak and pear trees along Center Street were removed as part of the second phase; the trees were replaced with cherry and pear trees.
Morganstein has been critical of the town's tree removal process, and wonders why some trees are not being spared.
"The town is repeatedly planting the same trees, removing the same trees. So, we plant the wrong trees in the wrong place, give it no care and a plant a tree, and in 10 to 12 years take it down," said Morgenstein.
Morgenstein says the town has refused to work with the opponents of the tree removal plan.
A town greening committee formed in 2013 presented three alternatives for the replacement of downtown trees to the mayor's office, but Mayor Dickinson nor McCully accepted any of the plans.
"He (McCully) was given expert advice and he ignored it, and did what this administration wanted to do," said Morgenstein.
In the place of the 29 pear trees, new pear and cherry trees will be planted after Celeberate Wallingford, a festival highlighting downtown.
When the trees along Center Street were to be removed before Celebrate Wallingford, the move was criticized by some, but Wallingford Center Inc. President Steve Knight said he didn’t believe it affected the annual festival.
Knight said many of the business owners on Center Street are happy by the tree changes.
"The merchants get their signage recognized a lot better, so we feel it's benefit to Downtown Wallingford," said Steve Knight, the president of Wallingford Center, Inc., a non-profit organization helping to promote downtown Wallingford.
Knight says many of the business owners on North Main Street have expressed mixed emotions on having the trees replaced, but Knight says many are now planning to move forward.
"It's been adjudicated so to speak. It's time to move-on," Knight said.