Don’t worry, the trees in downtown Seymour sliced and diced like a battlefield extra on “Game of Thrones” will be replaced, First Selectman Kurt Miller said Tuesday.
The Valley Indy received two phone calls from Seymour merchants Tuesday afternoon wondering why contractors were cutting the tops off trees throughout the town’s quaint downtown business district.
In all, the tops of 21 trees were taken down, according to the town.
More angry downtown merchants also called the First Selectman’s Office, Miller said.
Here is what’s going on:
Back in May, the town’s Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to use money from the state to cut down the trees, which sat near curbs on the brick sidewalks along downtown Seymour.
The trees needed to be replaced because they were causing bricks to pop up from the sidewalk, and overgrown branches were obstructing the walkways, causing issues with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, according to minutes from the May 6 meeting of the Seymour Board of Selectmen.
The Selectmen awarded the job to Seymour-based Ted’s Lawn Care, LLC, the lowest of two bidders, for $17,500. That price doesn’t include money to repair the sidewalks, because it is not clear at this point how much damage will be done when the contractor pulls out the stumps.
Click here to watch a discussion of the tree issue. The discussion begins at (roughly) the 15-minute mark in the video.
But Stephen Manillo, owner of “Miracle on Main,” a 4‑month-old shop at 131 Main St., said the trees outside his store weren’t posing a problem for anyone.
He said the town should have done more to tell merchants this was coming.
Taking down the trees to replace them seems like an extreme waste of time and money, Manillo said.
“I loved that shade,” he said outside his shop Tuesday. “I miss it already.”
But Miller said in the next week (or two, depending on the weather), the trees will be replaced with aristocrat pear trees, which are popular with municipalities because they can survive just about anywhere.
“This is part of an overall plan to beautify the downtown,” Miller said, pointing out the town just won an award from the Connecticut Main Street Center for efforts to rejuvenate downtown Seymour.
“The trees that were planted there were not appropriate. They were causing the sidewalk to be uneven in spots. It was a danger and could have caused people to trip and fall. The branches of some of the trees were getting tangled in utility wires,” he said.
Miller said the replacement trees will not be tiny saplings, but slightly older trees already grown on a tree farm.
The work is being done after hours so as not to interfere with local commerce, Miller said.