By Michael Morton
“I know the city has been very lax on awarding sufficient contracts,” said Richard Hellenbrecht, chairman of Board 13, which runs from Glen Oaks in the north along the Nassau border to Brookville in the south. “It's many, many years between prunings.”
When trees are not pruned, branches and leaves can block traffic signs or make contact with and ruin roof shingles. Trucks and windstorms can also knock down dead branches still hanging on, potentially injuring people, damaging property or disrupting utility lines.
On its list of requested projects for 2005, Board 13 has asked the city to develop a large tree-pruning contract. The board has claimed it has about 175,000 of the borough's 375,000 trees, many of which are more than 100 years old, and it warned that not pruning them represents a safety hazard.
The board cited a 1997 accident in which four schoolgirls died after a giant maple tree fell on them. The tree had never been pruned, but the Parks Department at the time said a lack of pruning was not a factor in the toppling.
The city Department of Parks and Recreation sends its employees out within 30 days of receiving a complaint for trees that represent an immediate danger, but it awards contracts to private contractors for general pruning.
The department relies on first receiving city funding for the contracts, and Hellenbrecht said. “Whether the budget news is good or bad, (Parks) seems to get cut every year, and that is bad for all of us,” he said.
Parks divides the borough into grids for pruning efforts and does sections at a time until Queens is completed. It then starts the process again, with each cycle taking 10 to 12 years, a Parks spokeswoman said.
An official familiar with the department's operation said a large number of trees have been pruned in Queens in the last 10 years, with the department ready to give out contracts any time city money comes in. And while many residents called Parks to have their trees done, the official said, others have complained after prunings that the aesthetics of their neighborhood were ruined.
Peter Richards, the head of Board 13's Parks Committee, said he once asked Parks to prune along his Queens Village Block. He said it took them a year and a half to do so, but “they did deliver.”
Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
