Residents offer Tree Warden alternatives to removal of seven mature silver maples - Norwich, CT

The Day - Residents seek alternatives to Norwich plan to fell trees | News from southeastern Connecticut

Norwich - About a dozen residents offered mixed feelings Tuesday during a hearing on whether seven giant, silver cut-leaf maple trees on narrow Sholes Avenue must be cut down for safety reasons.

Norwich Tree Warden Teresa Hanlon said residents requested the hearing after she had posted orders on the trees that they be taken down. Hanlon heard comments for a half-hour Tuesday and told residents she would tell them her decision Friday through emails and updated postings on the trees.

Joan Dupont of 26 Sholes Ave. requested that the tree that towers over her house be taken down. Dupont said she sleeps directly beneath the tree and is afraid that it could come crashing down.

But others asked that at least some of the trees be spared, trimmed of branches that hang over homes or power lines. They also asked that other trees more suitable to the Sholes Avenue neighborhood be planted in their place.

Ellie Hynds of 35 Sholes Ave. argued that if all the trees were cut down, the neighborhood would get more noise pollution from busy West Town Street, especially from the Friendly's restaurant across the Sholes Avenue intersection, and more dirt. In summer, the sun would beat down on their homes.