NORTHAMPTON — Two residents of Warfield Place are suing the Northampton Department of Public Works for its actions in cutting down nine cherry trees on their street as part of a repaving plan, claiming that workers continued removing the last tree even after a judge ordered them to stop.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Hampshire Superior Court also alleges that the city did not hold a public shade tree hearing as required by state law before the July 29 removal operation began, and it requests a permanent court order barring Northampton from removing public shade trees without a hearing in the future.
Lois Ahrens and Oliver Kellhammer are the plaintiffs in the suit. They allege that a Hampshire Superior Court judge had granted their request for a temporary restraining order against the work before it was finished, but that contractors with Northern Tree Service kept cutting down the last tree anyway. City officials dispute that description of events.
“It was shocking to see the city racing to destroy the trees before a court could decide whether they were allowed to,” said Ahrens and Kellhammer in a joint statement, adding that the city created “a precedent that anyone who seeks a fair process for their streets will be aggressively silenced and dismissed.”
Mayor David Narkewicz declined to comment, citing a “long-standing practice” not to comment on active or pending litigation. His office, however, did share public records that provide a response to some of the lawsuit’s allegations.
In an Aug. 19 email to a concerned citizen, Narkewicz’s office said that “immediately” after the restraining order was granted, city solicitor Alan Seewald “called the DPW Director who was on Warfield Place and informed her.”
“By that time, however, Northern Tree had substantially completed the tree project and was removing the trunk of the final tree and cleaning up leaves and debris before departing. … (The) TRO was deemed moot,” the email reads.
Ahrens and Kellhammer argue that, as soon as officials knew that a restraining order had been requested, the work — which the plaintiffs refer to as an “attack” — should have stopped.
“What the city did on our street cannot be undone, but we believe the legal action we are taking could help protect other people and trees in the future,” the plaintiffs said in their statement.
A May 10 email from Seewald to DPW Director Donna LaScaleia laid out the argument that a public shade tree hearing was not required under the circumstances. The relevant law, he said, has an exemption for projects that widen a “highway,” a term that includes sidewalks on a public way; the Warfield Place repaving project removes one sidewalk and widens the other.
“I believe the widening exemption would apply to this project, and that no public hearing is required for the tree warden to cut trees if ordered by (the mayor),” Seewald wrote.
The lawsuit filed by Ahrens and Kellhammer argues that the widening exemption does not apply because “the city has no plans to increase the total width of the highway,” and asks for the trees to be replaced with mature cherry trees at least 25 feet tall.
The lawsuit also accuses the city of towing vehicles that were legally parked in order to make room for the work, despite written assurances from the DPW that “no parking” signs would be posted in advance; the Northampton Police Department said the cars were moved to a nearby street and no fines or tickets were issued.