CHESTERFIELD — Exactly 17 minutes was all it took for the public to give their input on Thursday about the removal of 21 public trees along Damon Pond Road.
Eversource is downing the trees to make way for new electrical poles after the poles were “condemned,” according to Barry Croke, a senior arborist who represented utility at the public forum, which drew just a single resident. Tree removal is set to begin Monday barring any storms or other inconveniences, said Croke, and the new electrical poles have already been installed.
Tree sizes range from 9 inches to 30 inches in diameter, and are currently marked with orange ribbons. Five sugar maple trees, two maple, three ash, one beech, one hop hornbeam, two black birches, one cherry, five red maples, and a spruce tree will be cut down.
Resident Jennifer Abromowitz voiced concern that some of the trees on the chopping block didn’t seem to be obstructing power lines. Croke said the trees were determined unsuitable based how “steep” their branches bend toward the road.
Tree Warden Chris Ryan, Roger Fuller of the Select Board, and Highway Superintendent Matt Smith were also around the table in the town office’s for the public forum.
Among the trees coming down include two dead ash trees. Their removal is “beneficial” for the town, Ryan said.
Ryan also commented that the work is important since, “We have these winter storms up here, ice storms or whatever, and if you don’t have your clearance you’re going to have unnecessary [electrical] outages.”
Just this past winter when the neighboring of towns Cummington and Plainfield were hit with one of the hardest winter storms in the past decade, the former Cummington police chief attributed minimal outages to the fact that Eversource is “proactive” in trimming trees.
Road reconstruction project
Chesterfield officials made clear that the trees are coming down for pole work, and not because of the reconstruction project on North and Damon Pond roads. That project will overhaul the two thoroughfares.
The roadwork will reduce bends and intense turns, and produce a road that is more maneuverable. The road will be 1-foot wider on each side, said Smith, and some areas will undergo significant changes.
“They’re moving the road so it’s going to straighten the road in a couple spots,” he said. “One particular spot is moving the road over a whole lane on the sharpest corner where people can’t see coming out of their driveway. … There’s a southbound that is actually going to become a northbound lane.”
The work is being funded by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation with $14 million that was announced over the summer. Bids will be sent out for the project in the upcoming month.