After losing their heads, trees removed from Haven Avenue

Written by Cindy Nevitt Saturday, December 08, 2012 06:38 pm

Cindy Nevitt / Due to poor health and damage allegedly caused primarily by delivery trucks to the nearby Wawa, 14 ash trees in the 3400 block of Haven Avenue were beheaded by the city beginning on Oct. 9.

OCEAN CITY – The side street by the 34th Street Wawa recently lost some residents. Not the human kind, but the green kind.

Fourteen ash trees along the median strip in the 3400 block of Haven Avenue had their crowns removed in October, and the remaining stumps were pulled in November to make way for new plantings, said Steven Longo, manager of the city’s buildings and grounds division in the public works department.

“The trees in question along the 3400 block of Haven Avenue were in poor health and many had sustained damage over the years for various reasons, namely from delivery trucks associated with the nearby Wawa,” Longo said in late October after the first phase of the job was complete.

Ten of the trees were planted along the east side of the median strip and four were planted on the west side.

“I don’t have any information about the trees at this time,” Lori Bruce, a media relations spokesperson for Wawa, said in early November.

The grounds division of the public works department completed the removal of the tree stumps the week of Nov. 19. Longo said the stumps had been left in place to facilitate removal at the later date.

“Simply put, the trunk created an anchoring point for the loader to pull the tree from the ground,” he said.

Longo said the city plans to install an irrigation system “to sustain whatever new plant life is selected” for the median strip.

“The plan for the property may not include any traditional shade trees at all or at least not in the portion of the plot that is closer to 34th Street and/or the adjacent Wawa loading area because of the damage that the delivery box truck-style vehicles cause to the canopy of the trees,” Longo said.

He added that any new design for the plot would be reviewed by senior management and the shade tree committee prior to beginning any work.