Saugus tree board seeks to regain appropriation

SAUGUS – The Tree Committee agreed to a plan that would replace downed trees in the Veterans Cemetery with 15 new ones, but it wanted something in return.Committee member Al DiNardo asked the Cemetery Committee to take a vote in support of the Tree Committee regaining its yearly $10,000 appropriation.”Part of this is to get the $10,000 (appropriation) re-established,” he said regarding the plan to fill in a now 96-foot stretch with 10 white pines and five disease-resistant elm trees.DiNardo said the Tree Committee used to receive a yearly appropriation from the town, but it was stopped nearly a decade ago due to budget cuts.The stand of eight trees that the Cemetery Department mistakenly took down during a clean-up were estimated to be worth $130,000.”Since the value is in excess of $100,000 we’ll ask for $10,000 over the next 10 years to recoup the loss,” DiNardo said.DiNardo argued that the Tree Committee worked long and hard to pass a shade tree bylaw during last spring’s Town Meeting. The new bylaw, among other things, prohibits the removal of any town tree without first holding a hearing. While the bylaw has yet to approved by the Attorney General’s Office it is for all intents and purposes a town bylaw.DiNardo wondered what kind of message it was sending when town employees broke a bylaw and weren’t held accountable.”We’ll spend part of this at the cemetery and use additional monies to replace the canopy in other places around town,” he said, referring to the first $10,000 request.Town Manager Andrew Bisignani told everyone gathered for the meeting – Cemetery Commissioners, Historical Commissioners, Tree Committee members and a handful of residents – that he was in no position to make a financial commitment to anything.When Cemetery Commission Chairman Dennis Gould said he didn’t know who even had the funding to address the immediate needs of replacing the trees Bisignani said, “I don’t either.””I would like to find a final resolution for the committee and fund the appropriation but there are other issues on the table now,” he said.Historical Commission Chairman Steve Carlson said he thought it was a good idea to restart the funding, but he doesn’t think it’s likely to happen. However, DiNardo said he thought it was important to have both committees on the record as supporting the reinstatement of the funding. He noted that when the flak with the Cemetery Commission blew over, the Tree Committee would be left on its own to argue for the funding before Town Meeting.A motion to support having the $10,000 appropriation reinstated in the budget for future use by the Forestry Department was passed unanimously.