Marblehead to split Parks, Rec, Forestry dept.

MARBLEHEAD – Tree’s a crowd – to coin a phrase.In Fiscal 2010, the Recreation, Parks and Forestry Department will officially become the Recreation and Parks Department and Forestry will become a separate Tree Department under the Board of Selectmen.The change occurred Dec. 31 and was brokered without much debate by Town Administrator Tony Sasso, in anticipation of the retirement of former Recreation, Parks and Forestry Superintendent R. Thomas Hamond.Hamond will continue to work part-time as Deputy Tree Warden under Tree Warden Doug Gordon, a 25-year town employee. Hamond worked on the town’s 1992 tree inventory, which is incomplete. The 2008 Town Report expresses the hope that the town will be divided into four parts and each year the town will inspect the trees in one of the four parts. Any sidewalk repair requests generated by tree root damage could combine with this program.The Finance Committee voted to recommend a $282,020 Fiscal 2010 budget for the Tree Department Tuesday evening.Sasso said the department will oversee an estimated 10,000 town trees and the tree and highway department employees will complement each other.”Tom’s retirement presented us with the opportunity to do this,” he said. “The town has been talking about doing this a long time.”Recreation and Parks Commission Chairman Derek Norcross noted that the last official part of the change-over will be to remove the word “Forestry” from the signs at the Marblehead Community Center.