THE CHRISTMAS holidays are special because of heartfelt messages: “Good will toward men,” “Santa, please ...,” and this year’s special message — “#%&%5E&, I’m cold.”
That’s because high winds and heavy rain bombarded the Granite State and Manchester just two days before Christmas.
We all know the drill by now: The wind snaps off tree limbs (or topples entire trees). They fall onto electric wires, and houses go dark.
That meant that on Christmas weekend 2022, thousands relied on their Christmas candles more for light and heat than ambience.
So why, wonder residents in the 400 block of Walnut Street, can’t they get a dangerous silver maple removed from their block?
The girth of its trunk pushes against the sidewalk like a post-holiday gut against an old pair of pants. Upper limbs show holes where woodpeckers feast.
A black electric cable shoots through the bare canopy like the trail of a football through goalposts. Squirrels can enter the trunk via holes created where branches have fallen off.
Sure, everyone likes big shade trees, said Bill Jardine, who lives across the street from the tree.
“But this one is making everybody nervous,” he said.
During an early December windstorm, a limb crashed down and took out some electric lines. Jardine was affected. Kelvin Rose lost power for about 2 1/2 hours, he said. The tree is directly in front of Rose’s house.
“This is a danger to everybody driving down the street,” said Doug Draper, whose house is next door to Rose.
The neighbors said they have been calling the city for years about the tree.
“We get this circular thing,” Rose said. The city tells them Eversource is responsible because of the wires. Eversource said the tree is in the city right-of-way so the neighbors should talk to the city.
And, according to Alderman Kevin Cavanaugh, city officials insinuated that Rose is to blame because they haven’t been able to contact him, so they can’t do anything about the tree.
Nonsense, said Rose, who insists he’s been calling the city for years about the tree.
“We go around in circles,” he said.
In an email, an Eversource official used all sorts of language that verifies the “circles” metaphor.
The company works in “close coordination” with communities. The work is “comprehensively planned” to balance various needs.
Trees are identified through a “collaborative process.”
“While there is not a ‘backlog’ for this work, there is always more to be done,” wrote Eversource spokesman William Hinkle. He did not provide any information on the specific tree.
But the city did.
“It’s on Eversource’s list, but it’s not an emergency situation,” said Owen Friend-Gray, deputy director of Manchester Public Works Department. He could give no estimate of when the tree will see a chainsaw.
Given the two recent wind storms, Eversource has a lot of work to do, Friend-Gray said. He noted that the tree weathered the Dec. 23 winds intact.
Friend-Gray said the first he heard of the tree was in early December; that’s about the time that Alderman Cavanaugh became involved after Walnut Street neighbors reached out to him.
Friend-Gray doesn’t know about any earlier contact with neighbors.
He explained the ins and outs of city trees.
I can plant a tree in the city right-of-way — that is no-man’s land between a sidewalk and city street. In most cases, it’s my tree. And if I want it removed, I will have to hire a crew to remove it.
If the tree is deemed dangerous, however, it becomes the city’s responsibility. The city will remove it, or at least pare it back, no matter what the owner thinks.
The lumber belongs to the homeowner. “If they want it,” Friend-Gray said. “A lot of time, we’ll just take it away.”
On Dec. 7, the city forester wrote Rose to say the tree is a hazard and will be removed. “The work will be completed at the cost of the City,” wrote Forester Kelly Koetsier.
Friend-Gray has no idea how many trees are on a city/Eversource list to come down, but he said a typical storm sends about 75 trees to roadways, sidewalks or other places that need to be cleared.
Cavanaugh said on occasion he receives calls from constituents about trees. Usually the city is responsive.
Neighbors on Walnut Street were happy to speak to me about the tree and what they felt was unnecessary stonewalling by the city. Years ago, the tree dropped a branch just minutes after Draper walked his dog beneath it.
“If it drops a branch and kills somebody, I will be bloody screaming,” Draper said. “This tree needs to come down.”