Timber!
The neighbors raised the alarm. Large and ancient conifers in the side yard of a property on lower Union Street recently acquired by Eric Galloway were being chopped down. Yes, chopped down. The three men who had been dispatched to fell the trees were equipped only with an ax. Very likely they were the same three men who appeared at the dawn one Saturday morning to remove the asbestos siding from the house destined for demolition on First Street at Cherry Alley with paper dust masks as their only HAZMAT protection.
The neighbors' outrage summoned Jamie Larson from the Register-Star, Mayor Richard Scalera, and Cleveland Samuels, the reason for whose presence there is not clear. This confluence of angry neighbors, officialdom, and the press succeeded in staying the workers' ax after only one tree had been felled, but who knows what tomorrow may bring?
It's hard to keep up with the Gallowegian machine. But bravo neighbors.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was talking with the mayor at the scene Mr Samuels arrived and began grilling the crew on what they were doing, clearly unhappy with them. He said he does all of Galloway's landscaping but knew nothing of the tree cutting. The crew, who went about their task with just axes and saws, were, according to one of the workmen, hired by Galloway directly. The same laborer said they were only instructed to take down one of the trees and clear branches on the others.
ReplyDeleteSamuels said there was no way the other two larger trees would be brought down in the same way as the first and a professional tree service would have to be called for a job of that size, if it were to happen at all.
He apologized for what appeared to be a misunderstanding with the crew and called the way the one tree came down a "mistake."