Carl Swanson wants to give a shout-out to Westport tree warden Ben Sykas. He writes:
A week or so ago, a tree fell on our street. It blocked traffic, and would have killed someone if the timing was wrong.
The owner of the property from which the tree fell never trimmed his trees. My pleas fell on deaf ears.
So I contacted Ben, our town tree warden. He told me he could deal with trees on the easement section of the town, and not on private property.
Dangerous tree
That was okay, because the remaining dangerous tree was within that portion.
The next thing I knew, a sign has gone up on the tree for demolition. Bravo!
Ben, appointed by 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker, is super. Government is working.
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I nominate Carl for felling that tree‼️🇺🇸
always great to hear when government is working – love this post
Glad it worked out Carl and that the town came through! And thank you for all you do for Veterans!
I agree. Ben is doing a super job. He was very helpful to us recently.
One caveat to the saga, my research into the issue revealed that even if a tree is on private property in Westport and creates an “imminent danger” to the public at large, Big Bad Ben is authorized to trim it up.
How about the dangerous ready to drop on someone on Thomas Rd
treewarden@westport.gov. Ben will respond and also remains in the private sector with his own tree business.
I dealt with Ben when he worked in the private sector and found him to be personable, professional, and caring (about both trees and people). I second the nomination. 🙂
While we must remove dangerous trees that are dropping limbs we really need to keep replacing them with new trees. Our town is being stripped of its bucolic setting as each mature tree is removed.
Wright Street looks very bare after the removal of a giant maple on private property as does Kings Highway North, where all the trees have been removed from a property that is being developed, both are historic districts, what happens on one property affects the nature of the district.