Residents: West Pleasant would be more pleasant without mighty Oak trees

New London - While many residents of the south end of the city have implored officials to go slow in chopping down dead and decaying trees, others from the middle of the city want the trees in their neighborhood gone.

Residents of West Pleasant Street showed up at the City Council meeting Monday night with photographs and anecdotes about tree branches crashing to the ground and sidewalks that buckle so much they are unwalkable.

"We really, really want the trees gone,'' said Shanaz Rigi of 14 W. Pleasant St.

"A 10-foot branch landed on the utility wire, the roots have taken over our driveways. It's really out of control,'' said Jocelyn Glidewell of 16 W. Pleasant. "It rains acorns for a month.''

The neighbors were excited and relieved last month when notified that the giant oak trees that line the street, which is off Colman Street, would be coming down. But a moratorium on tree-cutting enacted by the council March 1 put a stop to the project.

On Monday, the council asked the city manager to ask the tree warden to look at the trees and report to the Shade Tree Commission, which would report back to the council.

"I've been on West Pleasant. I've walked it,'' said Councilor John Russell. "The trees are beautiful. The canopy looks like a fairy tale."

But Russell, who made an unsuccessful motion at Monday's meeting to have the trees removed, admitted that every tree has pulled up the sidewalk and they appear to be a hazard.

"They're beautiful trees," he said. "A lot are not diseased but there are a lot of limbs falling off. ... It saddens me, but they (the residents) might be right."

The council will take up the issue at its April 5 meeting.

k.edgecomb@theday.com