Something is missing at the Adriance Memorial Library, and it isn’t just the books. The library – which temporarily relocated last year to its new Bancroft Road headquarters when a two-year expansion project got under way – lost a decades-old crab apple tree this month, which was cut down in what library director Thomas Lawrence calls a “communication mix-up.”
“I wasn’t happy. I had given the construction manager explicit instructions not to cut that tree down,” Lawrence said.
But according to construction manager Chris Gent of the Stanfordville-based Palombo Group, the removal of the tree was originally included in the bid package.
“We were here on a Saturday and the tree guys had some work to do in the back of building. The trees were originally planned to be taken down, but there was some back-and-forth between the owner and the planning board,” said Gent.
According to Gent, the tree service was hired by the project’s general contractor to remove the trees in the front of the library, along Market Street, while Gent had hired the same service to remove trees in the back of the building.
After removing trees from the back of the building on Saturday, May 17, the tree service began removing trees from the front of the building.
“We were there working, and we heard chainsaws and saw trucks in the front of the building. By the time we got out there, one of the four trees was already down,” explained Gent. “We stopped them immediately.”
According to the City of Poughkeepsie Planning Board, Lawrence intended to remove some trees from the front of the building, but the board recommended that he hire an arborist to see if the trees could be trimmed. He was supposed to return to the planning board with a revised plan, but before he did the tree was accidentally cut down.
Lawrence is now expected to return to the planning board with a plan to replace the tree.
“Now the board is faced with the problem of what our opinion should be about what should be done,” said Planning Board Chairman Graham Jones. “Trees are important in the city. This is a tree city.”
Jones added that the Adriance apple tree was probably 80 to 100 years old, and “was in quite good shape,” he said.
“There was a pretty big communication mix-up,” said Lawrence, who is in the process of engaging a historical landscape architect to rectify the problem. “Having the tree cut down kind of accelerates the need for us to get this done,” he said.
City of Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik addressed the situation at a Common Council meeting two days later, on May 19.
“It was a complete accident and I give the construction managers credit for immediately coming in an bringing it to our attention. They’re willing to find the tallest tree they can find to replace it,” said Tkazyik. “It’s unfortunate, it happened, and we need to move forward.”