Athens Housing Authority cutting trees, residents hope some only to be trimmed

By Jean Cole
jean@athensnews-courier.com

May 07, 2008 10:27 pm

— Trees are falling at another Housing Authority apartment complex for the elderly and disabled in Athens, but one resident says this time crews are cutting only some of the mature trees and trimming the rest.
By mid-afternoon Wednesday, a crew had removed about 13 full-grown trees at Roberts Apartments off Malone Street. About the same number of trees have been left but encircled with yellow caution ribbons.
Resident Frances Smith, 73, said the remaining trees would be trimmed rather than removed. No one from the Housing Authority was available late Wednesday to confirm this.
“Mr. (Larry) Pippin from the Housing Authority came with the men cutting the trees and showed them what trees to cut and what to trim,” said Smith, as she sat on her porch with Dixie Rose, her black and white shih Tzu. “I was glad to see him leave some but not all of them. Some are too close together and the yards are full of deep leaves all the time.”
The Housing Authority was sharply criticized last year for razing mature trees at Fifth Avenue Apartments and Higgins Court Apartments at Hine and Browns Ferry streets.
Residents complained about the loss of shade and habitat for birds and squirrels, which they like to observe. Others complained about the devastation of city landscape and the failure to replace the trees with smaller ornamental trees.
T.A. Harris, director of the Athens Housing Authority, said the trees were being cut at Roberts Apartments because their roots were becoming nettlesome.
“The roots are going through the (plumbing) lines,” he said.
However, Smith said Pippin told her the trees were being removed and trimmed because the Housing Authority “is trying to clean up and make things neater.”
Pointing to a mature tree behind building 114, she said, “One of the trees is too close to the apartment and they are afraid it will fall.”

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