CITY TAKING DOWN TREES; OLD PARKWAY TREES BUCKLING WALKS, STREETS

Sarah Riley says her tree-lined neighborhood is being destroyed by the city tearing down two large trees that have buckled the sidewalks.

Riley, who chairs Southeast Missouri State University's art department, was saddened to see a crew cutting down a large tree on the corner of Themis and Fountain Monday morning.

Riley lives down the street at 34 N. Fountain, nearly in the shadow of City Hall.

She was even more displeased when she discovered the crew also was tearing down an American elm along the south side of the 300 block of Themis Street, just around the corner from her home.

City Councilman Tom Neumeyer estimated the elm was more than a century old.

"It just makes me sick," said Riley.

She voiced her complaints to Neumeyer and City Engineer Mark Lester as they stood on the sidewalk outside her home.

She said the trees added character and shade to the neighborhood's historic homes.

Neumeyer and Lester said the trees were coming down as part of the city's sidewalk replacement program. Both trees were buckling the sidewalk, and the Themis elm's roots also had damaged the street, they said.

The city has budgeted $40,000 to remove 43 trees as part of the sidewalk replacement program in older neighborhoods. More than half of those trees have already been cut down, Lester said.

Wright's Tree Service is doing the work.

A Wright's worker hit a natural-gas line with an auger while taking out a stump in the 200 block of Independence about 3:30 p.m. Monday. The accident occurred after a crew had cut down a tree, Cape Girardeau Fire Department Capt. Paul Breitenstein said.

He said no one was injured in the accident. Union Electric shut off the gas line so repairs could be made.

The trees being cut stand in parkways, the narrow grass strips between the street and sidewalk. In many cases, the parkways are less than three feet wide, Neumeyer said.

The roots of the old trees push up sidewalks. That makes walking hazardous and puts the city at risk of lawsuits, Neumeyer and Lester said.

"My concern, of course, is the general safety of the sidewalk," said Lester.

"What this boils down to is a litigation situation," said Neumeyer. Cities, he said, can't afford to risk lawsuits.

City Attorney Eric Cunningham, reached at his office later in the day, said Missouri cities have been sued for not removing trees that fell down.

In replacing old sidewalks, the city may have to cut the roots of a tree. That can weaken a tree and increase the likelihood of it dying and toppling in a storm, he said.

Cunningham said the city owns the parkways and legally can remove any trees planted in them.

"I know the city has tried hard to leave people's trees alone to the best they can," said Cunningham. "But sometimes you just really can't avoid it."

Lester said the tree at the corner of Themis and Fountain was in poor shape.

Riley suggested the city could have constructed new sidewalks to go around the old trees rather than cut them down. She said that practice has been followed in Columbia.

But Lester said there isn't enough room to do that in Cape Girardeau's older neighborhoods, where streets are narrow and on-street parking is allowed.

City officials said property owners have a choice: They can sign a license and indemnity agreement that requires them to assume the liability of keeping the tree or they can let the city remove the tree.

Few people want the liability. Cunningham said he is aware of only one person who has signed such an agreement.

Neumeyer said the city isn't looking to remove any more trees than necessary. "It's not Missouri chain-saw massacre," he said as he watched a tree-cutter saw a huge limb off the old elm on Themis.

Neumeyer said the city has received a number of awards in recent years from the Missouri Department of Conservation for its efforts to plant and preserve trees.

The city is offering certificates to property owners that entitles them to free replacement trees. But Lester said the city doesn't want property owners to plant the new trees in parkways. Riley said new trees can't replace the character of the old ones.