Plan to trim trees fails in City of Poughkeepsie

POUGHKEEPSIE – A proposal to transfer $100,000 in the Poughkeepsie budget to pay for the pruning of trees and removal of sick or dead ones, did not branch out.
Aldermen including Michael Young support the resolution. To reject the idea is pennywise and pound foolish, he said.
“This money was already budgeted so it did not represent a new outlay of funds from taxpayers or fees or anything of the sort,” Young said. “It simply represented some savings we found in the healthcare line where we saved money this year on our employee healthcare.”
But, Alderman Christopher Petsas said he would support the plan with one caveat.
“If they wanted to give a commitment to the planting of trees to replace the ones they tearing down, I would support the resolution. There was no commitment from the administration to do that so I could not support spending $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to prune trees with no replacement plan.”
Petsas said saplings would only cost between $100 and $150 each.
Council members receive complaints regularly from residents about trees that need pruning or are dead and need to be removed. There is also the concern that roots of old trees growing under sidewalks are lifting them up, making walking difficult and even dangerous.