By Joshua Walther
COBLESKILL - The tree committee has long been a staple within the Cobleskill community, however, an amendment proposed at the Cobleskill Village Board last Tuesday would’ve seen the group gutted of its authority.
As an entity completely made of volunteers, the committee is focused on their mission to beautify the Village by extension of the municipally owned trees, and it has enough pull to maintain existing trees while planting new ones.
However, the Village’s code enforcement department has had concerns about their lack of activity these past few years, leading to the change in local law.
The amendment, as stated by Mayor Rebecca Stanton-Terk on Tuesday, would have transferred the authority to make tree-related choices to the code enforcement and groundskeeping employees, thereby removing the need for the volunteers.
The public hearing opened with a resident standing in opposition to the change, who argued that it would only increase Village costs related to trees.
“The DEC and other environmental agencies see tree committees as a net positive,” said the resident. “The loss of this will not gain anything, but we stand to lose a lot.”
These remarks were immediately followed by Mike Piccolo, the Cobleskill Zoning Officer, who gave an idea of how inactive the volunteers have been.
He began by stating that he has not received a report from the committee in over five years, and went further to state that they do not follow rules in relation to planting in the right spots, citing trees planted under gridlines.
“We are very capable of handling the trees,” said Mr. Piccolo, and noted that Village employees can handle low maintenance while the Board can contract for larger jobs.
After he concluded his statement, the Board heard from John DiCesare, co-chair of the committee, who said that the zoning officer “mischaracterized” the team.
Mr. DiCesare claimed that any trees planted under gridlines were done so with the permission and advice of National Grid, who was paying the Village for such additions.
He also brought up that the committee is dedicated to the idea of “proactive managing,” which sees them collaborate with ongoing Village projects before they happen, and said that the code enforcement department would only be interested in maintenance.
“Codes has very little interest in the trees,” he said. “It is cost effective to have a tree committee.”
Discussing among the Board, members Ruth Van Deusen and Michael Lent advocated for the committee, believing in the power of volunteer work.
“I like the idea of a volunteer committee,” said Mrs. Van Deusen, although she recognized the troubling lack of reports or documentation.
However, Mayor Stanton-Terk and Lance Rotolo were decidedly in favor of the amendment, believing that more would get done under the authority of the code enforcement officers.
“If we rely on volunteers instead of our paid employees, we are not doing our job,” said Mayor Stanton-Terk. “Volunteers should not be the end-all-be-all. The authority should be with codes.”
Due to this split, the Board ruled that the issue will be tabled until next month’s meeting, and suggested that the committee meet with the department to see if another solution can be found.
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