Tuesday, March 21, 2006

A Tree Free Woodman?


Present and future Views of Woodman Field Park. From Essex St.

There have been extended debates on Montclair’s Watercooler about a BOE plan to cut down most of the remaining trees adjacent to Woodman Field.
We just received this urgent message from Montclair’s environmental Diva, Pat Kenschaft:

A last ditch effort to save 30 trees, many over 100 years old, will be
at the the Board of School Estimates, which will meet this Wednesday
evening, March 22, at 7:30 PM at the Montclair Board of Education
building, 22 Valley Road, Montclair, on the second floor meeting room.
To avert this horror we will need a large turn-out, and some speakers.

The trees along Champlain Terrace are slated for murder to enlarge the baseball field…. Trees are our basic defense against both local pollution and climate change. They add enormously to the aesthetics of a town. Children already suffer too much from nature deficit disorder. Montclair citizens, both children and adults, need these trees.

The estimated cost is over a million dollars at a time when cost overruns are rampant and Montclair's School Board taxes are scheduled to go up 7% this year. That's roughly $100 per family for the baseball happiness of
about 125 students.

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