Tree Removal Met With Anger, Sadness in Borough

A crew from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) blocked off Main Street between Fairmount and Passaic Avenues Tuesday morning to .

The tree had been in front of the Sherwin Williams store at 246 Main St. for more than 50 years.

Residents and pedestrians stood along the south side of Main Street taking pictures as the crew chopped off branches, and finally the tree itself. When Mayor Nelson Vaughan walked around the corner from Borough Hall to witness the dismantling, he said, "It's a sad day for Chatham."

Ritchie Christensen, the crew supervisor from NJDOT, said the tree needed to come down.

"The problem is, this tree has a lot of fungus in it, but also in my opinion the real problem is that there are a lot of carpenter ants in that tree," Christensen said.

The tree also sustained man-made injuries as well.

"I can't even contemplate how many trucks must have hit that bottom branch," Christensen said. "All that heavy weight leaning toward the roadway, it was not a sturdy tree."

The tree's future growth was also impeded by the foundations of the buildings along Main Street, and any more root growth would damage the brick sidewalks.

"Based on all that, we made a decision to cut it down," Christensen said. "The live trees are the ones you want."

"Maybe the Shade Tree Commission can do something there," Vaughan said. He also asked the NJDOT crew to save logs from the tree for future use.