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Residents press board on declining tree canopy, park upkeep and historic-property maintenance
Summary
Residents and a shade-tree advocate urged the Lower Merion Board to expand tree-planting capacity, delegate tasks to the Shade Tree Commission or hire staff, and to address park and historic-property maintenance failures reported by multiple speakers.
Residents told the Board that Lower Merion's urban tree canopy has declined and urged structural changes to the township's street-tree program.
Craig O'Hollander summarized findings from a canopy report and said the township's estimated one million trees have seen a net decline equivalent to roughly 22,000 trees over the study period. He suggested either hiring a second arborist or reassigning nontechnical tasks to the Shade Tree Commission so the arborist can focus on specialist duties: "The goal would be to have the arborist do what only an arborist can do and leave everything else for others," O'Hollander said.
Barbara Erskine raised multiple maintenance issues in Bryn Mawr, including incomplete removal of old parking meters, overgrown vegetation on rail properties, failure to replace trees that died after required plantings, storm-drain clogging by leaves, degraded park paths and a long-absent water fountain at Ashbridge Park. She described the township website as difficult to use and urged better contractor enforcement and follow-through by staff.
Commissioners acknowledged they had heard these concerns. The President invited residents to follow up by email and said staff takes notes at meetings and will follow up where appropriate. No new funding or binding commitments were made during the meeting.
