Residents are in a fervor over Nassau County’s recent decision to remove 176 oak trees along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Seaman’s Neck Road.
“It’s outrageous,” said local resident Lee Gardner. “It changed the entire landscape.”
Like most of her neighbors, Gardner said she was shocked, since the county did not notify residents.
Mike Martino, a spokesperson with the Nassau County Department of Public Works said the trees were removed because they posed an immediate danger to pedestrians in the area.
“The county had to act,” Martino said. “We had to do this job.”
However, Gardner and other residents say that the county had other options to fix the sidewalks, other than removing nearly 200 completely healthy trees.
“Every tree that was taken down was 40 to 50 years old,” Gardner said, adding that her next door neighbor had paid to fix a part of the sidewalk in front of her house, and her tree was still taken down.
“I am furious with Ed Mangano.”
Though the county did not give residents a say in the matter, Martino said the DPW will be replanting trees along Seaman’s Neck Road in the fall.
