A place in the shade

Wayne County’s old prison near the courthouse in Honesdale, PA has been torn down, and the county plans to replace it with an employee parking lot (see “Wayne County prison razed” in last week’s TRR). There’s nothing wrong with this plan as far as it goes—the building had outlived its use, and the parking spaces will be helpful. But parking lots are not necessarily the best possible neighbors of streams (like the Lackawaxen River) and parks (like Central Park). We’ve got a simple suggestion to deal with those problems: Intersperse the parking spaces with a few shade trees.

Municipal parking lots can be a bane in a number of different ways. As large stretches of impermeable surface that collect toxins from automobile leaks and spills, they exacerbate storm-water runoff and contribute to non-point source pollution. That’s true no matter where they are located, but for a spot next to running water like the Lackawaxen, they are even more undesirable.

Large expanses of pavement are also downright ugly. Honesdale is an unusually attractive town, possessing a great deal of charming and largely unspoiled architecture from earlier periods, and Central Park, near which the parking lot will be located, is one of its greatest amenities. It would be a shame to expand the blacktop of the current parking area without doing something to blend it in with its more park-like surroundings.

Uninterrupted stretches of blacktop create another problem as well, for the very group they are meant to serve, namely drivers. Without shade, automobiles can heat up to the point that steering wheels and seats can be too hot to touch in summer.

Just a few trees—and the space is not huge; it doesn’t look like it would take more than six trees or so to shade the area, once they had matured—would solve all these problems.

Honesdale is no stranger to the idea that trees are an important asset. The Greater Honesdale Partnership has a Shade Tree Committee that is working on a complete streetscape plan including not only shade trees but Victorian-style lighting. But creating and implementing such a plan is expensive, and unfortunately, according to chairperson Gail Tucker, the committee is currently at a temporary standstill due to the fact that a hoped-for USDA grant fell through from lack of funding.

But trees for the new parking lot might make an easier place to start. The space in question is well defined and, since it’s the footprint of an old building, they wouldn’t need to worry about working around existing lighting or signage. Jack-hammering through concrete should not be necessary, either, since the area will presumably have to be cleared down to the soil to lay the blacktop.

Money could be saved by using bare-root trees rather than balled-and-burlap trees. Such trees are sold annually by the Wayne County Conservation District for only $2 or $3 per tree—and though their mortality rate is higher than with more mature trees, their replacement cost is nominal as well. Digging holes for these younger trees should be similarly cheaper, and might be something volunteers would be willing and able to help with.

Yes, it would take quite a while for the trees to grow full size and cast shade. But the islands they were planted in, which could be planted with groundcovers (wildflowers like gill-over-the-ground or self-heal that thrive on native lawns and roadsides could be used) would help to absorb storm water right away. And as a sop to the impatient, fast-growing tree species like Northern red oak, which according to the National Arbor Day Foundation grows at a rate of about two feet per year for the first 10 years, could be used.

All of this amounts to little more than back-of-the-napkin jottings—we’ve left out a lot of worries like protective fencing, the possible need for added topsoil and soil amendments and so forth. But it’s at least possible that with a little extra thought, a fairly small amount of money, and perhaps a little time from some volunteers, a beautifully shaded, park-like lot on the Lackawaxen next to the courthouse could become a reality—and a much more positive reality than a barren stretch of overheated asphalt. We hope the county is willing to give it some consideration.

And for the longer run, we’d like to put in a plug for the Shade Tree Committee and its efforts to develop Honesdale’s urban forest, something that would provide a range of benefits not only to the air and water but to the tourist economy.

Also in this issue:

• Put the burden of testing where it belongs

Dr. Punnybone

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