Honesdale Tree Committee briefs commissioners

Asks for trees at former prison site

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA — The planting of trees is one of the best ways to beautify a town, especially the business section that tends to be commercial and unappealing.

Realizing this, Honesdale has resurrected a tree committee to work on the planting of trees in the borough.

“There’s a lot of momentum in the town right now to permanently improve the beauty of Honesdale,” said Gail Tucker, director of the Greater Honesdale Partnership at a meeting of the Wayne County Commissioners on July 9. “A shade tree committee was formed two years ago in the borough to work on this. Our first project was to take an inventory of all the trees in the downtown area, which is almost complete.”

The inventory’s purpose is to provide a base line of what trees exist, what needs to be removed, what types of trees grow well and what areas should have new trees.

Both the boroughs of Milford and Hawley have recently transformed their Main Street with shade trees, new pavements, benches and ornate lights.

“Our aim is to bring back the charm of the [Honesdale] borough, which has been somewhat lost over the years,” she said. “Unfortunately, people don’t think long range about things like beautification. We don’t want to encourage things that are dangerous to the environment or just flat-out ugly. ”

The project would also involve additional lighting, park benches and things of an aesthetic nature, she said.

“We’ve been working with the Honesdale Planning Commission and the visioning committee, which is trying to get an inventory of the buildings on Main Street,” she said. “It’s an overall, long-range plan.”

The committee’s next step is to secure a small grant to pay for the development of a streetscape plan that will be submitted to the state for a major grant to do the entire project.

Part of Tucker’s presentation was an appeal to the commissioners to consider planting some shade trees in the place where the prison once stood. The old building was recently razed and the area is to be converted into a much-needed parking lot.

“There are a lot of issues that are raised in putting in blacktop, especially in an area so close to the river,” she said. “You have storm water run-off and a lot of leakage from cars that then goes into the river. Cars become hot when not shaded in the summer.”

To have some shade trees as part of the design is more pleasing than just a dull layer of blacktop, she said.

Tucker gave him an editorial from The River Reporter that urged that this planting be done.

“We will pass this on to our engineer who has the design done and ready to bid,” said Brian Smith, chairman of the commissioners. “These ideas are excellent and should be considered.”