No Trees Will Be Planted On Spring Street Sidewalks

Candace Braun

After a lengthy debate with the Borough's Shade Tree Commission, Council members voted 2-4 against delaying the opening of the garage so that trees could be planted along the Spring Street sidewalks.

Announcing that the garage will most likely not be ready to open until April 24, Borough Engineer Carl Peters said that changing plans to include trees at the last minute would put off the entire garage opening several more weeks.

"This is the eleventh hour ... it's just impossible," said Mr. Peters at the April 7 Borough Council meeting.

Under the Shade Tree Commission's plan, the Spring Street sidewalks would have to be extended from the present plan by two additional feet, or a total of four feet. This would allow 11-foot lanes for Spring Street traffic.

Mr. Peters said the plan would need further research, for which there wasn't time since workers planned to begin installing sidewalks on April 8 or 9.

Henry Arnold of the Shade Tree Commission proposed planting 17 trees, 22 feet apart. This project would cost $83,700, with each tree costing $800.

Council members Wendy Benchley and Roger Martindell were in favor of the project, saying that trees should have been incorporated into the Spring Street plan from the beginning.

"Ultimately I think we're trying to decide what kind of community we want in 20 to 30 years," said Mr. Martindell.

However other Council members argued that the Borough did not have the money or the time to work on a project such as this so close to the end of the garage project.

Councilman David Goldfarb said that prior commitments were made to the Princeton Public Library that the Borough would have the garage available for its patrons when the library opened. Now, with the garage scheduled to open over a week after the library's predicted date of April 15, the Borough is already behind without adding more revisions to the plan, he said.

"I don't think there's anyone in Princeton who's completely happy with this project," said Mr. Goldfarb. "But at the end of this project [Council is] convinced Spring Street will still look better than it has in the last 25 years."

Ms. Benchley asked the Borough engineer if it would be possible to pave a portion of the sidewalks now and complete the project after the trees were worked into the plan.

Mr. Peters predicted that this would cost the Borough an additional $30,000.

Mr. Martindell proposed a motion for Council to wait one week before making a decision on the trees. All Council members voted against the motion, with the exception of Ms. Benchley and Mr. Martindell.

Council agreed to return to the suggestion of adding trees to Spring Street at a later date, once the project has been completed.