Cedar Grove - Process Improvements Needed

With taxes increasing and costs going up – the Township of Cedar Grove should be open to new ways to look at problems/processes. Below is a situation that occurred recently regarding preservation of trees in our Township – No response was provided from Township Officials regarding this suggestion.

Problem with current process: When permits to take down trees are given, after construction has been completed, Township has no way to prove what trees were taken down. All processes can be corrected when proven shortcomings in processes exist – Yet Township Officials (Engineer) and Mr. Tucci are not open to accept input. Why?

The following correspondence was sent to Mr. Polumbo, Township Engineer who is responsible for Tree Permits. Copy was provided to Mr. Tucci (Township Manager in February 2016 with no response….

Although you appear defensive, you need to know your motives and goals are the same as mine - for the good of the Township and its taxpayers.

You went over the process and I understand your current process.

I also gleaned from our conversation that, since much time has passed, it would not be possible to determine how all the other large tree logs and trees that are on the ground at 552 Fairview Avenue property came about. You would not be able to determine whether there were any more trees than the 6 that you focused on initially when you visited the site prior to construction. And for that, I regret your process.

Since the Fairview project was a larger project - not just a homeowner taking down a few trees in an already existing property with no construction, a better process could have avoided the situation you now face: You cannot determine how these trees that are down on the property in mention came to be.

As we discussed the process, I see a definite solution to our problem. When you go out to approve the tree permit, especially when more than tree removal is involved and construction and land clearing is taking place, you take a picture and attach that to the file to show an "as is" situation/a before picture.

I do understand and you could view it as criticism when I suggested the process could be better. However, you could save this file as a jpeg file which can be downloaded for free onto a computer and reference the file.

You mentioned that new solutions are not possible due to funding and the Township Manager can only look for administrative changes. I believe the owners of processes should be able to find better ways to do things. No additional funding would be needed to implement this project. You have microsoft tools on your computer and you could use these tools.

When you described the process, I know you can't seriously believe that handwriting all the permits that come through and then using that log as the basis of records is most effective or efficient. I do realize that you, like many, may be hesitant to change but we all need to look for improved ways and better ways to do things.

My suggestion is that all permits receipts through the approval process are entered into and excel sheet, This spreadsheet could be created in less than 1 hour for future logging and tracking of your tree permits. There could be a column with the number of trees that are also in escrow and you could easily search and monitor.

I realize due to the current process, you could not legally be able to prove that, although there are many many trees that were taken down on the site in question, you did not have a process in place that could prove what occurred. There was no focus on the existing trees that existed on the property before it was cleared.

It is a shame since that was a wooded area and now it has been mowed down and we lost so many beautiful trees for our township.

I hope you take my suggestions, not as a personal attack on you and your department. Suggestions and new ways of doing things should be embraced by everyone.

Mr. Tucci has informed me in the past that he does not like to put in place processes or procedures that cannot be adhered to, but he is welcome to new input. This new process would not cost any additional manpower, software, assets, etc. Well maybe if you did not use a phone or an existing camera, a $50.00 purchase would need to be. I would be willing to donate the $ for that if that came to be the stumbling block to improve the process.

Well, I see that at this point, if the homeowner took down the trees that their trunks line his property and are more than the 6 trees he "wins" and we lose.   Let's put in place a better process so that all of us who appreciate trees and the Township achieve our goals.

Again, thanks for your time. The time we spent investigating this we could have put in place a new process. Even a simple picture would have benefited this important tree preservation in our Township.