The fate of the four trees on the corner of Gibsons Way and North Road is in the hands of St. Bartholomew's parish council today, Sept. 8.
The council must decide whether to follow BC Hydro's direction that the hazard trees be cut down or whether the church will incur the potential liability of leaving the trees or the expense of maintaining the pruning of the trees away from the power lines.
A tree falling on those particular lines "would knock out basically all of Gibsons," according to BC Hydro vegetation co-ordinator Jeff Scherer, and would pose a risk to the corner's traffic if the lines were to fall.
"We can appreciate it is a heritage site and those trees are pretty focal trees for the whole community," Scherer said. "But it's part of our policy to remove the trees so customers aren't continuing to have to pay for the re-topping and the maintenance of them."
Hydro cut down one dead tree at the site last week. Remaining are four tall Douglas fir and one smaller cedar tree."Our choice at this time is to trim them, to prune them, or Hydro has offered to take them out completely," Rev. Peter van der Leelie said earlier this week. Hydro has offered the church $1,000 to replant new trees if the old ones were removed, "due to the significance of the site," Scherer said.
"Our perspective is to try to solve the problem as best we can," Scherer noted. Hydro asked for a decision in September so the parish council was to vote on it Friday.
"It's a very emotional issue," van der Leelie said. "We have to either top them or chop them. The aim is to save the trees if that is possible."
The church's architect Dick Williams called the trees a "landmark."
"It seems to me a great shame that we would even think about taking those trees down," Williams said. "They're a part of our community."
He explained the church was designed so the windows looking out focused on the trees because "they are a gift of God.""I would hate to see those trees disappear. Those trees are a flag on the corner. If they're not there, all you're going to see is the Hydro wires."
Williams suggested the power lines be put underground. Scherer estimated the cost of putting in underground lines at the corner would be roughly a quarter to half a million dollars.
The church's building manager Ken Lee pointed out how previous topping of the trees has now resulted in the trees being top heavy. He noted if the church pays to prune the trees over the coming years, "it's an expense that would take away from our other reasons for being here."
