Kincardine woman upset at lack of response to tree-cutting three years ago
Cora Patricia Hoffman is upset that the Municipality of Kincardine has done nothing about an incident three years ago when
a row of cedars was cut down along the edge of her property on Harbour Street, Kincardine (right).
Speaking to council in committee-of-the-whole Wednesday night (Sept. 20), Hoffman said she purchased the property in 2001 and has a survey that states her property goes right down to the harbour wall, west of the Kincardine Lighthouse.
"That cedar hedge was planted when the house was built in 1967," she said, adding that Hydro One had trimmed them once and required a permit to do so.
She said in September, 2014, she decided to get the cedars trimmed again to allow room for the boats to be stored along the harbour wall during the winter.
"When we got there, all the cedar trees had been chopped down," said Hoffman. "I was horrified. Those cedars were good for privacy on our property, good for air pollution, and provided a shelter for animals and birds."
She inquired about what happened but nobody knew who did it or why.
Hoffman suffered a stroke and was unable to continue to investigate. Consequently, nothing was done about the incident.
"The municipality offered me $500 to replace the trees," she said, noting that she was unable to do the work required to plant trees there at the time.
She said she was told that there was going to be work done on the harbour wall. "That would have been a big job and I should've been notified about the plans for that work. There was no discussion about the trees coming down. I would like the trees replanted there.
"The harbour-master sent me a rude E-mail at the time, stating I should take down the fence and replace it."
Mayor Anne Eadie apologized for this situation dragging on for three years without a resolution.
"Our normal process is to listen to a delegation and see if council has any questions," she said. "Then we send the concern to our staff for a report back at a meeting in about two weeks' time."
"Well, I believe the rule is that if the municipality removes trees, it replaces them," said Hoffman. "I'm the owner of those trees."
Eadie said the appropriate person to respond, would be recreation director Karen Kieffer who was not at the meeting.
"I talked to her," said Hoffman. "She said it could have been a mistake. The properties on either side of mine, they don't go all the way down to the wall, but mine does."
"We will ask staff to look into this and bring back a report," said Eadie.
"I apologize that nothing has been done," said councillor Maureen Couture. "We will see what we can do to reconcile this."
"Yes, you will hear back from us," said Eadie.
A row of cedars was cut down along the edge of this property on Harbour Street, Kincardine, west of the Kincardine Lighthouse, three years ago; photos courtesy of Cora Patricia Hoffman
Written ByLiz Dadson is the founder and editor of the Kincardine Record and has been in the news business since 1986.
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