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What if Joyce Kilmer had visited Vets Park?
What began hours ago with a crisscrossing flurry of emails about a disturbing incident in Vets Park presumably has ended softly, amicably this afternoon with a richly detailed explanation from Public Works Director Charles Herbertson.
At precisely 10 this morning, the following email arrived from one Barry Silver, who swims at The Plunge:
Yesterday when I was at the pool in the early morning, I heard chain saws in Vets Park. I emerged from the locker room to find that they were cutting down trees in the park.
This morning I finally reached Patrick Reynolds (Head of Parks and Rec) by phone. He told me that he had not been consulted nor informed as to why this was done. He said this was a breach of city protocol and that he was extremely upset that mature trees were cut down for no apparent reason.
He said he received no satisfactory explanation from Public Works.
How could this happen in Culver City?
First stop for an interpretation of events was Mr. Reynolds, who was not available.
Second stop was Mr. Herbertson. A congenially deliberate speaker, he always treads a pathway of enviable demystification.
The Fall of a Tree
“Only one tree in the park was cut down,” he said. “Two ficus trees on (adjacent) Overland Avenue were cut down. You should know that doing this is a common occurrence for us. One was in front of the old Chamber of Commerce building (one block south of The Plunge). We did it because the roots were damaging the foundation of the building.
“The second, a few feet away, near the bus stop, was creating problems with pushing out the curb and the sidewalk.”
Making a U-turn into Vets Park, Mr. Herbertson identified a tall pine near the northwest corner of The Plunge, building, near the Teen Center, as the fallen tree in question.
“There is a line of pine trees behind the Teen Center, and that is the last one,” he said. “It was pitched toward the roof of The Plunge building.
“The roof of The Plunge building has a solar water heating system on it. We use sunlight to heat the water from the pool. The pool water actually is circulating through this grid on the roof. That supplements the gas heaters, and some days does most of the work, depending on how much sun we have and the time of year. At least it cuts our heating bill and our energy use substantially.
Needles Sparking a Problem
“The pine needles from this tree were creating a big problem for that system. They were covering it with pine needles, which were cutting down on the effectiveness of the system.
“More importantly, the pine needles were getting underneath and invading crevices between the panels on the roof. These are fine-fabric panels with fine capillary tubes running through it, and the pine needles were causing the tubes to break and causing leakages onto the roof. This forced us to make frequent repairs. Potentially, this problem would cause damage to the building if not repaired right away because of the water being released on the roof.
“As a result,” Mr. Herbertson said, “the decision was made to remove the tree.”
He directed the Maintenance Operations Division of Public Works, in coordination with officials of The Plunge, to make the tree disappear.
“However,” he acknowledged, “we kind of dropped the ball in not letting Parks administration know about it,” which evidently is why Mr. Silver reported that Mr. Reynolds, the Parks chief, was vexed.
