RADNOR — Radnor commissioners this week approved a motion to have 34 hazardous trees removed from area parks.
Officials say the trees are located in areas that are well-used by the public, such as near trails, parking lots, and playgrounds.
“The goal in identifying these trees was the trees that offer the highest hazard should they fall given their proximity in the park and where people are at,” said Bill White, township manager.
Concerns over hazardous trees in township parks were discussed during two recent meetings of the board of commissioners.
The township recently had its consultant, Rockwell Associates, assess thousands of trees to identify any that could cause a hazard.
During a board of commissioners meeting on May 13, John Rockwell Hosbach, Jr., the township’s consultant with Rockwell Associates, said they reviewed 4,100 trees in 14 township parks.
A total of 255 trees were deemed hazardous, but most were in wooded areas and not considered an immediate danger to the public.
Ricky Foster, township public works director, told the commissioners this week that they were tasked with finding the trees that could be the most dangerous.
“We received direction to go out and try to find the most hazardous of the trees that were there,” Foster said. “So after talking with our township arborist, Mr. Hosbach, we located 34 trees spanning over seven parks.”
To give an example of a hazardous tree, Foster told the commissioners about one with multiple defects at Odorisio Park near the DiMaio baseball field entrance.
Foster identified seven township parks where trees will be removed. Those parks included Odorisio, Bo Connor Park, Fenimore Woods Park, The Willows Park, Radnor Memorial Park, Ithan Valley Park, and Dittmar Park.
There was no immediate schedule as to when the trees would be removed.
