Effort to Save Cherry Blossom Tree Moves to Municipal Hall

Who says you can’t fight city hall?

Certainly not Wendy Dawson Kates. She plans to take her campaign to save a mature cherry blossom tree in front of her vintage clothing shop on Tanner Street to a meeting of the Haddonfield Board of Commissioners tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Hall.

Kates said she has rounded up more than 250 signatures on a petition to save the tree, which is scheduled to be removed for a neighborhood improvement project.

Kates said she has received several different explanations from borough officials about why the tree needs to come down. She’s not buying any of them.

“I don’t understand where their heads are,” Kates said Tuesday morning. “Why target this tree?”

Borough Administrator Sharon McCullough said the tree, in front of Kate’s Stardust Memories vintage clothing shop at 25 Tanner St., is targeted for removal for three reasons: There are signs of carpenter ant damage; its age; it does not conform to shade tree specification as set forth from the borough’s Shade Tree Commission.

McCullough said the Shade Tree Commission, the planning board and the Historic Preservation Commission approved the tree’s removal in 2009. But Kates said she has enlisted help from some members of the preservation commission who have asked the borough to review the approvals.

McCollough said she received a request from the preservation commission to review the approvals and she will, but does not anticipate a change in plans.

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