Old Age Claims Glover Avenue’s Corner Maple

By Dottie Evans

There’s a whole lot more sky now at the corner of Glover Avenue and Queen Street since a huge sugar maple was taken down by the town last week for safety reasons.

“It was pretty much hollow all the way through its core,” said John Weymouth, an employee of the town’s Public Works Department, after the crew spent most of Thursday, June 2, sawing off several giant-sized limbs and grinding up the smaller branches for mulch.

Removal a few days later of the ten-foot-tall stump was subcontracted out because the town does not have proper equipment for that job.

“The town crew was quite professional and we appreciate it,” said Michael Holmes, owner of 16 Glover Avenue where the big maple has stood shading his house and garage for the 28 years that he has lived there.

How long it had stood at that spot before he moved in was anybody’s guess. One of the tree workers estimated the maple might have been 200 years old or more.

“My wife and I were born and bred in Newtown. This has always been the biggest maple on the street, and I believe it’s seen every Labor Day Parade there was. I’ll miss the foliage in the fall but not the leaves and all the helicopters in my gutters,” he said.

The Holmeses had been concerned about the health of the tree when it dropped a huge limb a few years ago. Their daughter Bridget remembers that one limb nearly hit one of their cars.

“There were a lot of holes in the tree where you could see straight through to the other side,” Mr Holmes noted.

He also remarked that now with the tree was down, all the squirrels in the neighborhood would have to find new homes.

“Getting used to all this daylight is going to take awhile.  I can tell you one thing,” he added, “we’re waking up a lot earlier now.”