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Trees removed from cemetery after storm, clearing space for Town Hall generator

Trees removed from cemetery after storm, clearing space for Town Hall generator

Work began last week to clean up the fallen basswood trees at Town Hall in Salisbury. The July 4 storm took down several trees that landed in the cemetery.

Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

SALISBURY — Members of the town highway crew joined John Swanson of Swanson Tree Removal last week to clear the large basswood trees that fell into the cemetery behind Town Hall during the July 4 storm, which caused widespread damage and left many residents and businesses without power for days.

Several of the large trees crashed into The Old Burial Ground during the storm, destroying part of the fence and knocking over at least two headstones.

On Friday, July 31, crews fed tree limbs into a wood chipper while Swanson stationed himself in a cherry picker to take down large branches. First Selectman Curtis Rand, Selectman Kitty Kiefer and Jean McMillen also observed from a safe distance.

During a July 20 Board of Selectmen meeting, Rand said the planned tree removal could solve a longstanding problem: finding a location for a generator at Town Hall. After the July 4 storm knocked out power in Salisbury for up to three days, the need for a generator at Town Hall became apparent.

Although officials had previously discussed purchasing a generator, they had not moved forward without identifying a practical location for it.

With a now-clear space on the Factory Street side of Town Hall, a generator can now be put in.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.
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