LIVERMORE – The cutting of seven maple trees, most 100 years old, on the town common along Crash Road last week shocked townspeople. A Cemetery Committee grant proposal had called for removing one or two trees and planting four red maples.

The Board of Selectpersons voted Monday to put in place a policy that requires any grant of more than $100 to be approved by the board.

Selectperson John Wakefield, who received most of the tree complaints, said Wednesday he planned to ask the board to implement another policy that would require all grants pertaining to the town to be administered from the Town Office.

The people involved should be commended for all the work they have done on the cemeteries, but having the trees cut down without the board’s approval and public input exceeded the Cemetery Committee’s authority, Wakefield said.

“It should have been brought to selectpersons for public discussion,” he said. “I think part of it is people are just shocked.”

It also pointed out a weakness in the board’s system, he said, adding that there are set rules to follow regarding town property.

“I had people call me that were outraged,” Wakefield said. And he didn’t have the answers to their questions. “I was as shocked as they were.”

It is his understanding, he said, that a decision was made years ago not to cut those trees.

But in subsequent years, the Livermore Cemetery Committee initiated an effort in 2003 to provide safe and attractive areas in and around the town’s 26 or so cemeteries, and public lands. The group received two Project Canopy grants in 2005 and 2007 to plant trees, remove dead trees, prune mature trees and label trees and shrubs on public land. The grants totaled $8,000 and required matching town funds.

The committee has overseen removal of several rotted trees and some that were pruned as part of the project and planted new trees, Cemetery Committee Vice-Chairman Dennis Stires said.

A review of trees on the common by the Maine Forest Service prompted a change of the plan from removing one or two trees to taking down seven because they were either rotting or marginal, Stires said. The five new trees will be planted 10 feet back from the others as part of the Livermore Arboretum Project, in case the road is widened.

He should have brought the amended proposal to town officials before it was done, Stires said.

“The lesson to be learned here is to put the information out first before doing it,” he said. “We will alert people before we strike in the future. That’s only fair. I guess this was a shocker.”

Wakefield said he didn’t think there was anything wrong with the trees that were cut. Recently, 65- to 70-mph winds knocked down a tree across from the common, but not one branch fell from the trees on the common, he said.

The trees were cut by Johnny Castonguay Logging of Livermore under contract with the Cemetery Committee for $2,500, which included work on about 20 trees – some in difficult places. Castonguay Logging kept the wood as part of the deal, Stires said.

The town has no beef with Castonguay, Wakefield said.

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