Greenbelt, GHI and Pepco Prepare for Tree Cutting Meeting

Greenbelt arborist Lesley Riddle says she has suggested significant changes since reviewing Pepco's initial enhancement project plan—a plan that Pepco's arborist had said in April called .

Riddle, an assistant director with Greenbelt Public Works, said Friday that she has not seen Pepco's final plan yet.

But she didn't need to see the plans to advise Greenbelters to come to the upcoming meeting on them. "I would say if they have any interest in trees, that they should be there," she said.

The City of Greenbelt, Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) and Pepco are preparing for a public meeting Aug. 15 to review the plan, which has been edited since it was first presented to Greenbelt residents at an April 24 public meeting.

As with the spring meeting, August's meeting will address the issue that McElroy said was at the heart of the city's outages—trees. But it will also go over other issues that are contributing to the ongoing power problems.

Although she hasn't seen the final plan, Riddle said she has spent many hours reviewing plans with Pepco's arborist, Nathan McElroy. Her understanding is that Pepco will show her its plan before the public meeting, she added.

When asked to confirm whether Riddle's understanding matched Pepco's, Bob Hainey, Pepco spokesman, said Monday that he didn't know what the next step was and couldn't confirm what Riddle said.

But he did say McElroy had been working with Riddle and with GHI's arborist.

The efforts of Pepco have not gone unnoticed by GHI's arborist and Director of Maintenance, Matt Berres, who said he and McElroy have walked the entire GHI property to discuss specific plans.

When asked whether GHI expected a final plan from Pepco before the meeting, Berres answered, "I'm not sure if they'll get down to the street level detail at this meeting." 

He thought Pepco might present more of a general overview on Aug. 15.

But throughout the process, GHI has seen different iterations of the tree, pole and line configuration plans, according to Berres. And in meetings with GHI, Berres said Pepco has been forthcoming about what is possible and has tried to accommodate the housing cooperatives' requests.

The important thing is the city and GHI have worked alongside Pepco on the tree work to minimize the damage to the greatest extent possible, according to Berres.

Pepco has also worked collaboratively on pole replacement plans, which, where feasible, GHI has requested that Pepco relocate to improve accessibility for future maintenance, Berres said.

Whatever GHI has done, it has coordinated with the city of Greenbelt, and so far that is going well, according to GHI General Manager Eldon Ralph.

The Aug. 15 meeting is at 7 p.m. in the in the Council Room, on the second floor.