Road 7 couple fears losing trees

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON — Linda and Brent Metz would like to have their peaceful country life back — complete with trees.

The couple, who lives on Road 7 north of Leamington, are bracing for the loss of their massive American Sycamore trees, and also fed up with the heavy truck traffic along their rural township road.

“We’ve had to move downstairs because of the noise,” said Linda. “It’s deafening when we’re sitting in the kitchen or living room.”

Linda, who works nights, finds it impossible to sleep with the noisy trucks going all day. Truck traffic has increased with the recent boom in greenhouse construction along the Highway 77 corridor.

“We thought this was supposed to be a ‘no heavy trucks’ road,” added Brent. “But there’s more heavy trucks all the time.”

The pair lives on the Hanzman farm, where Linda’s parents settled after they came to Canada following the Second World War. The trees have been there for as long as she can remember.

“These trees must be close to 100 years old,” she said. “It’ll be awful if they cut them down.”

At issue is the new power line being upgraded down Road 7 from Highway 77. The giant composite hydro poles will replace the existing wooden poles all along Road 7, from Highway 77 to County Road 31.

Hydro One has already sent out notices and ran ads in the newspaper, outlining their plans to residents.

The notice says that if they need to cut or trim vegetation, the trees will be marked for removal. The two sycamores on their farm are in a direct line with existing poles.

The Metzes want to know when that marking will take place.

Linda and Brent Metz, with their dog Maggie, stand with one of two giant American Sycamore trees, in danger of being cut down to make room for an upgraded hydro line.

“We’ve called the information line,” said Brent. “They tell us they won’t be marked until February or March, which won’t leave us much time to protest the decision before they cut them down.”

“In April 2021, Hydro One will begin critical upgrades to its equipment to meet the growing electricity needs of the Town of Lakeshore and the Municipality of Leamington,” said Hydro One spokesperson, Richard Francella. “This project includes installing new distributions lines and upgrading existing infrastructure to improve the efficiency of the system and enhance power reliability to customers."

Francella went on to say that more than 550 community notices were delivered to property owners along the project route, which included details on additional engagements affected property owners can expect.

“With planning still underway, we are assessing tree and vegetation removal and will prioritize balancing the needs of a safe, reliable system and the impacts to the local environment,” added Francella.

“Before any work is completed, we will contact affected property owners and mark vegetation for removal if required.”

Hydro One says they value community feedback and encourage residents to contact them with any questions or comments at 1-877-345- 6799 or Community.Relations@HydroOne.com.

The sightline of the existing poles that have been installed on the eastern end of the road, indicates that many trees along that stretch of road will be affected.

Neighbour, Ed Riley, has made numerous calls to the Municipality of Leamington, but says the response has been less than what he expected.

“I’ve called about the truck traffic and have been told to call the police,” he said. “Someone needs to fix this soon. We never asked for this.”

Regarding the trees, Riley believes the sycamores are beautiful.

“These beautiful sycamores will be left to rot,” he said. “They could at least harvest them.”

The Hanzman farm sycamores have been part of an ongoing sycamore program for many years.

The sycamore trees shed all of their bark every two years and a botanical company out of Ottawa arrives at the farm in the fall to pick up large pieces of bark from the trees. Sycamore bark is now being used to help treat anxiety in dogs.

“It’s also being studied for humans,” added Brent.

For the time being, all the Metzes and Rileys can do is wait, but they hope that they can talk to someone from Hydro One or the municipality to sit down for a serious discussion in the near future — with hope still alive to save those sycamores.