Residents Speak Out at City Council Meeting

By Thomas Jewell, special to cleveland.com
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Residents’ concerns for trees along the Lynnfield-Lomond sewer project extends beyond the nine legacy oaks slated for removal.

A look at the completed section of Lynnfield Road nearby does little to allay those fears.

“There has already been extensive damage to trees and no one is being held accountable,” resident Amanda Krakower told City Council Monday (July 27).

More than a year into construction, the $8.3 million project hit a snag when the city scrapped its original plan to save the oaks by building the last sections of sewer in the roadway.

Instead, the city plans to place the new line -- connecting 1,200 homes tied into an outdated sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) -- in the legacy oaks’ tree lawn, citing unstable ground in the street, a high water table and the age of the trees.

A consultant working in Cleveland to mitigate construction damage to trees on sidewalk projects, Krakower said the Shaker project has remained “unsafe and unwalkable” from her home overlooking the Gridley Triangle park.

“As a professional who works in the industry, this is not acceptable,” Krakower said, citing open trenches around Lomond and trees “torn up” on Lynnfield.

Betsie Norris’ yard has been part of the project staging area after she signed a property easement.

“I was willing to be supportive of the project and allow work in my front yard -- including digging a huge pit and removing my own trees -- as it was intended to preserve our valued legacy oaks on Lomond,” Norris told council.

More recently, Norris said officials assured her this phase of the project would be different because the city would be managing the project directly.

“But even before the announcement on the decision to take out our beloved trees, this project has not been different,” Norris said.

“The contractors seem to again be in charge, with insufficient oversight.”

Officials with Fabrizi Trucking and Paving Co., the main contractor on the project, were unavailable for immediate comment Tuesday (July 28).

Norris said the pit sat unused for months, as did de-watering wells and pipes strewn across her yard since November.

When she said something about the equipment, it was moved to her tree lawn in June.

Norris recently took a walk down Lynnfield after the road was repaved but before the tree lawns were filled in.

She said she observed “sadly astonishing” root damage to those smaller trees.

“Who is accountable that the standards to care for trees during construction were completely disregarded?” Norris asked.

She wondered how many trees on Lynnfield would survive.

“If you go down Lynnfield, you’ll see those trees are at an angle,” Lomond resident Sheela Das said. “With the improvements, they look quite dangerous.

“And those were trees I thought we intended to save.”

Das and the neighbors continue to look for documentation of when the city, the designer, the engineer and contractors decided to change their approach.

Calling the project “an unmitigated fiasco,” Barbara Lowe said the city misled the Environmental Protection Agency on its 2023 application to bypass an environmental impact assessment.

She said the Categorical Exclusion (CATEX) application classifies the project as ecologically “minor,” omitting any mention of a problematic underground creek beneath Lomond.

It also includes photos of the work area that don’t show the nine legacy oaks.

“Then the application assures the EPA there’s no public disagreement over the project -- this before the city had even informed the public about it.”

The EPA advised the city last week to provide an updated CATEX that incorporates the new proposed sewer route into the updated plan.

In the meantime, a process known as de-watering can continue, with 12 wells expected to be installed by Aug. 3.

After the unsuccessful attempt last year, Lowe noted that “there is no ‘Plan B.’ If the de-watering doesn’t work once again, the nine oak trees on Lomond will likely die in the effort.”

Instead, she asked the city to request an extension from the EPA to postpone the de-watering until the trees have gone dormant in late fall, “when they no longer need massive amounts of water to stay alive.”

Her brother, David Lowe, whose family still lives in the house that now stands to lose an oak, questioned what the geology will look like after de-watering and whether it will affect the underlying sandstone and shale.

“We are just asking you to slow it down,” David Lowe said. “Can someone do something to let us know that I can sit on my front porch and not have to worry about my house crumbling?”

Neighbor Marty Rabinowitz cited the lack of meaningful communication throughout the process.

“A lot of the residents feel that everything has been predetermined,” Rabinowitz said. “That’s a level of dishonesty we don’t expect to get.

“And that’s the reason for a complete lack of trust here,” he added.