Ltr to Chairman Neuer and ZBA Members w EXHIBITS FOR LTR REQUESTING 2 BD MEMBERS REQUSAL 2 10 25 PSEG 325 MT PLEASANT WO

Tonight, September 19 at 8 p.m., PSE&G comes to the Zoning Board with plans to renovate its switching station on Prospect Avenue and Mount Pleasant Avenue. The plan involves cutting down over 130 mature trees, including some of the biggest trees in New Jersey. For over 100 years, the energy company’s station at the corner of Prospect and Mount Pleasant Avenues has been concealed within a park-like setting, surrounded by mature trees and a historic 100-year-old wrought iron fence with brick pillars. Now, PSEG plans to replace this classic fencing with what Our Green West Orange describes as a “cheap black metal prison fence." The new fence would significantly diminish the aesthetic and historical value of the area and add to the ongoing depletion of West Orange’s crucial tree canopy. PSEG claims that the trees must be removed in order to replace the fence. But Joyce Rudin, Our Green West Orange board member, strongly disagrees. “The current fence can easily be repaired rather than replaced,” Rudin said. "It does not make sense to destroy trees to install an unattractive metal fence.” Particularly concerning is the planned removal of the small-leaf linden trees, a species that closely resembles those listed on New Jersey's Big Tree list, a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection registry of the largest trees in the state.