Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington joins the entire peninsula in mourning the loss of the six 75-year-old trees that lined Port Washington Boulevard in front of Carrie Palmer Weber Middle School. These trees were majestic and their loss will be felt for decades to come.

We all understand and appreciate the need for the expansion of the facilities at Weber. Residents believes, however, that it would have been possible (and even more desirable) to expand Weber and still preserve the all-important streetscape. We had hoped to engage the school board and administration of this. Unfortunately, they did not listen.

Residents' position is based upon science as well as aesthetics. Trees are a natural buffer, limiting the noise and pollution emanating from the roadway. With the trees gone, our eyes will be assaulted by a 150-foot-long façade that will rise some 40 or 50-feet high, within 15-feet of a major roadway. It's difficult to imagine a colder, more uninviting space.

Nor are our concerns limited to aesthetics. Without the trees, air quality in the classrooms is bound to suffer. Classroom windows will have to remain shut permanently in an attempt to protect our children from the noise, heat and pollution emanating from the exhaust pipes of cars and trucks. This, of course, means that the school will have to increase its reliance on mechanical air conditioning equipment. There must have been a better way to think this issue through. Unfortunately, we will never know.

Now that the trees are down, where do we go from here? How do we give meaning to the death of these stately trees?

Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington once again invites the school board and administration to engage our group in meaningful and timely dialogue on their facilities plan. Decisions like those should not be made in a vacuum, without substantive public input. Only by having continuous, thoughtful give and take on the facilities plan can we make sure that devastation like this will never happen again.

If there are specific architectural plans for the expansion of the other schools, let our organization and the public review these plans so that we may comment upon them. Let us draw upon the wealth of knowledge that exists in the community to come up with the best plan possible. Perhaps, just perhaps, we might be able to improve on the plans. Let's not be in a rush to settle for mediocrity, or worse.

If such a dialogue is begun in earnest, perhaps the loss of the trees will not have been in vain.

Curt Trinko, co-President

Rick Krainin, co-President

Dan Donatelli, Executive Vice President

Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington