Nesquehoning Borough ordinances require the borough to notify homeowners 10 days before they cut trees that are hanging from the person's property onto a roadway.

But that didn't happen earlier this month when numerous trees along Park Avenue in the Hauto Valley Estates were cut back on private properties to allow for the street sweeper.On Wednesday, Greg and Lisa Macalush of Park Avenue approached the board to address the fact that 20 of their trees were cut by the borough without their knowledge."On Tuesday, April 19, borough workers were cutting trees in the area," Greg Macalush said. "They were cutting trees in front of our land. There were seven big pine trees and they butchered these trees."Macalush said that workers cut limbs off the tree up to 20 feet above the ground, then left debris behind on their property."They made a mess of our trees and we had no prior knowledge that they were coming to do that," he said, adding that on another part of his property closer to the Park Avenue, Route 54 intersection, the workers then dumped limbs and debris from the trees they cut along the rest of the road, as well as cut down 13 small white birch trees that were set back from the road and were not encroaching."They are not even near the curbing, which I am still paying for," he said.Lisa Macalush said that you could see where the bulldozer drove over the curbing and onto their property to dump the debris."I emailed the borough asking them to clean it up and nothing has been done yet," she said.Macalush said that specifically, the seven mature pine trees in front of his family's home were of great concern to him because "these trees were very important to us when we bought the house. It's camouflage for our home. It's privacy."I just don't understand why you went 20 feet high and cut all those limbs off. What are we putting through there? A semi-truck?"Lisa said that she reported the cutting to the borough the afternoon after it happened and was told it was for preparation for street sweeping and no workers were on private property.She said a neighbor brought the pile of limbs that had been dumped further down on her property to her attention the next day."If we would have had prior knowledge, we would have done that (tree trimming) ourselves," Greg Macalush told council.Councilman George Sabol said he was only made aware that the workers were cutting trees along Park Avenue after receiving a complaint from the Macalushes' neighbor and said he would look at the Macalushes' property this week.Council President David Hawk said council was not aware that the tree trimming was being done until after it happened and the borough received a complaint.He said the borough's shade tree ordinance states that the borough is required to notify property owners about the trees and give them 10 days to trim the trees in question before the borough comes in to do the trimming."The borough was wrong in doing that without contacting you first," Hawk said. "I apologize for the borough."Councilman Don DeMarco, chairman of the streets committee, said he knew the workers were trimming in New Columbus, but had no prior knowledge of it happening in the estates and said he will have the crews come clean up the pile that they dumped.Hawk said he is not sure what, if anything, can be done since the trees are already cut.Greg Macalush said that he feels the borough should replace the trees."We had over 20 trees that were cut," he said."And the pine trees," Lisa Macalush said, "I don't know if they cut those pine trees correctly. They have a big nick out of the bark (on one). What if those trees become diseased or get fungus and they start dying on us. Who is responsible for that? I believe the borough is responsible."Hawk asked the couple to allow council a little time to discuss the matter further and see if some kind of compromise could be reached.The Macalushes agreed.Councilwoman Rosemary Porembo apologized again on behalf of the borough and said that in addition to trying to find a compromise to the situation, she said council will have to "take care of some things internally also."