Residents, Council Debate Felled Trees

A complaint about felled trees grew into a noisy debate between residents and the Oxnard City Council about municipal policy Tuesday.

Work crews in the past two weeks have cut down a row of eucalyptus trees along Oxnard Boulevard, angering resident Dorothy Maron.

“In one fell swoop two weeks ago, you destroyed Oxnard Boulevard,” said Maron, a city councilwoman between 1980 and 1992.

But City Councilman Tom Holden told Maron that she had helped allow the tree-cutting to take place. Maron was a member of the council when it approved a road-widening project in 1988 that called for removing the trees on Oxnard Boulevard north of Gonzales Road.

“I only hope I didn’t vote for it,” Maron said.

Holden shot back: “You did.”

The verbal ping pong disturbed Steve Buratti, chairman of Oxnard’s Inter-Neighborhood Council Committee. “Is the City Council as you sit tonight so locked in and inflexible that you cannot change something that was approved in the past?” he asked.

Council members responded that while they sometimes reverse previous decisions, it was too late: The trees are gone.

But new trees would be planted, City Manager Tom Frutchey said.