Letters to the Editor

'Tree-butchery' in Midtown

In this letter to the editor, a Midtown resident expresses his disappointment in how some trees were recently trimmed and topped outside a new convenience store at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Monroe Drive.

Editor's Note: The former Exxon service station at 486 Ponce de Leon Avenue has undergone a renovation since last Fall and was recently reopened by Stone Mountain businessman Mehwood N. Sohani as a Shell Food Mart. But one Midtown resident is disappointed at how the trees outside the station were recently topped. April 9, 2013 I noticed this morning that the new Shell Food Mart, 486 Ponce de Leon at Monroe Drive is now open. Something else there caught my eye as I waited at the traffic light: the new trees along the sidewalk have been topped, leaving only the tree trunks and some very short nubs. I stopped and took several photos of the once-beautiful trees. These were important trees, (difficult to identify now, but I think they are a …

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Two Midtown homes damaged, SUV totaled by fallen tree

No one injured as large oak tree comes down on house 30 feet from where a homeowner was working in her office.

A very large oak tree was toppled Thursday afternoon in the Midtown neighborhood that resulted in structural damage to two homes on Myrtle Street near 4th Street. Homeowner Amy Houtchens said she was working at her desk around 4 p.m. when the tree was felled from her neighbor's yard onto her house. “It came crashing down about 30 feet from where I was working in the front office,”Houtchens told Patch. “It was very scary.” Her SUV parked on the street was totaled by the tree, which roots apparently finally gave way as a result of the heavy amounts of rain that the area has received during the first weeks of the new year. Falling oak trees in Midtown and surrounding neighborhoods has not been uncommon in recent years. While crews were …

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