SINTON — It’s gone now,” Vicky Martino said. “Very very sad.”
On Thursday morning Martino found a stump where a 1975 memorial tree was planted for a former golfer, Mayes Bishop, at the Sinton Municipal Golf Course.
The tree, a casualty of work meant to clear an easement around powerlines that run through the golf course.
Martino said 37 trees are in jeopardy.
“I just think that having the right to do something doesn’t always mean that you should make that decision when here are other options and I believe that this is one of those situations,” Martino said.
Martino is a board member of the Sinton Municipal Golf Association.
“We are a non-profit corporation,” Martino said. “Everything that the golf course owns goes back into the maintenance and care of the golf course.”
She said the trees are a vital part of the landscape for golfers, make the course more challenging and also add to it’s beauty.
“Removing the trees will change, what we call, he slope of the course,” Martino said. “We will have to pay a company to come in and re-slope the course.”
Martino said there’s an easement between the city and AEP that gives AEP reasonable discretion to cut down, trim or control any growth that, when in reasonable opinion, endangers or obstructs construction, operation or maintenance of AEP’s facilities.
“We’ve been told that the arborist who determined that all the trees need to come down is an employee of this tree trimming company,” Martino said.
Patrick King, the AEP external affairs manager for the Sinton area said they are clearing the easements along the line that runs from Victoria to Calallen as part of a rebuild project.
But after Martino posted about the crew’s work on social media Thursday morning, King said the work was paused for two weeks.
“There will not be any additional activity until we have an opportunity to meet with the city and all interested parties to move forward,” King said.
