30 more trees in Hoboken
12
May
5/12/2008:
Last week, I bumped into these workers from Hufnagel Landscaping (the city “go-to” contractor for various grounds work around town) planting some trees on 11th Street (replacing one that was dying).
On this day, this crew said they had about five trees to plant in various uptown spots (Bloom & Garden). They indicated it takes a bit less than 90 minutes to plant each tree. Cost of trees plus 45-50 hours of work. I wonder how much the city paid for this gig? Can anyone find out via OPRA request? Shouldn’t have cost more than $5-7K… Did we get a fair deal?
Of course, on the city website, we have Mayor Roberts posing with a shovel (which he didn’t use) for yet another PR opportunity:
“30 trees were planted in front of homes at various locations in the city. London Plane, Japanese Scholar and Cherry trees were planted. In picture left to right - James Ronga and Bill D’Angelo of the Shade Tree Commission, Mayor Roberts and son Cris , City Clerk Jim Farina, and Jason Hufnagel of Hufnagel landscaping.”
Hoboken, Trees, Shade Commission, Mayor Roberts, Hufnagel Landscaping
21. RickStevens | May 12th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
We’re supposed to get a tree on 7th and Garden. Looking forward to our tree!!!
22. Kaiser Sosay | May 12th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
forget about opra requests lets find out if there are any political contributions to davies machine
23. skateparkmom | May 12th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I remember seeing an article in the Hoboken Reporter in March. It said to call the Shade Tree Commission to request a tree. I left a message. A tree in front of our building was struck by lightning a few years back. We couldn’t get our contractor to replace it after doing paver work - they couldn’t bother.
I got a letter back from the Commission stating they checked my property and it was eligible. It was scheduled for planting April 25. They came April 23 and installed a 12 foot tree. We owed our contractor about $1,250 for the completion of their work. Not anymore.
24. uptown girl | May 13th, 2008 at 9:57 am
westy wrote:
In my experience with Hufnagel(7 years ago), they only guarentee the plants if the consumer signs up for their maintenance program (aka pay us to water the plants) for the first year. As I recall, the maintenance program was pretty expensive so we opted against it. Within the first year 3/9 of the bushes were dead and 2 more did not make it to through the second summer. I hope the trees fair better.
25. SweetPea | May 13th, 2008 at 10:48 am
uptown girl wrote:
We had our backyard re-done by Hufnagels in September 2007 (gut renovation — pavers, fence & landscaping). They came back this Spring to take a survey and replace anything that didn’t take hold during the winter. No maintenance program was required. It’s just called “doing the right thing”. They took out the dead stuff and will be back shortly with replacements. Of course, this was only for this past winter. After that, we’re on our own. Hufnagels, while expensive, does everything from soup to nuts and is very professional. At least, that’s been my personal experience.
26. uptown girl | May 13th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I am happy that you had such a good experience, when we called about the dead plants, they told us that we should have had the maintenance plan and that was the end of that. Maybe they have changed their tune, my experience was a while ago, a MUCH smaller job than yours, despite being commercial, and the bushes were accessable from the street, allowing easy access for “maintenance”.
27. SweetPea | May 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
uptown girl wrote:
It could also be that they planted everything in September and knew that not everything would have time to take. I guess they had that figured in. I could undertand any landscaper not replacing plants that have been in a while especially ones they didn’t take care of on a regular basis. I agree though, maintenance plans can be very steep. I just have them come and do Spring and Fall Clean Ups. Hopefully, I can keep my backyard alive this summer