The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to AskTheMayor@thelakewoodscoop.com.
Question:
Dear Mayor,
Thank you for opening up to community suggestions. I’d like to propose an idea: Let’s plant fruit trees in our town’s grass medians and near our schools.
These trees would not only beautify our community but also provide a source of healthy, free snacks for all. It would be a fun, educational experience for our kids and encourage healthy eating habits.
By planting fruit trees, we can take a step toward a healthier, more vibrant community. Looking forward to seeing our town blossom!
Best,
Many Grateful Residents
Response from Mayor Coles:
Good morning
We can look at planting fruit trees near schools, but I don’t think medians or anywhere near a road are a good idea .
Maybe the best way to start would be to plant some by the community garden at Patrick Park.
I will ask Public Works and the folks running the garden to give it some thought.
Ray
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Cars would be constantly squishing wormy, rotten fruits into a pulp and leave them on the roadway to rot in the heat, and become infested with ants, maggots and every insect imaginable. The street would resemble the dumpster of a open air fruit market, and smell like one too.
Brilliant.
Thank you for posting “Ask The Mayor” a few times a week! It used to be maybe once a week but now, youre on a roll. I think this column is the best featured column of The Lakewood Scoop!
healthy free snacks?
Is this some kind of joke?
There is another flaw in this otherwise very nice idea: theft. Yes, theft. I predict the trees would be stripped clean of their fruit just a bit before reaching full ripeness. This would be followed shortly with the mysterious appearance of pop-up fruit vendors around town.
Agreed. As an owner of fruit trees, I can attest to the fact that people seem to think fruit growing on a tree is anyone’s for the taking. Unfortunately people have many times picked our fruit without asking, so I’m sure that trees planted in public places will most definitely not have fruit for very long. Certainly not long enough to be a “fun, educational experience” as the letter write proposed. We’d be better off planting trees that provide shade.
Though a great idea, planting fruit trees in the median would be difficult. The salt from snow clearing would be absorbed by the tree and filter into the fruit if it doesn’t kill the tree outright. I think the mayors idea to put them in the parks or even along the south side of the lake near the walking trails would be a good thing.
Upon learning of the suggestion put forth to Mayor Ray Coles on TLS for Lakewood Township to plant fruit trees in various locations around town, one Lakewood fruit store owner told reporters on Monday: “I’m okay with flowers, but planting fruit trees all around town makes me nervous!”
But a local etrog seller, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, opined that fruit trees in Lakewood would be “a fantastic idea, as long as the trees are not etrog trees.”
“Etrog trees don’t grow well here,” he said, “but Australian Finger Lime trees and Brazil Nut trees would be a wonderful idea!”
Buzzy Flywood, a prominent fruit fly, who currently serves as Executive Director of the National Association of Fruit flies, and who recently warned NJ residents of the existential threat that fruit-hoarding lantern flies pose to the fruit fly community, told reporters on Monday that, “Planting fruit trees all over Lakewood is an incredible idea, but we’ve first got to get the lantern fly problem under control, otherwise those critters will gobble up all the fruit, and there’ll be no fruit left for the fruit fly community or the human community.”
When asked if planting vegetables throughout Lakewood would be a good idea, the prominent fruit fly said: “Neh; who in their right minds eats vegetables?!”