Alto schedules Wade Street tree removal as resident presses town over danger

Alto officials said a tree connected to a reported danger on Wade Street is scheduled to be removed after resident Margaret Beaupre raised the matter at the Town Council’s March 10 meeting. Beaupre, of 426 Wade St., told the council that the tree and road issue was “very dangerous,” according to the meeting minutes. Mayor Armour responded that removal was scheduled and that plans for a road fixture were in the works.

For residents on and traveling through the residential street, the exchange concerns whether the town will turn an acknowledged hazard into a concrete safety improvement. The mayor’s response points to two possible actions—taking down the tree and pursuing a road-related fixture—but neither step, as recorded, establishes that the condition has been corrected. The immediate stakes are practical: when work will happen, what the fixture will be, and whether it will address the danger Beaupre described.

The public record begins with Beaupre’s March 10 complaint rather than with an already approved street project. Her warning about the tree and road condition prompted Armour’s statement that removal had been scheduled and planning had begun for a road fixture. That sequence matters because the minutes document a response to a resident-raised concern, not an earlier construction program or a completed repair.

Beaupre presented the issue as a safety threat near her home at 426 Wade St. Armour, speaking for the town’s response during the meeting, said the tree was slated to come down and that fixture plans were being developed. The March 10 minutes do not record competing public positions, a contractor’s assessment, or a detailed engineering explanation of the road condition, so the record does not show agreement on the final remedy beyond the mayor’s description of planned follow-through.

Tree removal was described in the minutes as scheduled, not completed. The road fixture remained in planning, not approved or installed. The minutes also do not state a removal date, project cost, contractor, fixture design or location, and they do not record a Town Council vote authorizing either action. As a result, it remains unknown whether the tree has since been removed, whether road work was authorized, or whether the concern on Wade Street has been resolved.

The next public indication of progress would be a later Alto meeting minute, work record or public notice confirming removal of the tree and clarifying whether the road fixture has been authorized or completed. Until then, residents do not have a public timetable for the work or a documented final design for the road-related measure. Those unanswered details will determine whether the town’s planned response becomes a completed safety fix on Wade Street.