By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — Tree wardens, like many workers these days, seem to be blowing in the wind.

The town’s tree warden, Bruce Lindsay, appointed by First Selectman Gordon Joseloff in 2013, will be leaving the post. 

As of Jan. 1, he’ll be replaced by another contracted arborist, Ben Sykas of ARB-Logic, LLC. The Board of Selectwomen approved the contract Dec. 8.

But Lindsay has apparently moved on already, according to Louis Mall, a longtime Representative Town Meeting member from District 2. 

He had pointed comments and questions about the situation at recent meetings.

“He’s been working remotely from Vermont,” Mall said. “My objection was that the tree warden’s in Vermont, and our trees are in Westport, Conn.”

Mall said he looked into the issue after a constituent complaint about a tree branch hung up in utility wires at Riverside and Treadwell avenues in September. He said the tree warden never got back to him. Weeks later, he finally called Eversource directly, and the power company fixed it that evening.

Dick Lowenstein, another longtime RTM member from District 5, has raised tree-related questions at recent meetings. 

He said he didn’t like piecemeal requests for tree-trimming funds, including the recent appropriation of $100,000 from the town’s share of federal pandemic relief money, under the American Rescue Plan Act. The town’s allocation of that money, over two years, is roughly $8.4 million.

“My only concern was that were being asked to appropriate on a one-by-one basis,” he said. “If we didn’t have a plan, we’d find out sooner or later we spent $8 million.”

He said he favors a long-range plan, adding that he doesn’t object to the items themselves, but the process for requesting funds.

“The administration had gone to the Board of Finance to get their blessing on the funding,” Lowenstein said. “But the RTM approves the funding. You’ve got to get us into the game a little earlier.”

Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich said Sykas has been working for the town as deputy tree warden, and has performed well.

“The deputy has been on the ground every day working,” Ratkiewich said. “I think he’s doing a bang-up job.”

As for outgoing warden Lindsay?

“Like many people these days, he has decided to take a different direction,” Ratkiewich said.

Ratkiewich said the tree work is contracted on an as-performed basis, so “We have paid for only what we have contracted for.”

The town’s Tree Board discussed the changeover briefly at its meeting last week. 

Chairwoman Monica Buesser said the incoming warden already is working on ways to improve communications.

“He’s working with us,” she said of Sykas. “He asked that the Tree Board think about ways to make it easier for residents to report trees that have fallen, hanging branches.”

Buesser said Sykas has been in touch with neighboring Fairfield, which has a robust tree program, and a website that makes it easy for people to report concerns about trees.