Tree trouble spurs Markham resident to challenge mayor on photo-op

YorkRegion.com
Aug. 3, 2017
Tim Kelly

If a tree falls in the city of Markham, does anybody hear?

Grant Ross has been stumped for more than two and a half years while waiting for a promised tree from the city to appear.

The 70-year-old Claxton Road resident has even resorted to a humorous publicity stunt after feeling treated like a sap by the city in his marathon wait since the 2013 ice storm destroyed his 30-year-old ash tree.

The city's tree-replacement program was overwhelmed with requests so Ross, who has lived at his current home for 32 years, was patient — to a point.

The ash tree, which sat on his front lawn for decades, suffered severe ice-storm damage and was finally taken down by the city in November 2014. But the tree was a goner since the storm so the wait began before that point.

Ross didn't expect re-leaf in 2015 when city staffers were planting some trees. “They (city staff) came and ground out most of the stump on my lawn. I hoped something would happen (with a new tree) but nothing happened,” he said.

But when he saw many of his neighbours receive trees in the spring and fall of 2016, he felt he'd been left out on a limb.

“I thought it was time in 2016, by that time they had done I would say, 80 per cent of the street,” Ross said. He said he started calling the city in the summer of 2016 asking that action be taken. He said he was promised a tree by the end of 2016 but got nowhere.

Ross said he finally had his fill this spring when, after a number of emails and after reaching out to Mayor Frank Scarpitti, too, nothing happened.

Ross said he had emailed the mayor more than a month ago with "no reply," but got replies from other councillors. He added he sent another email several weeks ago to the mayor, and didn't get a reply.

It took what Ross believes was a clever publicity stunt to finally get an answer from the mayor.

The senior stuck his old artificial Christmas tree in the spot where the city was supposed to plant his new tree, invited a number of friends over and had a tree-lighting ceremony. To add some spice to the ceremony, he stuck a sign in front of the tree that said: "Mr. Scarpitti. Since you don't return calls or reply to emails and you love photo ops be here Tues. 8:00 p.m. Tree Lighting. Celebrate a Tree." Several of his friends raised a toast with him to the artificial tree.

Before the ceremony, Ross emailed the mayor a picture of the tree and the sign, copying a reporter and others. He said he finally did get an email back from Scarpitti telling him the mayor would look into the issue. He is still waiting for his long awaited tree.

"Frank is always available for photo-ops, they call him 'Photo-Op Frank,'" he joked about the longtime Markham mayor.

The mayor failed to respond to repeated requests for comment.