Last week the Buckhead Reporter quoted Ainsley Caldwell stating at the NPU-A January meeting: "...the city's tree protection ordinance gives police the task of responding to tree emergencies, but... police don't know the ordinance and won't answer tree calls anyway in this time of city furloughs and other budget cuts."
The Buckhead Reporter further noted that Ray Mock, NPU-A chairman, and others present at the meeting said, "the illegal cutting of trees happens at night and on the weekends, precisely when the arborist office is unavailable."
So, given that the police won't/can't respond and the City Arborist Office is closed at night and on the weekends, the NPU meeting attendees asked for Ainsley Caldwell's home telephone number. He refused to give it to them. That made them mad.
Why?
Because we used to have Tom Coffin's home phone number, that's why.
Although Tom encouraged us to call the police first after business hours -- back when the police responded to illegal tree cutting complaints -- you could also call Tom at home or on his cell phone. I'm not saying that Tom enjoyed having his evenings or weekends disturbed, but his passion for defending the Tree Ordinance was evident when he came out early on a Saturday morning to investigate a neighbor's complaint of chainsaws buzzing with no proof of permit. I personally called the Coffin residence as early as 8am on a Saturday or as late as 10:30pm at night, sometimes not even over a tree being cut down but my suspicion that a tree was about to be cut down. I could have understood had Tom gotten just a wee bit annoyed or impatient with me -- particularly when I called him with a false alarm, but he always responded with the utmost professionalism.
Tom defied all the stereotypes you hear about government workers being lazy or clock punchers, or having "an attitude". Which is probably why the Atlanta City Government didn't want him. He didn't fit the mold. His commitment to his job must have royally embarrassed his superiors; it most certainly irked his subordinates. He even had the ladies of North Atlanta swooning over him, calling him "our shining knight"... a metaphor not commonly associated with city workers. See the Buckhead Reporter article below:
The Buckhead Reporter further noted that Ray Mock, NPU-A chairman, and others present at the meeting said, "the illegal cutting of trees happens at night and on the weekends, precisely when the arborist office is unavailable."
So, given that the police won't/can't respond and the City Arborist Office is closed at night and on the weekends, the NPU meeting attendees asked for Ainsley Caldwell's home telephone number. He refused to give it to them. That made them mad.
Why?
Because we used to have Tom Coffin's home phone number, that's why.
Although Tom encouraged us to call the police first after business hours -- back when the police responded to illegal tree cutting complaints -- you could also call Tom at home or on his cell phone. I'm not saying that Tom enjoyed having his evenings or weekends disturbed, but his passion for defending the Tree Ordinance was evident when he came out early on a Saturday morning to investigate a neighbor's complaint of chainsaws buzzing with no proof of permit. I personally called the Coffin residence as early as 8am on a Saturday or as late as 10:30pm at night, sometimes not even over a tree being cut down but my suspicion that a tree was about to be cut down. I could have understood had Tom gotten just a wee bit annoyed or impatient with me -- particularly when I called him with a false alarm, but he always responded with the utmost professionalism.
Tom defied all the stereotypes you hear about government workers being lazy or clock punchers, or having "an attitude". Which is probably why the Atlanta City Government didn't want him. He didn't fit the mold. His commitment to his job must have royally embarrassed his superiors; it most certainly irked his subordinates. He even had the ladies of North Atlanta swooning over him, calling him "our shining knight"... a metaphor not commonly associated with city workers. See the Buckhead Reporter article below:
Arborist hears pleas for trees
by Michael Jacobs
January 09, 2009
The head of Atlanta's arborist office learned firsthand Jan. 6 how passionate Buckhead residents are about trees and how much they miss fired senior arborist Tom Coffin.Making an unscheduled appearance at the monthly meeting of Neighborhood Planning Unit A (NPU-A), arboricultural manager Ainsley Caldwell faced a succession of questions, complaints, requests and fond reminiscences of the days before Coffin was abruptly fired during the summer.
"We all had his cell phone number. You called him, and he was there," NPU-A's secretary, Linda Trower, said about Coffin. "He was our shining knight."... more.
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