Kids & Family

Borough Honors Shade Tree Member With Tree of His Own

Mayor John van Keuran and the council announced Monday they'd be planting a tree in Bill Koenecke's honor at Wilde Park, a site identified as needing plantings.

Mayor John van Keuren and the Glen Rock Borough Council surprised a founding member of the borough's Shade Tree Advisory Committee Monday night with the announcement they'd be planting a tree in his honor.

Bill Koenecke, a 37-year member of the advisory committee, was on hand Monday for the proclamation and announcement made in his honor.

“For more than 37 years, Bill has shown a strong commitment to the town and to the environmental health of our community,” van Keuren said, according to a news release sent by the organization. “He has helped recommend appropriate trees for borough plantings, identified and checked locations for plantings, educated about the Shade Tree ordinance and given counsel to mayors and councils. And it is befitting that it is in honor of his many years of service, that we plant a tree.”

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Along the pathway that separates the parking lot and the hockey rink at Wilde Memorial Park, future residents of Glen Rock can see the Bill Koenecke tree. The site is on the top ten most wanted trees list, issued by the borough's Tree Trust earlier in 2012, according to the Shade Tree Committee. The location is the fourth of ten spots to have a commitment for plantings.

“During the nearly four decades that Bill served on the Shade Tree Advisory Committee, he has witnessed Dutch Elm Disease, Maple Blight, severe storms and hurricanes and a boom in construction in Glen Rock,” said Leslie Kameny, current shade tree chair. “Through it all, Bill has been a strong and sustained voice for Glen Rock’s tree planting program arguing forcefully for the right tree to be planted in the right place. We will miss his presence at meetings.”

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If his work at the Shade Tree Advisory Committee wasn't enough, Koenecke is also active in the Glen Rock Garden Club and helped established the planting of the trinagle across from the public library.

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