Two white pines in Saranac Lake’s Riverside Park were cut after arborists identified them as unhealthy and told the village to give them the axe. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Two white pines in Riverside Park were cut down by village workers last week after being selected for removal by arborists.

Village Manager John Sweeney said Edwin McGrath, an arborist with ArborPro Inc., identified the trees as being unhealthy and in a crowded location.

The village contracted with ArborPro, an urban forestry consulting company, to take a census of the village’s trees. Sweeney said a state Department of Environmental Conservation forester provided a second opinion and agreed with McGrath.

The trees were dying and there was overcrowding, tree-wise, in that area of the park, Sweeney said.

He said the tree cutting company Asplundh cut them down after working on the street rebuild project on Lake Street. On Thursday, the village chopped and cleaned up the downed trees.

Sweeney said the village is working with ArborPro to figure out what to plant in place of these trees — and where to put them.

“There’s some limitation in that park because the stone foundation from one of the original businesses is still there,” he said.

Howard Riley, a Harrietstown town councilman, Enterprise columnist and local history book author, said the Riverside Inn was a huge hotel that took up the whole park way back in the day. He’s only seen it in pictures. After that, there was a car dealership called Gladd and Leaper in the corner of the park where the teddy bear statues are now. Riley believes the hotel is the foundation Sweeney is talking about.