Between 4:45 and 5:30 AM, Tuesday morning, heard a loud high pitched sound that would last for 10 minutes, stop and start again. Thought it was my AC at first but it was coming from the street (Mercer Street). Went on for about 45 minutes. Sounded like an alarm possibly. We have a history of Library alarm going off in the middle of the night but I don't think that was it.

Anybody else hear it? Not looking forward to a repeat performance tonight!

The other sad fact is that the stumps are never removed, preventing a new tree from ever being planted. There are now no trees on the west side of Barrow between Mercer and Wayne. I saw the sections of trunk that were cut down. The tree was healthy. They could of trimmed it if the wires were the issue. What's the City's policy when a homeowner calls and "claims" a tree is dangerous and needs to be removed? I called once and was told that there was no Ciy arborist. Who makes the decision? Nearly a hundred years of history gone in an afternoon.

On Thursday my family noticed that a large old growth tree was cut down along Barrow Street near the intersection with Mercer. They had not yet taken away the large trunk that was cut up into sections. There was no rot at all in any of the trunk sections. The posted no parking signs did not indicate who murdered this fine specimen tree (it was a London Plane tree). I am fearful they are going to take more. Who's doing it? (The City, PSEG?). Why? It was a healthy tree. How do we prevent this in the future?

Beware if your entire block is posted with No Parking signs!

Thanks for the helpful info. I have a similar situation in that it is a fireplace with a flu leading to an uncapped chimney. I was expecting that I would need to block the flu since it's been many years since the fireplace was used and I didn't want to deal with relining or create a fire hazard. No worries about my place being airtight either given it's age and the shitty window installation.

The fireplace is relatively shallow (as most of the ones I've seen in JC are, presumably since they burnt coal and not wood) and has an ornate wood surround and mantle (not original I presume?). I am concerned that the heat from the insert could be a fire hazard with the wood mantle? I could be totally off base on that. What do you think?

Did you do the install yourself? I'm definitely not up for running the gas line on my own. I can purchase the insert from a number of sources but need to find a plumber who might have some experience with this, Any recommendations? Again, thanks for the help.

Anybody have experience with adding a ventless gas fireplace insert to an existing fireplace in an old house here in JC? Is it permitted by law in JC? Potential contractors?

Thanks