Unlicensed tree trimmers removing a grove for a parking lot expansion at the Hmong Village Shopping Center bit off more than they were allowed to chew in early March.

A and A Tree Service advertised their services on metal stands and handed out brochures offering Hmong customers a 10 percent discount — and then removed 22 city-owned trees near Johnson Parkway that were not in their “scope of work” or project area, according to St. Paul city staff.

On March 8, an inspector with the Department of Safety and Inspections ordered them to cease operations.

“We told them they can’t operate in St. Paul,” said Robert Humphrey, a spokesman for the Department of Safety and Inspections. “We license tree trimmers, and there’s a good reason for that — to make sure they’re bonded and insured.”

The city inspector issued a warning to the management office at the Hmong Village Shopping Center, which is buying 38,000 square feet of land from St. Paul Parks and Recreation in order to add up to 120 parking spaces to its often overcrowded lot. In January, the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority agreed to cover roughly 10 percent of the $710,000 project costs with a $75,000 grant.

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St. Paul man threatened another man with a sword, charges say The project is also eligible for $200,000 in grants and loans from public Community Development Block Grant funding, awarded by the city to the North East Neighborhoods Development Corp.

The agreement with Parks and Rec calls for Hmong Village to remove 82 trees once land ownership at 1001 Johnson Parkway transfers from the city to the mall owners — which it has not.

“A sale of the land is currently in process, but has not changed hands,” said Clare Cloyd, a spokeswoman for St. Paul Parks and Rec.

Cloyd said 82 trees were to be removed in the agreed-upon project area, but the trimmers removed an additional 22 trees, including as many as 10 on city land closest to the parkway. Hmong Village will have to replace the missing trees.

Mall-hired workers will continue on the public land because the city asked them to finish what has already started, Cloyd said.

Chuck Repke, executive director of the North East Neighborhoods Development Corp., said the project entails leveling the ground to make room for the added parking.

“The entire project falls under the city’s requirements to be done under prevailing wages, with licensed contractors and skilled labor,” Repke said. “There should have been a bid process just like anything else.”

A phone call and email to A and A Tree Service of Hacienda, Calif., was not returned this week. Hmong Village owner Yong Yia Vang could not be reached for comment.

Thomas Herr, a project manager hired by Hmong Village, said the extra trees that were removed were all ash trees, which are susceptible to the emerald ash borer.

Herr said they would have been cut down eventually under the city’s ash tree removal program.

He denied that anything other than ash trees were taken down, despite at least one complaint from neighborhood residents to the contrary. The city said the trees were at least “mostly” ash trees but had no record of specific types.

“It’s under control,” Herr said. “We’re working diligently with the city to rectify the issues, and we’ve retained a contractor that will be removing the rest of the trees and will basically finish the job. … There were only two big trees that are non-ash. And those have not been cut. Those will be saved.”