If there are at least 8 fronds, including the ones that are closed and tight in the middle, you will be fine. and I would not worry about the trunk narrowing, that is from transplanting or a sever season of neglect with no water. While it could be caused by over pruning, it would take cutting even the center frond and probably doing that 2 years in a row. There should be enough growth by the end of spring to give it an attractive fuller look. You might want to take a picture and next time tell them "not like this" and then another pic when it reaches the minimum amount of fill that you find acceptable and tell them "Leave at least this much"

Garland ... wait before you wack it down .... when I first started planting cold hardy palms I did'nt know anything ... I planted a 4 foot sabal palmetto, on the north side of my house, in the shade, no protection and it totally died off in the winter but by the next July it started to push new fronds out ... I tried to transplant in a micro climate but the shock killed it off in the fall .... I didn't even know how to plant a palm, I planted a good half foot of the trunk below ground ... I did everything you could possibly do wrong for a palm that is not even rated for zone 7 and the poor thing still tried to make a come back ..... even my male Bull Terrier helped kill it off as his morning toilet ... it still tried to survive .... good luck.

I lost all 6 of my Queens last winter. They were all almost a foot in diameter, nice big trees. They had survived lows in the low 20's several times with fronds burning slightly but we had two arctic fronts in early January back to back with more than 24 hours of sub freezing temps. Five died. All 5 had spear pull. I don't think they can ever recover from pull. Only the largest one lived to put out new fronds in the spring but eventually died as well after putting out several stunted fronds. Lots of folks along the Gulf Coast have planted these palms over the last 10 years (during this stretch of mild winters) and thought they were at least zone 9 hardy, but sooner or later, we will have one of those bad winters where temps plunge into the low 20's for extended periods of time and realize these palms don't survive this kind of weather. You either replant them and expect to have to do this from time to time or go on to something else. Sadly, I think yours are gone. Steve

Joelval it was great meeting you two. Hope you have lots of luck with your sabal minors. This first year I would try to keep them dry when temps are below freezing. Since your planting late in the season. Brooklyngreg I have a nice pc. of plexiglass I will use as a window on the enclosure along with Christmas lights. But that's next year, this baby is going in my spare bedroom in front of a window till April. If it starts drooping I have grow lights I can add to it.