They're Cutting Down The Big Tree

[Disney Doll]

I have a big old tree in my side yard that the town actually owns. Well, a couple of years ago, my DH noticed that it was rotting in the center...it's one of those types that comes to a "V", and water gathers in the "V", and slowly but surely it's been rotting away. Last summer, a lot of the bark was falling off the side of the tree as well, which is never a good sign!

We called a tree guy, who also happens to be the town tree warden, because we thought it was our tree. When he came to look, he determined that it was the town's tree(apparently the town owns the first 10 feet of property in from the road), and he put it on the list to come down. We sweated through the ice and snow storms we had earlier this month, as the tree really bent and blew in the wind, and we were SO not looking forward to having a tree in our spare bedroom upstairs !

Well, down it comes today. I know it has to come down, because it's dead, but I hate to lose a tall, old tree like that. Plus, we don't have a lot of shade in our yard as it is, and now we have less. It's also quite scary to watch them take down a tree that's like 15 feet from your house. I keep seeing these branches go swining by the window!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[believe]

You are fortunate...my parents had to fight the city to get them to take down one of the trees the city owned. My Dad took down their other one on his own, but didn't want to deal with both trees. The city hired individuals and later tried to get my Dad to pay 1/2 of the cost

 

[Shannon G]

This reminds me of a funny story from when Hurricane Gloria hit Connecticut back in the 1980s. There was a big old tree that was just on the other side of the stone wall in front of my parents' house - it was on the little strip of grass between our wall and the street, and it was on town property. My father had asked the town numerous times about taking it down, as it was beginning to rot. It was not leaning toward our house, but rather toward the street, where it would fall on the power lines if it came down. My dad had told the town that if they cut it so that it landed in our yard, he would take care of the clean up, but they never did get around to it. So, the day comes when Hurricane Gloria hits. Dad puts his chair in front of the front door, and watches the tree all morning, as it sways back and forth, just waiting for it to fall. Finally, Dad has to leave his chair to, well, relieve himself. It is then that he hears us shouting "Dad, the tree fell!!" Yup - all his vigilance, and the tree falls when he's in the bathroom! Needless to say, it fell across the street, blocking the road and taking down the power lines. Since this was a dead end street, we weren't exactly high on the priority list for the electrical company when clean up from the hurricane began. We (and all our neighbors) were without power for almost a week.

 

[Disney Doll]

I must admit, our town is pretty good as far as the town services offered. The police come quickly, as does the ambulance and fire engines.

The guys are gone now, but there's still a part of the tree that is up. They left at 330PM, having arrived here at 230PM.

Maybe I'll get on the town tree removal crew!!!! They have pretty good hours!!

 

[KarenC]

We lost a large elm tree in our front yard this summer. It had Dutch Elm Disease. It was almost like a death in the family. Worse, it was on our property, so we had to pay to take it down. We have another, larger, elm, so we wanted to get the diseased tree out before it spread to the other tree.

What a terrible way to part with money--$1,600 and all I have to show for it is a bare spot in my front yard! DH and I are still discussing whether to plant another tree or to put in grass seed. We had the stump ground, but there's still alot of grindings there so we're waiting for that to decompose before we do anything. In the meantime its pretty ugly.

 

[Disney Doll]

Hopefully they'll remove the stump too, but I won't bet my mortgage payment on it!!!!!