The owner of a tree that fell on a parked car on Sunday said he had reported the tree as dangerous and also contacted city officials each of the past five years with no response.
The last standing section of Scott Berger’s 80-foot maple tree at 321 Pine St. was removed by city workers on Wednesday. The response to the fallen tree began Sunday night when half of the vine-covered tree fell during the wind and rain and hit the 2020 GMC Acadia parked in the neighbor’s driveway.
Mark Whitehead said his daughter’s vehicle is likely a total loss after its windshield was smashed, roof dented, and door was crushed. Whitehead said the tree was lifted off the car on Sunday, with sections cut and trucked away each day after. He said he expects that the insurance company will pursue payment from the city.
Walking across his front porch, Whitehead said, “My grandkids like it when it rains. They normally would have wanted to be out here. Thank God they weren’t.”
Berger, the tree’s owner, said when he bought his house in 2020, he was told by neighbors that the tree had been requested for removal by previous owners. When he followed up with the city himself, Berger said the clerk found the original entry on a tree removal list dating back to 2008. Berger said the clerk told him there were 800 trees on the list that were requested for trimming or removal and had yet to be addressed.
That’s when Berger said he started making calls to the clerk, public works department and mayor’s office and sending emails.
“You can’t talk to anybody,” Berger said.
The reaction is not uncommon as complaint letters about trees are reviewed at Common Council meetings or residents come to the microphone to tell aldermen how long they have waited for help.
When asked if Whitehead knew that the tree had been waiting for work since 2008, he said, “It does piss me off that it’s been 18 years.” He said a major limb had fallen from the same tree several years ago, cutting off his electricity. Whitehead said a tree in his own front yard also has dead and dangerous branches, and he had contacted the city about them.
Orville Lewis, who lives across the street at 318 Pine St., said there are also hazardous branches on the trees next to his home.
“The city should be liable if they complained about the tree needing to come down and it wasn’t done,” said Anita Mullane, former 2nd Ward alderman who chaired the tree committee. “The city’s insurance should be covering that tab. I was told that one of the people in that department wouldn’t cut them down unless they were totally dead.”
Mullane said major damage from fallen trees “happens more frequently than you know.” But with unaddressed trees dating back more than a decade, she said the bigger issue is a long-time public works staffing shortage.
Referring to when a state audit found the city had depleted its funds, Mullane said, “They made all those cuts with the deficit financing — Ann McCaffrey did, and they never really filled them. There were massive cuts to the streets department.”
The problem of staffing and cost-management continues as a financial report provided to aldermen on Wednesday showed that several sections of the public works department — notably forestry — have already exceeded their annual overtime budgets. Marcus Wyche, 2nd Ward alderman, requested that department heads provide explanations at an upcoming meeting.
Meanwhile, the Whitehead family is sorting out their vehicle situation.
“My daughter is heartbroken. It’s the best car she’s ever had.”