http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090310/COLUMNISTS09/903100321/1016/COLUMNISTS09
Danise Audette expected a trim. What she got was a massacre.
Audette, who lives in northwest Lansing, came home from work Thursday to find that a 12-foot-tall Chinese elm hedge - a privacy buffer between her backyard and that of her neighbor - had been reduced to eight or nine ground-level stumps by a crew hired by the Lansing Board of Water & Light.
In a heartsick e-mail to me, Audette wrote:
"I planted those trees in 1998, the first year I lived in this house. They were the first things I planted on my own. They were a beautiful, natural backdrop ..."
The execution left Audette with a view of a beat-up trampoline and a rusty grill.
On Friday, I forwarded Audette's complaint to BWL spokesman Mark Nixon.
Nixon acknowledged Monday that Asplundh Tree, the Pennsylvania-based company the utility hired to trim trees threatening power lines, screwed up.
'Honest mistake'
"We apologize to Ms. Audette," Nixon wrote in an e-mail. "An honest mistake was made. Apparently, the crew mistakenly believed the hedge trees, whose trunks were two inches or less in diameter, to be brush. The trees were under power lines in Ms. Audette's backyard. Because the trees are dormant this time of year, the crew likely believed them to be brush."
Nixon said the contractor will, on behalf of BWL, meet with Audette on Wednesday in an attempt to determine compensation.
That ought to be interesting. What's adequate compensation for a sudden loss of a privacy wall that took 11 years to cultivate?
"I just want to cry," Audette said.
Audette knew the trees were due for a haircut. A couple of weeks ago, she received a standard notice from BWL telling her the hedge would get a "trimming."
"Yes, they needed to be trimmed," she wrote, "but they didn't need to be destroyed."
Working it out
Although Asplundh has an office in Mount Pleasant, it's based in Willow Grove, Pa., where I reached Kristin Wild in corporate communications. She declined to comment, except to say Asplundh was working with BWL to resolve the matter.
As for the question of why BWL is contracting with an out-of-state tree trimmer, Nixon explained it this way:
"We do give preference, whenever possible, to Lansing-based and Michigan-based companies. But lower cost is definitely a factor. So is the ability to do the work.
"You need qualified, certified companies that can do the work per industry standards and best practices. From what I'm told, there are not many tree service companies in the U.S. that have the skills, the manpower and the equipment to handle the scope of work that utilities require."
Nixon added that the contractor makes "every effort to hire local, or at least Michigan, employees for this work."
Danise Audette expected a trim. What she got was a massacre.
Audette, who lives in northwest Lansing, came home from work Thursday to find that a 12-foot-tall Chinese elm hedge - a privacy buffer between her backyard and that of her neighbor - had been reduced to eight or nine ground-level stumps by a crew hired by the Lansing Board of Water & Light.
In a heartsick e-mail to me, Audette wrote:
"I planted those trees in 1998, the first year I lived in this house. They were the first things I planted on my own. They were a beautiful, natural backdrop ..."
The execution left Audette with a view of a beat-up trampoline and a rusty grill.
On Friday, I forwarded Audette's complaint to BWL spokesman Mark Nixon.
Nixon acknowledged Monday that Asplundh Tree, the Pennsylvania-based company the utility hired to trim trees threatening power lines, screwed up.
'Honest mistake'
"We apologize to Ms. Audette," Nixon wrote in an e-mail. "An honest mistake was made. Apparently, the crew mistakenly believed the hedge trees, whose trunks were two inches or less in diameter, to be brush. The trees were under power lines in Ms. Audette's backyard. Because the trees are dormant this time of year, the crew likely believed them to be brush."
Nixon said the contractor will, on behalf of BWL, meet with Audette on Wednesday in an attempt to determine compensation.
That ought to be interesting. What's adequate compensation for a sudden loss of a privacy wall that took 11 years to cultivate?
"I just want to cry," Audette said.
Audette knew the trees were due for a haircut. A couple of weeks ago, she received a standard notice from BWL telling her the hedge would get a "trimming."
"Yes, they needed to be trimmed," she wrote, "but they didn't need to be destroyed."
Working it out
Although Asplundh has an office in Mount Pleasant, it's based in Willow Grove, Pa., where I reached Kristin Wild in corporate communications. She declined to comment, except to say Asplundh was working with BWL to resolve the matter.
As for the question of why BWL is contracting with an out-of-state tree trimmer, Nixon explained it this way:
"We do give preference, whenever possible, to Lansing-based and Michigan-based companies. But lower cost is definitely a factor. So is the ability to do the work.
"You need qualified, certified companies that can do the work per industry standards and best practices. From what I'm told, there are not many tree service companies in the U.S. that have the skills, the manpower and the equipment to handle the scope of work that utilities require."
Nixon added that the contractor makes "every effort to hire local, or at least Michigan, employees for this work."
