15 Years Ago...

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Herb G

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Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Messages
1,461
Location
Southern Maryland
( This is NOT a political post. Please don't turn it into one.)
15 years ago,
I started a battle with my local county gov't. There was a dangerous Pin Oak tree on their property in front of my house. It's what would ordinarily be a tree block in a housing subdivision.
Only I have a ditch, not a tree block.

So, the battle began. If they would have cut down the tree 15 years ago, it would have been a simple job. But no, the county has to delay everything for years & years for no good reason. This tree grew into the sewer system, and clogged up the drains. It grew larger & larger until it was nearly 80' tall & 5' across at the base.

It pushed a phone pole up out of the ground as it grew. The phone pole was leaning towards my house along with the power lines it was holding up. The power co. had to fix that too.
With all the recent rains we've had, people's basements flooded because the sewer lines are clogged up with tree roots. The county is responsible for the damage because I had documented evidence from the last 15 years from who I spoke with on which day & what the conversation was about.

Well, just by chance, one of the people's houses that flooded was a county councilman. He filed a lawsuit against the county, and a week after he did that, they were out here cutting down this tree & several more like it growing into the sewer system.
Now, the sewer system has to be cleaned out, & that ain't going to be cheap either. That's on top of the cost of taking the trees down, and paying for the damage of the people's homes.

This is not going to end well for the county by any means. They have to pay for at least 25 houses full of damage because they decided to pass the buck 15 years ago. I am glad my house wasn't one that flooded.

If they had done it years ago, it would only have taken one tree crew to do it. By them waiting, it took 4 tree crews 2 days to take down this monster because it had grown into the power lines.

Here's the results of them finally taking down the tree.
BTW, this Pin Oak smells like cat pi$$. My whole yard smells like a giant cat litter box.
 

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gtriever

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Apr 23, 2017
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Location
Paducah, Kentucky
Herb, I'm glad you guys are finally getting what should have been done years ago. When I worked for a state agency (and did so for 20 years), I was appalled by the amount of frivolous expenditures, and the lack of what should have been obvious ones. Make them do it right, my friend.
 

lyonsacc

Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
1,615
Location
Cincinnati, OH
We had a hackberry come down in our front yard a couple of years ago. My wife wanted to replace it with a willow tree. I told her no because Willows will plug up sewer lines very quickly.
 

Ligget

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Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Messages
13,474
Location
Bonnybridge, Scotland.
Glad your home is still dry, I have heard similar complaints about our local authority letting easily solved issues become expensive disasters trying to save a few pounds/dollars!
 

Woodchipper

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Joined
Mar 15, 2017
Messages
5,138
Location
Cleveland, TN
World's funniest joke- I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
We have the same thing in one area of the county. Heavy rains flood yards and streets. Nothing has been done yet.
 

Herb G

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Messages
1,461
Location
Southern Maryland
World's funniest joke- I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
We have the same thing in one area of the county. Heavy rains flood yards and streets. Nothing has been done yet.
We were very lucky IMHO. Our yard flooded to a foot deep because the drain was clogged with overgrown grass, weeds, you name it.
But, we have a sump pump, so our basement didn't flood.

We got 15" of rain here in 3 weeks or so. That's 3 months worth in 3 weeks.
Other people were not so lucky. The county came out yesterday & cut the huge weeds in the ditch in front of my house. Only reason they did it is because of the flooding that happened.

Our tax dollars at work. :tongue:
 
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