AUBURN, Maine — Steve and Tara Kristman pay a lot of attention to their yard at their home on Silva Street near Taylor Pond.
There’s a swing set for the kids, and there used to be a blackberry bush just starting to bear fruit, and more shade.
“It was beautiful out here,” Steve Kristman said, walking his property Thursday. “Now it’s disgusting.”
The Kristmans are upset over a public works tree pruning earlier this week that they say went too far.
Public works maintains that the boxelder trees were in the city right of way, potential hazards, and had to go.
Neighbors and plow drivers had complained to them, according to Deputy Director Nick Labbe. He said two licensed arborists and the highway supervisor reviewed the work ahead of time.
“It is the responsibility of public works to maintain safe conditions along the roadways in Auburn and in order to do this, trees and brush sometimes need to be cut down,” Labbe said. “There is occasional confusion in regards to property lines and who ‘owns’ a tree.”
The city can prune and trim in its right of way, he said. Depending on the road, that either stretches to the end of the pavement or several feet into the property beside it. When a tree or bush is on private property the city leaves the owner a note ahead of time, Labbe said.
Public works cuts about 80 mature trees and four miles of brush a year, according to its website.
Steve Kristman said he had been warned a year ago that the city planned to trim 10 feet around a nearby pole, and said he was fine with that. He said the end result was closer to 20 feet.
“After all the hard work we’ve put in over the years, eight years of work, when we drove up the street it just took my breath away,” he said.
He disputes that all of the cut area falls within the right of way.
Kristman also claims workers left brush and debris behind, and that he hasn’t gotten far with public works despite several phone calls and visits to his property.
Labbe said it’s practice to remove limbs, trees and cut brush. He also pointed to an email thanking the crew for “such a great job clearing the brush and trimming trees on Silva Street a few mornings ago.”
Kristman isn’t thanking anyone.
“I’m not looking for $1 million, I’m not looking for $100 — I’m looking for them to clean up their mess and maybe apologize,” he said.
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There is a hedge on the right side as you come out of Ledgelawn street in Bar Harbor, you cannot see anything if you are turning left, but, do you think they would cut a traffic hazard in Bar Harbor, nope,
but, at least it was free, and you will not have any accidents happening, that they could say your trees caused.
Ledgelawn Avenue
I’m sure people can figure it out….
If that huge tree to the right of the swing set ever falls in the direction of their home, they’ll more than likely wish they had taken that one as well. It’s not always what you do, but how you do it that makes the difference. It sound like some hand holding would remedy this situation fairly quickly.
Something similar happened to my family in Portland a few years ago when some city employees got a little too happy with their chainsaw. The city went into our yard 10 feet beyond their right of way, broke off limbs haphazardly, and killed bushes that weren’t blocking anyone’s view.
When we complained, they said we were lucky they didn’t bill us. We persisted and they did wind up replacing some of the property they damaged, but it will take years for the plants to grow back.
Not sure what the law is in Auburn, but in Portland they are supposed to give you notice so you can resolve visibility issues yourself before they come in and clear cut your yard.
Box elder is two words, not one.
ITS THE BANGOR BARELY NEWS!
I suggested they cut all the trees in the City of Bangor that is older than 50 years of age. We laughed once when an old maple lost a limb and you could look straight through the 80 year old tree. 2 weeks later they cut it down. you could throw a basketball through it. Old trees are a hazzard
Kind of the same with people, though most trees do have a longer live expectancy than 50 years.
????
I’m glad I live in the “country”, I prune my own trees, especially for visibility, heck I even prune my neighbor’s hedge, if it causes a problem.
CMP is even worse, completely disrespectful. And a foreign company to boot.
Yes I agree! CMP sent tree cutters on my property when we were not home, and without notifying us, cut down a large beautiful maple that was NOT in the right-of-way and then left all the mess. So far they have not cleaned it up. Didn’t even know CMP was in this area; we’ve worked satisfactorily with Bangor Hydro many times in the past.
Had the same situation here in Bangor around five years ago. They butchered an entire neighborhood. Also understand that the city owns a fair amount of “your” lawn thanks to ROW. I respect the BPW employees, but I’m guessing that none of them are trained “arborists…” My trees are just starting to recover so I presume that they’ll be back for a make-work project one of these days.
LOL. Get over it 100 years from now it won’t even matter. For the time you’ve made complaining about it you could of cleaned up the mess and planted something else in it’s place. And if it makes you happy “SORRY”.