Tree comes down

A couple weeks back we noticed that there was a downed tree on one of the empty lots down the hill from us. I don't think it was dead, just falling over, and still partially connected to its roots. The tree was being completely supported by the streetlight electric wire (not the main power lines, they go behind the houses). The streetlight wire was really being stretched, and you could see the strain that was being put on the streetlight poles, especially the near one. So I called it into the city, figuring it was a no-brainer. The tree was on city property (We think. It appears to be connected to the park, and no one could possibly build a house on it anyway), and was endangering city property (the streetlight), and when (not if, but when) the wire decided to break, it would also almost completely block the road.

The answer I got back from the city (via email) was that they weren't going to do anything about it, since they didn't have enough money for routine maintenance/tree clearing. I wrote back that this wasn't routine maintenance, like a downed branch, or ivy growing on the wire, which we see at other places, this was emergency maintenance, a whole tree down. I got exactly the same reply back.

So, we waited a couple weeks, watching the tree continue to sink further down, and more strain being put on poles. The streetlight pole was being pulled out of true, we figured 5-10 degree bent in it.

Finally, Jonathan called it in again a couple of days ago. They didn't take any of his personal info, which was weird, because they asked for mine, so he didn't get any reply back. But yesterday morning there was a tree-truck there, and a couple of workers chopping down the tree. They left it there, with a big pile of brush, but at least it no longer is putting that strain on the wire. We all heaved a big sigh of relief at that.