I must say that I was more than a little dismayed when I read the article in the May 1 edition of Our Town entitled, “Storm damaged trees can remain a hazard.”
The story, along with the accompanying photograph of the storm-damaged tree along B Street showing Trinity Lutheran Church in the background, seemed to imply that somehow the congregation had been negligent by not removing the tree, thereby leaving a public hazard.
Such is not the case. A very short time after the damage occurred, the church office completed a City of Silverton application form requesting permission to remove that particular tree, since it is in the median next to B Street, along with a couple of other trees damaged by the ice storm on our property.
When the application was approved,
that particular tree was not noted in the official response, necessitating additional contact with the city before removal could properly take place.
In the meantime, we also contacted a tree-removal company to get a bid proposal for our damaged trees. In
addition, we contacted one individual who was able to trim some of the branches from that tree, as well as the other trees in the general area. However, that individual did not feel he could safely remove the whole tree himself.
When the corrected city application finally came permitting us to remove the damaged tree (the one pictured in the article), the tree service then amended their proposal to include that tree as well, and we moved ahead with scheduling the work to be completed. But that would not be until mid-summer. It seems there were a number of other damaged trees that got ahead of us on their removal schedule.
Since that time, it also seems that someone was kind enough to remove the tree without our knowledge, so now at least it’s gone and the “mystery cutter” saved us some money in doing so.
But, there was certainly no negligence on our part in this lengthy process.
We simply were trying to follow proper channels in asking for permission.
Norm English, Congregational President Trinity Lutheran Church
