City Triumphs Over Tricky Tree Limbs
Quite often, we are reminded how fortunate we are to live in Burbank and have caring city employees there to help us when needed.
During the last wind storms, we lost a very large limb from a tree in our backyard, with another one threatening to break and fall. Yes, it was on our property, so we were responsible for taking the limbs down. Unfortunately, several of the upper limbs were wrapped around the utility wires running down the alley, feeding other homes.
I called Burbank Water and Power and was told they would come and remove the limbs from the very top wire, but we would have to also contact Pacific Bell to do the lower section, which we did. Unfortunately, Pacific Bell is not as accommodating as our own water and power department and we were informed to let the line break, or if it accident got cut in the process, they would come out and put up new lines. In the meantime, homeowners feeding off this line would be without telephone service until they found time to come out to do the repair. Makes sense, right?
In view of the comments by Pac Bell, I called Burbank Water and Power back to see if they had any other suggestions on how to handle this situation. I spoke with Patti Rountree, who said she would have one of their field consultants, Andy Harmon, come by and assess the situation. Andy was here and within an hour and told my husband he would have Asplundh Tree Service come by and remove the upper lines. The Asplundh crew were here by 2:00pm, and not only removed all the upper limbs but, using their chipper, disposed of them, saving my husband a great deal of work. I immediately called Patti Rountree back to thank her for all her help.
Janet Gallegos, supervisor in the electric division, must be very proud of department employees like Patti Rountree. We are certainly proud she was there to assist us so professionally.
Once again, one of our Burbank service departments showed a good reason we should all feel fortunate to live in Burbank.
Sally Statt, Burbank