Columbus, Georgia

Memorandum of Understanding

The Mayor and Council of Columbus, Georgia recognize that we all depend on the

benefits made possible by safe, clean, and reliable electricity. They also

have recognized that we are a community that values our quality of life,

nature, and especially trees. Trees purify the air we breathe. They provide

shade for our homes, habitat for wildlife as well as provide us with a sense of

place, permanency, and longevity.

Georgia Power Company embraces these concepts. Reliable service, public

safety, and customer satisfaction are very important to Georgia Power as a

supplier of electricity to the Columbus community. As such, Georgia Power will

provide the following to the Columbus Consolidated Government and its citizens

in order to help preserve and protect a safe and healthy urban forest:



1) Submit an annual plan of work to the City Arborist outlining Georgia Power?s

anticipated areas of maintenance pruning. Georgia Power will notify the City

Arborist with current locations of work in progress.



2) Georgia Power will conduct their maintenance pruning to ensure appropriate

pruning cycles are utilized. The pruning cycles will be outlined in Georgia

Power?s annual plan of work and will be cycles of no longer than 4 years.

These pruning cycles will reflect the pruning necessary to prevent the tree

limbs from growing into the conductor prior to the next pruning cycle. In the

southeast, the native species and growing conditions would necessitate a

pruning cycle of three to four years.



3) At times, there is a need for Georgia Power to remove trees planted on the

City?s right-of-way. In these instances, Georgia Power will, at no cost to the

City or the adjacent property owner and with the City?s approval, remove the

tree or trees in question. Georgia Power will dispose of the limbs and brush

resulting from the tree removal. The City will be responsible for having the

stumps ground, for removing the large limbs and trunk sections cut by Georgia

Power, and for planting and maintaining any replacement trees. The City of

Columbus will provide Georgia Power with a list of replacement trees proposed

for purchase by the City, and agreed upon by Georgia Power. The funding for

the replacement trees will be provided by Georgia Power. The cost per

replacement tree will be determined and mutually agreed upon by the Director of

Public Services of Columbus, Georgia and Georgia Power. This amount is to be

based on the industry average cost to purchase a 2" caliper small canopy tree.

No replacement tree planted within the City?s right-of-way, under power lines,

will be of a species which is capable of reaching a height of more than 15 feet

from ground level at maturity (e.g. Dogwood, crape myrtle, etc.).



4) Georgia Power will ensure that all work (planned and emergency) is performed

in accordance with current, or as amended, ANSI standards (A300 and Z133) and

under the general direction of a certified arborist. More specifically,

Georgia Power will use lateral or natural trimming methods that comply with the

accepted national standards.



5) Georgia Power will use the lateral, or natural, trimming method when

conducting maintenance pruning. Lateral, or natural, trimming guidelines

reflect the accepted standards among horticulturists and other experts in the

field such as the National Arbor Day Foundation, The International Society of

Arboriculture, the National Arborist Association, and other professional and

trade organizations. Lateral, or natural, trimming is derived from the method

of cutting branches back to natural strong points on the tree, such as the

juncture of the trunk and major limbs and branches, and the like. Re-growth

will occur with this type of trimming, but will not be accompanied by profuse

sprouting. Also, the lateral branches will tend to direct future growth away

from the power lines.

In the event of a conflict between this Memorandum of Understanding and any

other agreement between the City and Georgia Power, the provisions of this

Memorandum of Understanding shall control with respect to the pruning of trees

planted on the City?s rights-of-way.

Signed on _________________________, 2005.

______________________________ _______________________________

Jacki Lowe Isaiah Hugley

Vice President City Manager

Georgia Power Company Columbus, Georgia