Columbus, Georgia

Columbus Consolidated Government

Referrals From Mayor and Council-09/10/2002







Subject Dead Trees:



Description Have the staff to consider putting out for bids for a private

contractor to cut down these dead trees on an emergency situation that are on

the City?s right-of-ways, that are in individuals? yards. (Request of

Councilor McDaniel)



Received From



Assigned To



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Response To address the back log of work orders and the length of time to

respond to work orders we are doing the following:



1. The replacement bucket truck for a bucket truck that went down in January

2001 is in and will be up and running this week.



2. We have replaced the boom on an older bucket truck and reworked the boom on

another. This will limit "down" time of equipment and will enable the crews to

be more productive.



3. Contract crews - we will present at mid year budget a request to hire a

contract tree crew for removals and preventative pruning in our highest request

for work areas. These areas will be Lakebottom and Overlook area and the

Oakland Park area. The preventative pruning and removals of hazardous and

decaying trees will prevent the high number of work order requests and 911

calls from these areas.



4. Contract crew- We are preparing specifications for preventative pruning and

removals in the Enterprise zone. The preventative pruning and removals of

hazardous and decaying trees will prevent work order requests and 911 calls

from this area.



5. We are working with Georgia Power on a tree removal and replacement

policy. From January 2002 to present we have removed over 200 trees with

citizens requesting the replanting of over 100 trees. It is our goal to

coordinate with their pruning cycles to remove as many of the hazardous trees

under their power lines as possible and replanting with "power line" friendly

trees. This will reduce the cost of Georgia Power's pruning contracts and will

reduce the liability of the city, the cost of removals and 911 calls.



We are being pro active in our approach to creating a systematic pruning cycle

on our trees. This has not been previously established in our community. To

systematically and routinely maintain our city trees is the only way to reduce

hazardous trees and the high number of work order requests that we currently

receive. This will take quite some time to achieve but we are on the road to

success.