Power still out due to negligent woodlot management.

[Woody Stover]

Neighbors at the end of our drive and across the road had a dead Red/Black Oak that was leaning toward the road and power lines. I had been hoping they would harvest it before it fell. Last night was its last night. Fell into the guy wires between poles and snapped off two utility poles. Power has been out about 16 hrs. I should have talked to them about calling the power company if they weren't comfortable cutting it themselves. Alas... At least I was able to grab the part of the tree that ended up on our side, on my neighbor's land.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Maybe they didn't have extra dollars and figured it would cost a lot. Lots of folks around here do that. However, around here it is difficult to get the power company to cut a tree. I had 2 trees that for 4 years in a row I requested they cut them down before a storm did it for them. No go. I told them I would not cut them because if they indeed fell on the line, I would be out many, many dollars. Finally the one that was along the road the county took down. One day I also caught Davey's checking over the lines and it was some fellows I had not seen before. I got on the boss and finally they gave the authorization to cut the tree. Good thing too as it was ready to go!

Hope you get power soon Woody.

 

[ScotO]

You know, this happens a lot more than we think. Here's a run-of-the-mill situation.....you have a bad tree on questionable property (that is to say it's on the right-of-way, but the locality says it's the adjacent homeowners responsibility). Well, the homeowner doesn't own the tree, why would they pay for it to be cut down? You would think the municipality, township, or utility company would do the job for safety and liability reasons, but what do they do? The let the damm thing fall down damaging utilities and property. I blame those powers for the problem......

 

[Backwoods Savage]

You are right Scott. It amazes me when driving around to see all the dead branches ready to fall but the utility companies would rather pay high overtime wages after a storm and then do the clean up. It is crazy, but they do it all the time. Then after a storm, the news people really build it up because of all these fallen limbs and trees. Well, the danged things were rotten....

 

[velvetfoot]

When there's budget cuts to be made, line clearance is one of the first on the list.

 

[Beer Belly]

You are right Scott. It amazes me when driving around to see all the dead branches ready to fall but the utility companies would rather pay high overtime wages after a storm and then do the clean up. It is crazy, but they do it all the time. Then after a storm, the news people really build it up because of all these fallen limbs and trees. Well, the danged things were rotten....

Another reason to raise our rates

 

[BoilerMan]

Yes, but at the same time, there are people who throw a fit when the utility cuts a tree that is a hazard to the lines. The utility is quite good around here about it though, I have scored quite a bit of wood from clearance cuts. Often times the lines will burn off branches though thats why the line-men like 7,200+ volts on all residential lines, they say the old 4,160V standard wasn't enough to burn them off.... LOL

TS

 

[Thistle]

Years ago the phone company & electric utility would trim branches/limbs back every 2-3 yrs depending on growth.Now they wait until a major storm takes out everything & finally shows up after a couple days.

 

[peakbagger]

Many rural towns in NH have power lines routed in the woods rather than along the road. I am not sure why but several local towns have this. It makes for a pretty rural road but is a big problem in the winter. The town next to me has many main lines set up like this. Back prior to the major ice storm of 1998, the utility was in the area and wanted to maintain the right of ways that ran through the woods in a town next to mine, many of the houses are summer places and owners raised heck over the maintenance seriously restricting the utility from doing their work. Finally the utility gave up and basically told the landowners dont call them after the next bad storm. Once the power went out during the ice storm of 1998, the utility shut off the switch at the end of the circuit supplying half the town and left it off for 16 days. They forced the town to do most of the clearing. Unfortunately there were year round residents that lived on the road and they had to run generators for 16 days. My house is in a newer development near by, the only time we lost the power was when the main grid went down in the region as we had let the utility maintain the lines.

 

[clr8ter]

peakbagger, what town was this in? The utility must have a right of way there, meaning they can just go in and do it, never mind the homeowners......We have the opposite problem. My neighbor & I share a very long driveway, and the power company wanted to come by and trim the lines. We both talked to them personally, and encouraged them to hack & whack anything they wanted. They showed up, dragged their feet for several days, and then disappeared with only maybe 1/2 of what they said they were going to do completed. I have since been told they're not coming back. Also, I made the mistake of telling them to "leave any firewood." They think something 2" in Dia. is firewood.

 

[red oak]

I have a friend who has a huge oak tree that is dead and leaning toward his power line. He called the power company and they said they would take care of it when it fell and not before. What a wise policy! My friend wanted the wood from the oak tree but he has a lot of wood already. He told them suit yourself I'll be warm either way.

 

[billb3]

My road is a designated scenic road and the utilities are restricted as to what and how much they can cut along the power lines along the road. They have to send a crew out more often to trim. A plan has to be submitted to town committee months in advance of any cutting detailing exactly what they are going to do. They can't come in and do whatever they want whenever they want. Right of way or not.

 

[basod]

Yes, but at the same time, there are people who throw a fit when the utility cuts a tree that is a hazard to the lines. The utility is quite good around here about it though, I have scored quite a bit of wood from clearance cuts. Often times the lines will burn off branches though thats why the line-men like 7,200+ volts on all residential lines, they say the old 4,160V standard wasn't enough to burn them off.... LOL

TS

What's better is watching a 13.8kV line with a pine laying on it finally caused enough of a fault to clear the feeder. It burned one of our CT's on the plant's back up feeder bus.
The crew decided the easist way to clear it was throw the feeder back and "blow it off the line" It blew it off ok, but came back down and took out two of the phases, turned the surrounding ground blue until the feeder cleared again.

 

[Woody Stover]

I was shocked to see the county cutting that road back, maybe 15'. First time they've done that in many years. This particular tree was probably 25' or more off the road. Not sure what the right of way width is but I would assume it doesn't reach that far?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Many rural towns in NH have power lines routed in the woods rather than along the road. I am not sure why but several local towns have this. It makes for a pretty rural road but is a big problem in the winter. The town next to me has many main lines set up like this. Back prior to the major ice storm of 1998, the utility was in the area and wanted to maintain the right of ways that ran through the woods in a town next to mine, many of the houses are summer places and owners raised heck over the maintenance seriously restricting the utility from doing their work. Finally the utility gave up and basically told the landowners dont call them after the next bad storm. Once the power went out during the ice storm of 1998, the utility shut off the switch at the end of the circuit supplying half the town and left it off for 16 days. They forced the town to do most of the clearing. Unfortunately there were year round residents that lived on the road and they had to run generators for 16 days. My house is in a newer development near by, the only time we lost the power was when the main grid went down in the region as we had let the utility maintain the lines.

Wow! It seems as though if the lines ran through, they also own the right-of-way. Seems around here it is 34 feet and they do have the right to cut if needed; you can not stop them unless they go past the line. Lots of lines through woods in MI too as it is heavy forested. Main problem we have here is getting them to cut! Although a few years ago they did cut a huge oak that was not in the right-of-way. Neighbor caught the guy marking and he said okay but they still cut it. They paid dearly for that one tree too.

 

[peakbagger]

The towns I am aware of locally are Shelburne and Randolph. PSNH contracts all their trimming to Asplundh. The utility has gotten somewhat more agressive since the 1998 ice storm but even though they have a right of way, I dont think the push as hard as they should. In Randolph it was the summer folks who objected, they could care less if the power is out on winters night as they leave town once the leaves drop and dont come back untilt the black flies are gone.

 

[thewoodlands]

Up here they have done a great job around the power lines, for a while they never did much so after to many power outages the town complained. The power lines cross the road at the lane I enter the woods, they never did ask but trimmed up a bunch of trees (pine) on our sidehill in that area.

zap

 

[smokinj]

Hope you have a gen-set...I kinda like it from time to time when the power goes out.

 

[JP11]

Hope you have a gen-set...I kinda like it from time to time when the power goes out.

Mine went off two nights ago. Ran about 6 hours. It's a great piece of mind when I'm away from home. Wife doesn't have to lift a finger, other than reset the clock on the stove after the power is out for just 7 seconds.

JP

 

[TradEddie]

As someone with many trees within falling range of power lines, I would never consider paying to remove those trees. It's not negligence, it's economics. The cost of taking just one of those down would pay for several weeks in a nice hotel if we lost power. All apologies to my neighbors, but if the utility company has the right to cut down those trees, it's their responsibility. Around here, PECO is (belatedly) doing a good job of taking down the obvious threatening trees, but it would be impossible to take them all down.

TE

 

[Flatbedford]

We had a pretty big two stem Noway maple on the street edge of my property. The power lines on the street and the ones to my house went through it. When one of the hurricanes was coming we called the power company and the phone company to ask them to clear the lines. They both told us that they would not do that, but would be happy to repair any damage done by the tree. We called the town and they told us it was our tree. My tree guy friend told me that he wouldn't go in the tree because of all the wires through it. We left it and nothing happened. A few years later an Asplundh crew came through and marked the smaller stem. I bought some ribbon and marked the bigger stem too. They cut the whole thing and a year and a half later a tree 700' down the street fell, took down the wires, and left us with no power for 5 days!
Before and after.

 

[CageMaster]

wow that really opens things up

 

[Flatbedford]

Its been a few years now. Have grass and weeds where we used to have dirt. More sun on the wood stacks too.

 

[save$]

I have been busy getting all the trees removed that could fall on the house or garage. We have many mature trees here. I don't miss any of the ones I had had removed. Just one big maple left next to the garage. I've been waiting on my son to come over with his ATV so we can put some tension on it when we pull it down. We still have many trees hanging over the power lines. Too much for us to handle.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Its been a few years now. Have grass and weeds where we used to have dirt. More sun on the wood stacks too.

That is a big plus Steve.