
{"id":17044,"date":"2011-03-31T12:36:36","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T16:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=17044"},"modified":"2011-03-31T12:40:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T16:40:57","slug":"residents-angered-by-duke-energy-tree-cutting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/03\/31\/residents-angered-by-duke-energy-tree-cutting\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents angered by Duke Energy tree-cutting"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_17099\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17099\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/03\/31\/residents-angered-by-duke-energy-tree-cutting\/kim-yard\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17099\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kim-yard.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17099\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kim-yard.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kim-yard-113x84.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/kim-yard-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17099\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY SUSAN DICKSON Duke Energy recently clear cut the right-of-way on the Homestead Road side of Kimberly Willardson's property on the corner of Homestead and Seawell School roads. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On Dec. 10, Kimberly Willardson moved her family from a Carrboro condominium to their new home on the corner of Seawell School and Homestead roads in Chapel Hill. Eighteen days later, she awoke to the sound of chainsaws and looked outside to find men cutting down trees in her yard. <\/p>\n<p>Prior to the move, Willardson had researched the planned developments across the street and new stoplights down the road. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d contacted the Chapel Hill Planning Department and spent months considering the property. But she hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anticipated the drastic changes that were about to occur on that property.<\/p>\n<p>Duke Energy cut down trees, saplings and underbrush, including nearly everything shielding Willardson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home from Homestead Road, in order to maintain the right-of-way underneath their power lines. <\/p>\n<p>Willardson hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen  a brochure explaining the cutting that was delivered to her teenage son a week and a half earlier, so she was surprised to see the crew of men in her yard at 8 in the morning. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nobody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to argue with the right-of-way,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Willardson said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way they did it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>That same day, Willardson filed a complaint with Duke Energy and was told someone would respond. She has not yet heard back. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the meantime, the trees are down,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get any answers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Betsy Conway, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said the company is required to maintain rights-of-way as a regulated public utility. The work along Homestead Road is part of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s routine maintenance program. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That helps ensure safe, reliable electric service to folks,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We certainly welcome the opportunity to talk with our customers at any time should they have concerns, and we will go out and speak with people.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Conway said the company identifies trees that are interfering with power lines, as well as branches coming into the right-of-way. Saplings of fast-growing trees, like pine, maple and oak, are also cut, she said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We take a targeted approach,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Conway said. <\/p>\n<p>Once cutting and trimming is complete, workers leave trimmings and brush cuttings in non-landscaped areas. They do a general cleanup of landscaped areas, but leave behind cut wood from trees. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The reason behind that \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is designed to ensure reliability by managing costs to our customers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Conway said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The cost of managing the natural growth that occurs around the power lines, those costs are all part of the rates that are paid by our customers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>From Willardson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s yard, the crews continued their work down Homestead Road and into surrounding neighborhoods. Cherie Kuzmiak, a Stateside Drive resident, found crews removing trees around her home last week. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Duke Energy pretty much just clear cut part of my front yard that I share with a neighbor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kuzmiak said. <\/p>\n<p>Kuzmiak contacted a Duke Energy foreman, who told her he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d visit her property and no further cutting would be done until then. The next day, Kuzmiak returned home to find men again cutting trees in her yard. When she tried to get the crew to stop, they called the police. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The bottom line is Duke just needs to be honest with people and not pass out some glossy brochure\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that refers to a kinder, gentler cut, she said.  <\/p>\n<p>Kuzmiak plans to replant, though she expects it will cost thousands of dollars to remove the stumps and plant new trees. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would rather pay more from my monthly bill knowing that trees are going to be trimmed instead of hacked down,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kuzmiak said. <\/p>\n<p>Willardson estimates her property value has dropped about $20,000 due to the cutting. Since she knows Duke is unlikely to compensate her for that loss, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s organizing a class-action lawsuit against the power company. <\/p>\n<p>Conway said the company does not provide compensation for cutting and trimming in rights-of-way. She encouraged customers to plant trees, like those on the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website, duke-energy.com, that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grow above 20 feet.<\/p>\n<p>Cutting will continue in Chapel Hill for several weeks, Conway said, adding that all impacted residents will receive notification. Based on feedback it has gotten, Duke Energy is working to improve the notification letters it distributes to residents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Dec. 10, Kimberly Willardson moved her family from a Carrboro condominium to their new home on the corner of Seawell School and Homestead roads in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17044"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17102,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17044\/revisions\/17102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}