By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Barry Visel of Indiana Michigan Power, a unit of American Electric Power (AEP) attended Dowagiac City Council's meeting Monday night to review the tree-trimming permit issued to its contractor, Asplundh.
The city's grounds foreman will accompany them through Dowagiac to insure work is completed to standards.
"Quite frankly, I think I'm here because the last time we sent tree crews into Dowagiac we did an incredibly lousy job of communicating, trimming and clean-up. We just didn't do a good job and that was recognized by this community," Visel said.
"Four years ago the whole town looked like hell," commented Second Ward Councilman Bob Schuur. "I love trees and I hate to see a healthy tree come down when it doesn't need to."
Schuur serves on the city Tree Committee created by a 2007 ordinance that was part of Dowagiac's pursuit of Tree City USA status.
AEP proposes removal of 38 trees in the city and to trim 25 others.
"We've got a replacement plan worked out whereby we're contributing $200 per tree removed to your chosen landscaper," Visel said. "The only thing we really ask is that if you replace trees under our power lines, don't plant ones that grow tall. I think everybody recognizes that planting the right tree in the right place is simply the right thing to do."
Visel said about four years ago following the large Northeast blackout,"We became more intensely watched for our tree-trimming. That large blackout was precipitated by a tree contact with a transmission line on the south side of Cleveland. It just cascaded to a large area of millions and millions of customers. You can imagine, we're under tremendous pressure to do our vegetation management programs, to keep them up to date, to keep those trees out of the power lines to avoid liability issues and to avoid safety issues for the general public and for our own crews, who have to work on those systems. We recognized some of the failures of the past," Visel related. "We recognized the need to clear out wider right-of-ways, with limbs farther away from our lines for safety and liability purposes."