City focuses on removing fallen trees that pose safety risks

Crews have answered 262 service calls made through 311 in the past few days. Arborist teams and skid-steer operators are working on the cleanup.

Dave Bradshaw, Manager of Parks & Solid Waste for the City of Prince George, said crews started responding on Friday evening and worked all weekend.

“Our crews were very busy starting Friday evening, working through the weekend and continuing this week with cleanup. They are also handling some of the non-emergency trees that fell in green spaces or parks,” Bradshaw said.

The City is reviewing service requests to decide which situations need an emergency response.

“There were over 260 service request calls,” Bradshaw said. “We’ve had to sort through them to see which ones are real emergencies and send crews to those.”

Bradshaw said another wind advisory could cause more trees to fall while crews are still handling damage from the weekend storm. Crews will deal with new safety hazards as they come up.

Who is responsible for removing a fallen tree depends on where it is located.

If aIf a tree falls from private property, City crews will remove any branches that reach into a City road and create a safety risk for pedestrians or drivers. The City will not remove the rest of the tree from private property.t portion remains the property owner’s responsibility.

Residents are asked to give a precise location when reporting a fallen tree or branch through 311.

“If residents can“If residents can give the exact location, an address is best,” Bradshaw said. “Sometimes just describing the park is enough; we know where our parks are, but an actual address gives our crews the perfect location,” Bradshaw advised members of the public to stay away from parks during the latest wind advisory.

The weekend storm also damaged the shrink-wrap lining on the outside of the Aquatic Centre. Some sections on the east and south sides had to be removed to keep the scaffolding safe.

The City says the building envelope work was finished before the storm. The building is still watertight in the affected areas and there was no further impact.

According to the City, the renovation is still on track.

The City’s release also tells residents to check the BC Hydro outage map for current power outage information. No web address was provided with the material for this story.

by Dave Branco

City focuses on removing fallen trees that pose safety risks

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