Columbia Falls woman unhappy with city tree crew

A Columbia Falls woman wasn’t happy with the way the tree in yard was trimmed by city crews and she let her feelings be known to the city council last week.

Clayton Lane resident Heather Peacock said crews trimmed back the tree in yard while she and her husband, Jim, were away in Denver dealing with their daughter Kimberly’s battle with leukemia. They learned the city was going to trim the tree back from their other daughter, Hayley, who was home at the time.

The result was a poor trim job, Heather said. She showed council photos of limbs that were simply cut in half, not properly trimmed.

Both Heather and Jim Peacock have training in forestry.

She said the city should have given them a chance to trim the tree on their own. The tree was blocking views of the intersection, city crews said.

Heather urged the city to make sure crews were properly trained in tree trimming. She said it would only take watching a three to 10 minute video on YouTube. She said what made matters worse was the tree was a family gift and it just added to the stress of dealing with the cancer treatment of Kimberly.

Mayor Don Barnhart expressed regret in the matter.

“I apologize if you had a bad experience with our employees,” he said. “It will be looked into and we will be in contact with our city manager.”

Peacock suggested the city give notice to landowners who have to trim their trees, so they can do it on their own. If they can’t then city crews could do it.

City manager Susan Nicosia said later the city regrets the incident and will take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.