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DUNEDIN, Fla. (WFLA) — Some neighbors in Dunedin are upset with trees being cut down along County Road 1 and Curlew Road by Duke Energy.
“It is just a disgusting eyesore and, you know, it’s just killing the beauty of our town,” said concerned resident, Liz Murtagh.
Murtagh said they want Duke Energy to stop cutting down trees.
“They’re just cutting them down, gigantic trees, and right now, they’ve left them looking like celery stalks with the tops cut off,” she said.
Duke Energy sent 8 On Your Side a statement:
“Duke Energy works to balance aesthetics with our goal to provide safe, reliable power to households, businesses and critical services that depend on us, such as hospitals, 911 centers and nursing homes. We take that responsibility very seriously. Trees are a leading cause of power outages. To provide the reliable power our customers rely on and deserve, we must ensure power lines are clear of vegetation and other obstructions. Duke Energy worked closely with property owners to perform the vegetation management activities crews conducted in this area. If customers have any questions or concerns, please contact us at duke-energy.com/customer-service.“
“We don’t want Duke Energy having unilateral control over what happens with our green space,” Murtagh said. “I mean, they should be investing their money in burying those cables.”
The company said they have arborists on staff and work closely with homeowners.
While some people may not like the way the trees look, one neighbor tells 8 On Your Side that he agrees it must be done to help prevent outages.
“It’s nice to have the electricity, because if there’s a lot of limbs there that haven’t been trimmed back and we have a big storm, then, it’s a bigger problem,” Chip Payson said.
Kathleen Ramsey said the two trees that were removed from her backyard had been there for decades.
“I’m very sad because all of our shade is gone and it’s really making a difference in the house, with the heat and everything,” she said.
She said they agreed for Duke Energy to cut down their trees.
“Every time they come back, every year or whatever, eventually the tree was going to die, and then we were going to have to pay to get it taken down,” Ramsey said.
She said she hopes this helps prevent future outages.
“I understand why they did it and I appreciate that,” she said. “The next storm that comes through, maybe our electricity won’t get knocked out.”
Ramsey said she is going to miss her trees and the protection they gave from sunlight and the noise from the street, but they are going to have the stumps removed from their yard later this week.
