After a long winter, the neighborhood is a buzz with homeowners working on their lawns and gardens. To join in the festivities, my wife and I decided to bring out an arborist for an estimate for some overdue maintenance on our property. Of everything that needed to be done, the arborist said our number one priority should be the removal of the Elm Tree on the Main Street right-of-way because it was surely rotting from the inside.
As one of the few surviving trees from the Dutch Elm disease over two decades ago, I was sad to see it go. But instead of paying a private company to do the job, I called 311 and kindly explained how this street tree was a liability to the City as it could fall over at anytime. They had a crew come out to chop it down within two weeks.
Sure it took the City over 120 days to send out a stump removal crew (the stump removal is done by a different crew then the tree removal), but there is a lesson here. Calling 311 works, and everyone needs to participate in making their communities better. I am working with the City Forester right now to select a tree replacement...
Thanks for the free mulch Kansas City, Missouri!
