Progress Energy handles most of the tree trimming in Wilmington and New Hanover County, utility spokesman Jeff Brooks said.
“As far as tree trimming goes, we do trim trees year-round with the intent of proactively reducing the amount of outages that occur in our system,” Brooks said.
There is a regular maintenance schedule in Wilmington and elsewhere, and special priority is given to trees with branches over power lines, Brooks said.
“Most of vegetation management is designed not for just hurricane season, but for all storms we encounter throughout the year.” he said.
Progress Energy “works to balance the natural beauty” of an area with the need to maintain trees so service will continue in the event of a storm, Brooks said.
“When we hit extreme weather such as major hurricanes or tornadoes, even the best vegetation management can’t prevent outages.” he said.
The city of Wilmington does some limited tree trimming, spokeswoman Malissa Talbert said.
“We only do what might be in the public right of way,” she said.
Date posted: May 13, 2011
User-contributed question by:
kim daily
There is definitely nothing wrong with this question, but it certainly shows how government and in this case Progress Energy can’t win.
If you let the trees be, people will complain nothing was done to prevent outages.
If you start trimming trees, you’ll be flooded with complaints about the hacking apart of people’s neighborhood trees.
When it comes to the public, you can’t win.
I live in the county. Progress energy recently cut back trees and bushes on the property line dividing our home from an empty wooded lot next door. Also there were vines twisting around the power lines up by the road, which they did not completely clear. They made a mess, and left it there at the front of our house. When I contacted them, I received an email stating it was my responsibility to clean up this mess. I am livid, as I just paid privately for debris to be cleared from my property days before Progress Energy made this mess. Can anyone help or tell me who to talk with at Progress Energy?