By David Kilby, Staff Writer
CRANBURY – Some residents are concerned about a tree trimming contracting company, hired by Public Service Electric &Gas, that allegedly kills trees and leave branches on the ground after trimming branches away from power lines in town.
”I’m not happy with how they treat the trees, and they leave a mess,” said Connie Bauder of Petty Road.
She said ABC Professional Tree Services, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, cut almost all the branches off the trees, leaving just those on top, and this often causes the tree to die.
”When the tree dies it’ll fall on the transformer,” she said.
She said there was a tree that died and then fell on wires near her house, causing the electricity to go out in surrounding houses.
She said her husband had to go out in the middle of the winter to pull the dead tree off the lines.
When she brought the issue up at a Cranbury Committee meeting a few weeks ago, Township Attorney Michael Herbert explained the right of way laws that PSE&G has when trimming trees along Cranbury roads.
”The only thing they’re required to do is tell the town what they’re doing,” Mr. Herbert said.
Residents suggested requiring the tree trimmers to leave more branches on the trees when they trim, to prevent them from dying.
”You can only ask, you can’t require,” Mr. Herbert said.
Marvin Turcios, general foreman for ABC Tree Trimming Contractors in New Jersey, explained the many factors that might cause misunderstanding as the trimmers trim trees that cause a hazard for nearby power lines.
He said his crews put up notices on the streets before doing work.
”We did work on Main Street (a few Saturdays ago),” he said. “We made sure we got there before rush hour. All my guys cleaned up pretty well.”
This is the second time ABC has done work in Cranbury.
The last time they came was three years ago and Mr. Turcios said that’s typically how long it takes for the tree branches they cut to start growing back and become a hazard to electric wires again.
”This is our second time around in Cranbury and we never had major complaints,” he said.
He said every time they come around an area the crews look for hazards, such as rotting trees or branches hanging over wires.
”It’s hard to please everybody in this business,” he said. “The main focus is to maintain the electric lines, to make sure nothing falls on them,”
He explained that the contractors get a circuit from PSE&G that covers a certain amount of miles, and it takes about three years to go around the circuit Cranbury is in.
”Before we trim any trees, I speak to Jerry (Thorne), (Cranbury Public Works foreman), and explain where we’re going to be,” he said.
The tree trimming crews also place door hangers on the doors of nearby homeowners, explaining what the trimmers will be trimming.
In the rare case that they remove an entire tree, they tell PSE&G, the Public Works Department, and the property owner if the tree is on private property, Mr. Turcios said.
He explained that not everybody answers to the door hangers at the same time, and if a resident doesn’t answer to the hanger by the time the crew gets to the area, the crew proceeds with the planned trimming.
”When we trim our main goal is to look for a directional cut,” he said. “When we can’t find one we need to go to the next lateral. A lot of times it could be at the base of the tree. That’s what we need to do. If we cut corners and don’t get to that lateral we leave a stump.We’d like to just cut the small branches. But that doesn’t work all of the time.”
He said the most difficult trees are those directly underneath the wires. The higher the voltage of the wires, the more clearing PSE&G expects, he added.
The only branches they trim on the large healthy trees are the small branches hanging over the wires, he said.
”Last time we were in Cranbury we got a lot of complaints because they thought we were the same contractors that came last time,” he said.”It’s hard sometimes when the prior contractor didn’t do the job right, and now we’re in town and we look like the bad guy.”
”When people do call me I explain to them what the last contractor did wrong and what we’re going to do this time,” he said.
He said he keeps in close contact with Mr. Thorne and the Public Works Department.
”We make the communication clear so everybody knows what we’re talking about,” he said.
The committee said they have no control over the work done by PSE&G and its contractors since they have the right of way.
Those who have concerns about tree trimming in the area can contact the U.S. Department of Public Utilities at 617-305-3500.
