I would like to tell a story about a mishap from Hurricane Sandy and the good will that occurred from the Jackson Township team.
I had a 40-foot-tall tree uproot on my property. A local company came and charged me $1,070 to take care of the uprooted tree …
The owner came that morning and said, “Let’s make it safe [today] and when things calm down we will return [to finish the cleanup].” He wrote “no cleanup” on the contract so his team knew it was not part of that day’s work. His team came soon after, without the owner being there, and did the job. That was Oct. 31.
I called his office on Nov. 2 to ask for a timeline of when they would return (to clear the remaining branches). The owner called me back later and told me there was more work than all the tree folks could handle … Then he told me they would never be back, stated he had another call coming in and hung up.
On Nov. 3, my wife, my 14-year-old son and I hauled the branches into the woods. Now the good part of the story. Township employees were out with their heavy equipment doing what they could with anything they could pick up that was left curbside. I saw them on Burke Road and asked them if they could help us; 10 minutes later they came down and helped me get the uprooted stump and all the logs.
With the help of the Jackson Township team, all of the wood and the tree stump are gone and all I have left to do on my own is get a dump truck of dirt and fill the hole and landscape from the tree damage.
Hats off to Jackson Township. We seem to spend more time complaining about the services we get, but here is an example of great township resources. But hats down to the local tree company, and if he reads this he will know it is his mishap and that word of mouth gets around, sorry to say.
Mitch Bernardo
Jackson