Editor, Times-Union: Two months ago my neighbor cut down the large trees in her yard. When I asked her why, she said she was tired of all the dead branches falling off them and they were old and some were full of disease, some had carpenter ants that had eaten the center.
Now I love trees and plant several every spring, mostly fruit to grow in years to come. It does not matter if I agree with her or not, it is her home and she can cut down or plant poison ivy if she wishes. She told a man she works with how she felt, and he said he would cut them down and haul away the wood. He cut all of them down and then he got his big truck and trailer stuck in her yard for six weeks.
Everything seemed to stop. The small limbs now sit in her yard and nobody is doing anything. I went to the street department and talked to the manager, and he said because she had a friend cut them down the city would not take them away and would only take the wood if she had it shredded by a machine.
I am now looking across the street at wood and limbs that are rotting and rodents are moving in. I do not put limbs or leaves out because I use my mower to cut them up and break up the wood and put it back by the railroad to rot and turn into compost. I am very lucky that I have the wooded area behind my house that is a barrier between me and the train.
Now, I see everyone’s points, but we have empty trucks driving by, and in time they could have disposed of them. She made a mistake by not checking with the city before going ahead. Now the city picks up limbs at yards all over town, and I’m sure not every house cuts their own trees, they probably had some help. Our current mayor, whom is soon to be leaving, told her that it was beyond the city’s duty to pick them up, according to what I was told by her and the street department manager. I told the street department manager that no matter what they will get removed if I have to do it myself. My wife is not happy that I am willing to do it, but we don’t want Christmas to come and look at that mess. What should I do? We pay very high taxes in this neighborhood compared to other places in Warsaw and get the same police, fire and street services.
Now once again I want to publish the figures that I got straight from Warsaw’s city budget. The mayor’s salary $74,353; insurance $21,630; FICA $5,791; his PERF whatever that is $4,353. Their total: $106,128. It gets better. His office supplies $3,200; operating supplies $2,100; communications $6,750; and the list goes on and on. Now ... anybody want to tell me he is underpaid or under-supplied? Anyone who would like to see the budget that I got this from, can come to me or do like I did, go to the city hall.
Mr. Mayor, please tell your street department to pick up the small limbs across the street from my house and make it known once again to the residents of own town that the city doesn’t pick up limbs that were cut by someone other than the homeowner.
