The City

You gotta' love the city. We have a dying Pin Oak in our front yard. Supposedly, it is a shared tree (on our side of the property line, but maintained by the city since many of the branches hang over the property line). Since it is a "shared tree," the city takes an interest in its health. Last year they sent out a crew to deep-fertilize it -- sadly, to no avail. We called them to let them know it's still dying. Since then, we have had three visits from city-employed forestry engineers to look at it and to decide what ought to be done about an obviously dying tree. The verdict was that the tree ought to go. But then the question became: who is responsible for removing it? We, or the city? The city's survey papers show the tree to be on our side of the property line. That should all be pretty clear then, right? The tree is ours; we are responsible for its removal. Whoa! Not so fast. They city needs to send out a survey crew to confirm that the old survey is correct! So, this morning, a crew of three spent most of the morning with their survey equipment scanning the property in every direction, and doing whatever surveyors do, to figure out where the tree is. I'm anxiously awaiting the report. In the mean time, our dead oak tree is becoming very valuable. Does anyone need a cord of wood? I should be able to sell it to you for about $20,000.