Thursday, March 28, 2024

County’s tree cutting has legitimate reasoning

In response to the Dec. 17, 2015, article “A matter of scenery or safety/ tree cutting:”
As the road boss and foreman already know, the road safety experts recommend at least a 10 to 15-foot clear zone from the shoulder of the road and possibly to the right-of-way fence, where possible, for a driver to recover control of their vehicle with minimal damage to the vehicle.
Other issues addressed in the article were safety issues such as fire mitigation. Trees and brush removed from along a road right-of-way, turn the road into a 60-foot fire break, also a concern was diminished visibility with oncoming traffic, and deer/ vehicle collisions.
Besides that, problems with maintenance as far as tearing mirrors off maintenance machines, mowing, drifting problems, plowing snow, shady icy spots.
And for the county to advertise and have a public meeting before doing any kind of road right-of-way maintenance is a little out of the ordinary. This is only my opinion and I’m not an attorney but I wonder if the petitioners could legally release the county of all liability and assume the liability for these sections of county road themselves. Just a thought.

Steve Bue
Former “road guy”
Reed Point