Elmira neighborhood fears collapse of “dangerous trees” next to homes
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – Homeowners who live near Pennsylvania Avenue and Boardman Street on the city's southside are concerned large trees could collapse on their properties. The trees are growing a long a rail line on land owned by Norfolk-Southern.
"It is a danger, and it is imminent," said homeowner Brian Latham. "It's really not a situation of if they're going to fall, but when."
"The big wind event we had this summer brought this tree down behind me and its root ball," Latham told 18 News as he showed us around his backyard. "It came out of the ground and was up to the rail bank, far enough that the railroad was cutting the tree. It must have been 65 feet tall.
"The more they cut it, the more it slid downhill and came to rest against these trees here. You can see the root ball, it's gigantic," Latham added. "Lately, that that stump back there that's about 8 or 10 feet tall was lying down, but now it's standing up, which means it's moved even further."
"My concern is these guys can easily reach my house. Then down the line you can see the monsters that are hovering closer and closer to people's houses," Latham said.
Latham started a petition asking Norfolk-Southern to remove the dangerous trees or cut them down to a shorter size. The petition was signed by seven other homeowners. Latham says he is not just concerned about a powerful storm like the one that hit our area in July.
A look at storm damage in City of Elmira
"I don't think we actually have to have a wind event. I'm concerned more with, like just winter being a real winter where we may have steady snow and possibly ice too. Imagine those covered in snow and ice. They could snap off at any point."
Mayor Dan Mandell says he sent the petition and a letter from the Mayor's Office to the Norfolk-Southern office in Owego on October 30th. The mayor said he asked the rail company to take action before it's too late. As of this publication, the mayor says Norfolk-Southern has not answered his letter.
Mayor Mandell also told 18 News the Elmira & Chemung County Commissioner of Public Works first reached out to Norfolk-Southern after a July storm brought down a tree on the rail line in the same area.
"We're requesting Norfolk-Southern to get on this as soon as possible to prevent any type of property damage, or worse, any type of personal injury or even death," Mayor Mandell told 18 News. "I'm going to say this: they're being put on notice right now and they need to do something about this," the mayor continued. "It falls on negligence on their part if they don't do something about it. So, they could be held liable for not taking care of the trees. As you can see several trees are in bad shape and need to come down."
A spokesperson for Norfolk-Southern told 18 News it's possible the mayor's letter and petition is still making its way to the right people after being mailed only a few days ago. The company says after its notified about concerns regarding trees on railroad property, the procedure is to assess the health of the tree or trees in question. If a tree is found to be rotted or sick in some capacity, Norfolk-Southern works with homeowners to resolve the issue.
"I want to see them removed," Latham added. "I don't care if they take them off at 10 or 15ft in height, there'd be no danger then. I mean, if they were to take them off at 20ft, there'd be no danger. There wouldn't be anything left to fall in reach."
