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I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O EUGENE WATER & ELECTRIC BOARD EUGENE, OREGON TO Garry Kunkel FROM Marty Douglass11 DATE November 12, 1993 SUBJECT EWEB /City of Eugene Tree Trimming Task Force Update This memo is to provide you with an update on the discussions between EWEB and the City of Eugene regarding past and present tree trimming practices and the potential for working more closely together on future tree trimming projects. Background At a meeting this past August involving yourself, EWEB Commissioners Susie Smith and Sarah Hendrickson, Susan Brody, Laurie Power, and myself, it was decided that EWEB should approach the City of Eugene to discuss tree trimming issues. This meeting was held following the completion of tree trimming work conducted on Adams Street, in the Whiteaker neighborhood, by an EWEB- contracted tree trimming crew. The purpose of that project was to provide proper clearances from EWEB electric transmission and distribution lines that extend south on both sides of Adams Street from the Whiteaker Substation. That project resulted in numerous encounters with concerned local residents, even with a concentrated pre - project notification and consultation effort with residents of the Whiteaker neighborhood conducted by EWEB. Our relationship with the residents on Adams Street stabilized as the project proceeded, once we had reached an understanding that only a minimal amount of trimming would be conducted, but that EWEB crews would return to the site this winter to complete the trimming project. One concern that EWEB identified had to do with the very poor health of some of the trees, and a perception that the City of Eugene was reluctant to perform further trimming in the neighborhood for safety purposes. Several of the trees were observed by EWEB to be either dead or dying, thus constituting a serious public safety concern in the neighborhood. A second concern, applicable to other tree trimming projects in the city, is the apparent lack of coordination between EWEB and City tree trimming projects; i.e., EWEB completing a project followed within a few months by the City entering the same neighborhood to undertake a new and separate tree trimming project, perhaps on the same trees. EWEB /Citv of Eugene Joint Tree Trimming Task Force The August meeting resulted in EWEB contacting the City of Eugene with an invitation to participate in a joint task force to examine these and other tree trimming issues, and to 7 9 42390 E"