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I o. <br /> and extend into the vehicle. One was 12 inches into the vehicle over the <br /> steering wheel, the other went three feet into the vehicle between the <br /> passenger seat and the drivers seat. <br /> We have broken down the number of tree failures that have been recorded, into <br /> the areas of the city used by the leaf pick up program and it is as follows: <br /> AREA 1 NORTH EUGENE 8 <br /> AREA 2 CENTRAL EUGENE 43 <br /> AREA 3 SOUTHEAST EUGENE 40 <br /> AREA 4 SOUTHWEST EUGENE 29 <br /> AREA 5 WEST EUGENE 5 <br /> As you can see, the highest number of failures is located in the central and <br /> Southeast part of town, where the highest concentration of old trees exist. <br /> Not only the older trees, but a fairly high concentration of traffic. <br /> Someone once told me, "If you're going to tell a story, have a point to it. <br /> That makes it a lot more interesting to the listener." The point is twofold. <br /> With the age of our trees in the city, I believe it is imperative we begin an <br /> inspection program that would identify trees that would fail and could result <br /> in damage to property, injury or death to our citizens. <br /> Secondly, if we are going to identify these potential failures, we need to be <br /> able to respond to them. Given the figure of one half the current estimated <br /> tree population, or 50,000 trees, and our ratio of one tree care worker for <br /> every 10,000 trees, we will build a list of hazards we will be unable to <br /> attend to. <br /> A minimal solution to this problem, and one that would provide us with an <br /> ongoing program of eliminating the hazards, is to create an inspector position <br /> to identify those situations that pose an eminent hazard and to supply that <br /> inspector with one crew along with the equipment to deal with them when found. <br /> We must be reasonable and prudent in making decisions regarding how we are to <br /> provide the safety and welfare of those who travel our streets and live in the <br /> homes that make up this city. Providing the person to detect where failures <br /> may occur next and the people to eliminate them, does not guarantee that we <br /> will never have an accident. It does, however, in court, provide those making <br /> decisions with the fact that we are doing everything humanly and financially <br /> possible to protect the public. <br />