Inquirer: Tree may be threat to tennis players

If you play tennis, particularly at Cooper Creek Park, you might have noticed a tall dead tree just on the other side of the fence, right after you turn into the tennis facility parking.

A Concerned Reader named Fred noticed it, and he says if it toppled over into the park, it would certainly take out some cars (and anyone in or near them) and might even reach out onto courts 9 and 10. Even though I'm primarily a golfer (I tried tennis, but I kept spilling my beer) I told Fred I'd look into it.

I called Public Works Director Pat Biegler, whose department includes Urban Forestry, and asked her what the city's policy is on such trees. It's clearly dead, but it's difficult to tell how likely it is to fall or in which direction it's likely to fall.

Biegler said the city ordinance concerning such trees states that if it is a clear danger to the public,

it can be categorized as a nuisance and the city can do something about it.

"We would go look at it first to determine if it's a threat to the public, and if it is, we would ask the owner to take it down," Biegler said.

The notification has to be in writing and it gives the owner 15 days to do something about it.

And if he or she doesn't?

"We have the authority, after a hearing with the city manager, to go on the property and take it down, or to contract it out," Biegler said.

Keep in mind that the ordinance says that trees must be a threat to the public. If it's one person's tree threatening another person's private property, it's an issue between the property owners. In other words, call in the lawyers. In a sense, the Cooper Creek Park tree is also an issue between property owners, too, but because the public is one of the property owners, the city steps in.

Stay tuned.

Update

In April of last year, we wrote about a sign display on the riverbank next to the Synovus building that had fallen on hard times. The display involved five informational signs giving passers-by information on historical, environmental, natural and geographical aspects of the area.

One of them even had interesting historical facts about the Eagle & Phenix Dam, which we blew up a while back.

But the signs had become so sun-faded that you couldn't read much of the interesting information.

I called the city and told them about it and they said they'd get right on it. And they did, though with little haste, because the same Concerned Reader, Mark, who originally reported the problem, told me last week that the new signs were up.

Stop by there some time. You might learn something.

Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Tree may be threat to tennis players ."