ST. LOUIS – South St. Louis residents on Neosho Street are fearful of a city-owned tree call our Your Paid For It team looking for assistance. With all the damage and death caused by falling trees in recent storms, the residents want the city to cut this one down.
Lauren Price said she’s already felt the impact of falling branches from the tree.
“Yes, it dented the top of my car. We had a really bad storm—what was it, two days ago—you never know. Like I work 12 hours coming home to a tree on my house, I would never know,” she said.
Resident Sharon Rice is also worried about the tree. Falling branches have damaged her car too.
“And I’m scared it’s going to fall down on somebody, hurt somebody, or fall on somebody’s car,” she said.
Neighbors said they’ve been trying for a long time to get city hall to listen, that they’ve called time and again. Price said she’s tried calling dozens of times.
“I would say probably 45 times, 55 times – yeah,” she said.
And what does she hear from the city?
“‘It’s going to happen,’ or, ‘We have you on our schedule,’ or this or that, and it’s never like them coming out here,” Price said. “I don’t want it to land on my house or anybody else’s house.”
FOX 2 learned the tree went on the city’s removal list some time ago, but it was never cut down.
“They keep telling me the same thing over and over and over. We’ll be out there to tear the tree down. but they haven’t came out yet, so I’m still waiting,” Rice said.
After meeting with residents, FOX 2 contacted Alderman Joe Vollmer, the former interim president of the city’s Board of Aldermen. After doing some digging himself, he came back with good news for concerned citizens.
“Well, we took care of it. I called the Forestry director, he looked at the thing. It was scheduled to come down late May, June, but it got delayed. Cause, like everyone else in the city, they’re shorthanded!” Vollmer said. “He actually drove by at my behest last night, drove by and took a look at it, and it should be coming down shortly! Depending on the work crew. By the end of the week is what they’re hoping!”