TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — A South Tampa homeowner is on a mission to save three sentimental palm trees in his front yard that the local utility company wants to cut down.
Alex Gem and his neighbors recently pulled out lawn chairs and sat right in the middle of where tree trimmers would have to work to prevent them from removing the queen palms on Rogers Avenue.
"They whipped up really fast, and we could tell they were up to something," Gem said. "They were going to cut down the trees real quick and leave."
Gem said crews called the police, but officers were understanding, and the tree trimmers eventually left.
"There's several policemen out here, and they're nice about the whole thing, but they just packed up and left, you know," Gem said. "And finally, the tree trimmers left too."
The standoff started a few weeks ago when crews first arrived.
"We didn't let them cut the trees then, and we told them to send a TECO rep out here that we could talk to about the options," Gem said.
Gem said he never heard from a representative before crews returned.
The trees hold special meaning for Gem's family.
"My wife planted them," Gem said. "She has three kids and she planted each one when the kids were born. They have sentimental value to her."
TECO officials said the trees need to be removed because they are too close to power lines and cannot be effectively trimmed.
Cherie Jacobs, a media spokesperson for Tampa Electric, said the company understands people's love of trees, but they are a leading cause of power outages on the system. She noted that when palm trees are in or around power lines, they must be removed, not just trimmed.
We understand people’s love of trees. They are an important part of our neighborhoods – and our community’s character.
Trees are a leading cause of power outages on Tampa Electric’s system, especially after severe weather. Trimming trees near power lines is a balance between safety and the health of the tree. Tampa Electric is responsible for trimming trees away from our equipment. Often, when palm trees are in or around power lines, they cannot be effectively trimmed. Because of safety and reliability concerns, they must be removed. That is the case with these queen palms on Rogers Avenue.
We have a team of experts dedicated to the care of trees near our equipment. Tampa Electric employs certified arborists and degreed foresters to oversee its tree trimming activities. In addition, all tree contractors are Line-Clearance Qualified Arborists. Tampa Electric has been awarded the Tree Line USA designation for 18 consecutive years.
But Gem argues he knows exactly what a dangerous tree looks like.
"I did work for TECO for over 30 years," Gem said. "And I was an ops engineer. Part of my job was to determine which trees were problems. So I'm very familiar with what a problem tree looks like."
This is what he says he would have done if he were in this position.
"If they were problem trees, I would have got rid of them when I was not retired," Gem said. "I don't want my power out, and I don't want my neighbor's power out, I would have taken them down myself. But they are not a problem."
Gem said the palms are near secondary, 120-volt and 240-volt wires, rather than the high-voltage 13,000-volt primary wires that cause fires and outages.
He pointed out the primary wire, located farther from the palm trees.
"If it gets into any type of trees, it can start fires, you know, and it can burn the wire down stuff," Gem said. "But there is no primary by these palm trees."
Gem said the secondary wires close to the palms aren't strong enough to spark. He pointed to a frond currently touching a wire to prove his point.
"You see that branch up there that's laying on the wire? You see anything happening?" Gem said. "It's been on there for 3 months."
Gem said the secondary wires were installed in the 1950s or 1960s and were once insulated. Over the decades, ultraviolet light wore away the insulation, leaving bare wires. He wants TECO to replace the wire rather than cut down the trees.
"They basically don't want to do any maintenance at all," Gem said.
Gem said TECO previously ignored a different tree in the neighborhood that caught fire and caused a week-long outage after a hurricane. A local business owner had to pay $2,000 to have it removed.
"It kind of blows me away that when we identify problem trees and we point it out to them, we can't get them to help us," Gem said. "But then trees that have never caused a problem, they want to come out here and cut them down."
Gem said he plans to work with the Gandy Civic Association to file complaints with the Public Service Commission if TECO continues its attempts to remove the trees.
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