‘It’s heart-wrenching,’ Kelowna homeowners say of Fortis BC’s tree trimming practices

One couple pushed for an alley arm to be bolted to the power pole, allowing the line to move toward the street and away from the tree, rather than trimming the tree.

Elayne Rix still gets emotional talking about what used to be a 65-foot-high mature linden tree in her front yard.

“We watched it grow. We were here 38 years ago and it was 50 years old,” she told Global News.

The tree, in Kelowna’s Hall Road area, was significantly pared down on Aug. 28 by Fortis BC as it continued to grow dangerously close to powerlines.

While Rix and her husband Brad, a former lineman with Fortis, understand the dangers of that, they claim they came up with a solution to the ongoing problem in 2018.

“They agreed to put an alley arm in, which extends from the power line, extends it out. I don’t know how many feet and we got a quote from them signed by an engineer,” Rix said.

Installing an alley arm bolted to the power pole would allow the line to move toward the street and away from the tree.

Rix said the couple were even willing to foot the bill and provided documentation from Fortis showing the quote for the job, which was pegged at just over $3,500.

She also provided Global News with Fortis’s design of the project with an engineer’s stamp on it.