City mower mangles trees
Cooks Mills residents demand answers after concrete also hits vehicles
Debris flying from a machine operated by a City of Welland employee could have hurt or killed someone earlier this week, say two Schisler Crescent residents who want answers from city hall on what took place.
Ron and Gilles Gauthier, a father and son who live next to each other, said a city tractor came down their road, which runs between Doan’s Ridge Road and Schisler Road, Monday and started to cut in the ditch in front of their homes.
But for some reason, the two men said Thursday morning, the operator also started to cut down trees that acted as somewhat of a privacy fence between the road and properties.
“He started to cut down all sorts of trees … hit the cement around the ditch for my driveway,” said Gilles.
The machine sent chunks of concrete into his yard, striking his wife’s SUV and a family trailer about five metres away.
“The trailer is all dented,” said
Gilles, as his father Ron pointed out some of the damage.
Gilles said there was all manner of debris left behind on his driveway and in his yard after the tractor had passed.
Ron said the same thing. He, too, found debris in his yard.
He’s worried what his lawn mower may hit when he cuts the grass on the boulevard in front of his home.
Ron said no one from the city cleaned up the mess.
“My wife and Gilles cleaned up the road,” he said. “There were big chunks on the road.”
Both men said trees cut down and left mangled by the tractor now leave them with less privacy in their yards.
“They used to act like a fence for me,” said Gilles, adding now parts of his property are exposed.
Ron said if someone had been walking down the road at the time, they could have been injured. He wondered what would have happened if he grandchildren had been outside at the time.
“There was no reason for this,” Ron
said of the cutting down of the trees, adding he was getting nowhere with the city over the incident.
Mayor Frank Campion said he was made aware of the incident.
“We are looking into it, we want to know what happened. We have staff investigating and it has gone to our legal department,” said Campion.
“We’re dealing with it in a way I expect will satisfy the homeowner,” he said.