The utility’s annual goal is to cut 1,400 miles of trees annually, but that goal has not been met since 1997.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Multiple severe weather events in Shelby County over the past few weeks have left residents wondering what the county’s utility company will do next to prepare.
“I think that was the worst thing we experienced,” said Raleigh resident Marvin Mims Sr.
Mims spent hours looking for a place to sleep after destructive storms left his Raleigh neighborhood and more than 120,000 MLGW customers in the dark.
“We didn’t have power for about five nights,” Mims said, “so we ended up in Jackson, Tennessee, for two nights because there weren’t any hotels in the Memphis area.”
Repairs have been made since the June and July storms, and lights are now back on in many Memphis residents. However, many like Mims simply want the utility and the City of Memphis to prevent these mass outages from happening again.
The utility said most of the outages people saw in Shelby County were due to tree branches falling on power lines. This is an issue that watchdog groups have recently taken on against MLGW. They said the company has not met its goal of cutting down 1,400 miles of trees each year for the past three years.
“It’s just better to get the job done before another storm comes because we know storms are coming,” Mims said. One of the things the city needs to be aggressive about is.”
During the City Council Committee meeting on July 11, MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen told city leaders how bad the problems really are. In a PowerPoint presentation, he showed that it had been decades since the company cut 1,400 miles of trees.
“You’ll see that we’re going back to 1997, we haven’t even seen that for a year,” McGowen said.
Only 610 miles have been cut in 2020, 550 in 2021, 190 in 2022 and only 64 miles so far this year. As a result, areas like Midtown, Millington, and Shelby Forest are overgrown and seven to eight years behind schedule.
“It’s vital for us to get this back under control,” McGowen said.
The utility CEO hopes to advance a new tree felling plan that would use more than $220 million from the MLGW budget to fund three contractors’ tree felling services over the next five years. McGowen told the media he hopes all pruning work will be completed within three years of work beginning.
“With your approval, we will begin vigorous administration as soon as possible,” McGowen said.
The Memphis City Council unanimously passed the three contracts just hours later.
During the committee meeting, McGowen also said MLGW would be taking a fresh approach following the recent storms. This includes the company assessing any damage to current utility infrastructure, developing a new five-year plan, completing the installation of a smart grid to reduce outages, and re-evaluating how the company is addressing other issues for MLGW 2045.
www.localmemphis.com
https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/community/mlgw-tree-trimming-contract-approved-destructive-storms-shelby-county/522-7c217bbf-48b7-48fa-94f6-693e4a2a0306
