If not for the large oak tree in their backyard, Penny and Philip Scoggins say they might never have bought their house in east Arlington to begin with.
“We fell in love with it,” said Philip Scoggins. “It’s just rare to see a tree that old.”
That’s why they’ve spent the past two weeks trying to talk Oncor out of cutting down roughly a third of it.
“I was like 'oh no, this is way too drastic,'” said Penny Scoggins. “You take something that big off the tree, you can very well put the tree’s health in danger.”
Last month, they received a flyer from Oncor informing them that crews would be coming through their neighborhood to cut limbs that were too close to the power lines.
The Scoggins get their tree trimmed once a year – so they decided it would be appropriate to have a private trimmer come work on the tree, hoping to avoid any conflicts with Oncor.
They say they were surprised when Oncor came back and said the limbs on their tree would still have to come down.
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“This is an overzealous application of the rule,” said Penny Scoggins. “These limbs have been here for decades and they haven’t been a problem. I just had it trimmed. You know, let’s work something out.”
Oncor says it’s stepping up its tree trimming efforts in response to two major power outages that crippled the region this past year. Ice storms last December and severe wind storms in October produced the second and third largest outages in North Texas history. In each case, Oncor says trees and limbs badly damaged power lines.
“We understand the frustrations of customers when it comes to tree trimming,” said Kris Spears, a spokesperson for Oncor. “But this all comes back to reliability.”
After multiple discussions with the Scoggins, Oncor agreed to send an arborist and crews to their house Tuesday morning to measure how close the tree’s limbs are to power lines. They’ll use that information to determine how much of the tree will have to come down.
“We want to make sure we’re striking the right balance between a customer’s desire and the reliability and obligation we have to provide that service,” said Spears.
The Scoggins say they understand Oncor’s concerns and want to help them strike that balance.
But they hope that balance means their tree can stay mostly intact.
“Yes, of course we’re going to compromise,” said Penny Scoggins.
As of Tuesday night, the Scoggins had not yet heard back from Oncor.
Penny Scoggins says if necessary, she will chain herself to the tree to protect it.
Arlington city council member Lana Wolff also reached out to Oncor on the Scoggins’ behalf, asking them to come up with some kind of compromise.
