County trees hinder power repairs

MIDDLE RIVER, Md. (WMAR) - It was a hot and frustrating Fourth of July for people who live along Compass Road in Middle River – they’ve been without power for more than five full days.

And repair work on the power lines serving their neighborhood hasn’t even started.  “They’ve got to move the tree to do anything. It's on all the wires,” said Shirley Phillips, who has lived on Compass Road for 40 years.

A BGE truck was on the scene, but that’s just to keep people away from the mess.

Friday night’s storm brought down a huge tree, which ripped down power lines.

“The biggest problem is knowing that the tree was not on our property. It was on property that hasn't been maintained,” Phillips said.

On-line property records confirm the wooded area behind the homes is owned by Baltimore County.

The trees are huge and over-grown.  Residents say they've complained for years but the trees have not been trimmed back.

“We've had this problem before,” Phillips said.  “Trees crash down from the woods and last time they fell on my neighbor's house. This time it happens to be mine. ”

After Hurricane Irene they lost power for five days.  This storm is sure to break that mark.  And when it does, a home-made sign in front of Shannon Marquardt's home will show it.

“Now it's five days and every morning we'll get up and put another notch on there,” she said.

Five days and nothing has been done to get rid of the huge tree.  In many others areas the frustration has been directed at BGE.  Along Compass Road people have reserved their anger for Baltimore County.

“Whenever there's a bad storm the trees are ripping off down there and it's not fair to us and to the older people around our area. It's just not fair,” Marquardt said.

BGE has told people who live in the area that it will be late in the weekend before they can expect the power to come back on.

A spokeswoman for Baltimore County told ABC-2 News that because of the holiday she could not confirm whether anything has been done to trim that wooded area behind Compass Road.