Tree threatened house but town failed to act, homeowner says

SMITHFIELD — Town government can do better than this, a new resident told Smithfield leaders on July 16.

When he and his wife bought the house at 310 E. Church St., they noticed that a tree on the town side of the sidewalk was dead, Luke Stancil told the council. “When I mean it was dead, every person that finally came to our house said this was a dead tree and posed a safety issue to my property and to my family,” he said.

But no one from the town took action, Stancil said. “I’m not here to degrade the town, I’m not here to get on anybody specifically,” he said. “But I called the town five times about this matter. No one came.”

The exception was someone the town had hired to survey all street trees in Smithfield to see which, if any, needed attention, Stancil said. “He said that through hurricane season, this tree would fall,” he said.

But his five calls to Town Hall went unheeded, Stancil said. “Nobody from the town came to our house,” he said.

Stancil then called a Smithfield elected official, Councilman Sloan Stevens. “I would likely to publicly than him,” he said of Stevens. “He’s everything that a public servant should be.”

Stevens came to his home, saw the tree and then called the town’s Public Works Department and Electric Department, which took a look and agreed that the tree should come down, Stancil said.

“But that being said, the town was still slow to react, and 48 hours later the tree fell onto our house in the middle of the night,” he said. “Now thankfully it didn’t fall seven hours later when we were scheduled to have a yard sale and have people in our front yard and at our house.”

Town government failed in its primary purpose, Stancil said. “Our local government is here to provide safety to our community, and only living here for seven or eight weeks, I haven’t seen that,” he said.

Smithfield responded quickly when the tree fell, Stancil said, thanking the town for that. “Everybody has been nice, professional,” he said. “But the town was slow to react, and I just wanted to bring that to the town’s attention. When there is a safety issue, I think the citizens should be heard.”

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