Public Servants

As previously noted here, a tree fell on my house, taking down my phone line and Internet connection and doing substantial damage to the roof on my home. The falling timber could have been prevented – if my local government had responded in a timely manner.

One would think that having a tree lying across one’s roof would make public servants “hop to it” and help the homeowner determine the ownership of the tree, especially since another tree is perched precariously over a 100-square-foot storage shed with carport attached.

Wrong.
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Instead of helping the property owner and taxpayer, a manager at the Office of Land Records declared as follows when the needed information about the ownership of the property was not available on the computers: “This is too time consuming. Hire an attorney, and do a title search.”

As if there is time to wait! At any moment, the tree perched over my shed could bring down the structure. Furthermore, another tree on that same strip of No Man’s Land is being prevented from falling by a chain holding together a split trunk; should the chain not hold, the tree would fall on my neighbor’s house, a historic home.

So far, getting the local government to accept any accountability whatsoever has been an exercise in futility, although I am climbing the ladders of the local governmental bureaucracy in an attempt to prevent more damage to my property. But paying the real-estate tax bill even one day late, and the wrath of the local government will pursue the taxpayer like the Hellhounds.

The terms “criminal negligence” and “reckless endangerment” come to mind when describing the behavior and lack of action on the part of my so-called public servants.