The widow of a long-serving Mountie is literally fighting Kelowna City Hall to reclaim thousands of dollars it cost her when a tree — planted and jealously and solely maintained by the city — blew out all the electrics in her home..“It was the long May weekend and we’d just finished dinner and we’re sitting watching the news and all of a sudden there was a loud bang!” Stella Robertson recalled..“All of a sudden the TV went off and (bulbs in a tri-light fixture above the kitchen table) went off —pop! pop! pop!” said the widow of RCMP Staff-Sgt. Gordon Robertson..“We wondered what the hell happened,” said the retired senior..Robertson, who lives on a fixed income, ran to the neighbour’s home only to learn they too had heard the loud explosion, but still had electricity..However, the apparent power surge “… blew the TV and blew the refrigerator,” said Robertson..The neighbour checked the widow’s breaker panel, only to find the surge had welded all the screws to the metal box..After running extension cords from the neighbour’s place to her own for a couple of basic electrical necessities, it didn’t take long to discover what went wrong..Turns out a tree planted by the city several years earlier at Robertson’s curb had rapidly grown to the point the constant motion of the branches abraded the insulation of the power wire going to Robertson’s home.. Kelowna widow left blowing in the breeze after city hall denies damage claimPicture of the power line after it had been abraded by tree branches. .Because May 23 fell on a holiday weekend, Fortis — a BC natural gas and electricity company — was unable to attack the problem until two days later..However, when Fortis workers did show up, they confirmed the outer coating of the main power supply line into the home had been worn to the bare wire by the constant friction of a branch of the tree, which resulted in a short that caused a major power surge into the home..After consulting with her insurance company, Robertson was advised to make a roughly $4,000 claim with the City of Kelowna. The claim included only the direct costs of repairs and replacement..Now, one might think the city would admit to being on the hook for the several thousand dollars in damage because they planted the tree and banned homeowners from doing any botanical maintenance on it..A couple weeks later, Robertson received a letter from Steve Easton, an insurance adjuster acting on behalf of Kelowna who wrote: “ … an investigation into the claim is underway.”.Soon after, Easton sent a second letter to the beleaguered homeowner stating the claim was denied..In the letter, Easton wrote: “The City of Kelowna maintains several thousand city-owned trees which are inspected on a three year basis for any concerns related to pruning or removal. The Parks Department inspected the tree in front of (Robertson’s address) in December 2018 and saw no issues or problems. Pruning of the tree was conducted in May 2020, and at that time, no concerns were identified. The Parks Department had no way to foresee that a branch from the tree would later come in contact with the power line.”.Robertson’s son, Gord, helped his mom file an appeal, but that, too, was denied..In the letter, again penned by Easton, he wrote: “Please be advised the City of Kelowna’s response to your claim has not changed and if you wish to pursue this matter further you will have to do so through the courts.”.Western Standard interview requests to Easton were not acknowledged. As well, calls to the City of Kelowna — in part, to see if there were similar claims — weren’t returned..That leaves the widow of a man who served his community for 33 years on the hook for repairs, which she said is closer to the $6,000 mark..“The intention now is to take the city to civil court,” said Gord..“They’ve (city hall) left us no choice.”.Mike D’Amour is the British Columbia Bureau Chief for the Western Standard..,.mdamour@westernstandardonline.com
