TreeDimensional

Ekka, thats interesting, I am a bit curious on a few points. The first thing is, is this a public or private school? The second issue is who is Q-build? And finally, does the groundskeeper (gardener) have any qualifications for consulting on such a job.

If this is a public school, I wonder why the principal is calling the shots on work that could have MAJOR consequences. Here is Saskatchewan, all the public schools are funded by the Provincial government. The facilities and their maintenance are over-seen by a Division school board, which employ caretakers/grounds keepers. There is always a superintendent for facilities, whose job is to over see the maintenance and improvements to the infrastructure. When there are issues that require special consideration, the work is either allocated to specialists in the area or region. Major works are usually tendered, which unfortunately goes to the lowest bidder.

I appears obvious to me that the contractor did not know OR care that the work they were doing was GOING to impact the existing trees. It is my understanding that these are remaining trees from a group. If this is the case, the first thing that should have been done is an inspection to access the viability and health of the trees, of course there should have been a risk assessment done at that time also. Now there MUST be a risk assessment done to protect the users of the facility, the kids are a more valuable asset that the building, but it needs to be protected also.

If the principal asked the gardener to oversee the project, I think she may be in for a rocky ride. She might be held liable for putting the building and the students at risk, if her employee (gardener) isn't qualified to access the site. The gardener, if not qualified, was acting like our competitors in the private sector, HE would be considered an uneducated hack. If he was qualified to supervise the job, he would be considered a lousy supervisor.

I should have waited for my first three questions to be answered, but sometimes we put things on the back burner, if they don't directly effect us. Three years ago we started our first school contract, it took several years of advising, calling, and lobbying, to convince the school division that they had some serious tree issues. The contract we have is renewed annually, and so far every year the volume of work has doubled.

Like Ekka, I accept every time I am asked to speak to or show the students something. I would like you all to think of me as a good guy for doing it, but the truth is I enjoy giving the little ones a glimpse of what tree work is about, but the real truth is when little Johnny or Jane go home and tell Mom and Dad what they saw when I was there, it generates business for me.

Whenever public safety is an issue, the management MUST look to the professionals for advice, failing to do so is a blatant disregard to the laws of the land.