If A Tree Falls On William, Does It Have Right Of Way?

If a tree falls on William Street, does it have right of way? This philosophical question came to mind the other morning when I witnessed a Cape Girardeau city public works crew removing a very large and very dead tree that appeared to be on very private property at the northwest corner of William Street and West End Boulevard. This is the same corner that a forest of political campaign signs sprouts up every election season. You can't miss them. It's a very popular corner for politicians, but more on that in a minute. At the moment, we're talking trees. I have several very large and very old trees on my own property. I have a couple elms and a pair of Norway maples that are all around a 100-years-old. My wife and I love our trees. They're part of what distinguishes our neighborhood. But trees do come at a price, especially very mature trees. They require maintenance. And while I will do a lot of things around the house, attempting to give a haircut to a tree 75 feet tall is not one of them. When we need that work done, I call in a professional with a bucket truck and all the other tools to have the job done quickly and safely, but never cheaply. No, tree trimming is rarely cheap, but it's one of those maintenance expenses you should expect to have owning property with mature trees. That's why I was surprised to see the city removing this dead tree that was at least a dozen feet from the edge of William Street. I assumed this was on private property and if that were the case, the work should be done by one of our local tree trimmer services and not the city public works department. While there are valid exceptions to that reasoning -- storm damage and public safety concerns topping the list -- the tree didn't appear to be in danger of toppling over anytime soon. I figured that I wasn't the only person driving by this intersection trying to figure out why the city was now in the business of trimming trees -- or in the case of this one, removing them -- so I did a little sleuthing and found out something interesting. This particular tree was actually in the city's "right of way." The right of way is the area on either side of a road or street that a city reserves the right to use for things like burying utilities or putting in sidewalks or, as is often the case, nothing at all. The right of way is often reported as a number of feet that includes the entire width of a given road. For instance, the city maintains a 70-foot right of way for most of William Street. However, on the northwest corner of William and West End, the right of way stair steps up to 90 and 120 feet encompassing nearly all of the land up to the bungalow that faces West End. The engineer at City Hall who I spoke to was a little perplexed by this situation. It's an unusual right of way, but apparently, it has been like this for a long time. It's anybody's guess as to why this was done. Perhaps, a house existed there back when William Street was just two lanes and the property was acquired by the state during the street widening in the 1970s. An email to the city public works department actually clarified the issue. Not only was the tree in the city right of way, the city also owns this lot. This raises another philosophical question. If political campaign signs are posted on city-owned property -- in direct violation of local signage ordinances -- does anyone care?