Tree obstructing safety

East Haven (WTNH) - An East Haven man says every time he pulls out of his driveway, he's putting his life at risk because a giant tree is obstructing his view.

The town has agreed that the tree should come down, but three years later it's still standing.

When Sherman Best built his house 55 years ago, the tree at the end of his driveway wasn't big enough to be a problem.

"It continues to grow, year by year, and now I can't see when I'm trying to back out of the driveway. I'm afraid of an accident because you can't see the traffic coming up the road," Best said.

The tree is so close to the street that it's on town property, so Sherman started writing letters and e-mails to the town of East Haven asking it to cut it down.

Kent Pierce: "The Town of East Haven seems to agree with you?"
Best: "Yes they do. They've answered all my e-mails and sent me letters and so forth, but nothing seems to be able to finish up."

In that correspondence, the town writes "the responsibility of either trimming the tree or completely removing it rests with AT&T since it involves their utility pole and lines."

And sure enough, you can see utility lines actually running in between parts of the tree. So even though the town put up a tree removal notice in August of 2006, the tree is still there, still causing Sherman to worry.

"It will either be a danger to me or some visitor here some time and create a big problem," he said.

News Channel 8 contacted AT&T and they say they have to contact the other utilities that are using the pole before it can come down.