Title
2026 Emergency Tree Service Support
History
On July 27 and August 10, 2026, severe weather events caused widespread tree damage throughout the Village, including an EF0 tornado on July 27 and an EF1 tornado on August 10.
To assist with the resulting cleanup and hazard mitigation efforts, the Village engaged four (4) contractors to supplement the efforts of Public Works crews. Three (3) of these contractors, Smitty's Tree Service, Homer Tree Care, and The Davey Tree Expert Company, maintain existing Master Services Agreements (MSAs) with the Village for tree services, including emergency storm response. The fourth contractor, Semmer Landscape, serves as the Village's current mowing and maintenance contractor under an agreement whose scope includes grounds maintenance.
At the time of requesting assistance from each contractor, Public Works asked vendors for “Proposal Sheets” to have an idea of the hourly cost for cleanup services. The requested scope of work included brush clean up, branch removal, and tree removal, although not all companies have been performing all services. For example, Semmer and Homer have been primarily focused on brush cleanup on parkways and Village parks, while Smitty’s and Davey have concentrated on branch (i.e. hanger) and tree removals.
An initial verbal approval was granted by the Village Manager for these companies to perform storm cleanup work for a total amount not to exceed $24,999.00, knowing that contracts would need to be established with Village Board approval as the final total cost for these services would exceed this original amount.
As the main storm cleanup effort has spanned thirty-one (31) days (July 27 through August 26), and numerous storm-related tree removals are still being scheduled, Public Works expects the submittal of several invoices from all (4) companies over the next few weeks. To date, only partial invoices for the storm cleanup have been submitted by three (3) of the four (4) contractors to ...
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