O&R Begins Tree-Trimming in Town of Goshen September 26; Village of Goshen Trees to Be Trimmed in Six Weeks

PEARL RIVER, NY September 19, 2007 — Lewis Tree Service, an O&R contractor, will be dispatching its tree-pruning crews throughout the Town of Goshen beginning September 26 to help improve the reliability of O&R's electric service by trimming trees in the community.

The work should take approximately six weeks. The Village of Goshen's O&R-sponsored tree-trimming should begin after the work in the town is completed.

O&R operates a model tree-trimming program that nearly $5 million annually under the watchful eye of electric utility regulators in three states and a highly trained and experienced certified utility arborist on O&R's staff.

O&R's program conforms to the pruning guidelines recommended by the International Society of Arboriculture. Those guidelines are devised to minimize stress to trees using techniques that also permit workers to redirect tree growth away from power lines.

Tree contact is the primary cause of electric service interruptions in O&R's heavily wooded service territory. Tree trimming is an integral part of keeping outages to a minimum and making storm restoration more efficient by managing the growth and maintenance of a healthier, more storm resistant tree stock.

O&R's program is predicated upon the philosophy that successful management of the tree stock requires a careful balance of prudence and pruning. We strive to maintain that balance through our everyday work.

Here are the streets that will be affected by the work:

Village of Goshen: Fletcher St., North Church St., Greenwich Ave., Scotchtown Ave., Murray Ave., Lincoln Ave., Orange Ave., Green St., Spring St., and associated side streets.

Town of Goshen: Route 17A, Route 17M, Maple Ave., Sara Wells Trail, Pulaski Highway, Reservoir Road, Craigville Road, Yankee Maid Lane, Cheechunk Road and associated side streets.

O&R's four-year-tree-trimming cycle along its distribution lines prunes an estimated 225,000 trees covering about 1,200 miles annually and is credited with a 17.5 percent decrease in tree-related electric power outages since 1991. Performing this work on a four-year cycle takes into account that tree growth will occur over the intervening three years and adequate line clearances will be maintained through the cycle.

In addition, during the off-cycle period, O&R strives to identify and remove trees that pose an immediate risk to our equipment. Those trees may be diseased, damaged or in some other way vulnerable to a failure that could damage our system during a storm.

Along its off-road transmission system, O&R trims 475 miles of transmission lines on a three-year cycle under a newly promulgated state-mandated plan that grew out of the Northeast Blackout of 2003 and requires all electric utilities in New York to remove non-compatible trees from their transmission rights-of-way.

The National Arbor Day Foundation has recognized O&R with the Tree Line USA award each year for the past six years for training its workers in quality tree-care practices and helping its customers to plant appropriate trees near utility lines — an approach that not only helps to provide beautiful trees for the future, but also results in long-term operational savings and improved reliability of service for our customers.

For information about no-charge wood chip delivery or more information about this project, please call O&R's Customer Service toll-free at 1-877-434-4100.