August Storm Tree Removal Cost Extra $150K: Deerfield Village Board

DEERFIELD, IL — In August, a microburst storm tore through the area, with heavy winds knocking down countless trees and leaving thousands of residents without power. Village officials said Department of Public Works employees worked tirelessly to clean up the mess.

"Emergency wise, we had power outages. We had trees down," said Robert Phillips, director of public works and engineering, at Monday night's Deerfield Village Board meeting. "Our generator caught on fire, and as a result, you know, to get through this, we had extra services from some of our vendors."

Phillips said eight DPW crews were mobilized to clean things up over the course of three to four days. The Village also took on the responsibility of removing privately owned limbs and logs, as long as that debris was brought to the Village parkway and neatly stacked for collection.

RELATED: 2K Deerfield Area Residents Still Without Power Following Storm — ComEd

"The teams went out and did brush clean up, tree clearing, tree removal, everything under the sun, and really got us back into great shape," Phillips said. "Without the eight crews, by my estimation, we would still be working on tree removal."

Phillips said the DPW staff was "quickly overwhelmed" with the volume of material that needed to be handled. In addition to downed limbs, a high number of trees required completed removal, according to Phillips. Advanced Tree Care, the Village's current tree trimming and removal contractor, provided a majority of the equipment and tree removal expertise. The Lincolnshire-based business sent the Village a $150,970 invoice for the work.

Since the cost was not in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, the Village Board needed to approve a resolution to approve the cost for emergency tree removal, as well as additional labors costs of $21,000 from outsides sources. The resolution was unanimously approved.

RELATED: Cleanup Continues Following Microburst Storm In Deerfield — Village