The Dispute Over the Pumping Station Trees
A landowner battles the city's light department after linemen clear-cut trees for a new high-tension line.
The story, cleaned up
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Lewis Center is seeking damages from the city because the light department linemen cut down trees on the line of the new high-tension pole line to the South Tacoma pumping station. Center says he will hold the city to strict account for destroying his property. Commissioner McGregor, however, has a letter from W. H. Opie giving him the right to cut the trees on the land in question, with Opie claiming Center has no ownership of the land at all.
“He will hold the city to strict account for thus destroying his property.”
This property dispute highlights the historical tensions of utility expansion into private or contested land, an issue that still arises with modern public infrastructure and easement projects in Tacoma neighborhoods.
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