Kings County fed up with dangling trees post-Arthur

People in Kings County, N.S., say theyve reached a breaking point when it comes to trees near power lines after learning Nova Scotia Power filed a report defending the way it handled post-tropical storm Arthur.

Arthur's mess has long been cleaned up, but overhanging trees, the culprit inwidespread outages last month, continue to flirt with power lines.

"We want it fixed. Our trucks are getting smashed. Our mirrors, aerials are getting broke off our trucks and we're driving down the middle of the road instead of on our own side of the road because theyre beating on trees and we are fed up with it, said Donnie Blenus.

He leads a group of people who saythey've had enough. They gathered on Monday to voice their concerns.

One of the main issues for people who live or even drive by the trees is the fact that the next big storm could cause more problems.

Farmer David Fuller says it's something that can be addressed immediately.

We've got hurricanes that will come up the coast. What's going to happen? And for us as independent businessmen, we just can't sit back any longer and allow this to continue to deteriorate, he said.

Nova Scotia Power acknowledges it needs to do more tree trimming, especially in the Annapolis Valley.

However, it doesn't take all the blame for what happened with Arthur.

"They haven't seen those kinds of winds creating that kind of damage and so it means our customers don't have the incentive necessarily to want us to do vegetation management, to want us to cut the trees, said spokesperson Sasha Irving.

Blenus and others in the group saythey'd go cut down the trees themselves if they were allowed.

They argue the province and the power company need to take more responsibility.

"For Nova Scotia Power to come on and say the weather man predicted the weather wrong and that's why it happened, how gullible do they think Nova Scotians really are? We're not that gullible. I'm not and everybody in this crowd's not that gullible, he said.

The group says they won't stand down until they get a meeting with the premier.