Tom's Tree Service

About Tom's Tree Service

Tom's Tree Service knows the cottonwoods that line the Platte's edge south of town the way some people know their own backyard — which ones lean toward a driveway, which ones drop a limb first when ice coats the branches — and that knowledge doesn't stop mattering once the leaves are down. When ice loads those same branches in January, the crew is often out at first light listening for the particular crack that means a limb is about to let go, clearing it before it lands on a driveway it will be shading again by July. Grand Island's older streets carry a lot of these big river trees close to the road, planted well before some of the houses they now hang over, so ice management and driveway clearing end up being the same visit more often than not. The river itself rarely freezes solid where the current stays fast, but the ground on either bank locks up hard, and a plow blade has to work carefully around roots that buckle the pavement underneath. By the time a storm has passed, this crew has usually cleared wood off the ground and snow off the drive in the same pass down the street.