The top and most of the branches of this tree were removed earlier this year. (Photo: TBD Staff)

Residents of the Carlyn Place condominiums are a little miffed over the state of this now-dead tree near their parking lot. It was apparently trimmed by Dominion Power earlier this year (perhaps to fend off those nasty power outages brought on by summer storms?) but the majority of the trunk was left intact.

One lonely branch with dead needles is now all that's left, in addition to the stump.

There is no way for Dominion to verify that that work was done by the company's contractors, because the local forestry person is on vacation, according to Dominion spokesperson Le-Ha Anderson. But the company will send a contractor out to cut down the stump and break it up into pieces anyway, just in case.

"It's clearly a dead tree, and even though the limbs are below the lines, when tree is left in this condition, best to have taken it all the way to the ground," Anderson says. "We will instruct the contractor to go out and have it taken down as soon as we can."

It may take a few days, though, as most of the company's tree trimming crew is on location in its North Carolina service area to help with potential Hurricane Earl cleanup.