ST. LOUIS – An 83-year-old St. Louis woman reached out to FOX 2 to get something done about a city-owned tree.

Margaret Kent and her son, Kelton, feared the tree could fall in a storm. They called our You Paid For It team for help. Branches have fallen from the tree and have just barely missed her.

“Terrible. Because I don’t want no one to get damaged by this tree. I had a limb almost hit me in the head a couple of weeks ago,” she said.

To make matters worse, the tree is breaking up the sidewalk, too.

It’s also been a challenge for her son when he comes over.

“Problem is this tree has been sitting in front of my mother’s house since 2019, and I’ve requested it to be removed because the fear is someone is either going to get killed or it’s going to fall and damage someone’s home,” Kelton said. “It actually has fallen on a car. I had a rental vehicle and it fell on the rental vehicle, and damaged it as well.”

The family said they’ve contacted city hall time and again with no luck. They called Alderwoman Pam Boyd as well, but are still in the same boat.

“I been asking the aldermen and everyone to get this tree down, and so far, no one has done anything about it,” Margaret said.

FOX 2 reached out to Alderwoman Boyd. She got back to us right away. When Boyd heard about the problem, she got moving too.

“I contacted Forestry (Division) and talked to them about trees, and I went an extra step and contacted Streets and talked to them about the sidewalk,” she said. “They said they were going to get the tree down and they were going to replace the sidewalk. It will be next week and we’ll start the work.”

Margaret said she’ll be pleased when the tree is finally removed and the sidewalk repaired. Her son is feeling a lot better about the situation, too.

”Actually, one of our friends suggested to give you a phone call. Because they said when you come out, things happen in communities,” he said.