Tree Removal in Steger, IL

Steger straddles the Cook–Will county line, and roughly half its four square miles is still on well and septic rather than village water and sewer. So those two facts shape almost every tree removal Steger crews handle.

Septic fields and tree roots are a slow-motion argument that the roots usually win. A willow or silver maple within reach of a lateral will find it. And by the time the system backs up, the roots have taken hold. If you are on septic here and have a large tree anywhere near the field, that is worth thinking about before it becomes an excavation.

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A Permit Both Ways

Chapter 90, Article II covers Trees and Shrubs across Sections 90-26 to 90-34. Section 90-26: no person shall plant any tree or shrub in any public street or parkway or other public place without having first secured a permit. Then 90-28: no person shall remove or cut down any tree or shrub in any street, parkway or other public place without having first secured a permit. Applications go to the village clerk and require president-and-board approval. Attaching any wire or rope to a tree needs board permission too, under 90-32.

The village also bans planting or maintaining any poplar or cottonwood tree on any street or parkway, under 90-27. Section 90-29 makes it unlawful to injure any tree or shrub planted in a street, parkway or public place. And Section 90-31 puts the trimming and hazard duty on you: owners must trim overhanging branches impeding sidewalk or street use and remove limbs likely to fall onto public ways.

Penalties, And The Noxious Vegetation Lien

General penalty Section 1-12 sets fines of not less than $50 nor more than $500 for each offense where the code declares no other fine. Each day a violation continues counts as a separate offense. Nuisance vegetation under Section 90-66 runs $25 to $750, again with each day a new violation. Under Section 90-63 the village may enter and cut, destroy and remove noxious vegetation at the owner’s expense, and Section 90-64 provides for a lien in conformity with 65 ILCS 5/11-20-7.

The Piano Capital Of The World

In 1893 John Valentine Steger opened a piano factory west of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad. By 1904 it covered twenty-three acres with a capacity of sixteen thousand pianos a year, and by 1920 Steger carried the name piano capital of the world, producing over a hundred a day. Production ceased in 1928. The village had incorporated in December 1896 around that factory.

Industrial towns plant early and generously. A hundred and thirty years later, the trees on the older streets near the factory site are among the largest in the far south suburbs — and the largest trees are the ones where the difference between a competent crew and a cheap one shows up. So a tree removal Steger sees on those streets is rarely a simple drop; it comes down in sections. The ISA’s homeowner guidance sets out what to ask a crew before it climbs anything that size.

Flooding On The Northwest Side Is Historically Severe

That is the village’s own phrasing. The village names flood points at 33rd Street with Holman and Lewis; on the south side at 35th and Susan Lane, Richton Road and Crescent by the retention pond, Miller Woods, 225th and State, and George Street at 227th. It also sits in the MWRD’s Deer Creek watershed plan area and carries one FEMA repetitive-loss single-family property.

Tree Removal Steger: What We Do

• Removals on the large mature stock near the old factory streets
• Trimming — including the overhang duty Section 90-31 places on you
• Stump grinding, and we locate the septic field first
• Lot clearing on the rural half of the village
• Storm response, 24 hours

Tree Removal Steger, Septic Checked First

Address, and tell us whether you are on village sewer or septic. On septic, that changes where we can put a grinder and what we recommend about the roots. Village Hall, 3320 Lewis Avenue.

708-424-5885 · Cook County and Will County service areas · nearby: Chicago Heights, Crete.