BATON ROUGE - The city-parish tree trimming service has been inundated this year with dead tree limbs falling on sidewalks and roadways. Experts believe hurricanes and storms from years past have slowly killed a number of trees which explains the current the predicament.

"This year for whatever reason we've had a lot of hazardous trees," said EBR Maintenance Director Kyle Huffstickler.

So many trees limbs are in danger of obstructing roadways that Huffstickler asked the metro council to triple his trimming budget Wednesday night using $200,000 in one-time funding. Council members passed the measure without objection.

In a few weeks, private contractors will begin trimming dozens of problem spots. The largest projects will be on Goodwood Boulevard east of Airline Highway and Industriplex Road.