Plumeria trees fall victim to Maui crew's mistake

Associated Press

A Maui County official has apologized after county workers accidentally cut down a Kihei homeowner's plumeria trees.

A county crew responding to a report of a neighborhood tree causing a problem mistakenly cut down Misha Sofianos' 20-foot Savannah plumeria trees from her yard Wednesday.

The problem tree that the workers meant to cut down, a kiawe, had already been removed by a private contractor.

"We definitely want to apologize," Public Works Director Gil Coloma-Agaran said.

The mix-up began when Sofianos called the county more than three weeks ago to complain about a nearby kiawe tree that housed a nest of bees.

After the county told Sofianos it would not remove the kiawe tree, she hired a contractor to take it down.

But a county crew arrived at her yard with instructions to take down a tree "next to a telephone pole." They found only Sofianos' two plumeria trees.