Elderly couple receives help from inmates after tree trimming service gone wrong

Tanya Baer, [email protected]

Green River- Green River residents, Jim and Anita Shoemaker, were recently left with a huge mess after a hired tree trimming service decided to leave the job incomplete. The tree trimming service had agreed to haul everything away after they were finished but this was never done.

Their yard was unusable for over a month while the company was still working on the trees, and there were also several times when trees had almost fallen on their home. Not only was the yard left a mess, but while the service was cutting down trees, they took out their entire fence in the backyard with several different trees.

The company stopped answering calls, messages, and would not respond when asked to remedy the situation. Cristie Shoemaker, daughter of Jim and Anita, stated, “These people took their money and left them in the situation they were left in.”

Friends and neighbors tried to help the best they could, but it was still too much work. Although the fence has not been fixed, luckily, the yard was finally cleaned when one deputy witnessed the massive amount of work that needed to be done. A work crew from the Sweetwater County Detention Center’s Inmate Community Service Program was dispatched to assist the Shoemakers. In a Facebook post made by the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, the inmates were thanked, “Fantastic work, gentlemen, on a job well done! I hope each of you got the message loud and clear after hearing it directly from Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker probably about a hundred different times throughout the day, but your efforts today made a real-world of difference in the lives of a very special Sweetwater County family.” Multiple comments thanking the inmates and Sherriff’s office were also made on the post.

In another Facebook post, Cristie Shoemaker expressed her gratitude saying, “HUGE RAVE to the SWC Sheriffs Department & the inmate program that allowed them to come clean their yard up.” There is still a pile of wood stacked in the yard with a sign that says “FREE” on it. Jim and Anita Shoemaker are very thankful for the friends, neighbors, inmates, and Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Department who all came together to help them out.