Lincoln Co. man upset with OG&E after trees damaged, lack of communication

A Lincoln County man says he isn’t happy with OG&E after they wiped out trees on his property while running power to a home there.

LINCOLN COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) - A Lincoln County man says he isn’t happy with OG&E after they wiped out trees on his property while running power to a home there.

He claims he chose an option for them to put lines underground where that wouldn’t happen. However, he says that option wasn’t communicated properly.

The company put a riser pole in place despite Robert Beckham paying almost $5,000 to have lines placed underground. He claims he wasn’t told a pole would be put up or that trees would have to be cut down since he chose the option for that not to take place.

"It was heartbreaking, really,” Beckham said. “Not only the privacy, just the aesthetics."

The area in question was once a dense forest spot from above. Now, it’s a cleared area about a football field long and a couple dozen feet wide all the way down. It sits between two homes on property Beckham and his wife bought back in 2020. A tenant lives in one of the homes. Beckham wanted to run power to one of them and claims OG&E gave him a couple options. Overhead power lines with poles, or he could pay close to $5,000 for the lines to be buried. He and his wife decided to go that route.

"That way we would introduce no new poles and then therefore clear as little as possible,” he said.

Beckham said it wasn’t until power was up and running that the company put this “riser pole” in place and then cleared the trees. Beckham claims OG&E told him the pole and clearing was necessary, but employees on site that Beckham talked to allegedly were not sure about it all either.

"They both admitted they had no clue they were going to clear any trees either,” he said.

Beckham documented his conversations with the company in a word document. On Oct. 29, he wrote that he thanked them for their work and that power was working. On Nov. 2-3 it shows he documented reaching back out about the pole being placed and the clearing of trees that followed. About 5 days later, Beckham claims an employee told him over the phone that due to the speeding up of the project, communication was “dropped” on the company’s side.

"We feel like they're negligent, they're liable for the damage we have,” he said.

We have been in touch with OG&E since last Friday and Monday they sent a statement.

"We understand the customer is upset. We have been in contact with them to work toward a resolution." said an OG&E spokesperson.