ATCO Electric Yukon officials say they will meet with a property owner who’s accused their staff of breaking into her Wickstrom Road property, cutting down trees and dismantling her gate while she and her husband were away.

The company maintains the trees cut were on Crown land next to the private property on Wickstrom Road.

While the gate was accessed so crews could get to the area to work, it was put back together properly, the company says.

In a letter sent to ATCO on Tuesday, Janet Dickson wrote that – though pre-warned by the caretaker in charge of the property – she and her husband returned from a two-month vacation recently to see the trees gone. They then learned more of the situation with the gate.

The trees cut, she said, were a 20-foot by 30-foot swath of aspens.

“These aspen they cut would never have interfered with their power line, but certainly ruined the pleasure I get when the aspen leaf (is) out in the spring,” Dickson wrote in her letter.

She went on to argue that while ATCO has a key to her gate, it is authorized only for employees to read the meter.

Tree cutters accessed the property and did not close the gate behind them, she said.

“Then on another occasion, my caretaker came home and found the electric gate broken into, all dismantled, and strangers in the yard,” Dickson wrote.

“Apparently, they climbed over my six-foot fence and dismantled the gate. This is break and enter, and everyone I tell this story to, agree.

“Anyone else would be charged for this illegal act, but ATCO’s pockets are deep.”

Dickson goes on to note she is only the second owner of the property, originally surveyed in 1923.

“ATCO has breached my trust, and I am requesting that they return my gate key, as I can no longer trust them with it,” she wrote.

“I will make other arrangements to pay my bill. Alas, they are brash enough to just climb over my fence and mow down whatever is in their way.”

In an interview earlier this week, Dickson said that while ATCO contacted her last year and explained the company would be replacing poles in the area (which was done), there was never any contact about taking down trees on her property.

While she asserts the trees were on her land, ATCO’s Jay Massie said in an interview the company had an independent surveyor go out to the property to confirm the property line before any work was to be done. That was done to ensure they did not cut on her property.

ATCO, he explained, has a licence of occupation on the Crown land next to Dickson’s property for work that needs to be done.

He did acknowledge that ATCO staff did scale the gate on the property to get in.

While he noted it may not have been the best way to go about accessing the land, he also said a planned power outage to the area meant the electric gate wasn’t working.

Thus, staff scaled the gate to access the property, dismantling it when they were over so that other staff could get through.

When the work was done, ATCO staff put the gate back together and made sure it was working properly before leaving, Massie said.

While Dickson is maintaining the trees cut down were on her property, ATCO says a survey was done showing they were not on her land.

Massie said after speaking with Dickson on the phone, officials will meet with her in person in the coming days to address the issues.