There’s nothing wrong with Altoona’s ordinance placing the responsibility for tree maintenance on property owners, even if the city planted the trees.

Many other places have such a requirement.

However, if certain trees have not been a problem but something new comes along suddenly that causes them to be one, the responsibility for corrective action should rest with the party responsible for the problem, not property owners who, up to then, had been in compliance with the tree-maintenance law.

Altoona’s leaders should have known better than to initiate a crackdown on property owners along Seventh and Eighth streets when there wasn’t really a justifiable basis for doing so — that being something that the property owners failed to do.

The reason trees on the two streets have become an issue is because of Amtran’s acquisition of new, taller Compressed Natural Gas buses.

Because of the increased height, limbs of the trees in question now are hanging too low.

Rather than first brainstorming the sudden problem from all perspectives, the city’s Public Works Department opted for the easy “solution” of ordering property owners to correct the problem, using the tree-maintenance ordinance on the books as the foundation for the department’s stance.

Letters were sent to 35 property owners indicating that they now were in violation of the ordinance, one of whose provisions carries the threat of fines ranging from $25 to $1,000 and even prison time of up to 90 days, to those who fail to “abate the nuisance.”

Beyond that, the ordinance allows the city to correct the problem and bill the property owner; failure to reimburse the city could result in a lien being placed on the property.

Fortunately, city officials aren’t unanimous in pursuing such penalties. That has resulted in officials delaying enforcement of the order that the letters contain.

However, about a dozen property owners have notified the city that they have complied by removing offending branches.

They merit praise for their response, and if others can help in that way, they should do so. However, it must be acknowledged that some of the property owners in question might not have the physical ability or the financial wherewithal to take such action on what can be likened to a moment’s notice.

Councilman Dave Butterbaugh is one of the city officials opposed to the way the Public Works Department initially handled the situation. He described that action as an embarrassment and an example of “insensitive government.”

“We can’t be asking people to fix problems the city created,” he said. “I’d be upset, too.”

The letter sent to the property owners could have mentioned the ordinance’s requirement and asked for the property owners’ help, if possible. But, all considered, ordering corrective action and threatening penalties was government-out-of-order.

“We’re not trying to place any undue burden on residents,” City Manager Marla Marcinko said.

That wasn’t the message many of the property owners along the two streets gleaned from the letter; many of the property owners rightly considered the letter governmental heavy-handedness.

The tree situation must be resolved quickly; that’s without question.

But it’s a city and/or Amtran problem to correct, not anyone else’s.