CUYAHOGA FALLS — Cuyahoga Falls City Council approved a three-year, $158,000 contract with LiveEO for the use of satellite imagery to monitor vegetation growth around power lines in the city at the June 8 meeting.
Electric Department Assistant Superintendent Jimmy Filon said this is a new and innovative approach to vegetation management for electrical outages.
Filon said LiveEO, based in Berlin, Germany, uses satellite imagery to monitor power grids and detect hazard trees, measure vegetation height, and predict grow-in/fall-in risks, which helps prevent electrical service outages. Filon said that by using the data, the department can predict whether a tree will become an issue. He said the city has been using an earlier version of the software for the past year and is happy with it.
“The longer we use it, the more it can predict,” Filon said, noting the first year is primarily focused on gathering data. “[LiveEO] can’t predict a whole lot because they have nothing to gauge it against,” he said. “So we’re asking for a three-year contract so we can see over the span of four years how the trees are growing [and] how they are decaying.”
Filon said the software monitors three things: grow-in risk, fall-in risk, and hazardous trees.
“It’s an incredible program, and it’s a lot cheaper than LiDAR,” he added.
LiDAR uses light detection from aircraft to measure vegetation and identify potential risks, while LiveEO uses satellite imagery collected during multiple passes over a designated area to monitor changes over time, predict vegetation growth and identify potential risks.
“We want to make sure this is cost effective for the city, saving the outages and doing what’s best for the community,” Filon said.
The Electric Department will use feedback from this monitoring to work with line clearance contractors to proactively trim vegetation.
The city contracts with Davey Tree for line clearing services, and Filon said the company is very supportive of the LiveEO program. He added the city’s municipal arborist, David Passarelli, is also excited about the software. Filon said Passarelli and his team have been using TreeKeeper, a cloud-based tree inventory program through Davey Tree that allows the city to map, track and analyze tree health, environmental benefits and maintenance needs. The city is currently working on a way to merge the two programs together, using the TreeKeeper program for inventory purposes and comparing the data with LiveEO to measure the health of trees.
“We’re going to be very proactive in our approach to tree trimming,” Filon said. “I know residents of Cuyahoga Falls love our trees, and we don’t want to unnecessarily hurt any trees, but we do want to see how they are affecting outages.”
Filon said the City of Westerville has been using this program for years and has cut its vegetation-related outages by almost 40%.
“Hopefully we can get there, too,” he said.
Filon said that trees account for the majority of the city’s electrical outages, and the Electric Department will benefit from this service by reducing the amount of electric outages.
Council President Russ Balthis expressed his enthusiasm for the program and thanked the department for spearheading it.
“Power reliability is so critical,” Balthis said. “Outages happen, but they’re always frustrating, so anything we can do to reduce outages is really appreciated. The fact that we can use satellites to get this level of accuracy is incredible. Thank you for looking at innovative ideas; I’m excited to learn more about this as we use it for the next coming years.”
Council also approved a $639,987 contract with Mogadore-based H.M. Miller Construction for the Nutwood Avenue sanitary sewer improvements.
City Engineer Tony Demasi said the lines for both Nutwood and Ashland avenues — both built in 1917 — are subject to backups and need to be improved. The project will include replacing the sewer on Nutwood with 8-inch PVC pipe, and lining the sewer on Ashland. He said because of the proximity of fences and other structures on Ashland, as well as the sound wall on state Route 8, “it’s simply easier to just line it as opposed to tearing it out and replacing it.”
Design for the project was completed earlier this year, with work expected to start in the fall and be completed by spring 2027.
Legislation introduced and slated for discussion during Council committee meetings next week includes:
• the transfer of $67,000 from the General Fund to the Princeton Crossroads Tax Increment Financing Fund as an advance;
• a contract for overhead power line clearance services including tree maintenance, tree and brush removal services and mowing; and
• an ordinance amending the Traffic Control File.
There will be a public hearing on an ordinance to extend the downtown Cuyahoga Falls Community Entertainment District June 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the Natatorium, 2345 Fourth St., followed by Council committee meetings. Cuyahoga Falls City Council will have its next regular legislative meeting June 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the Natatorium.

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