EAST MOLINE, Ill. — Sometimes trees need to come down. When that happens, Squirrels Tree Care in East Moline is here to help.
Started by Jon Steiniger in 2009, the tree removal company has made a name for themselves around the Quad Cities for their efficient work sawing, lifting and hauling away fallen or dead trees.
But things got really exciting when Steiniger was able to purchase his new tree crane truck, Megatron, shortly after 2020's derecho that devastated the Quad Cities region. The gigantic vehicle is one of only six such 'knuckleboom' trucks in the world, and packs a one-of-a-kind remote control crane, capable of keeping the workers on the ground and out of the danger zone up in the trees.
"That truck is world known," said Steiniger. "There's tons of articles and YouTube videos dedicated to it."
When extended, the crane can stretch 126 feet. At that reach, it can still pick up abut 1,600 pounds. But when the arm is pulled in near the truck, it's capable of lifting 26,000 pounds.
"It's incredible what we can do with that truck because that truck is so much safer than anything else we do," said Steiniger. "It takes the abuse away from the humans up [in the trees]. It's more efficient; made things a lot safer; and since we're able to do jobs faster, we can give customers better pricing."
Steiniger purchased the vehicle from the man who engineered it: Justin Hartmann of Canary Tree Service in Florida. Besides creating trucks, Hartmann is known for his service work when it comes to storm cleanups. Steiniger says he was drawn to Hartmann's genuineness and passion for helping those in need.
And it didn't take long before Hartmann called on him.
Three days after officially owning Megatron, Steiniger got a call from Hartmann. A tornado had ripped through Fultondale, Alabama, and Hartmann was pulling together a crew a tree care businesses to drive there and help the recovery effort.
"First he asked me if I could get down there. Then he asked me how soon I could get down there," remembered Steiniger. "So we packed up and took off from Illinois at 11 o'clock that night and drove through the night to get there."
In the months since then, Steiniger has answered several of Hartmann's calls to help cleanup after tornados, hurricanes and ice storms. With the help of Megatron, the three-person crew from Squirrels can finish jobs faster, and reach more people. The truck can lift fallen trees off of houses with ease, and even reach over buildings and power lines to collect debris all the way from the road.
Their latest call was March 26, when an EF4 tornado swept through Newnan Georgia.
"We actually drove through a tornado in Tennessee to get there so it was a pretty wet, wild and windy drive going down the interstate," laughed Steiniger.
But he sobered up as he remembered the sight that greeted them when they got closer to Georgia.
"Once we got to Alabama we started noticing trees across the high and on the shoulders. And then once we got into Georgia it looked like someone literally started pushing trees over like dominos," he said. "All the houses were ripped apart. The roofs were off. You could see all the trees in front of the middle school were tipped over and laying in the yard. It was just destruction everywhere."
Steiniger says the difference between hurricanes and tornados always gets him. With a tornado, the destruction is reminiscent of a bomb going off.
"You can see the hardest impact area just by the tops of the trees. They were all just ripped off. They looked like standing polls everywhere, like pencils were just sticking in the air, broke off."
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The crews spent several weeks in Newnan, including the Easter holiday, going from house to house and helping whoever they could - sometimes working until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, pulling down trees by spotlights.
"One of the big misconceptions that people have is they think, oh, you're coming in from out of town, you're an outsider, you're probably just here to get rich. Then they see these million dollar trucks rolling around and they're like, yeah they're here to make money," said Steiniger. "But most of the time we're there doing stuff cheaper than the local companies... because we're able to."
But sometimes, even their cheaper work is too much for devastated families. When that happens, Steiniger does the cleanup for free.
"We bill the insurance companies for the jobs that we can, and then the people who can't afford it or don't have insurance... obviously with Covid and everything going on, it's kind of tough for people to make ends meet right now," he said. "We understand if you have to pay home owners insurance or put food on the table, you're gonna put food on the table. So we try to help out as much as we can."
It's a gesture that often leaves people in awe. But as Steiniger puts it, he's just learned that money isn't everything.
After Hartmann and the other tree crews rolled out of Newnan, Squirrels stayed behind for an extra four days, due to a broken axel on their support truck. During that time, Megatron was still operable, so Steiniger was still accepting jobs.
"There was this woman that had reached out to [Hartmann] through social media and told him about her mother, that had 60 trees down. Of course when people say we got 60 trees down, you think it's an exaggeration right off the bat. And when I showed up over there it was disastrous," he said. "She had probably two acres of wooded area there and every single tree was blown over."
When Squirrels initially showed up, the woman asked them to remove seven trees near the house that were in danger of falling over. Steiniger offered to do it for only $1,500, but after talking, he realized the retired school teacher didn't have the means for that.
"I told her well that's fine, we'll be here in the morning. She seemed to be a little bit skeptical, but I told her we don't want anything in return. We'll be here in the morning with some trucks and some equipment and we'll get everything moved as quickly as we can."
The next morning Squirrels managed to move over 30 trees in just two hours, opened up the driveway, cleared the yard and took four trees off the shed. It's a job that typically would have cost upwards of $30,000.
Afterward, the woman and her daughter let him know they had come up with $1,500. But Squirrels wouldn't take their money.
"I told her that I greatly appreciated it - the gesture will not go unnoticed - but I couldn't accept it. And she instantly started crying on the phone," said Steiniger. "I felt real bad because I didn't want to upset her, but they were happy tears."
As he puts it, he had the right crew and equipment in the right place at the right time.
"She needed the help and we jumped in and did it."
If you ask Steiniger why he does those free jobs, in such devastated areas, he'll look at you like the answer is obvious.
"We don't do it for the glory or the recognition. We just do it because it's the right thing. In this world we live in there's not a lot of good deeds that go done these days. A lot of people kind of stray away from others and this is the time when we need to come together," he told News 8.
While he doesn't love the weeks spent away from his family and his home in Illinois, Steiniger and his crew say they'll continue their storm cleanup efforts for as long as they can. And as long as Megatron continues to work.
"There's a lot of times that people need you in a moment of need and the best thing you can do is come in there with an open mind and be ready to help," he remarked.