ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Battered by passing trucks, broken by ice and wind and disparaged by some business owners, the trees lining Norwood Street downtown show the scars of life.
Now some people are calling for replacement of the 11 Bradford pear trees with smaller ones, but the majority of City Council opposes that sentiment.
City Council discussed the trees' condition at a recent meeting after it received a letter from the city's Beautification and Forestry Commission stating, again, that something needed to be done about the trees. A report produced about a year ago by the commission recommended replacing the flowering trees at a cost of nearly $4,000.
The commission's report said the trees were deteriorating, blocking business signs, damaging sidewalks, encroaching in the state right-of-way and, consequently, damaging passing trucks.
The issue came to a head when one council member witnessed an employee of University Amoco pruning a city tree.
For the last seven years Amoco's owner, Greg Brown, has trimmed a city tree that he says "engulfs" the sign where he posts gas prices, which state law requires to be posted and visible. On Aug. 9, Councilman Dave Worrell, an ardent supporter of the trees, saw the pruning in action and called it "mutilation."
Brown said 35 percent to 40 percent of the trees overhang the property line and he has an employee trim the trees "straight up" from the property line.
Brown said he does not advertise in newspapers or on television and his sign constitutes "95 percent of my advertising."
But Worrell was appalled that anyone would interfere with the trees before council had a chance to take action.
"I was very disappointed, to say the very least, when I saw a tree being butchered mercilessly. It was the ugliest looking thing I've ever seen in my life; it was mutilated," said Worrell, whose wife was president of the Radford Chamber of Commerce when it raised the money for the trees.
Worrell conceded that Brown had asked council in a letter to look into the tree issue, but that council got the letter about five weeks ago and had not had time to act. He also conceded that the trees could have had better care over the years.
But, he said, Brown should not have taken matters into his own hands.
Mayor Tom Starnes said he opposes cutting down all the trees, but said three or four need to go.
"I would support eliminating those and replacing them with smaller ones," he said.
When asked why the council opposed taking out all the trees, Starnes said it would take eight to 10 years before replacement trees would grow to a significant size.
The issue will come before council again on Monday at its regular meeting. City Manager Robert Asbury Jr. said the issue that has come before the group twice before and no action was taken.
"It's a conflict and it needs to be resolved," he said.
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