ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Capitol groundskeepers are out of Gov. George Allen's good graces after chopping down a 40-foot tree in the governor's front yard to decorate the Capitol this Christmas.
``I don't mind cutting a tree down,'' Allen said. ``But no one could be so stupid as to cut it in their front yard. You wander off in the woods somewhere.''
The state General Services Department this year decided not to accept a free tree from a growers association or find one on rural state land as it usually does.
Instead, workers chopped down a 20-year-old red cedar on the south slope of Capitol Square and dragged it onto the portico.
General Services officials say if the tree hadn't been harvested this Christmas, it soon would have become too big to decorate.
``We had a plan to replace it with new and more appropriate trees, and we had an opportunity to utilize it for its purpose, and that is as a holiday tree,'' said Donald Williams, director of the General Services Department, which maintains the square containing the statehouse and governor's mansion.
Further, Williams said, the cedar had been damaged in an ice storm. ``Trees are a resource that you have to manage,'' he said. ``That was part of the management issue.''
But the department's explanation didn't placate the governor.
``I didn't have that tree cut down, and every time I see it, I get aggravated,'' he said during a recent photo session. ``I love the answers: Oh, they're going to plant another tree.''
Tension between Allen and his groundskeepers is nothing new.
A similar incident occurred before his 1994 inauguration, when General Services officials wanted to cut down the magnolia trees on the south side of the Capitol where the ceremony was going to take place, Allen recalled. ``I said, `We're not cutting down any of these trees so people can see the inauguration.'''
For the governor, the cedar tree's demise this year was a reminder of an incident at the mansion involving the memory of his father, legendary Washington Redskins coach George Allen, who died in 1990.
``There was a plant that was given to me when my father died, and we'd kept it alive all these years in our home and brought it here,'' the governor said. ``These people thought the thing was dead or unattractive and just threw it out.''
Allen said his next mission is to try to get the 10 prison inmates who do landscaping chores in Capitol Square to use rakes rather than ``those gasoline-powered racket-makers.''
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB