THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050210
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JEFF HAMPTON
CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: EDENTON LENGTH: Long : 160 lines
PAT MANSFIELD, Edenton's landscape architect, was dismantling a weed trimmer - fingers grimy and hair stringing in her face - when an elderly man paused to watch.
``Don't you have boys who can do this?'' he asked her.
``No sir,'' Mansfield responded. ``This is my job.''
The man, who knew Mansfield played the organ at church, then asked, ``How do you get your fingers clean enough to play the organ Sunday?''
``Don't you know how to get your fingers clean?'' she shot back.
``No.''
``You fix biscuits.''
The man laughed and walked on. Later, while Mansfield was still bent over the weeder, he returned and tapped her on the shoulder.
``If I am ever privileged enough to eat at your house,'' he said, ``I hope you won't mind if I don't eat the biscuits.''
Mansfield, a mother of three, does fix biscuits, but only after she's cleaned her hands thoroughly - which she has to do often. She is a one-person staff, and much of the tough work is hers to do.
Just in the last couple of weeks, she pulled wire grass from an 18-foot line of prickly junipers. She manhandled 50-pound bags of mulch to dress a street corner. She dug up a large tree that needed moving rather than have crews use a backhoe and possibly damage the roots.
``There are some people who think this is a man's job,'' she said, sitting on a park bench at the end of Broad Street. She had just finished mulching a bed of greenery next to the police station. Her fingers were dark with earth.
``I do have some limits,'' she said. ``For example, I don't get up in a bucket truck with a chain saw. If the job is too heavy, I'll get some help. Nobody should ruin a back just to prove something.''
Mansfield, 37, has nothing to prove. The Town Council strongly supports her and the mission of keeping Edenton well-groomed.
This town of a little more than 5,000 has the only full-time landscape architect in northeastern North Carolina. It's the second-smallest town in the state with the position. The council created the job in 1990 and hired Mansfield three years ago.
Edenton's leadership committed itself to its urban landscape when it appointed a tree committee 20 years ago and gave it plenty of power.
For example, the committee must approve landscaping plans of any new development, and no one is supposed to cut a tree more than 12 inches in diameter without the committee's approval.
Edenton is one of five cities in North Carolina designated a Tree City, U.S.A., since the award's inception 17 years ago. Basically, that means the town includes $2 per resident for a tree fund in its annual budget. There are now 35 other cities in the state with that designation.
``When you look at some of the beautiful tree-lined streets we have, somebody years ago had vision,'' said Town Manager Anne-Marie Knighton. ``Our tree committee has made sure the town kept that vision.''
The whole town gets involved in keeping Edenton green. The Garden of Eden Club plants pansies each fall in the mulched boxes around the trees on Broad Street. Even for a dozen or so people, it's a hard day's work.
Socializing is a priority among club members, admits President Susan Dixon. But they are fiercely proud of the beauty of Edenton.
``We all think Edenton is special,'' Dixon said. ``You ride through small towns in the state, and you won't find the atmosphere you find in Edenton.''
A symbol of the citizens' pride in their town is the pair of old panty hose tied in a crape myrtle on Confederate Square. The square is an island of grass and ornamental flora surrounding a statue honoring Confederate soldiers. It sits at the end of Broad Street.
Trucks often follow the street around the island to turn around. Inevitably, a truck doesn't quite make it and runs over a small crape myrtle on the edge of the square. An elderly lady, who lives in a house beside the island, always ties the small tree upright again with her old panty hose.
Edenton holds an annual Crape Myrtle Festival, first organized by Mansfield two years ago. The town honored her for it by putting her name on a plaque on the Tree Memorial.
The memorial is a three-sided brick structure about 30 inches tall just off the end of Broad Street. The Chowan River laps the diking not far away. Anyone can honor a friend to the town by buying a space on one of the plaques. The proceeds go to - what else? - the tree fund.
Edenton is one of the best landscaped towns in the state, said Virginia Russell, a state forester based in Raleigh.
``Edenton has been a front-runner for small towns in urban forestry,'' said Russell, director of the North Carolina Urban Forestry Program, which awards money to communities with superior landscaping plans and projects.
``Edenton is unique because it has been so active in our grants program,'' Russell said. ``They've received the grants because of the quality.''
Long lines of oaks and pecans form a canopy over most of the streets. In the downtown business section where large trees are not feasible, ornamental pear, holly and crape myrtle stand within mulched squares.
With the greenery, the brick sidewalks, the underground electric lines downtown, historic homes and buildings on every corner, Edenton looks much like it did when it was founded 229 years ago.
That is exactly what its citizens want.
The blend of beauty and history drew 30,000 visitors last year, according to figures from the Chamber of Commerce.
``The economic benefits of good urban forestry have been documented,'' Russell said. ``Of course, there are a zillion other benefits, too.''
Trees exhale oxygen and inhale carbon dioxide. They shade the streets, cooling the town. Studies show that even crime decreases in cities with lots of greenery.
Not everyone is happy with trees all over the place. The electric department constantly battles with the old, brittle pecans. The trees and their falling limbs cause 75 percent of the power outages in town. On Moseley Street between Queen and Blount streets, a long column of pecans hovers over the town's main power lines. When a limb takes one of those lines down, the power in all of downtown Edenton goes.
Mansfield plans to remove the pecans over time. ``In return,'' she said, ``they'll get dogwoods and crape myrtles.''
Replacing old trees and planting new ones is one of Mansfield's biggest jobs. She plants about 60 trees a year along Edenton's streets. But before she plants, she has to clear it with the electric and water departments.
``I want to use common sense and put the trees where they can grow and not disturb the utilities,'' Mansfield said.
Mansfield and her husband returned to Edenton after both graduated from North Carolina State University. At the time, ``There were no jobs here in horticulture, not for young women,'' Mansfield said.
She worked at a Perquimans County newspaper for five years before she got a job with an Edenton landscaping company. A year later, she began working for Clarence Leary of Warehouse Lawn and Garden, also in Edenton.
``He was like an uncle,'' remembered Mansfield. ``He really let me get my feet wet. I found out I loved doing this work, and I found out I was good at it.''
When Leary went out of business three years later, Mansfield opened her own. She took the town landscaping job in 1993 for two reasons: She wanted the full-time, year 'round income, and she really wanted to see Edenton's tradition of beauty continued.
``When they hired me, I told them this is not a stepping stone for me,'' Mansfield said. ``I would be proud to keep this town beautiful.''
Even at the risk of soiling her biscuits. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
EDENTON'S GREEN THUMB
Photo by JEFF HAMPTON
Edenton landscape architect Pat Mansfield says manhandling 50-pound
bags of mulch to dress gardens is part of the job.
Pat Mansfield says when she returned after college, ``There were no
jobs here in horticulture, not for young women.''
Pat Mansfield coordinates the plantings in boxes on Broad Street
with Susan Dixon, president of The Garden of Eden Club. Last fall,
the club planted pansies. Even for a dozen or so people, it's a hard
day's work. ``We all think Edenton is special,'' Dixon said. ``You
ride through small towns in the state, and you won't find the
atmosphere you find in Edenton.''
Photo by
JEFF HAMPTON
Town Landscape Architect Pat Mansfield and Town Manager Anne-Marie
Knighton meet during a workday in downtown Edenton. ``When you look
at some of the beautiful tree-lined streets we have, somebody years
ago had vision,'' said Knighton. To preserve that vision the town
hired Mansfield three years ago.
by CNB