DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710020710

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A17  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: DECISION '97

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   45 lines

JUST GET OUT OF THE WAY, BUSINESSMAN TELLS STATE

Former history teacher Oscar Richardson devised his ideas about government's role in job creation through ``an educational process.''

That education was outside the classroom and away from the textbooks. It evolved, he said, through 15 years of experiences as owner of two small businesses based in Chesapeake.

``It's not government's responsibility to create jobs,'' said Richardson, 44, owner of Colonial Tree Care and Signature Landscapes in Chesapeake. ``I've created 20 jobs without any help from the federal, state or local governments - in fact, in spite of government.''

Government, Richardson said, hinders job creation by imposing too many regulations and too much paperwork on business. The red tape, he said, costs him ``$35,000 to $45,000 a year'' that he could use in hiring at least two more workers.

It makes more sense, he said, to ease bureaucratic burdens, especially from small companies, which produce 80 to 90 percent of private-market jobs in America.

Yet, Richardson easily acknowledges that at least one government-imposed regulation saved his life.

In March, Richardson was hit on the head by a sawed-off treetop. The lumber damaged the hard hat he was required to wear, broke one of his shoulders and dislocated his knee.

``Fortunately, I had that hard hat on, and part of the motivation for doing it was that (government) requires mandatory hard hats at job sites,'' Richardson said, chuckling at the irony.

Still, Richardson said, he'd prefer that wearing hard hats be a matter of individual choice.

``I believe that we ought to go to an employee and say, `Look, this is a dangerous field, a dangerous occupation, and you need to wear protective gear,' '' he said. ``If someone opts not to wear protective gear, that ought to be the choice that they make.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot

OSCAR RICHARDSON, 44

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