It’s stood on the north lawn of the Laurel City Hall for more than 100 years, but on Saturday tree cutters from The Shade Eliminator in Laurel cut down the historic oak tree.
“The tree has been dying for several years now and there was nothing we could do to save it,” said City Horticulturist Cynthia Parker. “It was becoming a high liability risk with branches constantly falling off.
“People park their cars in this area and people are walking in and out of City Hall everyday,” she added. “If one of the big branches were to fall on our historic City Hall and cause some damage, we would have to spend a lot of money to have it repaired.”
So on Saturday morning, Park and Laurel Tree Board members Roger McCleod and Valerie Loechen came to City Hall to watch the tree cutting process that began at 8 a.m. and ended later in the afternoon. They had cameras to record the event no one took pleasure in watching.
It was even harder on Johnny Pool, owner of the company hired to cut down the tree. Pool, who has worked with Parker and the Tree Board on several city beautification projects, said he “really wanted to save the tree.” It’s something he and others had worked on for about seven years.
“It’s a part of the city’s history and you just hate to see it come down,” he said.
Parker said a lot of area residents hate to see it come down and she has been taking pictures for those who couldn’t bare to come and watch the tree cutting.
“I’ve been taking pictures of the tree from sunup to sundown,” said Parker. “I was here when they first started cutting it down and I will be here until the end, taking pictures of each stage.”
According to Parker, the tree’s circumference measured 15 feet and 6 inches.
McCleod added that they will take a piece of the tree’s trunk and count the lines to see if they can get a better picture of the age of the tree. He added that they will use a piece of the trunk to develop an educational display to hang at the Sportsplex.
“We will get some local students to do some beautiful art work and since the tree is more than 100 years old, place some information about Laurel’s history in each of the age rings of the tree,” said McCleod. “We want to put it in a place where a lot of children will be able to see it.”
In addition to the display, the Tree Board plans to make the wood available to wood carvers across the state. They will have a meeting at Ben Morgan’s woodworking shop to distribute the wood.
“One of the criteria for getting a piece of the wood is that they must send us photos of everything they make from it,” said McCleod. “We want to make a scrapbook for our records.”
Parker added that the tree will continue to live through the crafts made by the woodcarvers.
“We just want to do the tree justice,” she said.
Local News
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Photo/Charlotte A. Graham
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