Church fined $4,000 for 'excessive tree pruning'

Chris | InformationLiberation
May. 28, 2011

Nice little gem from the Charlotte Observer:

Every two to three years, Eddie Sales trims and prunes the crape myrtles at his church, Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church.

But this year, the city of Charlotte cited the church for improperly pruning its trees.

"We always keep our trees trimmed back because you don't want to worry about them hanging down in the way," said Sales, a church member.

The church was fined $100 per branch cut for excessive pruning, bringing the violation to $4,000.

Of course, the government is acting like this is all perfectly normal.

"When they are nonrepairable, when they have been pruned beyond repair, we will ask them to be replaced," Johnson said. "We do that for a number of reasons but mainly because they are going to come back unhealthy and create a dangerous situation down the road."

Ah yes, they just care so much about the trees. I'm sure it has nothing to do with raising revenue for a bankrupt government which constantly spends more than it can steal.

I suppose they should consider themselves lucky they didn't try anything truly criminal, like *gasp* raising bunny rabbits. Then their fine would be $4,000,000.