Pastor offers to spare tree -- for $75,000

CENTRALIA, Ill. -- A towering bur oak believed to be older than this tranquil Tree City USA itself may get the ax if locals don't meet a pastor's demands: Pay $75,000 or the mighty tree outside his church gives way to more parking.

The Rev. Johnnie Wilson II says he has every right to cut down the tree outside the Bible Based Community Church along Pine Street.

And while the city and the area garden club scramble to find a common ground and spare the oak believed to predate this 14,000-resident town founded in 1853, Wilson flexes off quiet rumblings by some locals that the whole deal seems, well, shady.

"It's not like it's a ransom thing," he said this week during an interview that almost didn't happen after he started by asked whether the reporter was willing to pay him to be questioned. "If they want this tree enough, then they'll do it [and raise the money]. If not, it just tells me the tree wasn't worth what they said." Still, "more likely than not, the tree's coming down," he said, though he offered no specific deadline.

Wilson says he wants the $75,000 to buy adjacent property for parking, thus sparing the tree he considers a "headache" for all the leaves and limbs it dumps on the grounds and on the flat roof of his church, a former synagogue he obtained about a year and a half ago.

City leaders acknowledge that Wilson owns the tree and legally can do anything with it. But City Manager Grant Kleinhenz has been searching for solutions.

Kleinhenz says the city has offered to lease to Wilson for a $1 a strip of city-owned land for angled parking just outside the church. Wilson balked, citing among other things maintenance costs and the prospect that the city could "tear up the lease at any time." The city also says Wilson may be able to strike a deal for a nearby state-owned lot that isn't used on Sundays. The pastor, who wouldn't release his church's membership, also rejected that, calling the lot too far away for children, elderly or special-needs worshippers.

Kleinhenz said the city even offered to vacuum up the leaves and limbs if Wilson and his congregation could get them to the curb. No deal. Wilson said that would do nothing about the real problem of leaves piling up on the roof.

"I think we've done what we can do with the exception of buying the building, and we can't do that," Kleinhenz said.

With a Tree City USA designation from the National Arbor Day Foundation, "we're concerned with our image and want to preserve this tree," he said.

The local Tyme to Garden club _ formed in January and boasting 115 members _ has formed a task force to address the dispute before Wilson chops down the tree that was around when Abraham Lincoln came to town, president Pam Ackerman said. Raising the $75,000, she said, isn't likely.

"We only hope that Mr. Wilson will care about history and preservation," she said. "We feel things of that magnificence and age should be preserved." Claiming the city hasn't done anything, Wilson says he has set up a fund at a local bank, though no one apparently is donating. The only thing he's gotten, he said, are five pennies _ painted red _ mockingly mailed to him.

"If they can raise the money, I have no problem saving it. That's more than we have to do," Wilson said. "We're giving them the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is." Wilson spelled out his demands in a written statement June 3, among other things telling the hometown newspaper that locals should "put your money where your mouth is" and that "actions speak louder than words." "So again to all those who want the tree to remain, it is in your hands," Wilson said. "People mean more to me than a tree!" On the Net: Centralia city Web site, http://www.city.centralia.il.us