Your Tax Dollars...

Workers kill statehouse Christmas tree

Mandated fire-retardant application snuffs out blue spruce

-- It's a Charlie Brown Christmas for Rhode Island's official Christmas tree.

The 18-foot Colorado blue spruce lost its needles and died after Statehouse workers dried it with commercial fans and sprayed it with a fire-retardant chemical. The workers were following the stringent new fire code enacted after a nightclub blaze in
West Warwick three years ago killed 100 people.

Bettencourt and a team of farmers rushed Thursday to get a replacement tree. The task proved complicated because the law also requires a fire marshal to be on hand when a tree destined for public display is cut down, to ensure freshness.

"This one will not be sprayed," promised Steve Kass, a spokesman for the
governor.

It's safe, dead, but safe.