Paige to retire as city arborist Dec. 23
Terry Paige has been in love with flowers and trees for a lifetime.
He’s been looking out for the interest of trees and everything they represent in Rome for the past 14 years.
Paige will retire as the Rome City Arborist after 27 and a half years with the city. The first half of that service spent with right of way crews in the street department. He was certified as an arborist in 2001, but didn’t become the arborist until 2007.
Terry started working at a family floristry business where he developed his love for flowers and trees.
“People are passionate about trees and Terry understands that passion,” said Mary Hardin Thornton, a former Keep Rome Floyd Beautiful director. “It is fun to ride around with Terry and recognize the many trees he has helped to plant. His personality and his experience
really made him the perfect city arborist.”
Paige estimates that he’s planted a minimum of 600 trees in Rome over years, and that doesn’t even include tens of thousands of pine saplings that were planted on two different occasions to provide cover at closed landfill sites.
Current KRFB Director Emma Wells said Paige would leave a lasting legacy in the form of hundred of vibrant
and healthy trees.
“His knowledge and passion for tree care in Rome and the state of Georgia are unmatched and he will be so missed,” Wells said.
Paige particularly proud of the City Arboretum along the trail between Chieftains Museum and the Veterans Memorial Bypass bridge over the Oostanaula River.
“We saw the need to plant because of losing some when we built that trail through there,” Paige said. “The arboretum came about because a few people had requested to be able to plant a tree for somebody.”
Street trees are in the harshest environment and trees designated to honor someone needed to be in an environment more conducive to them living out a long life.
Paige is also particularly fond of the Chinese Pistache trees. a whole group of which are planted along North Broad Street across from the jail, which offer vivid colors in the fall.
The Oklahoma Red Buds that were planted along Second Avenue are also among his favorites.
Terry is currently the president of the Georgia Tree Council, a body that is wellrepresented by locals.
Paige said he plans to remain active with the effort to promote healthy trees in the Rome area but when his wife retires from the Floyd Medical Center in a few years, they plan to do a little more traveling.