Dave Barbee says he never dreamed Augusta had "shrubbery police" until he received a letter from the city telling him he'd violated a city ordinance by cutting his crape myrtle trees.

"They're telling me I'm in violation of the law and subject to a fine because I trimmed the crape myrtle trees in front of my house," said Mr. Barbee, who planted the trees a few years ago.

The letter from the Augusta Public Services Department states: "The Public Services Maintenance Division has noticed that the city owned Crape Myrtles have been cut along the public right-of-way in front of your property, 2813 Lombardy Court. The trees in question were improperly cut, without the written consent or approval from the Public Services Maintenance Division or the Tree Commission."

Mr. Barbee said his neighbor received a similar letter from the city, and they agree it's un-American for the city to be paying someone to ride around and look for people cutting their shrubbery the wrong way.

"I pay $2,700 a year in property taxes to live in our home, and we spend our personal money to landscape the yard," he said. "We're paying to beautify our property. In turn, they're reassessing it, so I pay more taxes, and now they're telling me how to cut the trees."

Mr. Barbee sent a copy of the letter to District 3 Commissioner Joe Bowles, who said that he has heard from "quite a few people who have gotten letters" and that he plans to ask City Administrator Fred Russell for an explanation.

"I think it's freakish waste of taxpayers' money to look for people who are trimming shrubbery rather than looking for diseased and dead trees that fall and crush people's homes and take people's lives," Mr. Bowles said. "I think the taxpayers that were singled out are due an explanation."

Michael Greene, interim director of the city's Public Services Department, said that he doubts anybody is riding around looking for improperly cut shrubbery but that when workers are trimming trees and see a violation of the tree ordinance they send a notice to the property owner.

And if people plant trees on city right-of-ways, as Mr. Barbee did with his crape myrtles, city workers wouldn't know it doesn't belong to the city.

"Our people don't maintain a list of people planting trees on our right-of-ways," he said. "They don't know whether it belongs to the city or the homeowner."

Trees and shrubs on city right-of-way are city responsibility, he said, no matter who planted them.

While Mr. Barbee, his neighbor and Mr. Bowles might be angry, Augusta Tree Commission Chairman LeRoy Simkins said he's glad the subject has come up publicly.

"I think people whacking on crape myrtle trees is a brutal thing to do to a beautiful plant," he said. "I call it crape murder."

According to Mr. Simkins, people erroneously think cutting the trees back in the winter makes them bloom better. Actually, they bloom on old and new wood, and whacking on them ruins their beautiful natural shape, he said. His theory is that maintenance landscapers don't have anything to do in the winter to bill customers for, so they cut their crape myrtles.

"They ought to be taking down dead trees, but trees on city right-of-way should not be whacked on by adjacent property owners," he said. "It's against city ordinance."