Event organizers laughed at Ken Crampton's idea of using a pear made of chicken-wire to highlight the city's First Night festivities in 1994.
But for 10 of the past 11 years, Crampton, with the city's blessing, has proudly lowered the 6-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide faux fruit into a cheering crowd on New Year's Eve.
But after his pear was beaten to a pulp by overexuberant teenagers this past New Year's Eve, the city opted for a change.
The city decided Crampton's pear will play second banana to a fresh design submitted by the public.
But Crampton doesn't find that very peachy.
"They laughed at it, but now it's something they want to own and claim is there's," said Crampton, who owns Eyeclopes Studio on Caroline Street.
Crampton said the pear is his intellectual property and copyrighted. He said meetings with the city illuminating this point have been the pits.
"I'm trying to negotiate with them but they keep insulting me by saying we don't think you own it, and you didn't create it," he said.
The city is asking the public to submit designs for a replacement pear.
"It's a community celebration and here was our chance to invite the community to participate in our midnight celebration," said First Night coordinator Kimberly Herbert. "We in no way excluded Mr. Crampton."
City officials say Crampton can submit a design like anyone else.
"Why should I compete for something that's already mine?" he said. "I want them to either purchase the idea from me or license the idea to maintain its artistic integrity."
Crampton said this latest disagreement is a throw back to 1998. That's when the city trucked in an outside pear from Nevada and attached it to the Executive Plaza office building.
"It was like the wound was reopened from years ago," Crampton said. He believes politics were to blame for his pear getting overlooked that year.
At the time, he was an outspoken critic of the city's decision to rezone land for the Celebrate Virginia tourism campus.
But this time, he's baffled by the hostility toward his precious pear.
"I don't see why it's happening this time," he said. "I'm not a government watchdog or organizing the citizens."
Herbert insists the city just wants to give other local artists a chance to participate.
Earlier this week, Herbert said she hadn't received any applications for a new pear.
Yesterday, she said she's received submissions but wouldn't give a number.
"We're excited about what we're seeing," she said. "We'll look at the proposals and work with the winner on what's best to use for our midnight celebration,"
The deadline for pear entries is May 2. The city will give the winner $1,000.
In support of Crampton, Fredericksburg resident Tom Byrnes wants to top that offer by giving $1,050 to anyone who "might otherwise win this disgusting contest, provided the winner withdraws their submission and denies the city its attempt at thievery," Byrnes wrote in a widely distributed e-mail.
Byrnes has also alluded to a boycott of the city's First Night festivities with one dubbed "Last Night."
The event is planned as "a huge private celebration open to those who used to enjoy First Night, which is now nothing more than an after-thought to a celebration which endedin 2004."
To reach ELIZABETH PEZZULLO: 540/374-5421 epezzullo@freelancestar.com