WATERVILLE — The city has a beautiful, thick, tall balsam fir tree it will install Thursday downtown in Castonguay Square to be decorated with lights for the holidays.
Cornville tree farmer Bryant LaPlante offered the tree to the city free of charge and Parks and Recreation Director Matt Skehan drove on Tuesday morning to Cornville, where the tree was cut down, loaded onto a trailer and hauled to Waterville.
“I think it’s going to be really nice,” Skehan said later Tuesday. “I’m anxious to see how it turns out.”
The city in late October cut down the 40-foot-tall blue spruce tree that had been in the square more than 50 years, as it suffered from spruce needle cast disease. At the time, city officials vowed to find a cut tree to replace it for the holiday season.
The Waterville Main Street Design Committee, headed by Suzanne Culver, bought and is donating about 1,000 white lights for the tree, as well as a large star to adorn its top.
Culver and volunteers will help Skehan and other city workers put the lights on the tree after it is installed Thursday morning in the square.
“This is our contribution to the city for Christmas,” Culver said Tuesday. “We’re also going to hang white Japanese lanterns above the sidewalk that crosses from Common Street to City Hall.”
Waterville Main Street annually raises money for Kringleville, Santa’s mini-village that opens in The Center at 93 Main Street the day after Thanksgiving. Before the opening, the annual Parade of Lights, also hosted by Waterville Main Street, marches through downtown starting at 6 p.m. and the fir tree in the square is lit for the holidays.
Skehan said LaPlante contacted the city when he learned the old blue spruce was cut down in Castonguay Square and the city did not have a tree for the holidays.
“He reached out to us and I followed up, and it worked out well,” Skehan said. “It was real nice of him. He’s anxious to see it down there in the square.”
LaPlante said in a phone message late Tuesday that he saw stories in the Morning Sentinel about the city’s loss of its blue spruce and the need for a new Christmas tree, and he wanted to help.
“I just felt compelled that I had to call to do what I could to provide the city of Waterville with a quick fix. That’s all it’s meant to be, is just to get them by this season until they’re able to dig the tree for the future and replace it,” LaPlante said.
Skehan said that Parks and Recreation, Public Works and possibly Fire Department employees will help install the base for the tree and put it up in the square and then put the lights on.
On Tuesday at the city’s public works and parks and recreation complex on Wentworth Court, the giant thick, green tree lay on a long trailer, its wide stump jutting out from its base.
“I can’t wait to see it up,” Skehan said. “We’ve got the right equipment and we’ll make the base for it.”
Skehan said he likes the idea of erecting a cut tree in the square for the holidays each year.
“It’ll be a fun time and opens up the square for the rest of the year for other activities, including the summer concert series, the farmers market and other events.”
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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