Bright sunshine made for perfect tree-decorating weather Friday in Franklin when the community Christmas tree chugged into town aboard the “Christmas Tree Express.”
Klapec Trucking Co. hauled the 36-foot tree, donated by Dixie McEntire of Buttermilk Hill, into town at about 10 a.m. after what several volunteers said was a “record” time getting it cut and onto the truck.
“We’ve been doing it for so many years, we pretty much set a record this year,” said Ed Turner, owner of Paul Bunyan Tree Services, which cut the tree and loaded it onto Klapec Trucking’s flatbed. “We started at about 9, and we were out of there by 10.”
Urban and Turner said the companies donate their time and equipment for the endeavor.
Once the tree arrived in front of the courthouse, a small army of volunteers from the community, the city, Klapec Trucking and Paul Bunyan Tree Services maneuvered it into its box before the sidewalk and anchored it in place.
Volunteers then placed the star on top and began wrapping the tree with the 2,000 or so Christmas lights that will be illuminated on Light-Up Night a week from today.
The star was made last year by Specialty Fabrication and Powder Coating.
“There are over 1,500 lights on the street, and over 2,000 on this tree,” said Pat Dolecki, the Franklin Fine Arts Council president.
And after the city put lights on the trees in downtown parks to make up for the lack of Liberty Street lights last year, “people liked it so much that we decided to do it again,” Dolecki said, so there will again be lights on the trees in the parks as well.
Jeff Lukonic, a crane operator from ITC Truck and Crane, operated a boom lift donated by Sunbelt Rentals Equipment in Meadville to raise volunteers up to the heights required to secure and decorate the tree.
ITC did not donate the use of a crane this year as Dolecki and Lukonic said the company sold all its cranes earlier this year. But Lukonic still showed up in a festive “Merry Christmas” hat to continue to volunteer.
Dolecki said the Sunbelt representative who dropped off the boom lift “couldn’t say enough about Franklin” and that he and his family often visit and attend events.
“My heart was going, ‘Ronnie, look what you’ve done’,” Dolecki said.
Dolecki said Ronnie Beith, the former Franklin events and marketing coordinator who passed away in April, started the tradition of the large tree in front of the courthouse eight years ago along with Dan Weiland, who continues to be a Christmas decoration coordinator.
Several volunteers said Beith must have sent the sunshine and pleasant temperatures Friday.
