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Community tree gets facelift
Red ribbons spruce up holiday tree branches

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br>
Williams Chamber of Commerce Events Coordinator Sue Atkinson looks on as Jim Winbourn and crew hang bows on the Community Christmas tree.

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br> Williams Chamber of Commerce Events Coordinator Sue Atkinson looks on as Jim Winbourn and crew hang bows on the Community Christmas tree.

WILLIAMS - Decorators with the Williams Christmas Committee added a few additional touches to this year's Community Christmas tree, following a number of complaints to officials with the Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce and the offices of Williams City Hall. On Dec. 17, crews hung a number of large red bows from the community tree and removed the star located at the top of the tree, which began to sag recently due to inclement weather. The star was removed in order for city officials to repair the rebar that was attached to the tree, which bent during the recent blizzard that moved through the Williams area Dec. 7.

"The wind from the blizzard that we had actually bent the steel in the rebar," said Williams Chamber of Commerce Event Coordinator Sue Atkinson. "It wasn't the tree that was bending; it was the rebar. Red velvet bows were hung on the tree. People from the community, they've asked not to mention their names; they were concerned with the tree, had questions (and) they came to the committee and we told them what our situation was. They offered to purchase these decorations and donate them to the community. They were hung (Dec. 17) only because the city finally got the lift and the tree dug out for us. The lift was buried in at least 10 feet of snow and we could not even get to it. People love the bows."

When it comes to ornaments for the tree, Atkinson said ornaments have to be purchased every year.

"There's breakage from the weather, breakage from the wind, there's breakage from when we take them down. Decorations were moved two different times this year from different storage units. I think, in moving them they just break; they're plastic," Atkinson said. "We've only got about 250 in storage right now. We did sell some. We sold about 50 in our little parking lot sale that we had to try and raise some money."

Atkinson said the budget for the 2009 Community Christmas tree event was a little over $14,000, some of which she said went to paying back about $4,000 in debt from last year's $29,668 event.

"The money was spent on paying back the debt, on purchasing new lights, a new sponsor sign was made, and some new stuff that needed to be purchased for the facades. Because this event now came under the Chamber, everything we do for Mountain Village Holiday was incorporated into our parade and our lighting contest, which costs for those events came out of this money, parade awards, and lighting contest awards. There was an electrician's bill, because we had to have the box rewired because we went with different lighting this year. At our last meeting, we figured we were down to $1,500 still in the bank."

Besides city and chamber offices, Williams Mayor John Moore said he personally listened to a number of complaints.

"I've had a number of people complain about it. I think what needs to be done now, is they had budget problems and they had a committee that worked hard and did the best they could do with what they had to work with," Moore said. "It is a community tree and it is a volunteer committee that does it. There's a lot of people that were not satisfied with how the tree looked. I would be happy to work with the committee to see what we can do next year."

The city's involvement, when it comes to the Community Christmas tree, concerns locating a suitable tree and getting it into the city.

"We assist them in getting the tree located in and the police department helps in getting it in. As far as the tree itself and the procuring of the tree, decorating the tree, that's the Christmas Committee's responsibility. The city has funded, in the past, some of the decorations," Moore said.

Whether the Community Christmas tree will return in December of 2010, Moore said, will be a community decision. Meanwhile, the Christmas Committee will begin next year's Christmas budget in the black, Atkinson said.

"We will have some money. We've already had some negotiations with the Grand Canyon Railway. Their sponsorship contract was up this year. We did go into negotiations with them (and) they have agreed to sponsor it again next year," Atkinson said. "We're also going to work with their holiday decorators over there and piggyback on ordering decorations with the railway, which will help, I think, with costs. We're really thankful to the Grand Canyon Railway®, to APS (Arizona Public Service), our major sponsors that really help facilitate and do the Christmas tree. We're thrilled that they have been such great community partners and that they're willing to do this and give Williams a great Christmas season. Most towns don't do this. Most towns don't bring in a 50-foot Christmas tree and stick it in the center of the town."

A planning meeting for the 2010 season will be at Doc Holliday's lounge Jan. 6, beginning at 5:30 p.m., Atkinson said. The public is welcome to attend the meeting.

She said it is doubtful that plastic ornaments will be used on the tree.

"They cost about $2,000 and every year we need to buy new ones," Atkinson said. "We are looking at giant plastic snowflakes, something where the wind will blow through them. They're actually lit. There are just a lot of different ideas."

The 2009 tree lighting was held in conjunction with the holiday light parade on Nov. 28. Strolling carolers, holiday characters and a performance by the Heritage School Choir were among the highlights of the 2009 holiday event. This year's holiday theme was "A Time for Christmas, Christmastime in Williams." The Community Christmas tree was placed in its home near the corner of Second Street and Route 66 on Nov. 20.


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