PARKERSBURG - One more symbol of Christmas will be introduced Dec. 4 with the annual lighting of the city Christmas tree.
Mayor Bob Newell said the ceremony for the tree lighting will be at 6 p.m. Dec. 4 in front of the Parkersburg Municipal Building.
Newell said this year's tree was donated to the city by Sheila Brown of Willoughby Drive. Newell said the tree is about 30-feet tall.
Article Photos
The Christmas tree for the City of Parkersburg stands on the front lawn of cIty hall Friday. The official tree lighting ceremony for the tree and the smaller one to the left is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec 4. (Photo by Jeff Baughan)
The tree was selected from offers the city received.
"We get two or three a year and the public works department will take a look at it to determine if we can use it," he said. "Some of them are too big. If we can't get to them without getting into a yard or power lines we can't use them."
Newell said anyone interested in donating a tree for next year should call the public works department or the mayor's office.
"Usually we get pretty nice trees," he said.
However, in the future the city may not need to rely on a donation since an evergreen tree has been planted at city hall.
"We did this so we would not have to worry about getting a tree in the futrue," Newell said. "Some call it our 'tree in training' and like last year we will have it decorated with lights."
Newell added this year's tree will not have decorations like they have had in past years.
"This year it was decided to not have decorations on the tree," he said. "We had local school kids make them, but it was hard to get them here at city hall in the after-school hours."
In past years all local schools were invited to make decorations but usually one or two schools accepted the invitation.
As part of the tree-lighting ceremony, the Parkersburg Bicycle Advisory Board and the City of Parkersburg will sponsor a family friendly bike ride from the City Park Pavilion at 5:30 p.m. to the ceremony and then back to the City Park Pavilion.
