It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas in downtown McMinnville. A crew brought in the Christmas tree on Wednesday.
“It weighs approximately 6,000 pounds and was donated by Ronnie and Debbie Dunham,” said McMinnville Public Works director Bill Brock.
Debbie says the tree was one of five in the yard when they purchased their home in 1999.
“I think the trees were planted in 1998 by the previous owner,” she said. “That’s as close as I can come to the tree’s age. There were five in a line. Over the years, they became diseased and had to be cut down. This one tree remained.”
The Dunham family enjoyed decorating the tree at Christmas time until it grew too big.
“It got way bigger than we could manage in the yard or decorate at Christmas,” said Debbie. “It was planted in the wrong place. My husband and I had discussed removing it, but I wanted to donate it to the city to give it one more chance at being a Christmas tree and providing joy for the holidays.”
That, says Brock, was two years ago.
“We looked at this tree two years ago and it was just too small,” Brock says. “We went with another tree. The problem we ran into last year was the tree was just too big. It actually broke when we were trying to place it. We decided it was time to scale back on size so it would be easier to manage.”
The department took a second look at the Dunhams’ tree and decided it was just right.
“I was happy to donate it,” said Debbie. “We enjoyed the tree. My kids enjoyed the tree. It brought our family a lot of fun at the holidays to decorate it. I hope it brings the same enjoyment to people when they see it.”
While the city has already placed lights on the tree. It will be decorated by Junior Auxiliary for its Christmas in the Park event Dec. 3 and a lighting ceremony held Dec. 7 following the Christmas parade that is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Superior Walls provided the crane that was used to lift the tree into place on The Lot.