New Haven Independent

Workers from the New Haven Parks Department wrestled the beast onto a 34-foot flatbed truck on Friday morning and delivered it to the green, where it was installed in the ground by a crane and anchored with steel guy wires.

(Click on the play arrow to watch a slide show of the process.)

The tree was donated this year by the Alling Memorial Golf Course. Some residents near the course were overcome with emotion at the tree’s departure. “I want to smile and cry at the same time,” said Sheila Martino, who has lived near the golf course her whole life. She and her sister Pauline Carbone have fond memories of sledding there in the wintertime. Martino took some pine cones from the tree to use for decorations for her Christmas tree this year.

Installation was held up by a series of delays on Friday morning, starting when the huge tree broke a metal stanchion that was supporting it on the flat-bed. Other delays included, low power lines, parked cars obstructing the exit at the golf course, and a too-small hole on the New Haven green.

“You can’t rush perfection,” said Christy Hass, who was supervising the operation. Hass is New Haven’s deputy director of parks and squares. “I just do squares,” said Hass. “If you need anything to do with circles or triangles, that’s another department.”

Hass chose this year’s tree from at least 30 that were offered to the city. She said that this tree is slightly shorter than last year’s, but that it’s “fullness and shape make it perfect.”

Now that the tree is installed, the parks department has a little over three weeks to install the lights before the tree is officially lit on Nov. 29. The tree will be decorated with between 20,000 and 30,000 lights, with one light placed every five to seven inches along each branch.

The tree will be taken down sometime after Jan., when it will be ground up into wood chips.