Paul Bass Photo
Stanley Johnson squatted by a 9,000-pound Norway spruce he’d just hauled to the Green so that 30,000 colored lights can again cast a dreamy glow across the center of town.
Johnson (pictured) is a heavy equipment operator for the city parks department. He has been for 22 years.
Each of those years he has had the mission of driving out to some wooded suburban spot to work with a crew to transport a freshly felled towering feat of nature to New Haven to serve as the annual Christmas … (sorry!) holiday tree at the center of December celebrations. It’s one of Johnson’s favorite tasks of the year.
“It’s fun,” he said.
He drove tractor trailer #51 to the property of the Miller family in Prospect around 7:30 a.m. for part one of the mission: cutting the tree, then preparing it for transport.
Parks department tree-trimmer Adam Wambolt (pictured) did the honors of cutting down the spruce. Once the crew had it fastened to the tractor trailer, Johnson drove it down Route 10, accompanied by officers in five squad cars who cleared the way. A little after noon, Wambolt reassembled with his colleagues near the flagpole on the lower Green for the final task.
On the other side of the tractor trailer, Ralph DeMatteo (pictured) waited in his 135-ton all-terrain Grove crane. DeMatteo works for Smedley Crane & Rigging of Branford, which for the third year was donating equipment and manpower to the Kwanzaa … Bodhi Day … er, Hannukah? … (Sorry!) … holiday tree mission. After maneuvering his crane to lift the tree onto the trailer bed at the Miller farm, DeMatteo had to take a different route to the Green, along I‑84 to 691 to 91 to Exit 3.
“Ready?” came the call. Johnson checked the tree’s base, and the crew was indeed ready.
The crane lifted the almost 60-foot-tall spruce upright, high into the blue New Haven sky …
… then down to where Wambolt and the rest of the team helped guide it into a freshly dug hole …
… and signaled to DeMatteo for the final lowering.
Next came the removal of ties so the branches can spread out. Later a crew will return with those 30,000 lights. Make that 30,000-plus. “You lose a couple bulbs each year,” said city parks chief Rebecca Bombero, “so we buy a couple more.”
New Haven consistently has the most beautifully proportioned and decorated HOLIDAY tree I know of for a city this size. Kudos to all those responsible.
That said -- I do wonder why the city couldn't plant a Norway spruce on the Green and, when it gets large enough, decorate it annually and save the annual expense of cutting and installing a tree of this size.
What happens to the tree at the end of the holiday season? Does that 60-foot trunk get sawn up for lumber, or chipped?