OUR ROCKEFELLER SPRUCE

Thar She Goes!

As more than 50 people look on, “Daddy Al” and Susan Dick’s huge Norway Spruce is lowered onto the flatbed that will carry it to Rockefeller Center, where it will be the centerpiece of Christmas celebrations that begin in early December.  Inset, two woodsmen from  Lynn Warren Lawn Maintenance & Landscaping, Newburgh, attach the harness to the spruce – midway up and at the bottom.  Once cut, the crane lifted the harness, and the tree swung – to “ooohs!” from the crowd, and some applause – and laid in on the flatbed.  The rig will be parked outside New York City until Saturday, when the lighter weekend traffic will enable it to be placed alongside the skating rink at Rockefeller Center, 22 acres that stretch between  48th and 51st streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues, about a three-minute walk from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  This tree, on Route 23 in West Oneonta, is the second Town of Oneonta fir tapped for the Big Apple festivities in four years; in 2016, Graig and Angela Eichler, Country Club Road, provided a record-tall 96-foot tree.  (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)