Fort Worth city officials and Sundance Square executives were in place and ready to hoist the 55-foot blue spruce Christmas tree at Third and Main streets in downtown Monday morning, but alas, there was no tree to be had.
Instead they had to wait until Tuesday morning to hoist the tree into place.Early Monday, the tree was still headed to Fort Worth from Traverse City, Mich.Sundance sent out a media alert early Monday saying that the ceremony was being postponed because of a shipping delay.Tracy Gilmour,marketing director of Sundance Square, which sponsors the tree, said the tree broker hired from Dallas simply missed his contracted deadlines. The tree didn't leave Michigan on Saturday as planned, but left Sunday.She called it an honest mistake."He just messed up," Gimour said, but added, "it's a very public mess-up."Using a crane, Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns and Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Zim Zimmerman were to hoist the tree off the flatbed truck and Sundance Square CEO Johnny Campbell was going to guide it to the 6,000-pound tree base and cables that will anchor the tree in place.The one-day delay will not impact the time needed to decorate the tree, Sundance Square said.The tree will be decorated with more than 5,000 LED lights in a traditional nutcracker motif. The lights will be turned on following the 30th Annual Chesapeake Energy Parade of Lights on Friday, Nov. 23.Sandra Baker, (817) 390-7727twitter: @SandraBakerFWSTHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
