A 30-foot-tall spruce that has welcomed guests to the Methuen Senior Activity Center for four-plus decades is going out in style, starring as the city’s Christmas tree at The Loop!
“It’s been here 42 years – since the Senior Center opened – and has seen many come and go,” the center’s Executive Director Sue Riccio told MethuenLife on Nov. 26 as the massive tree at the driveway’s entrance was prepped for removal. “However, it’s just so big there. It could lift the new roof and cause ice damage in the winter. Squirrels can now access the roof and potentially get inside the building. This decision was done with love and tender care.”
Riccio said the idea to donate the tree to the city was made after the Senior Center board and Methuen Council on Aging members examined its branches touching the building and encroaching on the roof. If it were to fall in a storm, there’s the possibility the tree could damage the Senior Center or, if it fell toward the street, rip down power lines.
Parks and Rec Director Steve Angelo, who helps find the city’s tree and organizes its removal with help from Livingston Family Tree Service and Coady’s Towing (who both donate their services), said this was again a win-win situation.
“Each year (the tree) is donated by someone whose tree has outgrown its space or something similar,” he said. “Here, the Senior Center needed to remove this tree. It’s a beauty!”
The city’s DPW was in charge of the decorating, and the picture-perfect spruce starred at the city’s Dec. 7 tree-lighting festivities. The tree will remain up until the week after New Year’s.
Riccio noted, “This spring, we look forward to planting a tree here in its absence.”
In a little over an hour, Livingston Family Tree expertly freed the 30-foot-tall spruce from its trunk and the side of the Senior Center where its branches touched the building and roof. Coady’s Towing transferred the tree to The Loop.
