‘Marge’ Xmas tree shunned in Oamaru
THE Waitaki District Council has voted to keep it natural this Christmas.
An artificial Christmas tree could make Oamaru’s festive centrepiece look a little too much like Marge Simpson’s blue beehive, Cr Craig Dawson said yesterday when the council’s asset committee considered a recommendation from staff that a fake tree would be cheaper in the long run.
A photograph used as an example of an artificial tree in the council’s roading manager’s report reminded him of the animated housewife, he said.
Another councillor who voted to defeat the recommendations to purchase a $20,000 artificial tree using funds from the Oamaru business reserve, Cr Guy Percival said he would go and get a natural tree himself if he needed to.
‘‘I think we should have a proper tree, nothing else,’’ he said.
Since 2014 the council’s roading team has provided a tree for Lower Thames St paid for from the roading budget under Oamaru township maintenance.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher led the failed attempt to replace the natural tree with an artificial one.
By the end of the festive season, he said, the natural trees had begun ‘‘looking very faded’’, and they took a lot of ‘‘time and effort to put it up’’.
The artificial tree was not his preference, he said, but it offered value for money.
But only Cr Bill Kingan, chairman of the assets committee, sided with the mayor, saying Oamaru’s Christmas tree ‘‘hasn’t looked that flash’’ over the last couple of years.
Cr Jan Wheeler said that just like Oamaru itself, a natural Christmas tree was ‘‘rustic’’.
The report to the assets committee said over 10 years an artificial tree would cost about $17,500 less than a natural tree.
After the vote, Mr Kircher noted a natural tree might look like (the young) Bart Simpson at the start of the festive season, but was certainly more like (the bald) Homer Simpson by the end.