Mike Wolanin | The Republic The City of Columbus’ Christmas Tree is raised into position at Columbus City Hall in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. The aging Blue Spruce was donated to the city by Beverly Perry.
Columbus resident Beverly Perry is going to need a new marker to help visitors find her house.
Ever since she moved into her current house about seven years ago, she’s described it to others as “the house with the big blue spruce tree in the front yard.” But it has now found a new home at Columbus City Hall as the city’s Christmas tree.
“Well, I don’t know how I’m going to find my house now because I’ll have to look at the house…,” Perry said.
Perry, a retired pastor, believes the 20-foot tall tree was about 20 years old. She said the original owner of the house had planted it, but like a lot of other evergreens in Indiana, it had been infected with a disease called needle cast. David Elsbury, owner of Frank’s Tree Care, said this disease causes a tree’s needles to brown and die over time.
“I guess… it sounds like blue spruces and most of the evergreens in Indiana are really under attack by this blight or some kind of a disease. My yard guy noticed that and he said it’s terrible around here, you can’t keep a blue spruce alive,” Perry said. “So I did have it treated about three years ago and it’s expensive for that big of a tree… and I didn’t think I could continue to treat it.”
Knowing it was diseased and it was getting too big, Perry volunteered her tree to the city as she believed it still looked good. She didn’t think much of it after sending her initial email, so she was surprised when Bryan Burton, the director of the Department of Public Works, called and told her they were considering her tree.
Three trees were available for the city to choose from, but Burton said Perry’s tree was chosen for its fullness, shape and color. Her treating the tree also helped its appearance despite its needle cast, he said.
“… if you find a good (blue spruce) right now, we try to get it as quickly as we can because if you give it another year, that disease may have set in and then that tree would not have been one that we would have picked next year potentially,” Burton said.
A seven-person crew from Frank’s Tree Care and employees with the Department of Public Works came by Perry’s house Monday morning to remove the tree and transport it to Columbus City Hall in a Department of Public Works truck. Elsbury, who also helps Burton in selecting a tree, said the removal process was very straightforward this year and only took about an hour.
He said they also didn’t have to do any major alterations to the tree, only having to cut the lower two rings of branches off once it got to city hall so it would fit in the tree stand. Perry said it was fascinating watching the crew remove the tree.
“They don’t just cut it down and then drag it away, they pick it up with a big crane and a guy goes up and attaches a thing to it and they cut it, just pick it up with a big crane and put it into the big truck. It was fascinating,” Perry said.
The maintenance crew at city hall will then decorate the tree within the next few days. While the tree selection process is tricky some years, with Burton saying he sometimes has to ask around to find someone wanting to donate their tree, the process was simple this year. He said they knew Perry’s tree was a candidate as soon as they saw it.
Perry said she got a good deal out of it too as a crew will come back soon to take out the stump. She now just has to figure out what to fill the space with, but she said it’s a privilege to have her tree as the city’s Christmas tree and she’s glad it’ll have a good end to its life.
“I was very happy to do it and I hope it brings a lot of joy to people this year,” Perry said. “We sure could use it.”
