Town star still shining
Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, December 1, 2004
The Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, Bob Cederwall strapped climbers to his shins and three lengths of straps to the carabiner at his waist – just to replace the lights on his Christmas tree.
Each year, Cederwall lights the star atop the Douglas fir that stands some 120-125 feet tall next to Flying Penguin, which his wife Denise Harris owns on Winslow Way near the ferry terminal.
“I always wanted to put a star on the tree,” Cederwall said.
His chance came five years ago when his friend Gary Hintz made three welded steel frames, 5 feet across, in the shape of stars.
Cederwall took one star up the tree in November 1999. One of the others now sits atop a tree at his home on Fletcher Bay Road, from where the downtown star is also visible.
A tree remover and trimmer by trade for over 30 years, Cederwall climbs a lot of trees.
When he first mounted the star, he used a basket truck to go the first 50 feet, then climbed the last 60 feet or so.
He topped the tree and made brackets onto which he mounted the star on the Douglas fir, which he guesses to be about 90 to 100 years old.
Saturday, with the basket truck not available, Cederwall went up the first 25 feet or so on ladder – which only took him halfway to the first branch – then worked his way up from there, hooking into a strap looped around the tree trunk.
Reaching the top 25 minutes later, he double looped the shortest strap around the narrowing trunk just 4-by-4-inches around, and pulled out the replacement bulbs courtesy of Winslow Hardware store and trimmed a few branches blocking view of the star.
The star stays up there year-round, turned on at Thanksgiving and staying lit through Jan. 6, the 12th night of Christmas, with a timer turning it on and off, dusk to dawn.
Cederwall said a ferry captain friend told him he sometimes uses the star to steer the vessel into the dock, as it happens to line up with their course.
“It’s my gift to the city,” Cederwall said. “People coming off the ferry see the star.”
