ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611040059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
ROANOKE'S Special Events Committee is considering putting the Christmas tree on the market in an effort to attract more business to the area during the holidays.
Oh come, all ye prosperous
Hoping to add the jingle of downtown cash registers to that of holiday bells, Roanoke is considering moving its Christmas tree from Lee Plaza at City Hall to a grassy plot next to downtown's glitzy pedestrian bridge over the Norfolk Southern tracks.
The traditional date of the lighting ceremony would also change under the proposal by the city Special Events Committee.
Rather than Thanksgiving night - when downtown merchants are closed - the date would be changed to Dec. 6 to coincide with the opening of Downtown Roanoke Inc.'s "Dickens of a Christmas" - when merchants are open.
The idea was discussed Thursday at a luncheon at the Patrick Henry Hotel. Taking part were City Manager Bob Herbert, Parks and Recreation administrator John Coates, Mayor David Bowers and representatives of Downtown Roanoke Inc. and the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Matt Kennell, executive director of the Downtown Roanoke merchants' group, said he is excited by the plan.
"With the hotel now open, it will boost attendance and participation [for the lighting ceremony]," Kennell said. "Plus, it gives [people] another reason to come downtown and eat and spend money."
The date of the lighting was changed, Kennell noted, because "none of the businesses or restaurants are open on Thanksgiving night."
Not everybody is thrilled by the idea. The Rev. Mark Radecke, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church on Brandon Avenue, said it's understandable that the city might want to move the tree downtown next to the bridge, which is itself somewhat of a people magnet.
"But if the tie-in is that this is one more reminder that Christmas is not a spiritual necessity but a commercial necessity for the economy of the United States, then that's lamentable," Radecke said.
Catherine Fox, acting executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the proposal originated during a brain-storming session by members of the Special Events Committee. Right now it's an idea rather than a certainty, she said.
"We'd like to make two smaller events a much larger event - and perhaps in the future turn into a regional event" that would lure tourists to the city and area hotels, Fox said.
The traditional Thanksgiving tree lighting outside City Hall dates as far back as the 1940s and perhaps even further, said Laban Johnson, who retired this year as special events coordinator.
The city previously placed the tree on the Campbell Avenue side of the building, but moved it to Lee Plaza about 1985. Coal cinders in the soil on the Campbell side kept killing the trees, Johnson said.
Before Hunter Viaduct was torn down in 1990, the city erected a second Christmas tree downtown, where the viaduct connected with Jefferson Street, Johnson said.
Fox said the Thanksgiving night ceremony has always been a poor draw because "Thanksgiving is time for family, to be at home."
"We don't want to take away from a traditional event," she said. "But we would like to add to a traditional event in a way that retailers and restaurants can benefit from."
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