Town Council votes 3-2 to buy $49,000 artificial Christmas tree

By MICAH HENRY

UPDATE: See new information in the last paragraph of this article.

In a Special Called Meeting on Friday morning, Oct. 25, 2024, the Taylorsville Town Council voted 3-2 to purchase an artificial, 34-foot tall Christmas tree in the amount of $49,660.84 (including tax) from Mosca Design of Youngsville, NC. The price includes a 5-foot lighted Nativity star topper.

The vote included Council members Kim Brown, Tamara Odom, and Eric Bumgarner voting in favor. Jack Simms and Mayor George Holleman voted against the purchase.

All members were present at the meeting, except Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Eric Bumgarner, who attended remotely via Zoom.

The Mosca tree was actually the highest of three quotes received by the Town; however, the other companies are not located in North Carolina. A quote of $44,667.82 (plus tax and shipping) was received from Creative Displays and a quote of $42,861 (including shipping) was received from Display Sales.

The lead up to the vote had much discussion among the Council about pros and cons of the tree purchase.

“I really feel like this is the wrong time to spend this amount of money. I’ve heard that from a lot of different people,” said Mayor Holleman. “There’s a lot of needs at Christmastime for our own county, as well as the western part of the state. I would advise that we maybe think this thing out and have a period of time, several months, that we can consider this and give us time to get more sponsors, if that’s what it’s going to take. I feel like the timing is way off on this. I am opposed to the purchase.”

“I totally disagree,” said Councilwoman Kim Brown. “I feel like we’ve been working and working on this for years. It’s not like it just came up. It’s something that going on for a long time… It’s going to totally be the Town’s. I feel like we need to do it for our people. I have gotten zero pushback and I’ve talked to a tremendous amount of people about it. I know that Jack [Simms] went to someone and he got a ‘no’ from them, as far as them contributing. But I’ve talked to ten different people and they’ve all said ‘Let me get back to you, we want to contribute.’ Not doing anything, I feel like, is like doing the same thing we’ve been doing for the past five years. I’m tired of doing the same thing, just letting stuff be brought up, discussed, and passed on…I know that we’ve saved money in some areas where there was a lot of stuff being spent to do things we didn’t necessarily need. We could have already had this tree years ago.”

“I’m not in favor of purchasing a tree,” said Councilman Simms. “There’s people out there that are struggling to buy groceries and put gas in their cars. You know the gentleman I talked to, to donate money for the tree, he took his parking lot, opened it up during the Apple Festival, raised $5,300, and donated it to western North Carolina. We should be buying a tree from western North Carolina to support them instead of us putting $50,000 into an artificial tree. That’s not the end cost of that tree. We don’t know the true cost of that tree.”

“I did some research on buying a live tree from somewhere and putting up a live tree,” Brown replied. “The best estimate I could get, and this was from years ago, was around $6,000. That was just for lights and ornaments and didn’t include the time to set up. But it’s going to be that cost every year. In five years, you’ve spent almost as much money, or more, and it’s not stable and doesn’t hold up in the weather.”

Simms then said, “To the Mayor’s point, if we’re going to get the tree through donations, take the period of time to get the donations, so we’re not spending tax dollars. I’m going to guarantee you, if we buy this tree, people are going to say, ‘Wait a minute, you could’ve taken those tax dollars and given it back to us as a tax reduction.’”

“One of the reasons I was in favor is I’m hearing from townspeople that they want to beautify our town,” said Councilwoman Odom. “Yes, this is a hard time right now. We need our spirits uplifted. What better time to do it than at Christmastime? This is a more permanent and stable tree than buying a tree you will have to re-do every year. I feel like this is a step in the direction that I, myself, was voted in for… the beautification of our town. I feel like they will see that happening in our town. At the same time, it’s going to bring unity and lift people’s spirits up.”

“This seems to be going in competition with the County,” Holleman countered. “We’re doing something that we should be doing together. Let’s take some time to plan for this and do it right, rather than doing it so quickly and without the proper study.”

“I don’t agree, because the County can add to it.” Brown said. “We buy the tree, it’s our tree. We put it up. If they decide they want to buy a tree and put it up there instead, we take our tree and put it at Matheson Park. They can add to it. There’s a big arch that could be put over the walkway as you enter at the beginning of the park. We do need to work together going forward. They are trying to increase wages for their employees and do things we’ve already done in the last six or eight months. So, I understand where they stand on the issue. I just think we need to keep moving forward. We have momentum. We have people that are interested. We’ve already collected donations. There’s already people vested in this project.”

Brown added that a company has agreed to donate time and labor of putting up and taking down the artificial tree. A second company has agreed to donate the transportation of the tree from the manufacturer to the Town.

Bumgarner said he did not have a preference on the tree vendor but felt spending dollars locally in North Carolina was better than in Kansas or Michigan, where the other vendors are located. He noted that the $7,000 difference for the Mosca tree was a “significant increase in the price of the tree.”

He added that he had not heard negative comments in the community about the tree. “As Kim said, over the long haul, it’s cheaper than a real tree. For that reason, that’s why we should purchase the panel tree. It was largely why we were elected, to improve the city. You’re not going to improve the city without some kind of cost.”

Bumgarner said he would also have entertained the idea of supporting western North Carolina with a live tree purchase this year and buying an artificial tree in the future.

Aaron Wike, Town Public Works Director, noted that the Town purchases a 10 foot tall live tree from western North Carolina for Town Hall each year. One is currently on order for this year.

UPDATE: After the meeting, The Times learned that a Tree Sponsor program is underway to provide funding for the new Christmas tree. The details are shown below.